Scratching The Surface!

Thursday night saw another knock up at Charnock’s Carterhall Fisheries, and I was looking to improve on the previous weeks third place result. Although I was beaten the week before by an angler fishing up in the water, I decided to stick to my guns and fish maggots up to the island if possible, but as it happens I drew a peg where I had a lot of room down the edge, so I decided to fish here instead.

I caught steadily from the off, taking small ide, roach and rudd, and the pond looked to be fishing quite hard, so I decided to stick to my guns and try and keep some small fish going in the net.

I was expecting some carp to show up, but I didn’t seem to be getting any signs of any which is unusual as they normally show up at some point in the day at the venue. The lad two pegs to my right was catching well, but I must admit I thought I was comfortably in front of him, and from what I could see everyone else was struggling so I thought I was doing reasonably well.

As we went into the last hour, I had a bit of a crowd sat behind me, first Matt Godfrey turned up along with his sister Hannah, then Paul Gorman came down, and then my mum showed up with the dogs, so it must be said I took my eye off the ball a bit, despite Matt telling me to keep focused.

This ended up costing me, as the lad two pegs to my right won the match with 18-12-0, with me finishing second with 18-8-0! I tried to swing one I really should have netted which cost me as well! GUTTED! Nowt like messing up with a two times world champion sat behind you! Still, at least I had some beer tokens to show for my efforts, as we always pay the top two out.

I had a day off Saturday as it was my cousins 21st birthday party, but Sunday saw me turn up at Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet, for a teams of three match run jointly by the Angling Star and Education Through Angling, a council funded organization aimed at getting more people into fishing. The event ran alongside Cliffhanger, a big outdoor pursuits fair in Millhouses Park, just down the road from the venue, and spectators were expected through the course of the day, and part of the bank was left free for them to come and watch.

There were seven teams of three taking part in the event, with my team comprising of myself, Chris Greensides and Shane Crompton. Our draw looked quite good, with me and Chris being on end pegs, but not really knowing the venue that well we weren’t too sure what to expect, least of all how it would respond to match conditions, as normally it is only fished by pleasure men.

I was none to happy to look down the bank and see Jim Baxter and Mark Williams in my section, both of whom had bagged up in practice. Still, I decided to set my stall out to fish with chopped worms and casters over groundbait, hoping that the venues skimmer and tench population would take a liking to it.

I also fed a line under my feet, where I hoped to scratch a few roach if the going was really tough! I put five balls of fishmeal groundbait in at the off laced with worms and casters, and started the match over the top with a piece of worm.

I had a slow first half hour, but then had a run of good skimmers to 1lb, but at 12 oclock when the sun got high in the sky everyone seemed to stop catching. It didn’t matter what I did all I could seem to get was tiny roach. Looking down the lake it seemed everyone was in the same boat however, and there was very little happening!

Fortunately, once the sun dropped down again I managed a couple of tench and two more skimmers, and looking around I didn’t think anyone in my section had beat me. The all out sounded to a few sighs of relief, and when the scales arrived 14lb was leading. I was pleased when my net went 16-4-0, which was enough to win the section and also the match as a whole!

Chris came second, and Shane came fifth, which meant we had won all three sections, and so won the team event as well with maximum points! Not a bad day at the office!

As is so often the case, life had a nasty surprise in store for me after I came off the bank however, someone had been down the side of all the cars with a key, making a right mess of about ten anglers paint work, mine included. Just a mindless, nasty action, there is always something in life isn’t there!

Still, I was determined not to let it spoil the day, and having picked up £90 plus a £20 voucher for Billy Clarkes Tackle Shop, I thought an afternoon in the pub would be a nice way to finish the day, and so it proved!

Just need to hope my lucky drawing arm keeps these flyers coming my way, and whatever t**t did my car has my share of bad fortune!