Charity Pairs, Larford, Friday 3rd April 2015

Larford for Good Friday, the annual Charity Pairs match, my first time fishing this and with getting on for 80 fishing, I was looking forward to it.  A good drive up, after picking up Mike Walker, so all seemed to be on track for a good day.

The format was that the pairs were drawn, first one out of the bag going on Speci lake, second out on Match Lake.  I would have preferred Speci lake, but had to be content with match lake, the draw wasn’t kind and all the locals advised me that I was in a poor area and a poor peg, 64.

I had come to try and win, I wasn’t going to mess about scratching round for small fish, so set up a straight lead to fish 8mm pellet, a method to chuck towards the aerator - surely that would yield a few fish – a rig to fish 6mm banded pellet at 14m, another for meat at 5m and an edge rig.

Starting on the method, the tip remained stationary, even though I was clipped up and virtually touching the aerator as the method went into the water, I’m not renowned for my patience on the feeder/bomb, so it wasn’t too long before that went up the bank.

I had been pinging a few 4 and 6mm’s on the 14m line and first put in a near 3lb carp graced the net, then two skimmers about 8-10oz, cracked it…… but unfortunately the fish thought other wise and the match turned into a real slog to keep bites coming, I had one fish from the margin, a hybrid about 1lb, nothing on the meat or bomb, all my fish (which weren’t many) falling to 6mm banded pellet at 14m.  I tried reducing the feed, upping it and double pouching, I tried cupping in some micros on the 14m line and it seemed best to just keep a few going in with the catapult, lifting and dropping and wait for a bite, a sign I think, that there just weren’t too many fish wanting to feed.

 A few small carp and F1’s and skimmers gave me 17lb, which was more than double the weight off the next peg (62) but unable to beat those further down the section, or end peg 65 who had a big rush bed and tree feature to fish to.  I had been advised that meat wasn’t working, but gambled on it, as it will surely switch on up there soon, I don’t think meat on the 5m line was the reason I struggled, genuinely think it was the draw.

Pleased to hear that Matt raised £1000 for the charity, but the fishing was grim for many, Mike had two fish, he was on Speci and that fished really hard.  Shame the fish weren’t as charitable as the anglers, that’s several matches on Larford that I have struggled to catch (each time I wasn’t alone in that) and with it being 81 miles away I can’t see me rushing back, as it’s 33 miles to Viaduct and even less to Landsend.   It’s easy to moan, but I think we should be thankful for the quality of the fishing in our area, we’re just missing a really consistent winter venue, but the rest of the year we’re spoilt for choice.  

Major projects going on at work for a couple of weeks, so not much chance to get out, looks like Landsend on Sat 11^th and the first of Tony Rixons’ short pole series at Trinity on Sunday 19^th, looking forward to that, as its one of my favourite venues.

MFS Larford Lash Friday and Saturday 4th and 5th October 2014

A few months back I booked in for this two day event at Larford, it was full up with 80 at one point, but drop outs reduced it to circa 60 anglers.  It was a good opportunity to meet some of the people I have conversed with on MFS as many were booked in the hotel, so I decided to stay two nights, the night before to get a good night’s kip and avoid the early drive and the Friday night.

I had Thursday off to do a bit of prep in readiness for the match and I intended to drive up in the early afternoon, calling in at Larford for a look round.  I changed my mind, thinking that if I had tea at home, then set off about 18.30, it would ensure I didn’t get involved in an early session in the bar.

A good drive up saw me in my room by just after 20.00 and not one to sit alone in a hotel room, I ventured down to the bar, first people I saw were Andy and Sarah Kinder and from there on met up with a few familiar faces and put a few names to ‘forum nom de plumes’. 

The convivial chat and banter that ensued, meant my early night good intentions were soon forgotten.   It was approaching 02.00 when a slightly haggard looking ‘lady’ with a few miles on the clock, flounced into the middle of the group and asked where she could book a room, she had in tow, a slightly sheepish looking younger  man. Once they had booked the room, they sat near us, with a drink and the lady announced her name was Marion, more commonly known as Mad Maz and it was easy to see why, she seemed more intent on chatting to us, than her beau of a couple of hours.  She gave us a potted history of her life, she was from Germany and had been divorced twice and wasn’t getting married again.  I believe she was last seen trying to get into Glen Butler’s room, she seemed to take a shine to him, but she looked like a certain crab donor at best, or the cause of some visits to the ‘special clinic’ or even worse……

So, not much sleep before the alarm clock went off and I’m not a morning person at best, but a fry up, coffee and orange juice later, I felt fine and arrived at Larford about 40 minutes before the draw.  Even though it was a two day event, it was just two separate matches, fishing Specimen and Match lakes, then swapping the next day, 30 on each lake.  I wasn’t too disappointed to draw peg 80 on Speci, as it was an end peg and even better, now you can drive round and park at that end of Speci lake.

I had planned all along to keep it simple, as there were some good anglers fishing and setting up loads of gear and having a plethora of baits on the side tray was never going to be the right way to approach it.  I set up one method rod, with a 30g elasticated feeder on, a straight lead to fish pellet and two top kits, one to fish meat at about 6m, a MW cane diamond, where I found a very slightly sloping shelf to my right, giving me about 6’, whereas in front it was nearer 10’ at 6m and still sloping off.   Last rig was an AK47 to fish down to the pallet of 81, where a foot or so from the bank I had a perfect depth of just under 2’.

The side tray had 8mm pellets and 6mm meat on, along with some hemp. For down the edge, a couple of pints of dead maggots, corn and worms, all to go in with a coarse groundbait.  On the all in I started on the method, pinging 8mm pellets over the top , this produced two fish in the first hour,  one about 10lb and a 6lber.  A switch to the bomb and an 11mm pellet on the hook saw another fish netted, but there were no liners, no real indication that there were many feeding fish in the swim.

I had also carried a made up pellet waggler to the peg and as there was the odd fish topping and rolling in various places round the lake, so I tried it for 20 minutes over where I had been pinging the pellets, but to no avail and the wind was making it tricky.  So time for a look on the meat line, this produced a small skimmer and then a carp. The little and often feeding I had been doing was not producing much, so I switched to feeding two lots of about 30 cubes and this brought some fish in, another small skimmer, then two bream, before another carp graced the net.  I also lost a couple of foul hookers, before the line went quiet.

I didn’t feed the margin until 2 hours to go and the fish didn’t turn up until the last 40 minutes down the edge, where I had 4, one which was 15lb and lost 2.  I wished I had another hour when the all-out was called, I thought I had over 70lb.

I was presented with the scales by Matt Blackmore part way through the match, so had to weigh in the Chalet bank. By the time we had got back to my peg, there was one weight,  76.03, Steve Ayres of Frenzee on peg 62 that was pushing what I thought I had, so I was pleased to hear 84.09 called by Jeff B.  That was enough to win the lake and pick up £145, so a good day.  There were several ton weights from the match lake, so I was looking forward to drawing it on Saturday.

Friday evening the hotel had an all you can eat Indian buffet advertised, myself and Calum (Craig) were disappointed to be turned away, because we hadn’t booked.  The evening took a similar pattern to that of Thursday, without, thankfully,  the visit from Mad Maz. I ended up sat on a table with Calum and the Frenzee clan, Glyn Reynolds, Steve Ayres, Andy Oldham and Rob Austin, it rapidly turned into a session, aided and abetted by Calum buying Jaegerbombs, which then seemed to appear with alarming regularity on the table, as we all wanted to buy our share but it was a good night, some interesting conversations.

Saturday morning I could have stayed in bed, but I didn’t look, or feel as rough as my drinking companions of the night before, especially Calum.  A rushed breakfast and booking out the hotel saw me a Larford in time for the draw, which was a bit delayed, as the match lake had been partially double booked for a club, meaning some anglers volunteered to go back on Speci for a second day.  I missed this, so retained a place on Match lake, but by the end, was not so convinced it was a good thing.

I drew peg 28, not an area that had produced the ton weights of the day before, but there was £50 and £40 section money to fish for, so trying to keep it simple again, I set up a method and straight lead and 4 topkits, 3 with Hillbilly Chumps on to fish banded pellet at 6m, another to fish banded pellet at 13m and one with a spade end hook for soft pellet etc.  Finally a margin rig, but the clarity of the water had me setting it up more in hope than expectation.  No meat on the tray today, just 6 and 8mm pellet, some corn, worms and the dead maggots for down the edge.

Starting on the 6m line, hoping for a few F1’s I lost a fouler first drop in, third drop in I had another bite and after a spirited scrap on the 0.14 line, a 8lber was in the net, what a great start.  Sadly this was a false dawn, that fish was netted at 11.42, 12 minutes after the all-in, the next bite I had was at 16.00, I had tried the method, with a range of hook baits, the straight lead and both lines with a variety of baits.  Between 14.30 and 15.00 the two anglers to my right packed up and went home, it was that bad, except for peg 39 opposite, who could reach the island with 14m of pole and was catching reasonably steadily.  At 16.00 I started to get the odd bite on the 6m line and managed two more carp and some skimmers  on double dead red maggot, before trying the margin to my RH side which had been vacated by the angler on pegs 29 and 31.

 There were fish in the margin, but the clear water was making the spook away from the pole and if they brushed the line, there would be a big bow wave as they headed back into the deeper water.  I did manage a couple of F1’s and a carp from the margin.  Peg 39 had weighed 108lb which won the Match lake, my fish went a shade over 22lb and that was enough to take second in section by default,  with a 33lb next to the lake winner, so another £40 to add to the weekends pot, which in all fairness, just about covered the bait, bar and restaurant bills. Andy Kinder won Speci from peg 12 and I haven’t got any other results to add.

So, in conclusion, a good weekend, I was glad I persisted with my peg on Match lake, as I knew there should be some section money to go for, it was good to put some faces to forum characters and whilst I didn’t remain the model of sobriety and early nights I intended, it didn’t have an impact on my fishing.  I’m already putting coins in my coin jar to fund next years Lash.

No fishing for me Sunday, as I was judging at a dog show, so next trip out will be a first visit o Todber Manor next Sunday.

Maver Pairs, Larford Lakes, Saturday 23 August 2014

I had paired up with Mike Walker to fish this match and given that Mike has fished the Match lake a few times, he was going to be on there and myself on Speci lake.  We had a decent drive up and had decided that my drawing arm should be kept well away from the draw buckets today, so Mike did the honours, giving me peg 9 on Speci and himself peg 13 (or was it 11, bit of a senior moment here…) on Match.

The latest results and information we had was from the UK Champs which had been on Wednesday, Mike was definitely at the ‘right’ end of his section and my draw wasn’t too bad, that’s if the fish hadn’t used their fins……

Plenty of time to get ready, but I wasn’t tempted to set up more than I planned, we had discussed a basic plan and decided not to deviate from this, as in a 5 hour match against some venue experts and top anglers, we felt our best chance was not having too many options.  This for me was a method feeder, a straight lead, pellet waggler and a rig for 5-7m (wherever the  shelf/bottom, plumbed up with a not too steep slope).  The plan was to start on the method feeder, whilst feeding a bomb/waggler line frequently with 8mm pellets, the method was fished a little way past this to show any liners, indicating the fish were over the bomb line.

First chuck in I had a drop back on the method, I missed the freespool lever and the baitrunner span like a whirling dervish, creating a huge birds nest of the line, which was never going to be untangled. So I had to handline it back in, new spool on and reset up, I may have well as not bothered, there were no further bites forthcoming.  

To cut a long and boring story short, I managed one carp, on the pellet waggler, the only bite I had.  After about 3 ½ hours I deviated from the plan and tried worm on the pole, hoping to catch anything, just to put another fish in the net. This was pointless, as I had no indication of any kind on the pole.  I wasn’t alone in struggling there were a fair few who managed less than my one carp, the weights were low, with only a handful of the 50 odd of anglers on the lake managing to put 5 or 6 fish together.

Meanwhile, whilst I was letting the side down, Mike fished a tidy match and kept alternating between method and bomb, various baits and put together a section winning 59lb.  It was very disappointing to do so poorly, bu I really have no idea what I could have done differently, apart from stick to one method the whole match, the lake fished so badly, I have was a loss to know what I could have done to get more than the one bite.

I didn’t get the results, but they should be on the Larford website in the next couple of days.

Maver Match This Qualifier, Larford Lakes, Saturday 3rd May 2014

I spent Friday fishing the match lake at Larford with Andy Kinder, a coaching session, I had heard good feedback from others who have had coaching sessions with him, so I took the opportunity to see what I could do to improve.  As I suspected, it's mainly down to feeding, which must be the the single most important aspect of match fishing, so hopefully some new ideas to try out in the forthcoming matches.  A great days fishing, mostly F1's, smallest fish over 1lb, biggest probably 4 1/2lb, with a few carp in amongst them, biggest 10lb, I will certainly go back and fish some matches on that lake, I just wish we had some F1 venues in Somerset.

Todays match was a total sellout, with match lake, specimen lake and arena lake all pegged.  Arena was going to be the unknown quantity, as it hasn't be fished much since the lakes at Larford were 'flooded' and at levels 6' or more above normal.  After yesterdays session, I quite fancied a bash at the F1's and carp of match lake, so of course, out comes peg 50 on the chalet bank of speci lake.  I could tell by the look on the locals faces, that my drawbag inability had followed me to the midlands and they did conform my fears that this was a draw that wasn't even in with a slim chance of qualifying.

Plenty of time to tackle up so I set up a method, a straight lead, a pellet waggler and a pole rig to fish meat short, this was by general consensus of the locals, the way to fish this peg.

To cut a long boring 5 hours short, I had one missed bite on the pellet waggler, nothing on the bomb or pole and 3 bites on the method, a 12ber and a 6lber landed, one nearer 20lb shed the hook - it came in like a small fish, so I was shocked to see a huge common, I estimate at 20lb surface, before it rolled and dived, shedding the hook as it did.

The guy to my right blanked, there were plenty of others along our bank who struggled, so it was a pretty miserable day, an easy way to kiss goodbye to the £50 entry and £20 pools.

James Wilson won fron peg 24 on Arena with 205lb, well done to him, I didn't get any other results, I guess they'll be on the MMT website before too long.