Chasing The Ladies!

The Sunday in between Christmas and New Year saw me headed to Bank End fishery in the Kiveton Club Christmas match. Reports suggested that we were going to bag up with F1’s, so I went planning to fish pellets and maggots. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite go according to plan, and I rued my decision not to take any joker! I ended up catching a skimmer and roach on the tip, and a roach on the pole, and weighed in a grand total of 2-3-0. The F1’s proved elusive, with only four or five out of the 20 anglers fishing catching them.

There were roach to be caught, and I just wish I had fished for them, but when everybody you speak to tells you 30-60lb is going to win, and you are going to have a nice days fishing catching F1’s, it seems a little over cautious to worry about catching red fins!

Sir Matt had taken the necessary precautions however, and came good late on catching 6-9-0 of red fins on joker to secure third in the match. A higher silver fish weight was second, and the match was won with 23lb of F1’s. If only I had put some joker in! A section win, if not frame place would definitely have been on the cards.

Chasing The Ladies!

On Tuesday we had been invited grayling fishing on the River Wharfe by Ben Fisk, and having never caught one before we were both well up for it! We went to Bens house first, and had to scrounge some breakfast as our usual café was shut!

Before long we were by the river and tackling up, and Matt was running a float down before me and Ben were even set up! Next minute, he was shouting as a grayling went ballistic in the current, and seconds later it was in the net. They are a beautiful fish, and I couldn’t believe how muscley they are, trying to hold them up for a picture is a nightmare!

After a couple of runs down I was into one to, and then Sir Ben caught one, and then I caught a trout about 1lb and we were off the mark on what turned out to be an awesome days fishing. We all just fished light stick float gear, and wandered up the river looking for fast water. I ended up with three grayling and a trout, and we packed up in the early afternoon as we had a night out planned in Yarm, and we had to meet Ash Clemence at Sessay as we were stopping at his house.

After a few tinnys and trying a Geordie speciality known as a ’Parmo’ which is basically just chicken in breadcrumbs with cheese on top, we headed off out on the lash in Yarm, and what a night it turned out to be!

Christmas Match

On Friday I headed off to Ranskill for the Woodseats Angling Christmas match. In went my hand and out came peg 9, not the best draw, and probably one of the worst! I’m not going to bore you to much with the details of my day, but the long and short of it is I got beat both sides, and caught very little. Three tiny roach on the waggler, and in the last hour a better skimmer and ide on the pole and a few more roach on joker. I wished I had just fished maggots all day, as fiddling around with joker didn’t really produce any bites until the last hour, when I caught on maggots anyway!

My old mate Graham Wilkinson won the match with two foul hooked carp for 16lb, with Chris Greensides putting up a brilliant display to finish second in the section with 14lb of skimmers. It really is a lottery though this time of year, with the fish seeming to desert certain areas of the lake when it is as cold as it has been.

Teams Of Four

Given my abysmal performance the previous day, I wasn’t looking forward to going back for more of the same the following day. Luckily for me the drawing gods were kinder, and the team got a good draw, with me being on peg 24, in the deeper water and safe for a few bites. The fish had been higher up the section the previous day however, with pegs 25-28 all catching more than 24. The angler who had drawn it was Steve Holberry, one of the best on the match as well, so while there was room for optimism I knew I would have a job on my hands.
I opted to fish long with fishmeal ground bait and maggots, which is my usual ploy for the skimmers at the venue, and I also opted to feed casters short in the hope of some bigger fish late on in the day. On the whistle, I turned around to pick up my ground bait, only to find I had left it in the van I had come in, which was now parked up behind my mate at the other side of the lake!

I ran around and fetched it, but as I returned I was disappointed to see the kid on the next peg slipping the net under a 4lb chub! Boy, did I have some catching up to do!

I caught skimmers as planned, and ended up with 30 fish for 10-8-0. Unfortunately, this was just short of the chap too my left, whose chub, ide and skimmers went 12-2-0, and Alan Hopkins who was also in my section, his ide net went 12-5-0 . Still, third in section was a good result. I was a little disappointed however, as all things considered I should have won the section. If I had not fed the caster line at 4m’s, and had instead fed ground bait at 6m’s I feel I could have made the short line work and probably caught a few more fish.

The team did quite well finishing second, but Rotherham Paving once again won the day, beating us by three points, so we have some catching up to do in the league as well now! It’s a marathon not a sprint though, so we will just have to hope for some better results later on in the league. Once again the match was won with foul hooked carp, this time three for 22lb by Andrew Sutton. The weights dropped off after this however, and my 10lb 8oz was good enough for fifth overall and the section money by default!

Lucks Out at Lindholme

The least said about Sunday the better. It was round four of the knockout for me and I had Steve Clarke to beat, and with a decent result last time I was looking to build on my place in the league. I picked Sir Matt up, who was similarly up for it after a decent result last match, and after a venue breakfast we approached the drawbag full of confidence. This was quickly shattered as we both dipped and drew on Locco Lake, a part of the venue we have little experience on. I have only fished the venue once, and won my ten peg section with 15lb on the feeder, but this was some time ago and the lake has changed totally since then.

I decided to fish maggots on the pole, and also fish a tip line with corn, and this seemed to be what most people were doing. Im not going to bore you too much with the details of what happened, but needless to say it tunred into the classic winter carp puddle match, with the majority of anglers sitting on the tip, it went around once or twice for some but not for me. I ended up with two roach on the pole for 11oz. I had John Allerton on the next peg, who had less in the net than me- then his tip went round with ten minutes to go and he put an 8lber in the net.

Steve Clarke managed to put a few fish together on maggot, and knocked me out of the knockout weighing 9lb 5oz. Daz Taylor won the lake with 18lb of carp, with Alan Scotthorne coming second with 14lb, he was the man of the match though as this was all silverfish on maggots! He must have been on a few though, as Matt fished for roach almost all match and only managed 4lb, and John Allerton next to me gave it a good two hours for them and only managed one fish. Still an outstanding weight though, considering the lake was partially frozen and he didn’t have any bloodworm or joker!

All in all it was a bad day at black rock for us. I am having a weekend off and sorting my tackle out. I might even sell it yet and buy some golf clubs! Tight Lines and Happy New Year.