22 December 2013, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

After a fair few years of blanking and generally coming nowhere I’ve somehow managed to win the last two Godalming AS Christmas matches – the first in 2011 using a stick float (yes, you read that correctly) to winkle-out three chub from the famous Sand Bar swim on the river Wey in Salgasson and then again in 2012 following another plumb draw in front of the tackle shop on Richardson’s at Marsh Farm. So after an astonishing 6 weekends without any fishing action would it be an unlikely three in a row?

All the gear …

Today’s match saw a creditable 27 anglers grace the banks of Richardson’s Lake at Marsh Farm – not as many as recent Godalming AS Christmas bashes but nonetheless a good turn-out considering the recent heavy rains and a last minute switch from a flooded river Wey (most members preference, especially given Marsh Farm’s patchy form outside of late spring/summer/early autumn).

Looking left from peg 29

YouTube video of the view from my peg

Like the majority I was expecting a hard match and was looking for a single digit draw – pegs 1 to 9 seem to be the best bet for a bite in winter as any brave souls that do venture to this lake seem to settle on the pegs nearest to the car park/tackle shop and create a virtuous circle between the anglers and the limited numbers of feeding fish.

The one area I really didn’t want to find myself in was the far side of the complex – so as you can imagine I wasn’t too amused when number 29 appeared from the bag of dreams! This peg is in the middle of the bank that is parallel to the adjoining Johnson’s Lake and about as far from the feeding fish as you can get – frankly it needs renaming Cyanide Straight!!!

Today’s cage and pellet feeders

Most of the pegs on this lake look pretty similar and as a result I had a 22-25m chuck to the margin of a central island as the only obvious feature – however since my last visit the foliage on the island had had it’s annual haircut and the branches that normally hang-over the water have been cut down. So whilst I did set-up pellet and cage feeder rods it seemed that my best bet for a bite would be the deeper water on the pole at the usual top kit plus 4 sections.

The view to the right …

Come 10 o’clock I fed a measured small Cad pot of softened micro pellets on my pole line, loaded my pellet feeder with the same bait (but with the addition of a squirt of Perfect Peach Goo) and cast 3 yards short of the far bank. (Tackle here was my usual 20g Preston Innovations small pellet feeder on 8lb Daiwa Sensor main line to a 10cm hooklength of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge and a size 16 QM1 with a 6mm pellet inside a hair-rigged pellet band.) This tactic often produces a decent fish first cast – but those fish are normally tench so it was no real surprise that 20 minutes soon passed with no indications whatsoever!

10 minutes on the pole with both 4mm expanders and single maggot hookbaits were equally fruitless and I was already starting to worry that I was going to end 2013 with a dreaded blank – however I stuck to my task and spent the remainder of the first hour diligently switching between the pellet feeder and pole.

6mm hard pellets and 4mm expanders for hookbaits plus some micros for feed

After a biteless first hour it was time for a change so it was over to the traditional feeder rig (which consisted of a 10g micro Drennan cage feeder with an additional 5g stick-on weight on 6lb main line to an 18 inch Preston Innovations hook-to-nylon consisting of 2.5lb breaking strain line and a size 20 hook).

On the second cast I became rather over-excited when the 1 ounce megatop twitched and revealed a liner (at least I assume it was a liner as the single maggot hookbait wasn’t damaged in any way) but unfortunately nothing concrete materialised over a further 4 or 5 casts – the pole again led nowhere so after nearly two hours it was time for a walk to see how the drawbags on the lower numbered pegs were doing!!!

I won’t be using these again!!!

After 2 hours it seemed that only five anglers had caught anything and as predicted they were sitting on pegs 3, 4, 6, 7 and 9!!! Interestingly it seemed that my mate Dave Woolgar was doing well on peg 7 fishing a cage feeder with some Sonubaits F1 Dark groundbait and double fluro pinkie on the hook – I happened to have some of that groundbait in my bag so I ‘borrowed’ a few pinkies and quickly returned to my peg with a certain amount of renewed hope.

However after 4 or 5 casts with no indications on the new bait I’d basically given-up and decided to scale-down the hooklength on my pole rig – as you can imagine I was shocked to look back at my tip to see it doubled-up as a decent fish sped off with my hook in it’s mouth!!! I picked-up the rod gingerly and couldn’t help but silently whisper ‘please don’t fall-off, please don’t fall-off’ over and over – so when after 10 seconds the unthinkable happened and the fish did fall-off I was absolutely mortified and seriously considered throwing my gear in the lake and f**king-off to play golf!!!

All eyes on the magic numbers!

The final 2 hours passed without incident and despite rotating between the pole and my two different feeder set-ups no further bites materialised and I had 120 uninterrupted minutes to wallow in self-pity after blowing my golden opportunity. (Feedback from local legend Colin Underwood in the post-match debrief was that I’d executed some ‘bad angling’ – if only I could find to the words to counter this argument, but of course he was absolutely correct!!!)

Match winner Chris Kampa being weighed-in

In the end only 10 of the 27 competitors managed to catch, with Chris Kampa returning a brilliant bag of skimmers to take the title. Overall top 5:

1. Chris Kampa, peg 4, 11-14-0
2. Trevor Haskell, peg 6, 8-7-0
3. Richard McGuinn, peg 50, 6-15-0
4. Brian Stephens, peg 49, 5-3-0
5. John Wilkins, peg 9, 4-9-0

As expected the low numbered pegs in front of the car park all caught, as did the two end pegs on the opposite side of the island (49 and 50).

Back to the pub for the raffle!

Conclusions: for me two important points really hit home today. The first is about the unavoidably peggy nature of winter fishing. I’ve not been fishing for a number of weeks for a variety of reasons but the main one is that at this time of year the outcome of most of the matches on my local venues is determined by the drawbag. This fact, coupled with bad weather, has seen me spending my Sundays under the duvet with a lottery ticket!!! The second point is about missed opportunities. I feel I’ve had a fairly successful 2013 and by hook or by crook I’ve managed to win a total of 9 matches – however the days that spring to mind when I look back on the year are the ones where I’ve blown-out (day 2 of the Olde English Cider festival at White Acres, the final round of the Guildford AC summer league at Bury Hill) and the ones where lost fish have cost me a ‘walk of glory’ (today and the match at MBK Baron’s Ponds back in October)!!!

Until next time …

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03 November 2013, Busbridge (Godalming AS)

As my previous three weekends had consisted of two soakings and a non-fishing Sunday I was pleased to be back on the bank for this Godalming AS match at club water Busbridge – especially as the weather forecast had switched from heavy rain to a lovely sunny Autumn day!

Pre-draw excitement

YouTube video of the view from my peg

My dip to into the bag of dreams rewarded me with peg 16 – this is towards the shallower end of the lake and was exactly where I wanted to be as it was directly opposite the peg I’d won from back in March with forty plus pounds of decent bream. (For the write-up of that match and more background on the venue click here: 03 March 2013, Busbridge (Godalming AS).)

PVA and two different sized traditional feeders

Two of the things that many anglers often overlook are central to the way I tend to approach each match that I fish – fish to your strengths and fish to win (without worrying about blowing-out). As a result for today’s match I’d left my waggler rods and pole at home and the basic plan was to go all out for big fish (bream in this case) on the straight lead with PVA bags after using an extra large feeder as a mini spod to get some bait down.

This would be a risky approach. However fishing for small fish on the waggler or pole would be playing into the hands of the top anglers that regularly fish Godalming AS club matches using such tactics – put simply, they are much, much better at it than me!!!

Looking right towards the boathouse

On the whistle I kicked-off with six Drennan XL feeders worth of Sonubaits F1 sweet fishmeal groundbait, soaked micro pellets and dead red maggots before switching to the straight lead (a two thirds of an ounce Guru model) and attaching a 30cm hooklength of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge and a size 14 QM1. Unfortunately after 90 minutes I was biteless, despite trying various brightly coloured boilies and PVA bags of 2mm pellets smeared with different flavours of Goo!

A can of Coke and my lunchbox take pride of place

At 1130 (today’s fishing times were 1000 until 1500) I decided to deposit three further extra large feeders worth of bait into the swim – this finally provoked a response as 10 minutes later the first bite of the day led to a 2lb skimmer on a white 8mm pop-up boilie. (The boilie was kept fairly close to the deck as there were 2 number 8 stotz an inch from the hook.)

Not for the first time I’m now going to write ‘unfortunately this was something of a false dawn’, so at 1215 I went for broke and fed 7 more ‘spods’ of groundbait, pellets and dead red maggots – this eventually saw the second skimmer of the day in the net as after the hookbait (a white boilie again) had been in the water for precisely 27 minutes and 43 seconds the tip the tip arched ‘round once more.

An illustration of just how clear the water was

With 90 minutes to go I finally decided that investing three and a half hours for just two (albeit decent sized) skimmers wasn’t going to win me a bean so it was time for a change. Looking at my side tray I settled on the tub of dendrabenas that had been in the fridge for the best part of three weeks and two recent articles from Match Fishing magazine sprang to mind – the first was something that Tom Scholey had written about the use of finely minced worms at White Acres; the second was a piece where Cathal Hughes had described catching small hybrids/skimmers on the drop on the feeder in the recent World Pairs championship in Ireland.

I put some juicy worms to one side (to be used on the hook) and set about turning the rest to a fine mush with a pair of scissors – personally I only normally use worms for fishing down the edge for carp and I generally use two whole dendrabenas on the hook as a large target bait. As a result I wasn’t prepared for the smell as the brutality of my actions was quickly rewarded with a right old stink!!! Anyway the aim of the game was to draw in some smaller skimmers and roach with the finely chopped worms and to try and catch them on the drop by regular casting with an open-end feeder, so tackle-wise I swapped to a 45cm 0.15 hooklength with a size 18 QM1 attached ‘hook in the loop’ style and slipped on a 15g Drennan cage feeder.

This approach worked to a certain extent – by casting regularly and not sinking my line I was able to detect small taps on the tip pretty much straight after the feeder landed. I missed lots of bites and had two skimmers annoying fall off at the net, but at least I managed to increase my total by adding two small (8 ounce) skimmers, a roach and frisky perch before the ‘all out’ was eventually called.

Team Bagger stalwart Dave Woolgar’s walk of glory

Given the peggy nature of Busbridge and the fact that the bream (and hence the big weights) are normally at one end of the lake or the other, today’s match was essentially split into two with an equal pay-out between those 10 anglers fishing the upper part of the lake and the 11 fishing towards the much deeper dam wall. In the end there was a very close finish between the top two in the match as a whole (with only 3 ounces separating them), though as it happened they were fishing in different sections.

Top section:

1. Dave Woolgar, 20-5-0
2. John Wilkins, 18-7-0
3. Dave Carter, 13-11-0

Bottom section:

1. Andy Rogers, 20-8-0
2. Jim Findlay, 9-15-0
3. Perry Gray, 7-10-0

(My 6 fish weighed a rather disappointing 5-3-0 meaning I would’ve had to triple my weight to sneak past Dave Carter for the final prize in the top section.)

Your nuts m’lord (one for the Two Ronnies fans out there)

Conclusions: ultimately the question that has to be answered here is ‘was I correct to go all out for the win and fish exclusively for the better bream’? Based on today’s result (a blow-out) it would be easy to conclude that I made the wrong choice and had this been a team event or a significant individual league match then I’d be in 100% agreement. However as it was a pretty standard club match where the walk of glory and the associated bragging rights are the only thing that mattered then I’d say my tactics were spot-on – after all in terms of brown envelopes there isn’t a great deal of difference between one out of the money and stone cold last!!!

Until next time …

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20 October 2013, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

There are some people out there who believe that the £25k Parkdean Masters was the biggest fishing event this weekend - obviously they are wrong as the final round of the Godalming AS teams of four was clearly much more important!!! Could Team Bagger pull back 2 points on Trev's Tornadoes to claim 4th place? Could the unimaginable happen? Could they beat Chertsey Baits by 10 to snatch 3rd?!? Read on to find out …

All the gear?

YouTube video of the view from my peg

I’ve written many times about my exploits at Marsh Farm and regular readers of All the Gear, No Idea will know that today’s venue – Richardson’s Lake – is a pretty consistent venue where every peg has a central island at about 20-25m and the target species are skimmers, tench and crucians. Given the time of year and the number of anglers on the bank today (32) the fishing was expected to be challenging but fair with 15-20lb certain to be rewarded with excellent section points.

I was on draw bag duties for Team Bagger once again and managed to pull-out the same set of pegs as the previous round (which we’d managed to win with a convincing 9 penalty points) – however the sequence was slightly different with Dave on peg 11, Debs on 25, myself on 38 and Claire on 50.

Peg 38 was an end peg on the day (‘what a surprise’ I hear you say) and is situated towards the far corner of the lake where the bank opposite to Harris Lake meets that parallel to Johnson’s Lake – the reason it is normally an end peg is that there is an aerator to the right in peg 37. In terms of features I had some inviting looking reeds extending into the water from my left margin and a tree-lined island at about 22m – however a couple of branches reaching-out at awkward angles limited the spots I could cast to one or two fishable areas.

Pellets, pellets and more pellets!

As ever on Richardson’s my pre-match plan of attack centred on two complementary tactics – a small pellet feeder fished towards the margin of the central island backed-up by a delicate pole rig for fishing at a slight angle to the left at top kit plus four sections. Experience has shown that the bigger, match winning fish normally fall to the feeder whereas the fish caught on the pole are often smaller but help to fill-in the gaps left when resting the feeder line.

In terms of bait I actually had some worms and casters with me today – however I have very little confidence in such baits on this venue and I only had them as they were left over from last week’s visit to MBK Baron’s Ponds! My major focus was on fishmeal-based products – soaked micro pellets for feed, hard 6mm and 4mm expanders for hookbaits on the feeder and pole (respectively) and some Sonubaits F1 sweet fishmeal groundbait as an option for feeding on the pole line. (Three different bottles of Kiana Goo, a tub of Sounbaits Stiki Pellet binder and some 8mm pop-up boilies completed the list.)

The pellet feeder is always my first choice for fishing to islands

I started today’s match by feeding a reasonable amount of soaked micro pellet on the TK+4 pole line and casting my pellet feeder towards the central island (not too tight, but within the shadow of the overhanging trees) – by 1002 I was attached to an angry tench and by 1005 I had 3lb in the net! As I was only chasing a self-imposed target weight of 20lb this was clearly a great start and the ideal way to settle any pre-match nerves.

However the next five casts only led to some tiny line bites (no doubt induced by very small fish pecking at the feeder) so after half an hour it was off with the hooklength and in with 5 quick casts to get a bed of 2mm pellets over the far bank line. 15 minutes on the pole only produced a single ‘blade’ skimmer on a 4mm expander so I decided to feed a nugget of Sonubaits F1 groundbait on that line and get back on the feeder – three 10 minute casts only led to a solitary bite but as it was from a 3lb bream it was very welcome! (Interestingly this fish fell to a feeder full of 2mm pellets with an added squirt of Perfect Peach Goo.)

The rest of the second hour was spent swapping between the two approaches, with a crucian and another blade falling to the pole and a bonus common carp taking a fancy to my pellet feeder set-up. This saw me going into the third hour with about 10lb in the bag – I couldn’t really see many other anglers but at this point I felt I was probably up there with Mick Hall on the peg to my left in terms of leading the section.

Relatively light terminal tackle for the pole

In a similar fashion to events in the match from two weeks ago the third hour kicked-off with an amazing run of four big fish in as many casts on the pellet feeder – two proper bream, a tench and a second surprise common carp boosted my weight by a further 10-12lb in a very productive 15 minute spell!!! An aborted take on cast number five however seemed to spook the shoal and bring an end to proceedings – I believe carp anglers use the phrase ‘getting done’ to describe the situation where a good fish has your hair-rigged bait in it’s mouth but manages to eject the hook (either way it is incredibly annoying).

After a few biteless chucks I decided to re-feed with 5 quick casts and as the existing pole line failed to produce any bites I set-up a second rig for fishing along the reeds to my left. Given the snaggy nature of these rushes I dug-out a heavy rig for Marsh Farm – a 4x12 KC Carpa Force on 0.15 Guru N-Gauge mainline to a hooklength of 0.13 with a size 18 Kamasan B911 and white Hydro. (My thinking is that whilst I may struggle to get bites on such thick line I’d rather not hook a fish as opposed to hooking one and losing it on light gear.) Whilst this new swim looked extremely fishy I failed to receive a single bite from it through to the end of the match, despite trying it quite a few times and keeping it topped-up with regular amounts of chopped worm and caster. (See my comment above about having no faith in ‘traditional’ baits at Marsh Farm!)

Luckily a return to the feeder led to another decent bream (this time a squirt of Tutti Frutti Goo did the business) and 3 more small skimmners from the original pole line (based on a 0.2g SconeZone V2 on 0.11 to a 0.10 hooklength with a size 20 Tubertini 808, pink Hydro) saw me enter the final 90 minutes with an estimated 25-26lb.

Looking right towards the aerator (before the downpour)

Despite a torrential downpour on the way to the venue and a contradictory forecast today’s weather had actually been pretty decent so for – however that all changed at 2 o’clock when the heavens opened and what can only be described as a monsoon descended upon leafy Milford!!! This put paid to any hopes of a bag-up session towards the end of the match and all I could muster was one decent (1lb) skimmer and one better (3lb) bream on the tip before the final whistle was eventually blown.

Results from A and B sections …

Following the scales from the top of D section back towards the lower numbers saw Simon Duke open proceedings with a creditable 16-13-0 from end peg 51, which was leading that section until Eddie Rippon put a stonking 26-7-0 of waggler and white maggot caught skimmers and tench on the scales from unfancied 44 to steal first place. (Claire had done well for Team Bagger by securing a valuable 3 points.)

Mick Hall was first to weigh in C section and put a superb 22-14-0 of pole caught bits and pieces on the scales – had I done enough to secure top section points for Team Bagger? Even though I had a lot less fish than Mick the quality I’d managed to catch on the feeder shone through and in the end my 30-12-0 was enough to win the section and the match as a whole.

Overall top 4:

1. Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 38, 30-12-0
2. Eddie Rippon (Guildford AC), peg 44, 26-7-0
3. Mick Hall (matchangler.com), peg 39, 22-14-0
4. Andy Rogers (Guildford AC), peg 16, 19-5-0

Section winners:

• John Wilkins, (Chertsey Baits), peg 2, 17-1-0
• Andy Rogers (Guildford AC), peg 16, 19-5-0
• Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 38, 30-12-0
• Eddie Rippon (Guildford AC), peg 44, 26-7-0

Top 3 teams on the day:

1. Guildford AC, 9 points
2. Matchangler.com, 10 points
3. Chertsey Baits, 17 points

Unfortunately two good results combined with two not so good results had contrived to leave Team Bagger in joint fifth on the day with 20 points, but well done to Guildford Angling Centre who won the day by a single point from matchangler.com.

… and those from C and D

So where had today’s results left the overall team and individual standings?

Final league standing:

1. Matchangler.com, 63 points
2. Guildford Angling Centre, 73 points
3. Chertsey Bait, 97 points
4. Trev’s Tornadoes, 106 points
5. Team Bagger, 109 points
6. Brian’s Bandits, 134 points
7. Team Rog, 136 points
8. Buster’s Bandits, 147 points

Individual top 10:

1. John Wilkins, 13 points (2-3-4-1-2-1)
2. Andy Rogers, 15 points (4-2-5-1-2-1)
3. Eddie Rippon, 15 points (2-3-3-3-3-1)
4. Phil Morris, 22 points (1-9-1-9-1-1)
5. Darren Dodge, 24 points (9-1-1-9-1-3)
6. Dave Johnson, 25 points (2-1-7-9-3-3)
7. Max Calverley, 26 points (9-4-2-4-5-2)
8. Chris Kampa, 26 points (5-3-6-5-4-3)
9. Trevor Haskell, 27 points (1-2-7-1-9-7)
10. Claire Hollis, 27 points (3-9-2-9-1-3)

(Note: 9 points indicates that the angler in question did not fish a particular round. No concept of dropping worst scores applies here.)

Congratulations to matchangler.com for taking the honours on the team side of things and to John Wilkins for bagging the individual title ahead of Andy Rogers and Eddie Rippon. A big thank you must also go to Godalming AS match secretary for organising another great event – see you next year!!!

I’m still chasing that elusive pot of gold!!!

Conclusions: today once again proved that the quality, match winning fish are more often than not there to be caught on the feeder to the island – it is often a ‘bottle job’ but for the second match in a row at Marsh Farm a golden spell of a number of good fish one after another made a real difference to my final weight today. The pole with expanders over micros/sweet fishmeal groundbait is also proving to be a good back-up that serves two purposes – it allows the feeder to be rested whilst putting something in the net. (I only had five fish on the pole today but that 4-5lb made a difference.) I could’ve caught more on the pole if worked it harder at it and fished it for longer, but would I have caught more overall? I very much doubt it!!!

Until next time …

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13 October 2013, Big Lake (MBK Baron's Ponds)

One of the beauties of fishing is that it is an outdoor sport – personally I spend five days a week commuting to London and back, and being constantly stuck in an office means I’m often daydreaming about my day on the bank at the weekend. However, at the end of every summer there seems to be a point where the weather takes a turn for the worse and we start down the path towards the cold, dark days of winter. Yes, you’ve guessed it – today was that day! I had been looking forward to today’s match, but that fact that it poured with freezing cold rain from the beginning of the match until fifteen minutes after the “all out” took the edge off of my enjoyment somewhat!!!

MBK Baron’s Ponds

YouTube video of the view from my peg

MBK Leisures has three main sites – I can only remember visiting the Pump Station once, but I’ve written about the Colour Ponds on numerous occasions. Today’s match was held on the Big Lake at Baron’s Ponds – also known locally as St Patrick’s Lane. As the name suggests this is quite a big lake (40-50 pegs) with an island at one end and a damn wall at the other.

My draw put me on peg 11 – the venue isn’t permanently pegged, but on the day peg 11 was two or three from the corner where the damn wall is sited and I had my back to the causeway between the Big Lake and the Small Lake. I had vacant platforms to my left and right – this might sound like a really good thing, but I’d hate to fish a match were every peg was in as the platform to my right was only 6 or 7 metres away!!!

Given the rain I was quite happy to find myself fishing under a tree – it was a bit of a parrot cage, but nothing too serious as I’d be using a 10’ tip rod. Having drawn a peg towards the damn wall I was miles away from the central island and hence had open water in front – as the venue is double-banked I had an angler directly opposite me at about 50m.

Gear for making PVA bags

Having not fished the venue for a good few years I did my usual trawl through the angling forums, websites and Twitter during the week to try and build a plan. I could remember reading an article on matchangler.com ages ago where Ian Dixon bagged-up on quality roach, but some of the match results on the MBK website suggested that carp would be the target.

A quick walk around the venue yesterday (when the weather was much, much better) led to a chance encounter with fishery owner Kenny Wright who implied that the roach weren’t showing in great numbers and that bigger fish were falling to sweetcorn on the short pole. As a result my opening tactics were to be the straight lead with optional PVA bags of 6mm pellets and the pole at top kit plus 3 with corn and soaked 2mm pellets.

Much better weather the day before the match!

I started the match by feeding a small amount of bait over my pole line then cast my bomb rig to about 25m – on the hook (well hair) was a bright yellow Ringers Allsort and in this instance I had chosen to attach a small PVA bag of pellets. I was willing to leave this first cast in the water for anything up to 20 minutes, when after 6 or 7 the tip slammed ‘round and I found myself attached to a very angry carp that took ages to land – having said that at about 7lb this fish was very, very welcome!

No further bites followed in the next half an hour so I decided to give the pole a try – as the water was quite deep (about 6’) and as I was looking to catch carp this rig consisted of a 4x12 KC Carpa Force (which actually takes the shot associated with a typical 4x14) on 0.15 Guru N-Gauge mainline to a hooklength of 0.13 with a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. The shotting pattern was a spread bulk of number 10 stotz starting from 20cm from the hook and elastic as white Hydrolastic.

Unfortunately, despite a large amount of fizzing, I couldn’t muster a bite on the pole so it was back to the tip – what happened next can only be considered a complete and utter disaster! I’d gone in again with a yellow Allsort and a PVA bag of 6mm pellets when after 3 or 4 minutes the tip slammed ‘round and the clutch started spinning – so far, so good. However, as casting was quite awkward (given the overhanging tree) and as I was double-banked I’d put the line into the clip to ensure I didn’t go past the halfway mark. Yep you’ve guessed it – the carp continued to strip line from the reel until it hit the clip, at which point the rod hit it’s maximum and the 0.19 hooklength that normally looks as thick as old rope rapidly turned into a pig’s tail made of ultra fine cotton!!!

Looking right from peg 11

After that ‘interesting’ first hour the final four hours were frankly a long, hard slog – the influx of cold rain seemed to kill the sport for the majority of the twenty-odd competitors who were by now huddled under umbrellas or putting their Gore-Tex clothing to the test.

No further bites materialised on the straight lead or top kit plus 3 pole lines, and a new line opened for roach at 13m with casters over Sensas Match Blend was equally fruitless. I did however manage a handful of small perch on worm over chopped worm and caster fairly close to the bank at top kit plus 2 to my left, so at least I had the pleasure of watching the float dip a couple of times!

Pre-match hype, but no Sky TV cameras on the day!

Eventually the final whistle was blown and it was time to pack-up – I can assure you that putting away wet gear in the pouring rain is certainly not on my list of top ten things to do on a Sunday afternoon!!! However on the plus side that early carp turned-out to be enough to sneak a default section win after Pete Worsfield’s last gasp double on the short pole next door propelled him into the frame.

Overall top 4:

1. Andy Rogers, 15-0-0
2. Chris Kampa, 13-5-0
3. Jim Findlay, 13-0-0
4. Pete Worsfield, 12-0-0

Section winners:

• Gary Woking, 9-12-0
• Phil Morris, 7-13-0
• Brian Stevens/Keith Jeffries, both 7-6-0

So congratulations to Andy, Chris and Jim for successfully overcoming the conditions to fill the top three places – they were in different areas but were all pegged fairly close to the island and presumably shallower water. (I’m not totally sure but I think their catches were made-up of small roach and perch as opposed to bonus carp.)

Luckily this doesn’t apply to matches!

Conclusions: having read the above you can probably guess the two conclusions I’m going to draw today – that fishing in cold rain isn’t as enjoyable as fishing in glorious sunshine and that lost fish cost matches!!! I’m the first person to berate people for tales of broken lines and hook pulls in the car park after matches so that incident will haunt me for a few weeks yet, especially as if the carp on the other end had weighed 7-4-0 or more I’d have won three matches in a row …

Until next time …

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06 October 2013, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

As I was loading the car this morning I saw a single magpie. Then just as I was contemplating not even bothering to fish (after all it is “one for sorrow”) I saw a further pair together. Whilst I was trying to figure-out if the “two for joy” had cancelled-out the initial dose of bad luck I saw another lone magpie – all this and I was trying to wean myself off my superstitions by intentionally not wearing my lucky red T-shirt today!!!

Team Bagger's pegs

YouTube video of the view from my peg

Today’s match was round 5 of the Godalming AS teams of four held on Richardson’s Lake at Marsh Farm. Last time I was handed the drawing honours I saddled us (Team Bagger) with the weighing-in duties – despite this I was made captain for the day again and luckily (magpies or no magpies) fortune was on our side on this occasion and not only had I managed to avoid the dreaded scales I’d also managed to put us on some pretty decent pegs!!!

Personally I found myself on peg 11, on the outside of a bend with the ends of two different islands in range of a 25m chuck – nice! Not only that, but being on a kind of point I also had lots of open water to go at and peg 10 to my right was vacant – first hand experience shows that any extra room can be a real bonus at Marsh Farm so I was more than happy with this arrangement, especially as the anglers to my left seemed to be squeezed into a line with no spare pegs between them!

The SconeZone V8

As ever on Richardson’s Lake my plan of attack was two-fold – a small pellet feeder to the central island straight in front and delicate pole rigs for fishing on the deck at top kit plus 4 to the left and right.

Gear for the pellet feeder was my usual arrangement of a small 20g Preston Innovations pellet feeder on 8lb Daiwa Sensor to a 10cm hooklength of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge with a size 16 QM1 and a hair-rigged pellet band. Feed was simply soaked 2mm fishery pellets and the main hookbait was the ever reliable 6mm hard pellet, though I did have some fluro boilies and 3 bottles of Kiana Goo in reserve.

On the pole I had some new floats to try today – the SconeZone V8 in 0.2 and 0.3g sizes. These are lovely looking bits of kit with a fantastic finish, a strong looking eye and a perfect body shape (something between a Chianti and a pencil float) for fishing pellets for shy biting fish. The rigs where made-up on 0.11 Reflo Power mainline to 15cm hooklengths of 0.10 and size 20 Tubertini 808s – the elastic was pink Hydro.

Looking right towards the gap between the islands

The weather today was unseasonably warm and sunny with not a breath of wind – conditions that are normally the kiss of death on this and many other venues. I was contemplating this point after a biteless first half an hour on the feeder when first drop in on the pole with a 4mm expander saw a four ounce skimmer in the net. (I’d been feeding small amounts of soaked micros via a cupping kit between casts on the feeder from the start.) This at least got me off the mark but I’d already fallen 8 or 9 fish behind Simon Duke to my left on peg 12 – a fact compounded when I couldn’t buy another bite on the pole!!!

Before switching to the pole I’d removed my hooklength from the feeder rig and made 3 quick casts to get some bait down – this seemed to do the trick as after those 10 minutes on the pole the rod slammed ‘round with a nice tench first chuck back on the tip. This opening tinca tinca was quickly followed by two more and a nice skimmer before the feeder line suddenly faded – this time I re-fed with 4 feeders’ worth of bait before switching back to the pole and picking-up a nice little crucian. (I also managed to bump another decent fish being too clever for my own good by trying to feed via a pole-mounted pot with a fish on – when I tapped the pole to release the pellets I gave the fish every excuse it needed to shed the hook!!!)

The shadow starts to form in front of the island

The re-feeding tactic didn’t work as well this time and only one skimmer hit the net after returning to the pellet feeder line. The pole was also pretty slow so I had a quick re-think and came-up with the “Goo bombe” – a clever combination of soaked 2mm pellets compressed in a medium Preston Innovations pellet punch with some Perfect Peach Goo in the middle!!! (Hopefully this would see a nice ball of pellets fall to the deck where they would break-up releasing the sweet smelling Goo – well that’s the theory anyway!) This tactic seemed to work to a certain extent as two nice skimmers fell quickly to a 4mm expander before the line once again faded.

The start of the fourth hour (1300) saw the sun moving to such a position that a nice shadow started to form in front of the island – this coincided with a great run of fish on the feeder with six good skimmers and a tench in as many casts in what is usually the hardest part of any match at Marsh Farm!!! Following this golden half an hour/40 minutes the pattern for the day continued as after a run of fish the swim died so it was in with 5 feeders’ worth of bait and back onto the pole. Unfortunately this only led to a few very iffy, unhittable bites – normally a sure sign that tiny micro skimmers are the only fish in the peg – so as a result I opened a new pole line to right in the same depth of water as the original. This can often lead to a run of fish but today it certainly didn’t!!!

Looking left from peg 11

Today’s match was a five and a half hour affair running from 1000 to 1530 so it was always likely that the best part of the match would be from about 2 o’clock through to the end. This theory was proved correct as the final 90 minutes yielded an excellent return of 5 skimmers, 1 tench and a bonus 3lb common carp on the feeder, plus 3 further good skimmers on the (original) pole line.

Results for A and B section …

By the time the scales for my section arrived at my peg Andy Rogers was leading from Ken Russell with 26-7-0 to 16-13-0 – as a result I was mightily pleased to see my mixed bag drag the scales down to 35-8-0. As things turned-out this was enough to win the section and the match as a whole.

Overall top 4:

1. Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 11, 35-8-0
2. Darren Dodge (matchangler.com), peg 32, 32-0-0
3. Claire Hollis (Team Bagger), peg 25, 30-15-0
4. Andy Rogers (Guildford AC), peg 3, 26-7-0

Section winners:

• Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 11, 35-8-0
• Claire Hollis (Team Bagger), peg 25, 30-15-0
• Darren Dodge (matchangler.com), peg 32, 32-0-0
• Percy Allan (Trev’s Tornadoes), peg 45, 22-5-0

… and those for C and D

Not only that but the rest of Team Bagger had pulled-out all of the stops as Bagger had done brilliantly to hammer Dave Johnson off the next peg and win B section with 30-15-0 (enough for third overall), Dave Woolgar did the business with a second in C section and Paul Etherington had done really well to secure a mid-table finish in D section from a very poor peg. This gave us a total of 9 penalty points and a clear victory from Chertsey Bait and Guildford AC who both finished on 13 points.

Top 3 teams on the day:

1. Team Bagger, 9 points
2. Chertsey Bait, 13 points (on overall weight countback)
3. Guildford Angling Centre, 13 points

League standing after round 5:

1. Matchangler.com, 53 points
2. Guildford Angling Centre, 64 points
3. Chertsey Bait, 80 points
4. Trev’s Tornadoes, 87 points
5. Team Bagger, 89 points
6. Brian’s Bandits, 111 points
7. Team Rog, 116 points
8. Buster’s Bandits, 122 points

Today’s result has kept Team Bagger in fifth place, but we’ve closed the gap on Trev’s Tornadoes to 2 points and we’re just about in striking distance of Chertsey Bait in third who are 9 points better off. Going into the final round it is for matchangler.com to lose as they are ahead of Guildford AC by a seemingly unassailable 11 points.

Happy days!!!

Conclusions: there has been a lot written in the angling press about the future of team fishing so I’ll chip in with my view. Basically winter leagues and nationals involving teams of 10 or 12 fished on natural venues are now completely off the radar for the typical match angler – there are many reasons for this but the main one is that the best anglers gravitate to the best teams, making it impossible for the lower-profile teams to compete so they eventually give-up. Having said that the buzz of winning today’s team event was awesome – it was only a low profile club event, but being able to share success with your teams mates is brilliant. As a result smaller teams of 4 matches will continue to increase in popularity, especially as they can be fished on local commercial-style venues where the creature comforts we have all become accustomed to can be enjoyed with our mates – roll-on round 6 in two weeks time!!!

Until next time …

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22 September 2013, Match Lake (Sumners Ponds)

What a difference a week makes! On the way to Bury Hill last week the temperature gauge in the car dipped as low as 4 degrees Celsius – however today on the way to our first visit to Sumners Ponds it was fixed at a balmy 17!!! Hopefully this would have a positive effect on what is apparently a very prolific match venue …

The usual pre-draw excitement!

Today’s match was another Godalming AS and Woking DAA inter-club special, this time on the impossible to book Match Lake at Sumners Ponds, near Horsham, West Sussex. (I say ‘impossible to book’ as rumour has it there is a 3 year waiting list if you are looking to reserve it for a match!!!)

The complex itself is mainly a caravan/camping site with a nice onsite cafe and some nifty looking log cabins. There are a total of four lakes – two pleasure fishing ponds, a snake lake (Ribbon) and the popular Match Lake (which is situated down a track away from the main campus).

Looking left from peg 1

 

YouTube video of the view from my peg

If you look at the Match Lake on Google Earth you’ll see that it is essentially an elongated oval with about 30 pegs and three central islands. However if you visit the lake in person you’ll only see two islands – the one nearest the car park has seemingly sunk and all that remains is an odd looking tree growing in the middle of the lake!!!

Today’s event saw approximately 25 anglers queuing for a dip into the bag of dreams, meaning that room would be at a premium and a good draw essential. As a result I was over the moon to draw peg 1 (the first peg in a clockwise direction from the car park) – this peg doesn’t have an island chuck (it faces the open water to the right of the sunken island), but it has loads of room to the right as there are no platforms in front of the car park. (To give you an idea I’d normally expect to see 5 or 6 pegs between myself and John Brownlie who was sat on the other end peg directly opposite.) To make things even better peg 2 to my left was in the bag but not drawn – happy days!

Pellet feeder gear

I normally like to start each match fishing long (i.e. as far away from my own bank as sensibly possible) and work closer and closer as the day progresses. Today was no exception and my opening gambit was to cast a small pellet feeder at an angle of 45 degrees towards an overhanging bush along the margin in front of the car park at about 25m to my right.

Sport was hardly hectic but three small carp for about ten pounds in the first 20 minutes at least got my match underway with a few bites. (Gear for this approach was the usual 8lb Daiwa Sensor mainline into a 10cm hooklength of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge with a size 16 Guru QM1 hook and a hair-rigged pellet band. The feeder itself was a small 30g Preston Innovations pellet feeder – this was loaded with soaked micro pellets and the hookbait was a 6mm hard pellet.)

PVA bags made a big difference

Whilst fishing the pellet feeder I’d been busy flicking 8mm pellets to a mark straight in front at a about 25-30m. This had soon led to numerous patches of bubbles rising to the surface so after a couple of chucks on the pellet feeder without the merest liner it was time to swap rods to the straight lead set-up. (Tackle was similar but the hooklength was much longer at 30cm and the hook a size bigger being a 14. The lead, which was free-running, was a 1/3 ounce square Guru model.) Given the fizzing and topping I was amazed when my rig (baited with an 8mm pellet) didn’t immediately induce one of those rod-doubling bites we all know and love!

In fact three casts and fifteen minutes passed with the only reward being a couple of half-hearted line bites, so it was time for another change – off with the light lead and on with a heavier 2/3 ounce version and a small PVA bag of 6mm pellets. This had the desired effect and three good carp in three casts prove that the smallest of tactical tweaks can often make the biggest of differences!!! Unfortunately after this good initial run things quietened down somewhat, but two more decent carp saw me end the second hour on a running total of about fifty pounds.

Kit for the TK+3 rig

One of the advantages of fishing the tip is that you can often have a good look around and see what everybody else is up to – from my peg I had full view of the anglers on the opposite bank, plus by leaning forward I could see another ten or so to my left. I could tell that most people had caught a few but I couldn’t really see any single person absolutely bagging. By the look of the various multi-coloured elastics been stretched by some of Sumners Ponds’ resident carp I could also tell that most people were fishing short on the pole.

As the action on the straight lead had effectively ground to a halt I decided to set-up a rig to fish in a similar fashion down the slope at top kit plus 3 at a slight angle to the right. (This consisted of a 4x12 KC Carpa Force on 0.17 mainline to a 15cm hooklength of 0.15 with a size 16 Kamasan B911 eyed hook. Shotting was a spread bulk of number 10 stotz between 20 and 40cm from the hook and elastic was black Hydro.)

I kicked things off with a full cup of casters and soaked 6mm pellets, and went straight in with a full worm on the hook. This initially lead to a few iffy bites (probably from silver fish) but after a couple of minutes the float buried and a nice 8lb carp was soon in the net. Topping-up with a medium sized Cad pot only resulted in a few roach and a small tench so in went another full cup of casters and pellets – this immediately led to an obvious churning-up of the bottom of the lake and a few minutes later a second decent carp was in the net.

After those two good carp from the TK+3 line things once again went rather slow with only small roach to be caught – a sure sign that there weren’t any feeding carp in the swim! Quick looks on the pellet feeder and straight lead also failed to produce any proper bites, so a little earlier that I’d have liked (1330) it was time to attack the margins …

Gear for the deeper right margin

I’ve written before that I like to hold-back and feed my margin lines as late as I can – such a tactic seems to produce quicker bites and more fish in the net (even though I’m actually fishing such margin swims for a shorter amount of time). As today’s match was being fished from 1000 to 1600 I ideally wanted to start feeding/fishing any margin swims from 1430 onwards – however such an approach relied upon being able to catch at a decent rate from other parts of the swim up until that point, but as I wasn’t I found myself mixing-up some Sonubaits 50:50 groundbait, soaked micro pellets and dead red maggots an hour earlier than I’d have liked!!!

Being ‘end peg Billy’ for the day I decided to start with a TK+3 margin line to the right (towards the unpegged area in front of the car park) – as this part of the swim was pretty deep for a margin at nearly 2 and a half feet I tackled-up with a 4x12 KC Carpa Force with a stem trimmed to 85mm. As I was expecting to catch big fish and to be using either two whole worms or 8-10 dead red maggots as hookbaits the rest of the rig was consisted of 0.21 Reflo Power straight through to a size 12 Guru MWG hook coupled with red Hydrolastic.

The initial feed was two full cups of my groundbait/pellet/maggot mix and 10 seconds after dropping-in with a bunch of maggots on the hook I was attached to an angry double-figure carp. A few bites from silver fish followed, but another full cup of feed soon saw another big carp in the net.

Robust kit for the shallower left margin

After those two quick carp from the right margin sport once again slowed and the only bites I could muster where from small roach. Being about 2 o’clock by this point I decided to give myself a couple of options and fed 3 cups of my margin mix to the right, another full cup of casters/pellets at TK+3 straight in front and 2 cups of groundbait/pellets/maggots on a new swim tight to the left margin at TK+2.

Whilst deciding which of these swims to fish first I stood on my footplate in order to try an detect any signs of feeding fish. Nothing to the right. Nothing on the down-the-shelf line. Masses of churning and tail patterns to the left!!! During a hectic final 2 hours I only fished this left margin line and was rewarded with 7 or 8 good carp (including 2 that must’ve been knocking on the door of 20lb each) for well in excess of 100lb – interestingly the fish didn’t need much encouragement and I probably only fed an additional 3 cups of bait during this final period.

(Gear for the left margin was similar to that for the right but as the depth was only 18 inches the float selected was a 0.2g SconeZone v6.)

Lots of big weights today

Being on an end peg is often a double-edged sword – you normally get a bit of extra room or a corner to fish to, but you regularly get the pleasure of the scales! Today was no exception and after weighing-in only a handful of good bags of fish I soon developed a new found appreciation for the guys at White Acres that seem to do this all day, every day!

I was last to weigh and hence I knew I needed the best part of 160lb to eclipse Mick Fletchers' stonking return of 158-0-0 – I knew I had a good weight but was amazed when my five weighs totalled a whopping 189-2-0 for the victory and a new personal best (by nearly 40 pounds)!!!

Overall top 4:

1. Phil Morris (Godalming AS), peg 1, 189-2-0
2. Mick Fletcher (Woking DAA), peg 8, 158-0-0
3. Dave Steer (W), peg 15, 132-4-0
4. P Dove (W), peg 10, 108-4-0

Today’s section winners:

• Stuart Kendall (W), peg 3, 83-12-0
• Trevor Haskell (G), peg 17, 94-0-0
• Adi Hoile (W), peg 20 (something), 93-5-0

In total a dozen anglers put more than 75lb each on the scales – including Bagger who came-up trumps with a new personal best of 91-8-0 (just behind Trevor on the next peg and a fish or two short of the magic ton). Awesome!!!

Will I find the answers in here?

Conclusions: I finished last week’s blog bemoaning my performance in coming last in section in the final round of the Guildford AC summer league at Bury Hill and noting that a mere 3 pounds more would’ve seen me move from eighth to second overall – then I go and smash the best part of two hundred pounds from a venue I’ve never even seen before! I guess this sums-up the difference between an average club angler like myself and the superstars we read about in the magazines and see fishing the big money finals on TV – whilst I can often put a result together fishing venues I’m familiar with using approaches I’m confident in (e.g. the method and down the edge with groundbait), the range of things I’m good at is actually quite narrow. This is in complete contrast to the likes of Will Raison, Des Shipp, etc. who have seemingly mastered all forms of course angling – now where’s my copy of this month’s Match Fishing magazine!!!

Until next time …

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