Plantation Open. Wednesday 30th January 2013

When Tony mentioned this match and it was a pole only, it seemed a good idea, not when the morning of the match came and a gusting wind made the low number pegs tricky to fish.  Of course, I drew slap bang in the middle of the three windiest pegs (1, 3 and 4), with my old mate Ray Bazeley on 4 for company. The longest I felt that could be fished comforatable and to any effect was 11m, Ray opted for about 7m max, but that put his float about level with mine, as peg 3 is set further back.

I wasn't over chuffed with the draw, as I felt that it wasn't likely to hold many carp, but it can produce silvers, so that was the target, shame about the wind as I would have felt more confident at 14 or 16m.

I haven't caught anything from a margin for ages now, so didn't bother with a rig for that, 2 maggot/caster rigs and a soft pellet rig were all I set up. A 4x16 Jolly on 0.14 with a 20 on 0.10 for fishing short, a Nick Gilbert float, whose name elludes me, but its like a Carpa Chimp but stronger on 0.14 with a 18 on 0.12 and for a bit of stability in the wind, the most stable pole float I have ever used, a MW diamond (0.6g) on 0.16 to a 16 on 0.12.

It was going to be important to catch skimmers, I felt, to make a weight that would result in a pick up, so I fed three lines at the start, 11m straight in front with groundbait/caster/dead pinkie, 11m at 2 o'clock with micros and a couple of grains of corn. Finally a short line (3m) loose fed with caster, first drop in over the groundbait with a maggot saw the float bury and a skimmer the best part of a pound grace the net, good start.  It didn't continue though and the bites were from small roach, I am convinced that the wind was so affecting the presentation that the bigger roach were shying away from the hookbait.

Caster didn't improve the size of the fish, a quick look at the close and pellet lines brought nothing to the net, so back over the groundbait and when the wind didn't gust for 20 seconds or so (which wasn't very often) the improved presentation resulted in a better roach. I laid some extra line on the bottom, but still couldn't tempt another skimmer.

The next look on the short line brought a short flurry of better roach and 2 perch, before that died off and for the rest of the day it was a case of take 1 or 2 fish from it then 20 mins rest. The next look over the micro feed with a 4mm expander produced another pound skimmer, then a very small roach and that was it for bites on pellet, corn couldn't muster so much as a twitch of the bristle.

It was very frustrating, as there was obviously a good number of roach in the peg, they wouldn't feed consistently closer than 11m, but the wind was making the 11m line very difficult, a waggler would, I'm sure, have settled long enough to improve the catch rate, shame I couldn't use one!!

I persevered and managed one more decent skimmer on double caster, by now I'd swapped to using the MW diamond, as whilst its not really a sensitive roach float, it was giving better presentation, resulting in slightly bigger fish.

Andy France on peg 1 managed to fish 13 down the edge and get enough carp to take 2nd place and bizarrely given the weather lately, the match was won from 28 on paste!!! My silvers went 14.02 for no where and I didn't even hook a carp, so my hunch that there wouldn't be any there seemed right.



1) John Thompson 66.04 peg 28
2) Andy France  59.01 peg 1
3) Matt Tomes 58.7 peg 27
4) Aaron Britnell 53.10 peg 32
5) Anton Page 44.10 peg 38
6) Andy Curry on peg 18 35.7

Silvers

 Tony Rixon 26.12peg 19

Landsend League, Sunday 27th January 2013

Its been a bit of a shock this week, coming back from a couple of weeks in Goa, where the temperature was 39°C, to land last Sunday evening at Gatwick and see the snow and the temp of -4°C a difference of 43°C.  I had fully intended to do a few trips and get some fishing in whilst in India, but I contracted some sort of fever and that well and truly spoiled the holiday.

So with no fishing since December as work and holiday kept me from it, I managed to find a guest spot in the league today and as Landsend usually throws up a few bites in the winter, I was hopeful of having a reasonable day. A free draw this round and I manage to pick 26 on Specimen Lake, with Adrian Jeffery for company on 25 and 27 empty.  I never mind drawing next to Adrian as there is usually some decent conversation and I owe him an apology for wrecking his inside line -  about 1 ½ hours into the match I was shipping back a very small roach when my top 4 came off. Adrian helped me rescue it, but at the cost of us both negotiating it through his near swim, where he had caught a carp, so thanks for saving me £200+ Ade and sorry for buggering your nearline.

I set up three rigs, a 4x16 Jolly on 0.14 with a 0.12 hooklength and a 18 hook. A Sensas Auchy with the stotz spread out, on 0.12 with a 0.10 hook and just in case, (you have to have hope......) a Carpa Chimp on 0.16, with a 0.14 hooklength and 16 hook.

It took me an hour to get a bite and then I had a 3 roach before the top 4 disaster, I didn't have another bite until  2pm, when  5.06 carp took the single maggot offering, a chub followed not much later, then a small perch and roach in consecutive put ins. The storm then hit, howling wind and monsoon like torrential rain, after that the float remained, as it had for much of the day, motionless.

Adrian had 2 carp and a hybrid, I managed 1 carp and 6 silvers and 2 missed bites, thats a long 6 hours for 9 bites and a weight of 8.06. There just didn't seem to be any fish up in our corner of the lake, I had no liners and saw only 2 fish move from arriving at the peg until walking away from it.  Frustrating when you see the weights from the Match Lake and the opposite corner of the Specimen Lake, still thats winter fishing for you.

1.Mark Brennan 71-02-0 peg 13

2.Tony Rixon 64-05-0 peg 11

3.Mike Duckett 60-0-0 peg 32

4.Bela Bakos 59-01-0 peg 22

5.Clint Wojtyle 56-14-0 peg 33

6.Mark Poppleton 48-05-0 peg 19

 

 

1.Bob Gullick 23-0-0 peg 17

2.Tom Thick 22-09-0 peg 15