When you see a match won with over a hundred and forty pounds in the early spring you know that the water, as well as the angler, must be a little bit special. Moat Lake on the Moon Lakes complex at Tattershall Lincolnshire was the venue and Windmill Pets and Tackle sponsored Dave Daniels the angler. We joined him for a closer look at his bagging approach on one of his favourite Lincolnshire venues.
Swim Selection When I had the 140lb, which I have to say was an exceptional weight rather than the norm for that time of year, I was on peg 14 but today there is a club match booked there so I’m going to have to fish a different peg. The nice thing about this lake though is that the fish don’t just live in one area so when you are fishing in a match you have a realistic chance from any draw. A fact proven when Edgar Purnell won seven matches on the trot from a different peg each time including the current lake match record of 175lb.
It is always worth having a chat with the locals or the owners to find out the most up to date info about where the fish are and how they are being caught every time you go but especially before going to a new venue. Remember they want you to have a good day and come back with some friends so they will do their best to put you right.
I was on the last match and noted that Edgar Purnell won again from peg 6 with a big 80lb and there was a fifty plus on peg 1 which shows there are obviously some fish having a go in the early pegs so with that in mind I’m going to have a go on peg 2 today.
It may seem a lot of swims to fish but on commercials, especially when fishing in shallow water, it is important to be able to rest a line after you’ve caught a few from it rather than plunder it and risk spooking the fish completely. By catching a few then re-feeding and resting it while you catch a few from another line you can keep confident fish feeding in your peg for longer which ultimately means you will weigh in more at the end of the day. When I had the 140lb catch, although most of the fish came from my two far bank lines I did need to rest them at times and because I had other lines on the go was still able to keep fish going into the net while the far bank fish regained their confidence.
I use the same rig to fish all four shallow swims with a 4×12 Preston Durafloat 2 and I use a 4×12 Preston Bazzerla Series C for my deep water swim both shotted with a bulk of No.8 Stotz a foot or so from a size 12 Tubertini 175 hook tied directly to 0.16 Silstar Match Team line. With the fish running from a pound to double figures elastic choice is important. If you fish a heavy elastic for the lumps you risk bumping off the run of the mill pound and two pound fish whereas if you fish a light elastic which would be ideal for those smaller fish you have no chance when the bigger fish do show. I have settled on a compromise with a Drennan 14-16 hollow elastic which gives me both the softness needed for the smaller fish and enough power to give me at least a fighting chance with the lumps.
I also always set up a lighter rig with 0.14 line, a size 14 hook and a lighter black hydro elastic just in case the fishing is really hard and I’m struggling but I will be very disappointed if I have to use it today.
With Lincolnshire being such a flat county the wind is almost always an issue on this lake as well as most others in the county and we have to adapt our rigs to be able to beat it and fish properly. As you can see from the rigs I’ve described we fish with heavier floats than normal for shallow swims to help us stay in control and almost always set them up 4 to 6 inches over depth rather than at the dead depth set ups I see most anglers write about. We also tend to have to fish a longer line from pole tip to float than you might in more sheltered areas opting for 18 inches to 2 feet rather than the more common 6 to 12 inches which allows us to keep a still float and hook bait even when the pole tip is being buffeted around by the wind and a back shot a few inches above the float is an absolute essential to get the line under the surface skim.
It may seem a bit crude to some of you but believe me when that wind blows across these flatlands these few changes to the rigs can make all the difference.
Bait and Feeding All of the most typical commercial baits work at different times here but for me at this time of year it has to be meat. It catches everything from skimmers to the double figure ghosties, is easy to prepare and use, is cheap and perhaps most importantly, for me at least, I’m 100% confident in it. I use punched Morrison’s Polony on the hook that I cut
I keep the meat mixture in water to stop it drying out and like to feed it with a few micro pellets and a bit of dryish green Swim-Stim so that it forms an attractive cloud when it gets to the bottom. The most important things about feeding here are not to put too much in at any one time to try and avoid getting too many fish in the swim at any one time and not to feed too often to try and keep the fish on the bottom. Too many fish in the peg leads to real problems with line bites and foul hooked fish while keeping them feeding on the bottom gives you much more positive and easy to hit bites. To control my feed and keep it accurate I only feed with a ‘toss pot’ on the end of the pole while I am fishing any particular line.
The Session Dave started by feeding a decent sized cup of feed into his three nearest swims, the two near bank margin lines and the down the track line at 7 to 8 metres. “Because I don’t intend to fish any of these lines early on I don’t mind putting a bit of feed there to try and hold them in the swims.” However on the far bank lines he only introduced a small helping
After a couple of sharp dips that he missed on his ‘ten past’ line Dave was soon attached to his first Moat Lake fish of the day which surprisingly turned out to be a barbel of about 2 pounds. More missed bites followed before a skimmer, a tench and a crucian found their way into Dave’s keep net. “It’s not a good sign because when there are carp in the swim they tend to bully the other species out, the fact that I’m catching them suggests the carp haven’t moved onto the feed yet.”
Dave tried his ‘ten to’ line with much the same results before after about ¾ of an hour an F1 of about 2lb followed by a similar sized ghostie offered some encouragement. It proved to be a false dawn though as the tench and skimmers moved in again with the accompanying problems of missed bites on the big pieces of punched polony. A quick try on his three other lines produced more tench and skimmers as well as a big ide that was closer to 3lb than 2 but noticeably no more carp.
As we approached the end of the second hour Dave slipped his net under his third crucian of the session with the comment “it’s unusual to catch one crucian here so to catch three in a couple of hours shows something is not right for the carp today.”
Change of plan
“I could change down to a smaller hook and smaller pieces of meat on the hook if I wanted to catch more of these other species and have a good day’s sport but realistically to stand a chance of picking up in the matches you have to catch carp so I’m going to persevere and try and get them feeding in the swim. The skimmers and tench here seem to particularly like pellets so to try and stop attracting them into the swim I’m going to stop feeding the pellets and just feed the meat mixture and Swim-Stim and hope the carp move in with fewer other species in the swim.”
As the day progressed with Dave’s new feeding plan in place it became noticeable that the bites started getting fewer and further between, the lack of pellets in the feed seemed to be doing the trick deterring the other species but so far no signs of an influx of the carp. With only a couple of hours to go, less than 20lb in the net and the threat of a blow out on the cards Dave changed to his lighter rig with a smaller hook and lighter elastic and was instantly rewarded with a bite that saw a carp drag him into the reeds and break loose. Surely it was the lighter rig that had made the difference but Dave wasn’t so sure, “the carp can just arrive on this lake and when they do you can put forty pounds in the net in no time at all. I’m going back to the heavier rig now because I think they’ve arrived.”
Within minutes Dave struck into a bite on his ‘ten past’ line that saw several yards of fluorescent pink 14-16 elastic streaming out of the pole as another of the lake’s much sought after ghostie carp struggled to reach the sanctuary of those far bank reeds. The
Another ghostie and 2 F1’s quickly followed and all of a sudden it seemed as though we were on a different lake. Now Dave was feeding a toss pot full for every bite and after those four quick fish he moved across to his ‘ten to’ line and was pleased to find carp there as well. With the fish feeding well now Dave was in his element feeding a toss-pot full every bite and catching three or four fish from each of his far bank lines before resting it and catching the same from the other.
The final two hours of our session saw Dave add fifty pounds of F1’s and ghosties up to 2 ½ lb to his net to finish the session with an impressive 70lb catch. “I was getting a bit worried earlier on but when those carp finally moved in I think I’ve shown the potential of this fantastic fishery and how with careful feeding and rotating around more than one line big bags of fish can be put together very quickly. What is slightly disappointing is that I didn’t manage to get amongst any of the big double figure ghosties that the lake is renowned for but even so it’s been a great day on a fabulous fishery and I can’t wait to get back for the match at the weekend.”
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Hi, where do you get the lucky cat meat from? Never heard of it, great article, mick
Came across this article by chance , I’ve got a match there this year on moat and this has helped me loads. Thanks Mick
nice,moat lake holds matches most saturdays dont they,i realy wanted 2 come with my dad and fish a pleasure session,but obviously if theres matches on we cant,would it be better when i break up for my 6 weeks holiday to come on week days? Thanks
how do i hook several cubes of luncheon meat at a time when fishing the feeder?
hi , dave , read your article with great interest , as i have a match coming up on moat lake on 12th october , would you fish meat at this time of year ? if not , what would you suggest ? – thanks – ken
great mike thanks just started match fishing lots of help . regards perry
with a bait needle on to a hair rig
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