Cruising To Victory!

 Only two matches to report on this week due to another round of hospital visits with me mam & dad, who incidentally are both much better and have been given a green light to go on our planned holiday next week. Both matches had quite a few talking points though, so here goes.

Saturday, and Ian and me were booked on at Woodlands Farm at Barlborough for the regular Saturday open. While waiting for the draw we’d both seen a lot of fish moving around the end of the island, between pegs 28-30 and the first peg on the island itself, peg 31. Five minutes later both of us were hurrying off to our respective pegs in eager anticipation of a good day’s sport, Ian on 28 (with 29 &30 not drawn) and me on 31. The fish activity had slowed a little, probably due to a bunch of hairy-arsed matchmen trudging around, but they were obviously still in the area, as the odd liner while plumbing up showed.

With 29 & 30 being empty, I decided on a line down the reeds to my left, fed with meat and hemp, to back up my usual approach of chop and caster tight across. I also set up a rig to fish pellet shallow if the initial lines dried up, John Mills has been unbeatable on the midweek opens there of late, simply fishing pellet shallow and catching F1’s in weights up to 80lb, leaving the rest of the field trailing in his wake. Ian was going all out pellet and paste, but he too set up the shallow rigs for later on in the day.

On time I potted in a small amount of meat and a good handful of hemp down the edge, and went across with half aworm on, dropping a small amount of feed over the rig via a kinder pot. The float took it’s settings, wavered to one side a little, then shot under positively, as the first carp of the day was on it’s way to the net! Don’t you just love it when that happens? When carp number four graced the net after my fourth drop in I had to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming! I have had days like this before elsewhere, but not at Barlborough!

Those days were reserved for other people here, not me! At the time only one other fish had been caught, by Chris Dyson on peg 32, so obviously there were a few in the area, it looked like Wraggy had drawn bang on em AGAIN! The action slowed a little after the initial burst, with odd small perch getting in on the act, but by adjusting the feed by altering the ratios of worm to caster around I kept mainly F1’s coming throughout the first half of the match. I was determined not to go over the margin line until at least half way through, but kept a trickle of bait going in during the time I was catching across.

Half time came, and with odd fish swirling just beyond where I’d fed down the reeds I went in anticipating a result almost immediately. A couple of minutes went by with out a movement, then a slow pull under that was obviously a liner left the rig a little way away from the fed area. I dropped back in and it buried immediately, leaving me striking into thin air. This was repeated three more times before I decided to leave the line a little longer, surmising that the bites were from the venue’s abundant silver fish population.

Back across, and the F1’s were still there in force, another two falling for the lure of the worm in quick succession. A pattern was emerging now, whereby I’d catch a couple across, then the perch would move in and mop up and bits left after the carp backed away due to the disturbance. I settled on a plan of taking a couple of fish from the far side, then having a ten-minute look down the reeds for a bonus fish, to allow the F1’s time to regroup. The first couple of bites I connected with down the edge resulted in foul-hooked fish tearing off and shedding the hook, so it was a case of picking the right bites to strike at, and as I sorted it I began to pick up some useful fish from the margin swim, including a 5lb common and a mirror that must have been over 8lb, both very big fish for Woodlands.

It was quickly turning into my perfect day, catching on my favourite method of chop & caster, my favourite fish (F1’s) and at my local venue, which is also one of my favourites, even though I curse it every other week! But, just as I was beginning to think all my birthdays had come at once, the radio goes and announces that Kevin Phillips the Birmingham striker had scored deep into injury time to positively rob the super Blades of a deserved point on the first day of the football season! Cue a huge temper tantrum for the little fat lad, where the brolly got slung across the other side of peg 32, and pole sections and grass sods were flying everywhere. Looking back, the next half hour was my slowest all day, and who knows, I may have even done a ton if Mr Kevin f***ing Phillips hadn’t popped up when he did!

As time was called I for once felt pretty confident that I would be up among the front-runners. You just don’t let yourself believe that you’ve won, do you? It must be that in-built protection mechanism that saves you from falling flat on your face, but even so, I knew I’d got a decent weight, at least as much as what had been winning of late, and I hadn’t seen anyone else catching except Ian on 28, who was estimating 30-35lb. Pat Bradley, one of the regulars at Barlborough, was in the lead when the scales reached Ian’s peg, with 43lb 14oz. Ian weighed 42lb exactly, and I had 74lb 11oz. A couple of 20lb-plus weights from the other island pegs and that was it, I’d won, with what if I recall rightly was my best ever weight at Woodlands! Top day all in all, and I’d hit my target, winning money every week between our holidays! Nice one! Only problem now though, the gear is going away for almost three weeks and I’m on a high with the fishing! Might have to sneak a telescopic rod into the case!

Before the big wind-down though, there was the small matter of the Turners Arms match, at Woodhouse Grange on the Kingfisher Lake. The howling wind, that the woods had sheltered us from at Barlborough, was in full flight here over the flat countryside that lies between Doncaster and the east coast, limiting our options quite a bit. Now if Saturday was getting close to a perfect day for me, it was only because all my problems were queuing up to get me on the Sunday! I must admit I did fancy my peg 5 draw, there was an island opposite me and a carpy-looking margin to my left, with a spare peg beyond it (everyone had a spare on one side or the other though) and a decent depth at 5-6 sections out for a paste attack, so I had plenty of options.

The gusting wind made fishing long almost impossible, and the venue’s 14.5m pole limit meant I wouldn’t have been able to reach the island anyway as it was just over 16m, but in the past I’d had some success using a small feeder on the pole and swinging it up to the islands in such situations, very accurate fishing, but not an option today in the wind, which by now was blowing bait tins off trays! Three lines were decided on, I don’t like to over cook things on a bagging match, if you’ve done your homework you should know what the winning methods are, and you rarely do a big weight by swapping lines too often. I always work on the principle that you should be able to line enough fish up on one spot to bag a big weight, if you can’t then there probably aren’t enough there anyway to do any serious damage.

Paste at 5m worked for me last time on the adjoining lake, so that would be my first port of call. A line down the margins looked a banker for later in the day, and as something of an afterthought I rigged a feeder rod up. This was where my problems started. My box of feeders was still in the garage, in my other Rive tray! Rive boxes are brilliant for getting your gear organised, the only problem is that they don’t think for you, and at that moment the beautifully organised tray full of feeders and running line gear was as much use as a chocolate fireguard! A rummage through my drawers threw up a couple of the feeders I was using at Bank End during the winter, tiny, but better than nowt, so on they went. I only had pole hooklengths too, so it was a case of tying one every time I lost one. I spent a fair bit of time tying hooks this day I can tell you!

I could only get a bite by casting tight into the island margins in inches of water, and the gusting wind made a mug of me several times during the day. A quick look on the paste line only threw up a skimmer, so after 15 minutes I went onto the feeder, with immediate results. Carp from a pound up to nearly three were coming with some regularity, and while no one else seemed to be catching, club chairman Kevin Cardwell was getting among them from the favoured peg 32. This peg sits almost on its own on the end bank, and there is a big bush overhanging the water next to it. The biggest fish in the lake live under the bush, and if you know what you’re doing it’s a banker draw, indeed the only other times I’ve fished the lake the peg has won both times.

Kev obviously knew what he was doing, as every time I looked over his elastic was stretched out playing another fish. Not surprisingly, the feeder line slowed up a little during the second hour, so a look on the paste was called for. I immediately had a 2lb carp, and settled down to hopefully give Kev a run for his money. Uh-oh, next drop saw me foul-hook a fish that came off as it hit the surface, then it was back to the skimmers.

Something was very wrong; the only thing I could put it down to was the strong tow on the water. Perhaps the fish would be laid up in the margins out of the main body of the tow? A quick look saw a repeat of the scenario on the paste line, an instant fish followed by unhittable bites and foul hookers galore. I switched back to the feeder and was saved, as the carp were lined up again. Another good hour resulted, but all the time I felt Kev was edging further and further away from me. I entered the last hour having had a couple of looks down the edge and still not connecting with the bites properly, still foul-hooking too many, but still squeezing odd fish off my island swim on the feeder.

All was well until 10 minutes from the end, when a gust finally took a cast aimed to land in the mud a little too far, and that was that! Margin swim for the last five then! A late consolation carp, probably the smallest of the day almost seemed to stick two fingers up at me as it dropped into the net. The little bugger bore a close resemblance to Kevin Phillips anall! My two nets totalled 75lb exactly, not enough I was convinced. On the opposite side a couple of lads put 50lb-plus catches on the scales, which together with several 40lb weights made it a very good match overall, the crowning moment of which was Kev’s 94lb 10oz winning bag, all taken on corn under the bush in only 14 inches of water, a sterling performance from the hard working club chairman! Better news was to follow for me though, despite sneaking into second spot via the back door after a less than convincing performance, the place was enough to win me the club’s angler of the year competition, despite there being two matches to go! I miss both of them due to our holiday, so it was nice to get that in the bag before we set sail!
A first and second over the weekend with almost 150lb of fish has got to be a good result in anyone’s book, although you wouldn’t have thought me capable of catching 15lb over two matches watching me throw that feeder Sunday! Or throwing a wobbly after the late goal Saturday for that matter! Anyway, I’m off on me hols this weekend, all the family are going on a cruise in the Mediterranean, which we’ve been looking forward to for ages, so I’m signing off till the first week in September. Till then, tight lines to you all, make em have some lip ache, and I’ll see you when we get back.