Dr Evil Strikes Back!

The scare with my mam last weekend that saw me break the land speed record on my way home from Bank End was just a taster for the week ahead! It turns out that she’d had a mild stroke, one that she will make an almost complete recovery from, but it just takes time at her age. She’s still on the go as normal but tires a lot quicker than usual, but as the doctors say, it will take time to recover. In between trips back and forth to the hospital, not to be outdone my dad then contracted a virus giving him arthritis-like pains in his shoulders and hips, so me mam couldn’t get about like she normally does, and me dad was hobbling around like a little old bloke!

They gave me the green light to go at the weekend though, with my brother and sister on hand if needed, and I must admit I was really looking forward to the trip (!) to the Tripp, a lake that is an off-site part of the Messingham Sands complex, with Bankside Tackle. It’s a mixed fishery, carp win overall more often than not, but the huge head of skimmers and crucians make 50lb a relatively easy target which, if topped up with some bonus carp will see you frame more often than not, and put you in with a shout of winning outright.

My mate Barney has got the place sorted, feeding large amounts of groundbait laced with the venue’s omega pellets, and fishing the same on the hook, he’s always there or thereabouts. He called round in the week to put me right, saying it was best if you could line them up to catch on the top three. I wasn’t too convinced by this, I don’t like playing my fish in where I’m catching them, so decided to go a little further out, just to put a bit of distance between me and the vast shoal of crucians that my addled brain had already got lined up two days early! I’d recorded a second place at the venue late last summer catching carp shallow on pellet, and the hot weather would see them making their presence felt on the surface if they were in the peg, so I had a back up plan to catch shallow if needed.

I arrived at the venue early on the Saturday, to be confronted with hundreds of carp cruising around on the surface! Rubbing my hands together in anticipation of a bumper day’s sport, I decided on a plan of catching short(ish) to begin, while feeding pellet for the carp at 13 metres. I fancied my peg 13 draw, it’s my lucky number (I was born on Friday the 13th! At midnight! That’s what I mean when I say better to be luck than good!) And was quite sheltered from the wind which seems to have been the bane of our lives for god knows how long! All the pegs on the Tripp have extensive marginal reed beds, which are full of carp, trouble is these carp are the best in the land at ragging you off in their reedy home, a lesson I learned to my cost one time, coincidentally on the same peg 13, when a tug of war with an unseen beastie resulted in my number four section parting like a gunshot, and my top kit complete with brand new red Hydro speeding off into the ‘Olivers’, never to be seen again!

I’d already decided to ignore the margins, taking the stance of ‘don’t pick a fight you can’t win’, and prepared my lines as me and Barney had discussed earlier. I’d got a nice three foot six inches at five sections, and tooled up with a couple of fine rigs for the crucians and skimmers, together with three shallow rigs at various depths for the long pole. At the start I fed four big balls of 2/3rds green swim stim mixed with 1/3rd Nutrabaits Trigga carpet feed, laced with the omega pellets. Bites were almost instant; there is an unbelievable head of silver fish in the lake, and skimmers and roach were first to respond, up to maybe twelve ounces in weight.

I was getting into a rhythm when I managed to foul-hook a small carp that charged around all over the place before I luckily managed to net it at the fifth attempt! This made a mess of things, so I re-fed with another ball and had a look long where I’d already noticed an odd swirl when I fed the pellets. First drop resulted in a 4oz roach, not exactly what I had in mind, and as I was cursing the possibility that the surface movements could actually be silver fish another bite saw a carp surface upside down, before it realised what was happening and powered off, the hook pulling and my rig getting trashed in the process.

I remembered that last year I’d had a lot of fish really shallow, 3-4” deep at times, so I picked up my shortest rig and shipped out. I slapped it on the water a couple of time, and third time the elastic flew out. Not sure if the carp was hooked properly I played it gently back, mugging it as it surfaced at my feet. At 6lb it was a big fish for the venue, and would turn out to be my biggest of the day. This sequence of events repeated themselves at intervals through the day, I never got them lined up to really bag, but I was doing ok from what I could see of the other anglers, and although Barney was right round the other side of the lake I could hear they weren’t pulling any trees up there either. He’s no shrinking violet our Barney!

A quiet spell mid match saw me try the inside line again, where I’d fed the same groundbait and pellet mix at regular intervals, and despite the fact that I’d played several carp through the peg, by this time the crucians were lined up. Trouble was they were much smaller than usual, only 3-4oz samples, but I plugged away at them while feeding and resting my long line. As crucians do, they soon spooked away, to be replaced by the skimmers, again a little on the small side but welcome nonetheless. Tiny roach signalled a re- feed was called for, and a switch back to the long line.

A couple of late carp long on the shallow pellet, and the day was over. A real good ‘un it had been too, plenty of thought needed to keep one step ahead of the fish which, although present in good numbers, were no mugs, and every one had to be worked for. Kevin Johnson the owner really has got the job of weighing in off to a tee, donning chest waders and walking round the margins, meaning the fish are weighed and returned with the minimum of fuss. I guessed my carp net at 22-25 lb so was pleasantly surprised to see it go 33lb-plus, but was way out on my silvers, I thought they’d bring me double figures but only went 8lb 9oz. Them crucians are strange creatures, some places they look big but are hollow, others they must be all muscle and weigh really heavy. My total of 42lb 2oz led all the way till the final angler, Mark Payling on peg 1.

Something of a dream draw, and with pegs 2 & 3 empty we all knew we’d be fishing for second place when an angler of Mark’s calibre drew it. With his strength being shallow fishing, and the wind blowing down into that end of the lake, he won without breaking sweat, recording 64lb-plus of carp, all on his favourite pellet fished shallow. I was more than pleased with second spot in the circumstances, and with Barney sneaking into the frame in fourth a good day was had by all.

Sunday, and I was back to my old favourite, Bank End. Thanks to all the lads who asked how my mam was, apparently my hasty departure just before the start had left some of them scratching their heads, many wondering if the curse of the dreaded floating pole had finally tipped me over the edge! Ian and the rest of the lads put them in the picture, and it was nice of them to enquire as to her well being, all of which was passed on to her. My peg for the day was 15, a corner peg which looks lovely, reed fringed and with some depth close in, it looked good for a margin assault. Trouble is, there are a few big fish in the lake, and many of them actually live in the corners, but setting your stall out exclusively for them is a risky business. Will they feed? Will there be enough of them to build a weight? And, most importantly, will you get them out of the reeds?

All this added up to too much of a risk for me, so I sat and weighed up the options. The peg had no real form other than odd frame places, usually when the lake had an off day and odd lumps boosted a net of stockies up to a frame weight pr section win. Being in the corner I was a little hemmed in by 14 & 16, making a shallow approach hit and miss possibly? Peg 16 is on the end bank, with a lot of room, and had won the day before with over 100lb, and was occupied by Alan Hedley, a good angler and also a regular at the venue, so he wouldn’t make any mistakes. I made a tactical decision (it almost sounds as though I know what I’m doing when I say that, doesn’t it?) to fish for a defaulted section win, ignoring Alan and concentrating on beating the anglers to my left. To supplement any fish that I might catch shallow I fed a line four sections out with softened Trigga pellets, intending to fish paste over the top. Alan was playing his second fish as I’d finished feeding (I did pot a bit in down the reeds just in case) and I could hear splashing from my right too, so it was time to get my arse into gear.

Another interesting and thought-provoking day followed, whereby I’d get a run of fish on one shallow rig, before having to switch to a different one to keep in touch, then chase the fish out by adding a section, before feeding them back to my original spot and staring again. In between times I picked off odd slightly better fish on my short paste line, but again they wouldn’t settle for any length of time, keeping me busy swapping and changing throughout the day. Alan, meanwhile, was building a good weight, albeit on the FP!

As time was called I wasn’t sure if I’d done enough to beat the lad on 14 to my left, who’d seemed to match me fish for fish all day, again many of which were on the floating pole, but he had some better stamp fish late on by throwing one of those mushroom-shaped pellet wagglers out, and the bigger fish seemed to be fighting to pull it under! I walked to meet the scales, just as a 121lb catch was edging a 107lb weight from the early pegs into 2nd place. As I told the lad who’d had 107, most would regard it as a moral victory as he’d caught all his fish on the pellet waggler, but unfortunately the floating pole does seem to reign supreme here at the moment. Next angler to weigh was the first in my section, and he brought 50lb or so up the bank. This was repeated for the next few pegs until the scales reached the lad on 14, and my heart sank as he recorded 67lb.

When my first net went 34lb though I began to think I might just pull off my cunning tactical plan. I always seem to have a bit more in my left hand net for some reason, don’t ask me why, and it is always my second weight, which this day went 40lb, giving me a total of 74lb 11oz, top in the section up to press. However, all this was to no avail if Alan on peg 16 didn’t frame. Fortunately he didn’t let me down, and squeezed in between the two ton-plus weights with 112lb. It wasn’t over yet though, as three anglers in a line on the far bank opposite the other two big weights had all got potential winning bags. They did indeed produce the eventual winner, a 130lb weight flanked by two bags of 92lb 11oz, and one unfortunate lad who weighed 92lb 7oz and went home empty handed! With Alan finishing third that meant I snaffled the section by default, my cunning plan had come together! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Not only have I got the ‘Doctor Evil from Austin Powers’ hair do, (and the bent nose!) I can also come up with half-baked schemes like he does too!

More trips across town to the hospital lined up for the little fat lad this week I’m afraid with me mam & dad, but next weekend I’m Barlborough bound, then Sunday it’s the last Turners arms match I can fish due to our impending holiday. It’s at Woodhouse Grange again, this time on the Kingfisher lake, and I need to score big points to keep near the top of the league because I miss the last two matches. Might have to go for a sneaky practise just in case, but if you see me, don’t tell anybody will you? Tight lines till next week.