Seconds Anyone?

Apologies for the delay in updating my blog, I have had a really busy couple of weeks with one thing and another. The first match I have to update you on is a Sunday open match at Kiveton Waters.  I drew out peg 5, which I must say I didn’t really fancy, as generally it is quite a tough area.

I did however, have a feeder chuck and a bit of room for a pole line so I wasn’t too pessimistic. Matt had drawn quite well, being on 22 peg though, as had Dave Tomkinson on one, and Brian Edwards on 31.  With so many good anglers on good pegs I thought I would have my work cut out.

It was quite windy, and so I decided to fish  a short pole line at around eight metres and a method feeder to the far bank. Pellet was my bait of choice, with a 6mm hard banded pellet on the method and an expander on the pole.  I fed the venues own micro pellets coated in Ringers ground bait, both wrapped around the feeder and through a pot on the pole line.

I started the match on the tip, and had eight fish in the first eight chucks, but that was that then- not even a liner! I spent the middle part of the match alternating between the pole line and the tip picking up the odd fish, but not a deal was happening. From what I could see though everyone was struggling, with the exception of Brian Edwards who seemed to be catching quite well.

I had a late surge on the tip, with another eight fish falling in the last half hour, but Brian was also catching well, and I felt he was in front of me by quite a margin. At the all out I felt I had around 35lb, but when the scales arrived I was pleased to weigh 45lb. This led all the way around the lake- until Brian on the end peg put 46lb on the scales to edge me into second. Gutted! One more fish!

Still, it was enough to secure some beer tokens for me and Sir Godfrey to share, and with a night on the tiles planned it was most welcome!

Pairs Match

After a few bevvies and a wonder around some of the bars of Sheffield, it was the Woodlands Pairs match for us on the Bank Holiday  Monday, We were accompanied by my friend of old Simon Cartmell, and fellow Woodseats Angler Paul Gorman.

We decided to stick to the roation we had last time, as it seemed to have worked with us coing 3rd as a pair out of 50 odd, so I was to be on the ’shit lakes’ (Curlew, Wagtail or Kestrel) with Matt either in Partridge or Skylark.

In went my hand and out came peg 10 on Wagtail. From what various people told me it wasn’t the best of draws, an end peg with a cold water pipe flowing into it, which people seemed to think would push fish down the other end of the lake.

I opted to fish a short line with corn, a long line at 16 metres away from the boards with meat, and a line at 14.5 metres to the boards.

After an early fish on corn short, I had a real struggle, going nearly two hours without a bite, and I was beginning to worry that ALL the fish had gone up the top side of the lake away from the inlet.

I started meat feeding with a catapult to try and make something happen, and at long last, I had a bite on my line up to the boards, a mirror carp about 5lb. Another one followed, then a small barbel and all of a sudden it seemed my line had come to life. Whether this was due to me feeding with a catapult as oppose to feeding negatively with the kinder pot, or whether the fish just turned up I’m not sure.

I ended up with 60lb, with at least 50lb coming in the last two hours. Unfortunately, this was no good for anything, putting me around half way in my ten peg section. Matt also had a grueller on Skylark, beating one in his section with 20 odd pound, so all in all a bad day at black rock. We had a nice curry in Wetherby on the way home, which made us both feel better though!

Light Nights!

With the nights now drawing out I decided to fish my first evening match of the year at Kiveton Waters the following Wednesday. To cut a long story short, the wind was horrendous, a lot worse than I realised before I picked my peg, as I was rushing after work and literally got to the venue than rushed straight up to draw. I was about the worsed draw you can be in a rover- bang half way down 5th to pick out of nine.

I picked peg 34, and the wind was pushing across me really badly. Theres not really a lot to say except I struggled to present my bait, and ended up with 17lb for third, and with the top two being paid out and second getting 19lb this was no good to me!

The following night was the first of the opens that me and Matt run at Carterhall Fishery, and we had a celebrity angler to contend with in the shape of Steve Barraclough, fresh from his winning performance in the Milo Festival at White Acres.

He proved his drawing arm was still with him, he said he fancied peg 8 when he walked around the lake, then went on to draw it, and it was also the golden peg!

I was none to happy to draw next to him on peg 10, which of all the pegs in the bag I have to say I fancied the least. Matt had drawn peg 14, which is both of our favourite pegs, we have never not won the match when either of us has drawn it!

I opted to keep it simple and fish just one line up to the reeds in front of me with maggots. I had a really busy three hours fishing, catching shallow and on the deck, and ended up with 72 ide  and a carp around 3lb. I had seen Steve and Matt catching well as well however, so I didn’t know how well I had done.

When the scales arrived Steve tipped on 23-2-0 and I thought it would be close between us, but fortunately things went my way and my net went 25-0-0. My lead was short lived however, the auburn extractor had put on yet another sterling performance to win the match with 29-0-0. We ended up first and second so it was quite a nice pay day, if only every match could be as lucrative as that!

Larford FishoMania

I must admit I was tempted to give this a miss, as it was Lee Kerry’s wedding the night before and it was an awesome night to be only drinking shandys! Still, I kept my sensible head on, and drove up and drove back, though we did have something of a nightmare getting home, as Matt really struggled operating the Sat Nav after nine pints! It was a great do though, and it was lovely to hear Lee describe it as the best day of his life. All the best mate.

Ash Clemence was also fishing the qalifier, and with him living in Guisborough a halfway stop at mine was a welcome offer, so we decided to travel down together, fish the qualifier and then get drunk around Sheffield and fish Kiveton Waters the next day.

To cut a long story short, I drew a peg that no one seemed to fancy in 28 on Speci Lake, as the wind had been pushing the other way all the previous week. Ash and Adam Richards didn’t draw to well either on the tightly pegged match lake, and fellow northern raider Ben Fisk was next to me, so none of the northern contingent drew to well.

After listening to various people, I opted to fish meat short at five metres and a method line. After hearing the stories of massive carp and bream, you can imagine my dissapointment when my tip eased around into a pound skimmers.

To cut a long story short, I didn’t have a great day, taking four carp and four skimmers gor 21lb. Ben had my pants down (again! ) catching 50lb of bream and carp on the thod, but he still won nowt.

Dave Swain did the business again, winning with 157b making it his fifth appearance in a Fishomania Final.

Sore Head!

After a night on the tiles, which saw us roll in at around 4 bells, we were understandably a bit bleary eyed for fishing the next day.

I seem to be drawing my socks off at Kiveton at the moment, I couldn’t believe my luck when I pulled out peg 1, the peg I won the golden peg off three weeks previous!

My plan was to fish a method feeder across, and a long pole line in the shallow water to my right. First chuck and the tip wragged around with a 2lb mirror, and did the same for the next four casts, but then that was that!

I couldn’t seem to put a run of fish together on anything, which I found frustrating as the fish were in my peg but they just didn’t seem to want to feed. Jay Broughton on the end peg in the 30’s was catching, but other than that I couldn’t see a deal being caught, and it seemed most people were in the same boat as me.

I managed a late run of fish on the pole, I can’t honestly say why it just seemed like the fish turned up. I was first to weigh and recorded 45lb. I had a bad case of de ja vue, as once again I led all the way around the lake, but was beaten into second by Jay on the end peg! Gutted! Still, keeping it positive, Jay was 15lb clear and I don’t know how I could have caught 15lb more, so I don’t think I fished a bad match all in all.

I will sign off for now, but will update on how I went on in the evening matches this week, and how I get on in the open at Kiveton tomorrow early next week.