Friday, May 2, 2014

Highs and Lows!!!!

2 matches to catch up on in the last week, and both at either end of the success spectrum!! First of all after the Easter long weekend i really wasn't in the mood for work, so took a last minute decision to book a mid wee kday off and have a dabble - the original plan was to fish at Hillview as practise for the last round of the league, but Mrs P wanted to go into work so a change of plan saw me going to Manor Farm Leisure in Evesham for the Weds Open. The match was to be spread over middle and island pools - i haven't been for ages so a bit of homework was needed to at least get me in the right ball park. I got there quite early and stuffed and sandwich in me, had a quick chat with Arthur in the tackle shop and had a quick walk round the pools - there were fish topping everywhere. the forecast for the day wasn't great, but it was overcast and the wind not too bad at all, so i was quiet happy to draw anywhere and have a days fishing. The draw bag put me on Middle 21, far end peg on the near bank of the pool - as far as i knew i thought this was at the wrong end of the pool as the aerator end had been dominating, but being an end peg i had loads of room and there were fish moving in front of me.

The closest angler was 2 pegs to my left so i had all of the bank to my right to myself - this was definitely in my plan - i was also looking at a pellet waggler approach and long pole and pellet to cover all the options


So i set the following kit up (from left to right -
1 - Shallow rig - Sconezone jubleez, on 0.16 mainline, to 0.14 hooklength and a 18 B911 eyed hook with a hair rigged micro pellet band
2 - Margin rig 1 - Sconezone Doubledeez 0.2g, 0.18 mainline to 0.18 hooklength and a 12 Drennan wide gape carp
3 - Margin rig 2 - Modified Sconezone samurai 0.2g, 0.18 mainline to 0.18 hooklength and a 12 Drennan wide gape carp
4 - Long Pole - Sconezone Doubledeez 0.4g, 0.18 mainline to 0.14 hooklength and 18 B991 eyed hook with a hair rigged micro band.
5 - Pellet Waggler - Maver Reactorlite finesse rod, 3012 TD-R with 0.21 maver genesis mainline, 5ssg Maver invincible pellet waggler, 0.18 hooklength with a 14 Drennan Match Carp hook and hair rigged pellet band.
6 - Bomb - Daiwa Tournament Pro 10/11ft quiver @ 10ft, 3012 TD-R with 6lb hyper sensor mainline, 1/2oz bomb and 0.18 hooklength with a 14 Drennan Carp feeder hook and hair rigged pellet band.
Notes
1- I've modified a few of the already brilliant samurai floats by putting a shorter 2mm tip over the original 1.5mm one and fitting an enclosed spring eye - this makes it a bit easier when fishing with heavy margin baits as the tip supports the bait a little better and I've found that putting a spring eye on instead of the normal rubber over the tip makes the float settle a little easier and more constantly.Samurai
2 - Daiwa Hyper Sensor - only been using for a short while so far, but immediately very impressed - the dia for the breaking strain is superb, its very smooth and casts extremely well - its going on all my feeder reels and will be going on my heavy pellet waggler set-up. Available in bulk spools, its extremely cost effective - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
3 - I set-up 2 margin rigs as the wind was swirly and quite blustery so if the short Samurai rig wasn't working i could put the longer doubledeez rig over the same line and maintain stability of the hook bait.
4 - Drennan Wide Gape Carp - I've been using these for a while now as my paste hook, but recently started to use them for big bunches of maggot over groundbait feed in the margins - they really are good as you can load the wide gape with lots of maggots and minimise the risk of a maggot folding over and masking the hook point Drennan Wide Gape Carp

The margin rigs were plumbed at 13m to my right just besides the next pallet on peg 20 - i had a good 2.5ft of water so was more than happy that they would come into and feed confidently there. The long pole line was at 14.5m in font of me. the plan was start on the deck and get them shallow eventually. then the rods were there for a pellet waggler at a comfortable feeding distance for 8mm pellets.
The bait tray was fairly simple -
Margin mix was a bag of Old Ghost Match Carp with half a bog of OG Krill groundbait and half a bag of OG Maggot Meal - this was mixed very wet to ensure it got the bottom quickly and minimised foul hookers. i had a pint of red maggots for hook bait over the margin feed. i also had some 4mm pellets for long pole feed and 8mm pellets for the waggler line - i also boosted the 8mm pellets wit ha glug of OG krill liquid, just to give them an edge. and finally a pot of mixed 6mm pellets that i would be using as hook baits on the long pole line.

The start of the match came very quickly, but i was ready and waiting - now i typically don't ever get off to the greatest of starts, for what ever reason, so i wasn't 100% sure what to kick off on. my long pole and margins were fed on the whistle whilst pinging a few pellets long for the waggler in between each pot, and with fish moving all over the pool the pellet was to be the first attack. it took me 2 chucks to get the feel for the distance and feather the float in with a 'plop' but first proper chuck and it went under and fish on 10 minutes after the whistle - at 4lb and nice start - in the first 30 minutes i hooked 6 fish and landed 4 with the other coming adrift after only a few seconds. for me this was a great start - i got into a rhythm of feed, cast, hold the rod for those vital first few seconds after the float lands, feed 3 more times and reel in to repeat the process.
But then it went very iffy, very quickly - i just couldn't buy another bite on the waggler (i gave the margin line a pot every 20 mins as i was banking on it being my main line). i made the decision that i wouldn't give up on the waggler line and would keep feeding it, so i tried the long pole line - I've only fairly recently got into the hard banded pellet on the pole attack, but I'm enjoying the learning curve of a new method, and finding that accurate plumbing is essential to really gain the benefits of the method. first chuck on the pole and it went under with a lightning bite but i missed it! i kept on with it imparting lots of action into the hook bait to get a response and a good bite saw 4lb mirror in the net with minimum fuss, but then even the pole line went iffy too - there were fish there but i couldn't get a positive bite - more learning required to induce positive bites on the hard pellet rig!!!
An hour had passed now and i had 5 fish in the net, a (hopefully) primed margin and an in progress waggler line - the rest of middle pool had fish coming out all over but i felt i was in a good place - but no idea how island pool was doing. i made the decision to leave the long pole line alone, and make sure i fished the margins and wagg line effectively and not dilute my effort on a third line, but new i could inject some life into it if i was struggling. it was at this point the margin was going to get its first look.
First chuck and the float flew under!! A solid (slightly over zealous) strike saw a big Rudd take a flying lesson and promptly come off!! i had a big toss pot on my pole so another taster of groundbait went in with the next chuck and another rudd took the bait, but this one hung on and found its way into the net! i was doubting the margin was ready if rudd were present but i fancied another 5 minutes on it with regular toss pots of bait going in - next bite and something better was hooked and a tench of around a pound perked my interest and finally 4th chuck saw something properly hooked and carp number 1 was on - at around 6lb was a nice fish and i found myself very interested!! straight back in and i had to wait - there were signs of fish but it wouldn't go under so after 5 minutes i gave it another proper pot of bait - i took the toss pot off my kit and went over the top and it flew under again with another carp - sorted!!! and this set the scene for the match - each margin carp was paid for with a pot of bait over the top. the more maggots i could cram in the hook the better also - i had a pint of live maggots with me as it was a last minute match, but definitely felt deads would have been better.
It did go iffy a few times over the remaining 4 hours, but by maintaining the waggler line was i able to extract another 5-6 fish in the quiet spells to keep me ticking over. i pretty much caught all match and knew i was on for a decent weight and by what i could see done well on the pool.
Come the weigh in 106lb was winning the far bank and i knew I'd do that - 3 weighs later and i posted 167lb on the weigh sheet - my best weight for a long time. peg 21 was admitting to 130lb plus but fortunately (for me) fell just short of my weight with 156lb so id won my pool, just down to island pool!! after packing my stuff away i went ot see fellow Old Ghost angler Chris Cameron who told me (with a smile on his face) he'd pipped me with 169lb!!!! Gutted!! i lost 1 fish that i shouldn't have when it bolted off and i held it instead of giving it a section or two - this turns out cost me winning the match as Chris won and i was second!! the venue fished extremely well with the main list all taking over a ton!! I will be going back over the summer to keep my eye in on the pools!!
From High to Low
The second match in this weeks entry was the final round of the Hillview League - its been a good league with great fishing, but mixed results from myself - after a great match at manor, larford and the preceding round of the league i went into the match on a high!
i really wanted to be on the pools, but the draw put me on canal 3, one i hadn't fished before, but i took lessons learned from previous rounds on the canals and honed my approach (unfortunately no photos for this one)
I'm not going to into a huge amount of detail on the fishing itself as i fished a very poor match, but i need to make sure i learn form my mistakes. my attack was a short pole and pellet line, a long line ot the far bank dobbing for anything, a margin line and meat line to an aerator in my peg.
On the whistle i fed my short, margin and meat lines and went straight over with a piece of meat at 3.4 deep tight to the far band reeds - the wind today was shocking blowing straight across me right to left and very gusty too. i hooked and landed one mirror on the meat, but was getting plagued by tiny blades and gudgeon of all things!!!! they were everywhere - every rig on every line was bobbing up and down with gudgeon attacking the bait!
After 20 minutes battling the wind over i came back to my short pellet line at a top kit plus a short 4 and number 5 section - this wes fed with 4mm pellets with my new favourite banded pellet on the hook - it went under straight away and a procession of small F1's and tench came to the net. at around 8-10oz a piece it was nice fishing but i felt i wasn't going anywhere and looking around me others seemed to be catching better fish - this is where the wheels fell off - i started to hunt around my peg looking for better fish - i went onto my meat line and caught a 2lb fish straight away but couldn't find another - i went down the margin and found a better F1 and carp, but then the gudgeon arrived and couldn't find another better fish - i went back to my short pellet line and small F1's and tench were still there, and they were easy to catch, but my head kept telling my arms to fish the meat and margins for bigger fish that weren't there in any numbers!!!
of course the disruption and inconstant feeding on the short pellet line eventually killed that line too and i was left rotating around 3 very inconsistent lines in my peg - i did have a word with myself and started a new very positive margin line to feed off the gudgeon and make something happen which did produce a couple of better fish and i did spend some real time on my meat line that produced a few fish, but it also lost me 4 proper fish from around the posts that hold the aerator down!!!!!
i was not a happy bunny, from 3 great matches I'd now had a stinker - i weighed in 67lb of fish and the peg was worth well in excess of that - just over a ton won the section and I'm sure that was easily doable but I'd chased fish that weren't there.
On reflection its quite easy to see what i should have done, dont come off feeding fish!!! that line could have done me all day and put a great weight together as they'd have ultimately come shallow. But i guess that's what makes great anglers great, their decision making abilities ensure they are always putting fish in the net, prioritising correctly and recognising when something is changing and doing something about it differentiates them from the rest of us mere mortals. to really make it worse 2 of my other team members had won their section so it could have been a great result for us!!!!
Anyway writing this down and going over it has hopefully meant its stuck in my head somewhere to help me out in the future.
Ive been extremely busy on the prep front this week as its the Maver classic finals this weekend on Sunday and Monday, so come back and see how I've messed that one up!!
Scott

No comments:

Post a Comment