If there is one method I am confident with, I would have to say it is chopped worms and casters. It is a way of fishing that suits my style, and I always enjoy doing it.
You can imagine my dismay then when this weekend I fished pellet all match, and got battered either side by two anglers fishing chopped worms!
I drew a bad area, but from what I had heard the odd carp and skimmer was still showing, and with it being a knock up rather than a league match I decided to fish positive to give myself the chance of the win.
I fed a little fishmeal groundbait and loosefed pellets over the top, but started the match on red maggots to try and see what was there. I had a gudgeon first drop, and after a few small roach decided to sit on the pellet to try and get some better fish.
I had a decent skimmer first drop, and I must admit I was optimistic at this point, but things just didn’t seem to get going for me, and despite keeping the bait trickling in as instructed I never seemed able to put a good run of fish together.
That said, I was catching more than the people around me in terms of number of fish, but the fish they were getting were great big uns! Mick Coward to my left had two bream of about four pound each in two drops, before things went back to being tough for him as well.
Then it was Phil Broomhead’s turn at the other side of me, he took a massive bream, and a couple of skimmers, while all I could get was roach. I hooked a carp and lost it after a brief struggle, nothing broken the hook just pulled out.
It happened again a few minutes later, the fish took off and the hook just pulled out, perhaps there were finally a few better fish in the peg.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case however, and it was back to roach after this brief spell of dashed glory. I finished up weighing 4lb odd, with Mick Coward to my left weighing 13lb and winning the section, and Phil Broomhead weighing 11lb. It think its fair to describe it as a bad day at black rock!
Fishing his first match following his return to match fishing from specimen fishing, Dave Brookfield won the match with a 23lb net taken down the margins on corn, with Brian Farrer taking second spot with 17lb, and Mark Holmes in third with 16lb. Interestingly, all these top weights were taken from banks with the wind blowing off their backs, us poor bleeders with the wind in our faces didn’t catch enough! Need to draw the Barbados bank next time I go.
I decided to stop at my Grandads near Gainsborough that night, as the next day Folly Lake at Risby Park near Hull was to be my destination, in the £50 match run annually by Mac’s tackle shop in Sheffield. I have never had so much difficulty finding out information about a venue!
I must have texted 30 people, and only one person had been, that being Andy Geldart who fished the place three years ago! Luckily, team captain Bryan Hawkes gave me Hull tackle dealer Paul Caygills number, and he had a bit more up to date information.
He had told me that the venue had been fishing very hard, with the odd fish showing. He told me to expect 40lb to win it, but a low double figure weight might get me second spot, as the venue was fishing very hard, and the carp were all shoaled up.
This was confirmed when I heard about a practice match that the tackle shop had held at the venue- Roy Gibson had won it with 25lb, with 8lb coming second on the 20 odd peg match!
For this reason, I decided to fish very cagey feeding very little and hope that I could put together a few silvers as well as a couple of carp to sneak a frame place. After all, I felt that the chance of me being sat on a shedfull of carp was slim, and if I was I could quicky step up and the day would take care of itself anyway.
A sharp frost on the morning of the match only served to confirm this as the correct plan of attack in my mind.
The draw was full of the usual hype and speculation, with no one really knowing where they wanted to be! Mac had taken the decision to put all the pegs in, and so know one really knew where the spare pegs would be until everyone had drawn.
I pulled out peg 14, about two thirds of the way along the bank. As I say, nobody knew where they wanted to draw but my first impressions were that it wasn’t a great draw, as it was set back from the pegs on the bank to my left in a little bit of a cove, with the peg to my right being set slightly further forward as it came out of the cove. It was only very slight, but I felt in effect it put me a metre or two behind the people either side of me, and with a 13 metre limit stopping me from fishing long I thought that this could be a problem.
I was also in a quandary as to how to fish it, as the pegging was quite tight and I hadn’t got much room, so I was reluctant to feed two lines as I could only go to 13 metres. With it being a one off match with no league at stake I knew I had to be on the ball, and finish in the top two of my eight peg section to pick anything up, so had to fish relatively positive.
For this reason I opted to fish one line at 12.5 metres, so I could fish past my bait if I needed to. My other decision was whether to fish chopped worms and casters or groundbait or maggots, I was worried with the alleged lack of fish twinned with the cold weather might make chopped worm and casters a bit positive, so opted to feed a nugget of groundbait along with a few casters and maggots as my opening gambit.
I set up three rigs to fish the same line, one being an 4X14’s Tubertini Delta mounted on 0.12 mainline through to an 0.10 bottom with a size 20 PR30 hook. I had a bulk of Stotz around eighteen inches from the hook, and two number eleven droppers. I set up another rig which was identical, except it housed a bigger, sized 20 B911 hook.
I also set up a 4×12 Preston Chianti rig with spread out number eleven stotz mounted on 0.10 line to an 0.10 bottom in case things were really tough. My two light rigs were mounted to an orange Preston 5 elastic, with my more positive rig being backed up with a number nine preston hollo elastic.
The only thing I had going for me was that on the far bank opposite me four pegs hadn’t been drawn, and as it was fairly narrow I hoped to draw some fish from this empty area. The down side was there were two anglers either side of this gap with loads of room, and they were probably the two best anglers on the bank, one being Garbolino Ossetts Tony Bell and the other being the current Garbolino Club Angler Of The Year, Brian Searle!
At the all in I cupped in a walnut sized nugget along with ten casters and ten red maggots, before starting off with a red maggot on the hook. Pretty much as soon as my float had settled, it was under and I was into my first carp of the day. Hardly the start I had expected!
Next put in was met with the same, and after ten minutes I probably had three fish for around five pounds. I had refed four and five maggots every put in to keep the fish interested, but I didn’t want to put any more groundbait in for fear of getting rid of what fish were there. The bites came that quick it was obvious that the fish weren’t drawn there by the groundbait, so I didn’t want to risk putting more in and spooking feeding fish.
After these initial three fish I couldn’t get a bite however, so I put another nugget of groundbait in. I took another three fish, before the line died altogether. At first I wondered if I had done something wrong, but a look around the lake showed that everyone seemed to be catching in a similar fashion, four or five fish then a dead spell.
I really struggled for the next three hours, taking just the odd fish, I still reckoned I was fairing fairly well however, I could see Bryan Searle, Tony Bell and John Mills were catching slightly quicker than me, but compared to those around me I was a good way in front.
Unfortunately, my swim seemed to be getting worse and worse as the day went on however, and at two oclock I decided I would have to do something to catapult me back up into contention, so I put a pot of worms and casters over where I had been feeding the groundbait, and started loosefeeding casters over the top to try and draw a few fish into the swim.
It worked ,and gradually I felt my swim was getting better. I wasn’t getting a lot of carp, but I was getting quite a few silvers mixed in with them, including some quality ide and skimmers. I found the best way to feed was via kinder pot, the steady stream of bait dripping through was drawing more and more fish into the swim.
I had a good last hour, and ended up weighing 25-10-0 which put me second in section, as Roy Gibson did me by just a few ounces to take the section win. If only I had gone on the worm a bit earlier!
All in all, I felt I fished a reasonable match, it is hard knowing what to expect on a new venue, especially one where information was so hard to come by. The venue had fished loads better than predicted, and I wasn’t the only one to fall foul of this.
Brian Searle put on a cracking display to take the match win with 49-0-0, a good way ahead of second placed John Mills.
Brian picked up £360 for his efforts- not a bad days work, while my 2nd in section won me £50.
I can only hope that picking up a bit of money on Sunday is the start of a better run for me, just in time for White Acres! Knowing my luck at the minute though, I can’t see it! Tight Lines Until Next Week!
hi tom brilliant web site with good up to date info on localised fishing,enjoy whiteacres.gaz
Notify me of followup comments via e-mail
Home
Contact
Forums
RSS Feed
Tom
