It isn't the size that matters, its what you do with it!

After a couple of weeks away and a hectic workload, I couldn't wait to get back out on the bank!

This month I explore the idea of fishing short and keeping busy. I have had a bit of success recently fishing very close in and putting everything that came my way in the net. All too often I see people wielding 16 metres of pole when sometimes the fish are under your feet.

A scene replicated on every commercial across the country, but is this chap ignoring the short line?

First off lets look at where we have been:

Action Update June/July:

After my last blog at the Glebe I managed to fit one more match in with my Eight Bells Club at Hampton Springs Fishery Rock pool in Cheshire before going on holiday.

I drew a nice peg with a Lilly bed 12 metres down to my left margin and an island across at 14.5 metres. Using fishery pellets and swapping between a worm and Jpz I managed 30lb 14oz of small carp, tench and barbel for 2nd place (As usual) I foul hooked a couple of larger carp but didn't manage to get them in which was a bit of a gutter.

Hampton Springs is a popular Cheshire water

After my jollies I had a serious case of holiday blues! But I was straight into it with 2 matches at Heronbrook fisheries. 

First off my local tackle shop runs an annual event and attracts 150+ of the regulars and a few local stars. I drew peg 15 on the Bridge pool. Although it looked the part nothing of any substance seemed to show. I was 3rd in section with 21lb of small barbel and little f1s. 30lb won my section and I wish I would have stuck at the small stuff. This got me thinking....

Next up it was Maver Match this at the same venue. Again I drew the bridge pool and peg 11 around from where I was the previous week. I knew immediately I had no chance, but still persevered and attacked the peg very aggressively. There is no point fishing for the section on these matches with such high calibre of anglers. My aggression did not work and I left learning pretty much nothing. The only thing I would say about both of these matches is that I could have prepared a little better in terms of my tackle, I just was not really feeling it, so I had to buck my ideas up!

Back with the lads from the Eight Bells A.C. to a place I have not visited before. Wrightington in Lancashire. We were on the match canal with another club filling the end pegs, so the lake was virtually full.

Wrightington Match Canal. Lovely but end peg draw needed.

Typical of many commercial venues it was a uniform 14.5 metres across with a central track and margins. Everybody wanted an end peg and as it transpired Match Secretary Steve Brooks smashed the match off one of the ends with 54lb of small barbel and carp. I beat either side of me weighing 19lb but made little impression coming around 8th overall.


Next up with the Eight Bells it was to Bradshaw Fisheries in Bolton. I guess I would class this as my "local" commercial now. We were back on lake 3 which I really enjoyed back in April time. Small fish with plenty of bites. The difference was it was cold and windy back then, now it was a lovely day and I could present properly.

The great thing about club fishing is it is always a good laugh. I always travel to the club matches with a guy called Bob Price and I guess you could call him a character! Bobby complains that I never mention him in the blog, the thing is he rarely frames on the matches, so what is there to write? (Only joking Bobby, we all know you won a few in the 80s)

Me and Eight Bells travelling partner Bobby Price sporting our new Guru "Jaffa" waterproofs.

Thinking back to Heronbrook and the small fish, Lake 3 does have one or two larger stamp carp. I could go for them fishing long into the open water. But I decided to fish short, literally a top kit feeding casters and catching everything. I also had an open water swim, but I found it was the same depth right up to 14 metres, so I settled at 9 metres. Nice and comfortable and if the fish did back off I had lots of scope to go at.

I started catching Rudd up in the water feeding casters heavily knowing a few would get to the bottom. Then I changed to my bottom rig. Caster accounted for a couple of little barbel and tench, but it was the switch to 6mm Marukyu Jpz over the casters that brought a better stamp. I had to wait a little longer for the bites, but they were better fish.

To rest the short line I simply went on my 9 metre line. Originally I fed micro pellets, but it didn't feel right as the peg was fizzing like mad. A change to 4mm Marukyu skrill feed pellets with one on a band as hookbait, snaffled some skimmers and small carp. In all I had 8 different species of fish and in the region of 100 fish for 37lb 10oz with nothing over 1lb in size. A lovely days sport fishing short.

The day was good fun because I had a real head to head battle with Chris "the raider" Pickering in my section. I pipped him by 2lb or so and I am convinced that those early Rudd and silvers probably did it for me.

Carp, F1, Tench, Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Crucian, Barbel and Skimmer Bream for 37lb 10oz.

Short and Sweet:

When I was a kid I spent every minute I could on my local Rochdale canal. 20 years ago all I used to fish was the waggler and 9 times of out 10 I would fish at my rod end with a Drennan Canal Grey float. There was no flow back then as the locks were closed so not a particularly defined marginal shelf. It was a case of finding a nice level area with no rubbish or shopping trolleys and flicking maggots or casters steady until some fish arrived. Then you could tailor your feeding to what was happening. That's how I have been approaching the short line.

My local canal helped me fall in love with the sport and learn some valuable fish feeding lessons.

Things had been crazy busy the last couple of weeks so to get away from it all I decided on a last minute visit to Docklow pools in Herefordshire. Flicking through my blogs you will see it is a regular haunt of mine and one of my favourite venues. Good tackle shop, good pub and more importantly some great people and friends.

First I had a crack on the match pool open. I decided on the short approach but this time down the margins. I drew peg 21 which is OK, but the margin was over 3ft which I wasn't comfortable with. Still I tried a pellet and fish for anything approach, but could not get through the small roach (and I mean small!). Method across to the island was better and 41lb was a nice day, but didn't trouble the frame. Simon "Shed" Bradford is the main man in form at the match lake and won with 98lb.

Next up was the stock pond open which gave me the perfect opportunity to again fish short and put anything that comes along to the net. Target are the ample shoals of F1s which are putting on weight, but I never dismiss the many roach, perch, ide and skimmers. Peg 20 was my home for the day.

Peg 20 can be hit or miss.

Peg 20 can be great or can be a real challenge as the picture shows there is only 9 metres of water to the overgrown island across. It is pointless fishing over as it is too snaggy.

Fishery micro/4mm pellets were dampened down with Marukyu SFA450 liquid krill to give something a bit different from everybody else. I also pumped my expander pellets with the krill additive to compliment my feed.

Expanders pumped in SFA450 give that extra confidence and something different.

Preston Dura 10H elastic, 0.12 silstar line with a 4x12 Jim Standish Slimzee and a size 16 Drennan Carp maggot hook was the rig for the top kit. Here I had 3 pints of red and white maggots.

The plan was to feed micros at 9 metres to the left of the island as my "plan B". But the main line of attack would be the top kit feeding maggots heavily to keep the fish down. If small silvers became a pest I would fish an expander over the maggots and trickle in a few loose pellets as well.

Top 2 with my float dotted to a pimple.

The plan worked a treat and heavily feeding maggots kept the fish confident towards the bottom. A little trick I did use was to lay my double maggot or expander in first, then feed the maggot over the top. I found this drew the really small fish into the upper layers to intercept the initial feed, but inevitably bait was still getting down to where I needed it as I was feeding good handfuls of bait. When bites did tail off I went long and nicked the odd fish whilst the short line settled.

A very similar match to the Bradshaw fisheries, although with a bigger stamp of fish. F1, Roach, Perch and Skimmers came in abundance. My Mate Jez Bown was doing well on peg 5 and when he weighed in 123lb I didn't think I had a chance. I knew I stopped counting at 100 F1s but my last hour was pretty slow. In fact I had put in some corn down the edge as peg 20 sometimes attracts the odd lump, and I ended up nicking half a dozen small fish doing this in the last 30 minutes.

The day was very hot and sticky, and despite those odd quieter spells the short line did the damage with me winning with 131lb 11oz. Again did those odd silvers make a difference over Jez? Probably.

Despite an eyeful of sweat, I still managed to pose with part of my 131lb short caught haul.

A recurrent theme throughout my blogs has been to improve, keep busy and enjoy it. For me I still have the odd pants match, but overall I am definitely improving in terms of putting a weight together (3 x 100lb + weights in 2014).
I intend on keeping busy, whether it is fishing short, long, waggler or lead.
And as for enjoying it, well as long as I feel prepared and confident in what I am doing I always do!

Remember a bad days fishing is still better than a good days work!

Tight Lines
Dave

The Sweet Success of Spring

I think May has to be one of my favourite months. Everything seems to bloom and come to life.

Fields and forests are enveloped in greens and yellows. The offspring of nature are busy learning what life is about. Ducks, Geese, Rabbits, Frogs, Toads and of course the fish begin their own rituals. 

I knew this month was going to be really hectic and was nervous about getting enough time to prepare, but I managed to juggle work and fishing to have some good results...and some not so great!

May Action update:

Fish O Mania: The Oaks: 

The month kicked off with my 2nd of 2 Fish O qualifiers. I drew what looked a lovely peg on the point of an island on the Cedar lake. Former finalist Paul Richie was sat to my left and he explained we were probably at the wrong end of the lake. He was right, I chucked back around 12lb of Skimmers and a couple of F1. Around 60lb won the lake.

Bradshaw Fisheries open: A last minute decision to enter on new lakes 8&9. Peg 3 on Lake 8 was my draw, but the weather was cold and windy. 28lb 10oz was hard work but won me the section.

Garbolino Club Angler of the Year: Tunnel Barn Farm: 

The rules to qualify for this competition has been changed to allow the runners up from each club championship to enter. Nick Haymes was our Eight Bells A.C. champion and I was runner up so we both entered. I drew a noted flier on the House pool, between two islands and more importantly had room around me.

House pool....blown!

What I found on this match was that I never really made anything work. I had advice to fish by a tree stump to my right. It was a hot day too so I quite fancied mugging a few fish off the surface. I also received lots of advice from the Garbolino sponsored team as they walked around. The result was 59lb 8oz and way behind the winning 120lb & 110lb which qualified off the lake. Eight Bells club champ Nick managed to qualify off his water, so he will be in the final at bagging mecca Cob house in the summer. Good luck lad!

There was one stage where I was struggling to hit bites. I was fishing down the edge .15 through to a size 16 hook in search of proper carp. Darren Cox suggested I stepped down .12 and 18 hook and fish specifically for the F1's. I immediately had 7 fish in 7 chucks. The learning point being how cute F1's can be even in coloured water. If I did hook a carp I could have just took my time anyway!

Partridge Lakes: The Spey Canal:

I needed an upturn in fortune and a small match with most of the lads from my supercup team "Bratty's Partridge Drawbags" was to bring the first bit of good action. I drew peg 8 on the Spey canal. It didn't mean anything to me as I had only fished the water once around 3 years ago.

The Spey was coloured up with the fishy goings on. Either side of the reed bed kept them coming.

The weather was good and the fish were spawning like crazy so I was a little worried how the day would fish. Fishery pellets with a dash of Marukyu SFA 450 Krill and topped off with a little EFG170 groundbait across in the shallow water did the damage. Swapping between double maggot and Jpz hookbait I managed 43lb+ for a victory. A mixture of F1 and carp across and down the edge did the business

One of the funniest moments was Young Tom Dobson on peg 6, he hooked a carp in the reed beds next to him. He foolishly (Or not so foolishly as he go it in!) decided to fish with a solid 8 elastic down the edge = fun & games.

Tom "Dobber" Dobson and his 8s Laccy!

Eight Bells A.C: Fir Tree Fishery:

This was a nice little match on a water I had not fished before. The owner said that the target species were small carp up to 12oz as the lake is only a year or so old... He was right, the fish were tiny! 

Fir Tree Fishery - Small Fish match

I concentrated on a top kit, as that was where I wanted to catch them quick. But it was the track which kept bites coming regularly Jpz over tiny 1.5mm fishery pellets did the trick. Skimmers and tiny carp were the bulk of the weight with a few Ide.

Around 80 fish for 30lb 7oz gave me a section win and 2nd overall.  One trick here was to over-wet the micros and mould them into little marble size balls nice and tight. The water was around 10ft deep so this was important to concentrate the fish. There was also a very strong undertow so I had to be sure my feed was where I was fishing.

A 2nd place the day after the Spey win.

Sweet Success

For this months feature I headed off down to the Glebe Fishery in Leicestershire. For me this venue is the Rolls Royce of fisheries. I decided to repeat what I did last year and spend a couple of days down there. (May 2013 blog: The Glorious Glebe)

This month is a little different as I have actually done a video blog to accompany the usual script.  I hope it helps bring things to light a little.

Day 1:

First up it was the Maver Match this event. I drew lake 4 peg 88. Feeder to the far bank and a short Corn and Margin line was all I based my plan around. It was short sighted as the lake fished relatively poorly for the Glebe. I realised with 20 minutes of the match remaining there were fish to be caught on the pellet waggler.

I had a dismal 38lb 8oz, but there was lower than me and although the lake was won with 125lb there were no back up weights just 40s, 50s and 2 x 70lb weights. 

Day 2:

The second day allowed me to relax. Just like last year fishery owner Roy Marlow allowed me private access to the waters to do this feature. I wanted to try a new product launched by Marukyu called "Sweet success". As the name suggests this is a new groundbait with a very sweet almost caramel scent.  For me it just screamed Skimmers! 

I set up on lake 7 and ideally wanted to fish Chopped worm for the Skimmers. But learning from the previous day I also set up a feeder and a pellet waggler. The day was showery but also very still and fish could be seen in and around the upper layers.

Sweet success loaded with dead mags and chopped worm

I put in 4 big balls at the bottom of the near shelf loaded with chopped worm and dead maggots. I expected the Skimmers to be patrolling the the nearside ledge and wanted to get them settled.

Whilst waiting for the nearside shelf I chucked an open end feeder with the same groundbait mix across to the far side aimed at carp. I also fed the new Skrill Pellets in size 8mm 3/4 away across the lake for the pellet waggler.

A couple of line bites in the first 20 minutes told me the carp were not feeding on the bottom just yet. Then a couple of small carp made an appearance.

Fish On!

A couple of chunky little carp kicked off the session on the feeder

Rather than sit watching the tip, I wanted to be busy, so a re-feed of my skimmer line was in order before I went onto the pellet waggler. A banded 8mm Skrill pellet cast between 1/2 and 3/4 across the pool with a couple of loose offerings kept me busy instantly.

Good fun on the pellet waggler

Come here!

Wallop! The stamp of fish on the pellet waggler

Coming onto the short line for my original quarry I initially had a couple of small carp, followed by some decent perch and then the Skimmers. These were a good stamp around 2lb a piece, but I didn't feel I had things right.. enter uncle Roy!

Roy came down the bank and explained that it was no good fishing into the deep water. The skimmers had been spawning and not really showing very well lately. He suggested fishing off the bank into around 3ft of water. So Margin fishing, but slightly down the slope.

Roy added micro 2mm skrill pellets and corn to my sweet success groundbait and over wet the mix. A deeper rig with a longer line was assembled and 3ft was found a couple of metres off the bank. The interesting thing was how Roy bulked the shot under the float and left just 3 x 10 stotz as droppers.

The idea being that he wanted the bait to waft around and for the bigger fish to snatch at it. Traditionally I would always fish with a bulked down rig and go overdepth to try and avoid foulhookers. This could be interesting...

Words of wisdom from Admiral Marlow

The idea was to feed overwet groundbait for 15 minutes or so without fishing. This should attract the fish to come up the shelf, and those up in the water to investigate. Hookbait was the new prototype expander type pellets from Marukyu (Available in Red & Black very soon!)

Admiral Marlow was soon into fish down the slope.

The fish needed a good 15 minutes to build confidence

Video Clip:   Something new for this month is video footage to demonstrate this margin tactic.

https://vimeo.com/96672426

A succession of carp and skimmers came on this tactic until I had to call it a day.

Fish on!

Get in!

Good Stamp carp over the sloppy sweet success

Chunky Mirrors too dwelled down the edges.

Roy really got me thinking about how I fish down the edge. Does it really need to be the magical 2ft depth? Do I really need to bulk down my rigs? Would the tactic work elsewhere or is it just the Glebe is so good? etc etc. Either way it didnt really matter as I had a great day's fishing and food for thought for the following day's match.

Around 30lb of Skimmers, perch etc to add to my carp weight..

Video Clip: Carp net

https://vimeo.com/96644659

Day 3:
The following day I fished a match amongst the Marukyu sponsored anglers and the field testing team. The day was much more windy and Roy did mention that Corn tends to work only with a chop on the water.

Lake 5 was my home for the day. Similar tactics were assembled. The only difference is that due to the chop on the water I replaced the Worm line down the shelf with hemp and corn. I did not touch this line for 3 hours.

A couple of early feeder fish. A succession of carp and skimmers over the sweet success off the bank and a cracking last 2 hours over my corn lines gave me an enjoyable day. So really everything I wanted to work did! (Makes a change!)

120lb 8oz gave me a new personal best during a match. However that was only good enough for 4th on the lake! But again day by day I have improved and began "tuning" into the venue.

The glorious Glebe truly is a great fishery, but you can have too much of a good thing! For me it was a nice treat to get away from everything and improve my fishing with the help of Roy. For the locals 100+ 200+ and even 300lb weights are the norm. We simply are not blessed with that type of fishery in the North West.

June will not involve much fishing due to the World Cup and holidays. So I will be back in July sometime with an update of my latest goings on.

Tight Lines
Dave

Day 3 at the Glebe and 120lb 8oz for nowhere!

Fine Margins!

Wow what a month April has been!

With my club season starting, Fish 0 Mania qualifier and Docklow Festival it has been none stop, so let's get cracking with where we are at...

April Action:

Peg 155 Covey no6

April kicked off with our Drennan Supercup match against Woolston Legion A.C. from Warrington.

Bratty's Partridge drawbags team consisted of:
Me
Richard Bratt (Captain)
Tom Dobson
Paul Jagger
Stephen Physick
Stephen Hilditch
Scott Rutter
Carl McCormack

Venue: Partridge Lakes Covey no6

 I drew peg 155 and as the picture illustrates, its a bit of a much of a muchness in terms of features. I decided to have 2 deep track lines, 2 lines up the far slope in 3ft of water and a rig to fish tight across. Being a team match and only fishing against one other angler it was important to be cagey yet confident in my approach.

As per my previous blog, it is a small fish venue with the odd 4lb fish milling around. Just over 16lb of small F1 gave me a 9lb margin over my competitor so it was job done. JPZ over Jpelletz/Fishery pellets did the trick. I sensed as a team we had fished well and it was proven by an 8 section 0 victory.

Every one of the team beat their opposing man so a great score for the day. Carl McCormack put in a great performance to win overall with 32lb+.

Small F1 fishing was the way on Covey 6

Next round is early June away against Bay Malton A.C. on their Border Fishery. Fingers crossed I make the team and we can progress.

Old Hough Fishery

Next time out I decided to join "Captain Bratty" on one of his local venues in Cheshire. Old Hough isn't a place I have visited before, but I was instantly impressed. Good parking, well thought out waters and pegs. If the venue had a cafe and a tackle shop it would tick all boxes.

The match was split into two separate matches on the Upper and Lower Benbo waters. I drew Lower Benbo peg 11 which was an end peg just off the point of the central island.

Lower Benbo 11

Quite a breezy day made holding 16 metres of pole across difficult, but it was necessary. On the image there is a gap between the freshly grown rushes, here was where I would present double maggot or 6mm JPZ over EFG170 cupped in loose.

It paid off handsomely with a string of F1 and small carp. I also placed two track lines and a margin line. By rotating I had a lovely days fishing to weigh 39lb 7oz and win the match on my lake. My peg was clearly a good one being an end peg, but even so the next weight was over 10lb behind so I was happy that I weighed the peg up quickly and did the business.

Eight Bells A.C. -Whitmore Fishery - East Canal

Now I have to say I am not a fan of this venue. Lots of big barbel and carp are the mainstay but our club matches never seem to produce, I think we possibly fish the water too early on in the year. A measly 16lb sat on the feeder all day gave me 5th spot. Absolutely not my kind of fishing, especially with a million bait bans on the go.

Bradshaw Fisheries

I booked on the Easter Friday match to have a crack at Lake 3 as my Eight Bells club had it booked for Easter Sunday. As It happened I drew lake 6 and enjoyed a decent day weighing 28lb of Skimmers and Roach with a bonus Carp and a few F1, this wasn't enough to get me in the frame.

A couple of the lads fished the day and did ok too. Chris (The Wealdstone Raider) Pickering had 20lb+ and Nick Haymes framed with 40lb+ for 2nd place.

Come the Easter Sunday and Lake 3 was blowing an absolute hoolie! I drew around the back of the lake where the new platform pegs go out into the lake.

Peg 20 Lake 3

I sensed the going was to be hard and approached it that way. .09 through to a 20 Drennan Carp Maggot hook with little balls of EFG170 and a JPZ or krilled maggot over the top gave me a run of tiny F1 carp and silvers. Feeding maggots tight over ensured I had a back up plan.

Feeding the left side of my peg ensured I could attract any fish from my left hand neighbour. I fished it just as I would a canal match and won my section with 20lb 14oz. Second in section was only 7lb so very pleasing and came 4th overall.

Hayfield Lakes - Fish O Mania Qualifier

The less said about this match the better. I drew Big Adam's pool and had around 15 feet between myself and either peg on the river side. 1 small carp around 2lb spared me the blank. Next year its an expensive lottery I wont be getting involved in any more.

The Dave Jack (Jacko) Invitational Spring Festival - Docklow Pools, Herefordshire

Docklow Pools has given me a lot of joy the past 4 years.

Format: 
57 anglers. 4 Lakes: Match pool, Farmer Jack, Stock Pond, Snake lake.
(Snake weights not included)

Having finished 6th overall in this festival last year, as always I wanted to improve. The caveat being I had not visited since December due to work commitments. The venue has had a fresh head of fish introduced and I was nervous I would be out of touch.

The only difference to last year is that the lakes would be split into 2 sections of 7. Same points scoring 1 for first and 7th for last.

Many of the same faces from last year came up from London and I had a really good group where I knew even if the fishing wasn't what I wanted then the laughs and banter would be.

Before the festival Proper I fished the weekend opens. The snake I struggled for 9lb of very small fish, but the following day I managed 48lb+ of F1 and Carp on the Farmer Jack peg 43 for 2nd place. So a mixed start before the business end kicked off.

48lb for 2nd off peg 43 the day before the festival starts

Day 1: 
Farmer Jack Peg 15

peg 15 the polar opposite to the previous day

Day 1 draw did not fill me with optimism. It can be good or it can be rubbish. Pegs 6 and opposite 11 hold much more consistent form so I set myself a target of 3 points.

Top 2 +2 fishing Casters for anything should give me a bit of a head start. Long at 11 metres with hemp and meat to the right and pellet to the left would give other options. But it was the margins I needed to work come the last couple of hours.

Casters accounted for a mixed bag of Skimmers, Roach, baby Barbel and other silvers for around 15lb. A couple of stocky carp long also helped boost the weight. But it was the margins offering chunky F1 and Tench that did the trick for a surprising section win!

Weight: 52lb 10z 1 point 

Day 2:
Stock Pong peg 6

Bizarrely this is the 3rd festival in a row which I have drawn peg 6! The difference this time is that the section was split slightly different. My peg would be against the left hand pegs 7,8,12,15,16. I wasn't sure if this was a good thing as peg 16 won the section the previous day.

Peg 6 Again!

55lb had come off my peg the previous day and weights had not been the usual 100lb+ from previous experience so I decided on my usual Maggot and top kit approach, but have the plan B of a pellet line in open water. There had been a couple of lumps shown the previous day too so I also put in a Corn line at 9 metres.

As always my short approach did dry up and I was left chasing my tail a little bit trying to find extra fish. 64 F1 and a few silvers gave me 66lb11oz was only enough for 2nd in section.

Paul Jennings across the way on peg 15 caught consistently all-day where as I had that quiet spell in the middle of the match. I think the problem with this peg is that you don't really have a margin as such. Either side is full of tree roots and the margins can be really productive off some other pegs. Still 2 points wasn't bad.

Weight: 66lb 11oz 2 points

Day 3:
Match Pool peg 18

The "Roots" peg 18 :(

Peg 2-10 had been doing the damage throughout the week and I was disappointed to draw the opposite bank, because this was my last chance to get a decent weight on the board. However the positive meant I was in a more fairer section, although peg 30 had won the past two days.

peg 18 has an old tree's roots in the water to the right hand side and the fish know exactly where they are going! I decided on a waggler approach as there was a number of fish cruising around and the day was quite humid. I would also set up my margin pole to attack the roots. 

Meat up in the water accounted for 4 decent carp and a few decent chub although I did lose an absolute Donkey which tore right through the roots when I got it to the rod tip. Pole against the roots I did manage a number of chunky F1 and a couple of 5lb carp. Top 2+2 also accounted for a few F1. 

Trying to extract these from the roots was a huge challenge.

Terry Wade on the peg 20 had very little until he decided to empty the margins the last 2 hours. His last gasp  double figure carp hooked before the whistle put him on 85lb. My 74lb 1oz I thought was OK for the peg,  but the kick in the teeth came when Micky Robinson on peg 30 weighed 74lb 3oz to put me down to 3rd in section. I was gutted and sensed it might well cost me in the overall standings. It is incredible that when we are talking weights of 70lb+ that them vital ounces can make all the difference. 

Weight: 74lb 1oz  3 Points 

Total cumulative weight: 193lb 3oz

Day 4:
Snake peg 12 (Carp side)

Peg 12 Carp Snake

The weights from the Snake matches do not count, because the snake lake itself is split into two. One side has F1 Carp as well as the Silvers, this would be one section. The other section was Silvers only. Obviously the two don't really compare so they take away the weight advantage.

Although the silver side last year was my nemesis, I felt confident of doing reasonably well on any peg and I had fished peg 12 a couple of times in the past.

When the fish are not playing the Robin's always doo!

I started very negatively with .09 to a 20 hook and maggot with a taster of chopped worm and decided to feel my way in. Both snakes go down hill traditionally after pressure and with it being the last day I didn't expect much action. I set a target of 20lb for good points.

However I hooked 5 F1 and lost 3 in the first 30 minutes. I decided on fishing .12 to an 18 hook and using a 10H. After that I didn't lose another fish. A smattering of Skimmers and Roach made an appearance, but it was under the tree to my left using 6mm meat and JPZ that did the damage. I never expected the water to fish as well and rarely had to go tight across as the track and margin kept me busy all-day for a final section win and the highest weight off the lake all week.

Weight: 43lb 6oz Points 1
Total of 7 points

So I managed to beat last years total points and as the sections were actually bigger this was probably more of an achievement. Apart from maybe the snake, I don't think I had any particularly good draws so overall I have to be pleased.

My weight and points put me in 5th overall from 57 anglers. If I had the extra 3oz on the match pool that would have put me in second place. Such a fine margin yet a big difference.

But that is fishing and why we all love it. 4 waters, 4 different styles of fishing and I am really happy I improved with my highest finish yet.

Top 30 of the festival

A huge well done to Pat Pike for winning the festival. He has always been there or thereabouts whilst I have fished the festival and he fished a blinder with 3 section wins and a 2nd.


1st : Pat Pike (Dagenham) 5 points 235lb 4oz
2nd : Tony Williams (Birmingham) 7 points 232lb 7oz
3rd : Bobby Munroe (Dagenham) 7 points 232lb 6oz
4th: Keith Harris (Swindon) 7 points 210lb 5oz
5th : David Eastwood (Manchester) 7 points 193lb 3oz


So it is into May and lots more activity coming up!

Tight Lines

Dave

Rod and Reel time

It seems an age since I threaded a line through some rod rings and cast something out! So this month I was determined to get out there and catch something on rod and reel. 

It so happens that all the matches I have been fishing recently have been on snake type venues with F1's being the main quarry. Pole presentation is unbeatable when faced with those conditions so Its been difficult.

First let me reflect on my matches since last month:

Partridge lakes - Covey No6
As I mentioned last month, my mate Rich Bratt has put together a squad for the Drennan Supercup and he kindly added me to his squad of 15. The problem being there are only 8 places in the team! So in the interest of fairness, Rich decided to run a points based qualifier to get into the team (Even he as the captain was not guaranteed a place)

The draw by organisers Angling Times was made and "Bratty's Partridge Drawbags" have a home tie Vs "Woolston Legion A.C." The home draw puts us on Covey No6 and the practice matches began in earnest.

I have been enjoying my time at Partridge Lakes near Warrington

Qualifier one: I drew peg 168 which is just over the bridge. It made no odds to me as I have never fished the water. The far slope seemed to go on forever so I decided on a couple of pellet lines in a comfortable 3ft of water and although still chilly have a line tight across in 15 inches. I also had a maggot line at the base of the near shelf in near 7ft of water. Pegs 170 and 173 caught consistently from the off, and I could never really keep up. What I did get though was a better stamp of fish using my JPZ hookbait over Mircos and Jpelletz. Just short of 18lb gave me a double default section win as 173 won with over 40lb and 170 second with over 30lb. Overall I finished around 5th in the match.

Qualifier two: I draw exactly the same peg 168. This time it was with a twist. Woolston A.C. took Rich up on his offer of a practice match, so the lake was full. I felt I could do better having learned from a few mistakes the previous week...how wrong I could be! 6 fish and 3lb 14oz later!! The lake fished awful with 8lb to my left and 2 small Chub to my right. Peg 173 again did the damage Rich Bratt with 27lb. A dent in my quest for a team spot.

Qualifier three: Peg 146 this time on the opposite bank. Wind, Rain, Hail and Sun made for a disastrous day. Only 16lb was needed to win the match overall. My 4lb 5oz was another grueller!! But due to my weight advantage from the first round I managed to sneak into the team. This lake is not easy and I just hope it trips up the Woolston A.C. mob too. Roll on round 1.

Partridge Lakes - Ribbon Lake
A break from Covey No6 took me and Bratty's drawbags back to the complexes Ribbon lake. I drew Peg 10 which was on the corner of an island. The wind was again howling and this time it was coming across my face into an inviting corner to my right. It meant presentation was going to be hard over to the island and I might have to plunder my right hand margin.

Ribbon Lake peg 10

A chunky F1 and its smaller brother came to dobbed bread across along the reed line, whilst I waited for my pellet lines to settle. 

One line was placed to the right of the island in 3ft of water up the shelf. And one at 8 metres in open water to the right slightly in 5ft. I caught sporadic fish between the two lines for the first half of the match.

I also placed some dead maggots and a little Marukyu EFG 170 Nori in 3ft of water to my right hand margin next to some rushes. Here I managed a couple of F1 and some useful chunky IDE. 

But it was mid-way through when I felt the temperature had rose and the match had settled that I chose to attack the far bank. If you look at the picture closely you can see the island is heavily undercut. There was a flat spot of around 18 inches as the bank cuts under. From my lessons at Docklow Pools I know how tight you have to get into these crevices to extract fish. A sprinkle of Micro pellets with a grain of corn saw me go latch into 2 Mirror carp around the 3lb mark in two chucks. I was conscious not to abuse this line too much, but at the same time needed to catch what was there whilst the wind allowed me to present. 

Pete Rice TBF floats are perfect for sticking up rat holes. Ben Scott Wire for open water.

In the end I had to use 3ft of line above the float due to the movement of my pole and keep swapping lines concious not to spook everything in the area. Chopping between Corn and a JPZ hookbait did the trick and 35lb 9oz gave me a comfortable win.

Tunnel Barn Farm Winter League: Jenny's Pool
The final round of the mini winter league with the Forget me not club based in Birmingham with me leading by 1 point. Colin Kettlewell was my closest rival, with such a slender points advantage and only a 1lb weight advantage I just needed to beat him.

Peg 24 was the area for the day on the point of an island. Unfortunately peg 21 was in too so we were both sharing the point. As it happened the wind was so strong I would not be able to present my pole over there until the wind died down.

Peg 24 looked very inviting. But the wind was playing havoc

A maggot and a pellet line down the track in around 6-7ft of water and a margin swim were my plan. I kicked off down the track on Maggot and a welcome Tench made an appearance, but bites were finicky. I was using 0.75grm Maver Finesse float to give some sort of decent presentation in the wind. Next door Steve Gardner (Not the one who fishes for England!) was catching F1 steady and seemed to have it sussed (Turns out he drew the peg he was fishing the previous week)

To cut a long story short I blew out! I chopped and changed to try and put fish in the net, but never really made anything work. Steve was catching regularly and it made me think that Colin Kettlewell would be also. If the truth be told I probably put too much pressure on myself and didn't fish my own match. I should have stuck to what I knew would work and got my noggin down.

I also fished far too negative thinking it was another Covey No6 match. I fished Micros, Steve next to me fished 4mm...say no more. He knew the fish were feeding, where as I was too busy feeling my way into the match.

I was down the track, down the edges, up in the water, I even hastily set up a little Banjo feeder to chuck across (I had quite a few on it to be fair) but never really got my head down and cracked on.

Steve won the match with 73lb. My 54lb 8oz put me in 5th overall and with Colin Kettlewell weighing 65lb for 3rd it meant he had pipped me to the winner of the winter league. Well done Col good skills.

54lb 8oz should have been more with a little more aggression and confidence

Rod and Reel time: Bradshaw Fisheries Lake no4

The weather has been up and down quite a lot lately and I really wanted to try and catch a few fish on the pellet waggler to get some practice in for the summer. With a few hours spare I nipped off to Bradshaw's near Bolton. No4 lodge is normally always good for a few fish, its just a case of getting them to feed and finding their depth.

Peg 6 Lake No4 

The noted pegs on the wall side were not available so I chose Peg 6 which should hopefully have a few fish mooching in the area. Unfortunately the air temperature had dropped to 9 degrees and the North Western wind blowing into my face didn't fill me with pellet waggler confidence. With this in mind I also set up a straight lead.

Baitwise it was straight forward. A mixture of 8mm pellets. Robin Red's, Standard feed pellets and one or two Halibut pellets. The thinking here is the different speeds at which they sink and differing breakdown speeds. I was looking to fish a comfortable chuck around 25 metres in no particularly tight area. Just 2 or 3 every 5 minutes or so until indications begin. If the fish are not coming up for anything then a straight lead with a 10mm JPZ will hopefully snare a few fish. I also had a couple of different 10mm Boilies

Waggler set up on the Left : Straight Lead on the right

This lake is full of snags and the fish do pull back so I had to find a balance of attracting bites and getting them out.  So for both lead and waggler I chose powerful 12ft rods combined with Daiwa TDX reels.

On the waggler I went with a 6.6lb mainline with a 6lb bottom and size 18Guru MWG hook. The waggler itself was a Middy 8grm "Popper" a lovely little float that makes just the right splash and casts with ease. The waggler is held on with 2 gripper stops....simplicity in itself.

The lead was 3/4oz attached with a Guru sliding clip. Mainline is a little different as it is red in colour and has similar properties to braid, it is called Stone River and at 0.20 breaks at over 10lb. Hooklength of 2ft was 6lb to a 18 Korum CS hook and band.

The reason for the relatively small but strong hooks are due to the fishes mouths. Lots of them are damaged a legacy of a tactic in the 90s called "the rattler". Some well known North West match anglers used crude pike bungs and bubble floats for the then tiny 4oz mirrors to hook themselves. Shameful.

I kicked off the waggler 3ft deep and went upto around 7ft (The lake is about 8ft deep) trying different feeding patterns etc, but could not get any indications. I half expected to foul hook something or at least get a couple of roach attacking the pellet, but after 90 mins or so I decided on seeing what was on the deck.

Manchester Specials Tangee Spice

My good mate Paul Adrian owner of Carp Fever Tackle here in Manchester, put together a range of additives that come under the Nash name. He is very proud of his dips and Boilies and the new Manchester Specials v2 are something I have wanted to try for a while. A sweet spicy aroma hits the nostrils and fills me with confidence. Along with Marukyu Sanagi the Tangee Spice will be in my bag this summer.

My Tangee Spiced up pellet whacked around instantly for a nice small Tench around 2lb, I also had a couple of liners and indications. Fish had definitely found my pellets and were having a sniff about my area.

A spring Tench on a Tangee infused pellet

I didn't quite feel the straight lead was the way to go, so after ditching the pellet waggler I now ditched the straight lead. I felt a small method feeder with a little groundbait would get the fish more confident and get their heads down. So off came to lead and on went a 25g Drennan method with a short 4inch hooklength. I knocked up a bag of Marukyu Luxus Method mix and popped on a 10mm JPZ

First cast and my decision was vindicated. A Skimmer around the 1lb mark took a liking to my JPZ and Luxus combo. The previous lead line bites were probably Skimmers and the longer hooklength of the lead wouldn't give the bolt effect of the method. I was hoping the silver action may attract carp. 

2 more Skimmers followed and then a change to a spicy 10mm Boilie caught this plump F1. When mixing the Luxus Mix I added a good glug of the Tangee Spice dip so it made sense to marry up with a spicy hookbait. But still where were the proper carp??

Wallop! at last. A carp around 6lb on a 10mm JPZ. This one was so slippery I nearly dropped it back in the lake 5 times before eventually getting a shot! Another carp soon had me snagged in the underwater roots. Another Skimmer of around 2lb, then an F1 and a final carp of 5lb completed the short day. At last some rod bending action!

I was glad of my decision making. The pellet waggler and lead didn't feel right, yet the method did. The groundbait and attractions definitely turned inquisitive fish into feeding fish.

Summary

It has been a funny old month really. With some success and some missed opportunities. April brings the start of the Club season for my Eight Bells A.C. Hopefully I can go one better this year and improve on the many 2nd places from 2013. The month also brings Fish 0 qualifiers and the Drennan Supercup. 

Hopefully the weather will settle and weights will increase. We now need to start thinking about preparing for the Summer months! 

Enjoy your fishing Dave