Magnificent Seven!

Last Sunday saw me book on the UK Pole Championships at Lindholme Lakes, and with 46 anglers in attendance, it was a good sized match. I had opted to fish worms and casters given that they had worked so well in the Maver Pairs the previous week. I came well prepared, with 5 pints of casters and a kilo of worm! They were ‘aving it!

In went my hand and out came peg 43, I wasn’t overjoyed with my draw as it tends to be a hard area, and I had some good anglers like Craig Elkin and Andy Whitehouse around me, as well as Mark Rodgers on corner peg 35 where I was on the wednesday. My plan of attack was to fish worms in two and a half feet across, I plumbed up two or three lines, even though I only planned on fishing one at a time, just so I had somewhere to go should it be a hard day.

To cut a long story short, it was a hard day. I had a few ide early before the line seemed to die altogether. I wasn’t alone though, there seemed to be a lot of people struggling. Around half way through, Craig to my left and the lad below him both decided that enough was enough and packed up to go home. Andy Whitehouse to my left was putting a tidy net of small fish together fishing down the track, and though initially I thought this was a negative way to fish as a big weight would be required I was beginning to wonder.

With nothing to lose, and with 4 pints of casters going begging I decided to try something a bit different. I plumbed up a line at 4 metres, down towards the spare pegs to my left, and began feeding it heavily by hand.

At first all I caught was tiny barbel, then after around 20 minutes the big uns turned up! They were big as well, I reckon I put 40-45lb in the net in the space of an hour and a half, to end up with 62lb at the all out.

This was best on my bank except for Danny Fugler on 37 who had 80lb, fishing towards Mark Rogers in the corner, who weighed 157lb! I definitely learnt a lesson with regards to that short line though, and will be sure to exploit it in the future.

Fusion

On Tuesday night I decided to chance my arm in the evening match at Fusion Ponds near Chesterfield. It is a cracking venue, rammed to the hilt with silver fish, and I have done well there in the past with a simple chopped worm and caster approach.

As I soon learnt, things have change at the venue however. I went with my normal chopped worm approach and fed fairly positively on a line at 13 metres. All I seemed to be able to catch however was perch. For the chap on the next peg who had fed fishmeal groundbait it was an entirely different story however, as he caught big skimmers and ide almost one a put!

A spirited 4lb tench half way through the match livened my night up a bit but I was going nowhere. At the all out, I weighed 7lb 10oz, which won me precisely nothing, I think I was fifth. My good friend Chris ‘two pints’ Greensides won the match with a cracking net of 15lb of mainly ide. Must do better!

Carterhall

My next jaunt was the thursday night match at Carterhall Fisheries at Charnock. With a decent turnout pegging was a bit tighter than normal, and for the first time this year I had someone either side of me, with me being on peg 20.

I opted to fish my normal approach at the venue, which is simply maggots fished long up to the island. I set two rigs up, one to fish on the bottom in 2 ½ feet of water, and one to fish shallow, around 6 inches deep. At the all in, I put a full pot of maggots up to the island, and took a few small fish before the ide moved in. I was soon catching them shallow, and it was one a bung for the first two hours of the match, before the line seemed to move away from me. I picked up a few fish early on in the match before the line seemed to die, and I could get was small fish. I started a new line further down my peg, which worked for a bit and then died again. With just a few minutes to go I tried down the edge, and managed to find one final ide before the all out.

I was last to weigh and 14 year old Tricast rod Jake Dye was leading with 25lb from peg 13, a cracking net of fish and he had been unlucky losing three or four big carp that had wragged him around the island!

Fortunately my 33-0-0 was enough to pip him into second, a result I was chuffed with as its the best weight of all silverfish we have had since I started the evening matches last year.

Sunday

It was back down to earth with a bang in the sunday open match at Kiveton Waters. I drew the peg that I won the match off the last time I visited, and opted to fish it in exactly the same way, pellets at seven metres and pellets down the edge.

You can imagine my dissapointment then when three hours into the match I had had only one skimmer! It was about then that a big black cloud came over the lake and a strong wind started blowing as it lashed it down with rain. My phone bleeped with a text message from Matt Godfrey, who had had the day off to revise for some up coming exams. It read “I’m nice and warm drinking tea while your freezing your nads off catching nowt”. Now Matt lives about two minutes away from the venue, so I packed up and was at is house in double quick time. A cup of char and then a sunday afternoon piss up provided a far more enjoyable end to the day.

I was gutted I didnt catch and probably shouldnt have thrown the towel in so easily. Fishing has a hanit of kicking you in the teeth, I thought I had sorted that place out having had three wins and three seconds in my first six visits this year. Sevens supposed to be my lucky number, it looks like Im on the lookout for a new one!