The Three Just Men

A match had been arranged on Oakside on Tuesday as initially there were a few anglers that wanted to fish. Monday night I had a couple of cancellations but I still had to go to the venue to see if anybody else would turn up as a few from White Acres said they wanted a match to fish. I picked Mike O’Gorman up and when we arrived I was surprised to see Harry Billing in the car park. He explained that there was a private match at Mawgan Porth so he came here instead. In the end it was just the three of us! We decided as we were here that we would have a winner take all.

We quickly sorted some pegs out in the 20’s and fished in a line. I was going to treat this as a practice under match conditions. I had not fished this bank before so it would be useful. I was only going to set up the pole. Mike was going to concentrate on the feeder and I knew Harry would be on the pole.

I had about 7’ at 11 metres so I used a .75 Cralusso Capri with a PR21 18 on a .12 bottom. I also set up a couple of up in the water rigs. At the start I decided to feed a little differently and left out the worms and casters from my groundbait. I fed some micros and meat as an experiment. I cupped in 5 balls and went straight over the top of it with a worm head and was surprised not to get a bite straight away. In fact none of us did! After about 15 minutes Harry had a reasonable hybrid but I was still waiting. Shortly after I relented and chopped a few worms and re fed. Within a couple of minutes I was back in it and catching. Harry was slowing down a bit and I was just thinking I was back in with a chance when Mike landed a near 5lb Bream on the feeder. Someone always has to go and spoil the plan!

Epicentre

I was still getting a few fish including two 10oz Skimmers when Harry announced he was going to fish for Bream. He went back to the car to get some corn and a couple of minutes later he was feeding his ‘yellow pellets ‘ it wasn’t long before he started to catch big Skimmers slowly at first then one a bung! I had to follow suite and I also fed some corn. I had three quick Skimmers but Harry was emptying it! I must have been on the edge of the shoal or doing it wrong because Harry’s bait hardly settled before another Skimmer was on the way to the net. Mike had another big Bream and a small Tench so it was looking like the wooden spoon for yours truly.

Arm Ache

My swim started coming to life and I was getting a few fish but not catching up on Harry, with 45 minutes to go Mike was fishing the pole in the margins and he hooked a carp. It was obviously big as it was just swimming round and round in circles and Mike was not able to get the fish to come off the bottom. Both Harry and I continued catching until the end of the match. Mike continued playing the same fish until after the match! He eventually landed the longest looking Mirror Carp that I have ever seen but it was thin. We weighed it at 17lb but in my opinion if it had the normal ‘Mirror stomach’ it would have been well into the twenties. He added another 17lb of Bream for a 34lb total. Harry weighed 49lb of pristine Bream and Skimmers and I contributed 27lb. It was a great day’s fishing and I didn’t mind at all taking the wooden spoon, I only wish I had taken my camera to record some good catches.

Tuesdays at Oakside

If I get the response I am going to try and run matches here on Tuesdays throughout the summer. If you are down this way on holiday why not pack some silver gear as well as carp stuff and join us for some great fishing, the draw is at 10 am in the car park.

Gud Mawgan!

A few week s go Janet called me at 7.30 in the morning cancelling a match at Mawgan Porth as there was not enough anglers. I went to Stafford Moor instead and had over 200lb. The weather forecast was lousy and I didn’t fancy the journey up the A30 today so I gave Janet a call. I couldn’t help but think it would be great if this call led to another 200lb catch.

The weather was atrocious with wind and heavy rain. So far July has been really unsettled I feel sorry for those that have come on holiday hopefully summer will return soon, please! Despite the driving rain everybody was cheerful at the draw and looking  forward to a good days fishing.

I had my dip and out came peg 31 I have not fished this one before and a quick word with Harry lifted my confidence as he said it was a good area and had framed last week. Plumbing up next to the platform I found that it was a good even depth. I assembled four pole rigs all were .2 gram Cralusso Capri’s I personally think they are perfect for this style of fishing as they are virtually indestructible, all I do is modify them slightly by trimming down the stem and the tip making them a good inch shorter. Main line is .18 as I need a robust line that does not tangle. Hooks were PR28’s one rig had an 18’s and the others had 16’s, shotting was simply a bulk about 6’ above the hook. I also tie a knot above the bulk to stop my shot sliding up the line.

The nursery

For bait I had a couple of pints of casters, some maggots and fishery pellets for loose feed. I also had some Yorkshire Baits 4mm Kopy Kat soft hook pellets. I have never used them before so was keen to give them a try they look spot on and are also very similar to the fishery pellet which is an added bonus. At the all in I put an expander on the hook dropped down the edge and before I could feed I had bite and a small carp opened my account. Feeding a few pellets the carp started coming regularly, I could tell there was a few there as my float didn’t stay still as the fish were competing for the feed. I changed rigs to the 16’s hook and stayed on this all day.

I can honestly say I had an indication or bite every drop in, I missed a few bites and pulled out of a few fish during the match but the peg was solid. I fished the same line all match without feeling the need to change. The only thing that I did was shallow up to keep in contact with the fish, in the end I was fishing a good foot of the deck. I don’t count my fish but feel that I averaged at least 35 -40 carp per hour so I had in excess of 200 the only downside was the size of the fish, but what the hell I had a great days fishing. I caught all the fish on Kopy Kat hookers and to say that I am impressed with them is an understatement, if I missed a bite I was confident I still had a pellet on the hook.

As the scales came around Harry had set the target with a weight of 199lb.8oz from bridge peg 9 he had caught a lot of larger fish down to his left on his normal caster and maggot approach. So ironically I would need nearly 200lb to win! Well it wasn’t to be I fell short and finished with 172lb for second place but I have to say it was a great days fishing. Dave Hope was third with 142lb from peg 32 and I think there were nine weights over a 100lb