Sunday, 9 June 2013

09 June 2013, Harris Lake (Marsh Farm)

Prior to this match I was expecting a very hard but very sunny day at Marsh Farm – as it turned-out I was only half right as it was rather cloudy!

A good book and some suntan cream

Today’s event was the first proper match of the Godalming AS 2013/4 calendar and was afforded the title ‘Summer League #1’ – this led to a decent attendance of 24 forming a queue for the al fresco draw, with everybody looking for a peg on the end of the wind that had being blowing from the north/east for well over a week.

Peg 40 on Harris Lake at Marsh Farm




For once my drawing hand deserted me and out popped number 40 on the far side of Harris Lake – certainly not in a noted area and about as far from the downwind end peg as I could get! The water was once again crystal clear (even clearer in fact than the match three weeks ago), with the bottom of the lake visible to a distance of 6 or 7 metres!!!

Given the water clarity I decided to leave the pole in the bag (I can never catch on it even when the water is coloured on Harris Lake) and went with a single feeder rod approach – the opening gambit was a 30g Preston Innovations pellet feeder with a hooklength for use with a 6mm hard pellet (10cm of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge into a size 16 QM1 with a hair-rigged band).

Feed for today was a pint of soaked 2mm fishery pellets – some left plain, some dyed yellow and some coloured red. I also had some Kiana Goo (more of which later) plus 6mm hard pellets and Ringers fluro pop-ups for hookbaits.

30g small (left) and 25g micro (right) Preston Innovations pellet feeders

On the whistle I cast my feeder towards the central island (not too close given the water clarity) and sat back in expectation – nothing first chuck but casts 2, 3 and 4 all saw some form of line bite or other. Unfortunately nothing materialised from this initial spell then things went very quiet until a savage bite out of the blue on the hour mark saw a 2lb tench in the net.

After a couple more casts I switched down to a 25g micro pellet feeder and was rewarded with a 3lb tench on the second cast – perhaps it would be a good day after all?

Godalming AS legend Colin Underwood

Unfortunately the following four and a half hours were frankly soul destroying as despite trying a micro cage feeder with a long tail and various tricks with the pellet feeder I never had another sniff of a fish! (Having said that my day wasn’t as bad as some as in my six peg zone four of the other anglers only managed a single rudd between them!!!)

Surprisingly the top 4 weights today all came in a row from the bank nearest the tackle shop, with Godalming AS stalwart Colin Underwood winning the day with an excellent near thirty pound return from peg 7:
  1. Colin Underwood, peg 7 29-10-0
  2. Paul Etherington, peg 8 25-4-0
  3. Trevor Haskell, peg 11 17-0-0
  4. Gareth Phillips, peg 14 16-11-0



One of the advantages of going 270 minutes without a bite is that it gives you time to take photos and record videos! The video above shows a 30g Preston Innovations pellet feeder loaded with 2mm pellets being dropped into a bait tub of water – personally I have great confidence in this kind of feeder for fishing to a far bank margin and the clip shows just how good the presentation can be. (The hookbait here is an 8mm fluro pop-up with 2 number 8 stotz an inch from the hook.) The main thing that strikes me is that only two thirds of the pellets spill from the feeder initially, leaving the bulk of the feed to be released on the retrieve.

Plain, yellow and red micro pellets plus 3 flavours of Kiana Goo

As noted above I also was also playing around with colourings and flavourings today – unfortunately the day was so hard it is impossible to draw any conclusions!!! However the use of boilie dyes to colour micro pellets deserves further investigation – the mixing of yellow 2mm pellets into green groundbait certainly looks good to the (human) eye!

The flavours were provided by Kiana Goo – Perfect Peach and Tutti Frutti in the power smoke version, plus some Almond Supreme in the bait smoke style. (Power smoke is a very thick oil ideal for smearing onto PVA bags or loaded pellet/method feeders, whereas bait smoke is much thinner and better for adding to the water used to soften pellets.) This is not very scientific, but I have to say that both of the fish I caught today were done so after applying some Tutti Frutti Goo!!!

I think we’d all agree that there is no magic bait that is going to win every match – however despite Kiana Goo being something that is aimed at the specimen carp world I’ll be carrying a tube or two to possibly squeeze-out that extra fish at the end of match …

Until next time …


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Sunday, 2 June 2013

02 June 2013, Billhook Lake (Bowsaw & Billhook)

Today was a new fixture on the Godalming AS match fishing calendar – a first visit to Bowsaw & Billhook Lakes, near Odiham, Hampshire.

Bowsaw & Billhook Lakes, near Odiham, Hampshire

Due to some last minute cancellations and pre-planned holidays only 13 anglers graced the banks of Billhook Lake. This meant that we’d each end-up paying a relatively high match fee (as the whole lake had been book and needed to be paid for) – however as the lake hosts 30 pegs at least we’d have loads of room!!!

As this was my first visit to this venue I put out some feelers during the week and received some invaluable information from anglers who had fished the place before – the target species were (proper) carp in the 3 to 6lb bracket, the lake itself was pretty shallow at only about 3 to 4 feet deep and the main tactics were the method early/the margins later on.

Looking left from peg 3 on Billhook Lake



Not knowing much about the flyers I approached the bag of dreams with an open mind – when peg 3 appeared all I really knew was that I’d probably have peg 2 on one side and peg 4 on the other!!! As it turned-out peg 3 was an end peg on the day – a massive advantage on any venue.

After pushing my fantastically overloaded barrow up the steepest slope in the south of England to get to the lake I was very pleased with what I found – this was one great looking venue set in some amazing countryside! My peg was full of features – 2 great looking margins, a large patch of lilies at about 7/8m from the bank to my left and a number of smaller lilies forming a feature of sorts at about 25m.

Worms, meat, pellets and dead maggots!

Being my first visit to this lake I brought a range of familiar carpy baits – the main selection was made-up of 2mm, 6mm and 8mm pellets, Ringers fluro pop-ups and Banded Allsorts, 8mm luncheon meat, dead red maggots, groundbait and dendrabenas. (Hardly revolutionary but enough to cover a range of tactics including the straight lead, method feeder, long/short pole and margins as needed.)


Yellow Ringers Banded Allsorts worked well today

Prior to the all-in I prepared two rods – one fitted with a small 30g Preston Innovations method feeder and the other with a 1/3 ounce Guru square bomb. Each was on 8lb Daiwa Sensor mainline and the hooklength for the straight lead was 30cm of 0.19 Guru N-Gage into a size 14 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band – ideal for an 8mm pellet or a Ringers Banded Allsort (a new, highly coloured dumbbell hookbait). For the method I had three different hooklengths – all were 10cm long and on 0.19 but one featured a size 16 QM1 and a hair-rigged pellet band for a 6mm pellet, another a size 14 and a hair-rigged bayonet for a fluro pop-up and the final version was as the straight lead hooklength described above (just a little shorter).

I also set-up a pole rig for fishing 8mm meat towards the lily pads to my left – this consisted of a 4x12 KC Carpa Force on 0.17 mainline to a 15cm hooklength of 0.15 with an eyed Kamasan B911 size 16. (Even those these floats (which feature a diamond body and a line through the body arrangement) are stated as being 4x12 they actually take 8 or 9 number 10s, making them more like a 4x14.) Given the expected size of fish and the proximity of the lily pads elastic was black Hydro.

On the whistle I cast my method feeder towards the lilies at 25m – nothing materialised on the first few casts, but by the half hour mark I had two (smallish) carp in the net so at least I was up and running. A switch to the bomb and pellet lead to two more carp by the end of the first hour – interestingly despite trying a variety of hookbaits all 4 fish fell to a bright yellow Ringers Banded Allsort.

Aerial view of Bowsaw (top) and Billhook (bottom)

After that decent first hour the next two can only be described as ‘brutally hard’! Despite a few bow waves on the 25m line no proper bites developed – the TK+3 meat line was equally frustrating as when the float did dip four or five times every strike was met with fresh air! (Presumably this was down to small silver fish pecking at the bait.)



The lack of bites may have been down to the fact that a number of carp were spawning – the video clip above gives a flavour of what was going on all day!

To ease the boredom I set about putting together two margin rigs – a 4x12 Preston Durafloat 10 straight through on 0.17 to a size 14 Guru MWG for fishing meat to the left and a slightly heavier version on 0.19 to a size 12 to be used with 2 whole dendrabenas to the right. (Elastics were black Hydro and Preston 17 Hollo respectively.) I also set-up a new swim for silver fish at TK+3 to the right – this was fed with a small ball of groundbait and a few dead maggots. This line was hardly prolific and just as I was about to ditch it I caught two tiny skimmers and a very welcome bonus carp on single maggot!!!

A decent run of fish from the 25m line

Fortunately the second half of the match (we were fishing from 1000 to 1600) was better and I caught 4 fish on the straight lead – three on normal 8mm pellets and one more on the yellow Banded Allsort. Again the meat line towards the lilies at TK+3 failed to produce anything – the same went for the left margin (which I’d also been feeding with meat.)

The right margin

Going into the final two hours I knew I was doing reasonably well but that I needed something significant to happen to propel myself into the frame places. As a result I turned to my (as yet untouched) right margin and kicked-off with 4 large cups of Sonubaits 50:50 groundbait, softened micro pellets and dead maggots.

I left it for quarter of an hour to settle down, but as soon as I went on it (with two full size dendrabenas on the hook) I had 3 good fish in a row – just what the doctor ordered!!! I had to re-feed a couple of times but in those final two hours I had a total of 7 or 8 big fish (these edge fish probably averaged 6lb whereas those on the tip were 2-3lb). (During this period I also tried the straight lead and left margin a couple of times (whilst leaving the right margin to settle) but didn’t have any more bites despite continuing to feed both lines as best I could.)

Claire ‘Bagger’ Hollis was fourth overall

One of the joys of drawing an end peg is that you often find yourself on the scales and today was no exception! (Personally I don’t mind this too much as it gives you the chance to see what everyone else has caught and ask a few questions.) After weighing the low numbered half of the lake it was soon my turn and in the end my 16 or 17 carp and two tiny skimmers went 75-13-0 – just enough for second place but miles behind Ian Dixon’s 125lb!!!

Top 4:
  1. Ian Dixon, Peg 19 125lb
  2. Phil Morris, Peg 3 75-13-0
  3. Dave Steer, Peg 24 67lb
  4. Claire Hollis, Peg 25 60-8-0
(Apologies for the lack of precise weights for P1 and P3.)

Sonubaits 50:50 Method:Paste was fed down the edge

Conclusions: all-in-all a very enjoyable day and a nice warm-up for my fortnight at White Acres (which is less than two weeks away now). Bowsaw & Billhook certainly seems a very good venue with lots of fish to be caught – something that is reflected in the number of bookings for club matches on their calendar! The Ringers Banded Allsorts certainly worked well and seem to be a good alternative to standard hard pellets and fluro pop-ups when fishing the method or straight lead. However I failed to catch anything on luncheon meat once again – I’m going to give it one more go at White Acres and if that fails I’m doing to do away with it permanently!!! One final question though – should I have started building the right margin an hour or two earlier? Personally I don’t think so as towards the end bites slowed – however that line really was the key to my match as I probably had 30lb on the tip in the first four hours and 45lb from the right margin in the last two!

Until next time …


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Monday, 27 May 2013

27 May 2013, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

Another bank holiday Monday and another sunny day – remarkable! After spending yesterday earning some Brownie points painting the garden shed I was certainly keen to get on the bank for this Apollo Angling Centre organised match on Richardson’s Lake at Marsh Farm!!!

Welcome to Marsh Farm!

Today’s match saw 19 competitors grace the bank and it has to be said there seemed to be a higher standard that I’d normally expect with anglers from Daiwa Dorking (Mark Goddard, Dave Guntrip), Browning Crowsport (John Brownlie, Mick Cook, Darren Dodge, Nick Stunt) and Colmic Apollo (Mark Harrington, John Taylor) present – plus anglers of the calibre of Dave Steer and Simon Duke!

Anyway we all enjoy a challenge and fishing times of 1400 to 1900 would hopefully ensure decent weights as the fish (mainly tench, crucians and skimmers) tend to feed later in the day here at Marsh Farm.

Aerial view – peg 13 is on the point of the bend opposite the gap between the middle and right-hand islands



Despite it being a lovely sunny day there was a rather strong, gusty breeze blowing from the southwest – this meant that the wind was blowing from the far-end of the venue into the pegs in front of the tackle shop, making this the area everybody was talking about before the draw. My dip into the bag of dreams saw (unlucky) peg 13 appear – not in the fancied zone on the end of the wind, but at least I’d managed to avoid the section parallel to the ‘Chicken Bank’ of the neighbouring Johnson’s Lake (which hasn’t been the most productive over recent weeks).

Richardson’s 13 is a very unique peg as it is on the point of a bend facing a gap between two islands (the ends of which are both within the boundary formed by the anti-cormorant wires). This peg also has the advantage of having twice as much water to go at than any other on the lake! (For those of you familiar with White Acres it is similar to Twin Oaks 16 – but by no means as prolific!!!)

Peach Pefect Goo

Despite never intending to actually feed much (the fish at Marsh Farm are at times notorious for shying away from even the smallest volumes of bait) I always seem to end-up taking loads with me. Today’s bait bag was stuffed with 2 pints of 2mm fishery pellets, some Fin Perfect 4mm expanders, a pint each of 4mm and 6mm fishery pellets, Ringers 8mm fluro pop-ups, 2 tins-worth of 6mm meat, a pack of corn, a tub of Marukyu JPz (the red ones in 6mm), a tub of Ringers Banded Allsorts, Sonubaits Stiki Pellet, a kilo of groundbait, some worms, a tube of Cell stick mix liquid, yellow boilie dye, red boilie dye and a tube of Kiana Goo (Perfect Peach Power Smoke flavour)!!!

Tackle for the TK+4 rigs

Prior to the ‘all in’ I had set-up a pellet feeder rod for fishing tight to the left-hand island and pole rigs for fishing left and right at top kit plus 4. (Given the strong breeze I decided to use 4x14 KC Carp Chimps shot with a strung bulk of number 10 stotz – a heavier rig on 0.13 mainline into an 0.11 hooklength with a size 20 Tubertini 808 (blue Hydro) and a lighter rig on 0.11 mainline into an 0.10 hooklength with a size 22 Tubertini 808 (pink Hydro). Both rigs were set at the same depth as I’d chosen spots left and right with the same depth.)

On the whistle I started by feeding these two pole swims with a medium Cad pot’s worth of micro pellets (with the aim of topping-up with the same again every 20 minutes) and cast my pellet feeder to the left island – unfortunately this only yielded a small common carp and a skimmer in the first 50 minutes. However a switch to the pole at around 1450 led to a good 25 minutes which saw me finish the first quarter of the match with a decent total of 4 skimmers, a tench and that common carp.

Peg 13 on Richardson's Lake - a massive bay and two islands!

The second quarter of the match (1515 to 1630) was reasonable as I managed two more skimmers on the tip and two on the left-hand TK+4 pole swim (where I’d switched to feeding a 50:50 mix of Sonubaits F1 Black and Supercrush Green groundbait.)

During this period I also set-up a 4x12 KC Carpa Chimp rig (on 0.13 mainline to a hooklength of the same with a size 16 Kamasan B911 (white Hydro)) for fishing the ‘margin’ in 3’ of water at top kit plus 2 left and right – I started feeding 6mm meat to the left by hand and cupped four pots of groundbait to the right.

Tasty looking left margin

Unfortunately the second half of the match started very slowly with just one skimmer on the pellet feeder and a tiny ‘blade’ skimmer on the left-hand TK+4 pole swim between 1630 and 1745. (I did try feeding some chopped worms & micros on the right-hand TK+4 swim and set-up a second tip rod to cast to the right-hand island – neither of these tactics yielded a bite and ditto for the margin swims!)

Tackle for the pellet feeder

Going into the final quarter of the match and I was praying for a miracle and in all fairness I probably got one! Things started well with a skimmer on the left-hand TK+4 pole line, but the real damage was done on the pellet feeder to the left-hand island – this line contributed a further tench and five good skimmers.

Interestingly I started squirting some Peach Perfection Goo into the pellet feeder with fifteen minutes to go – this led to 3 very quick bites, one of which didn’t lead to a hook-up but the other two bites saw the two biggest fish of the day hit the landing net!

(Given the strong winds today I chose to use a 30g small Preston pellet feeder. Hooklength was 10cm of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge into a size 16 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band. The only hookbait used today was a hard 6mm pellet. Bait for the feeder was simply soaked 2mm fishery pellets.)

Nick Stunt putting his third placed catch onto the scales

That good last hour meant that in the end I’d managed a common carp, two tench and 15 skimmers in total – enough to drag the scales ‘round to a surprising 34-10-0 (I honestly thought I had less than 20lb). As things turned-out I’d managed to scrape the final frame place – though I had once again sat next to the winner!

Top 4:
  1. Darren Dodge (Browning Crowsport), peg 12 49-12-0
  2. John Taylor (Colmic Apollo), peg 9 40lb+
  3. Nick Stunt (Browning Crowsport), peg 3 38lb+
  4. Phil Morris (All the Gear, No Idea), peg 13 34-10-0
(Apologies for the lack of precise weights for P2 and P3.)

A thumbs-up from Bagger

Conclusions: Despite a really slow third quarter I was pleased with my final weight and taking into account the calibre of angler fishing today I very was certainly very happy to finish in the frame! However once again I’d failed to summon-up a bite from the margins – I think the real problem here is a lack of confidence, and unless I get a quick indication I’m not willing to stick with it until it comes good. As a result I’m not going to try it in future matches at Marsh Farm until I’ve proved it can work in a pleasure session.

The winner today (Darren Dodge in the swim to my right) fished chopped worm & caster and caught steadily all day on the pole down the near shelf. Was this bait combination the key? I think it unlikely and chances are it was down to superior presentation, feeding and decision making!!! (However a pattern does seem to be emerging where skimmers prefer pellets/fishmeal groundbait and tench prefer worms/casters so perhaps in future I’ll try feeding a different swim with each.)

Finally the Goo – did it make a difference or was it just the time of day? Again it was probably the latter but I think it is worth carrying two or three flavours in order to sneak an extra bite here and there – it also works well in a pellet feeder as you can part fill your feeder with pellets, apply some Goo then add your hookbait and final layer of pellets.

Until next time …

 
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Sunday, 19 May 2013

19 May 2013, Harris Lake (Marsh Farm)

Last weekend was a non-fishing weekend so I was keen to get back on the bank for this Godalming AS organised match at Marsh Farm, especially as the weather (mild, overcast and breezy) looked ideal for a day’s bagging!

Today’s match was on Harris Lake – regular readers will know that this isn’t the pond usually used for matches (that’s Richardson’s Lake) and that the target species are essentially specimen tench and crucians.

No prizes for guessing where I drew today!
 

The fish at Marsh Farm are notorious for following the wind and as I was looking for a day on the feeder fished tight to the central island I was hoping to draw in the far corner on the wider (railway) side of the lake – amazingly the bag of dreams presented me with peg 25, putting me exactly where I wanted to be!!!

The water was amazingly clear for late May

All of the pre-match talk was about the clarity of the water and boy was it clear! On arrival at my peg I really couldn’t believe how uncoloured it was – considering it is late spring I was amazed to be able to see the bottom 5 or 6m out!!!

The plan I’d developed during the week was 3 pronged – pellet feeder to the island, just over the near shelf at top kit plus four and up the near slope in 3 feet of water (a margin swim of sorts). However given the extreme water clarity the latter was immediately ruled-out and the longer pole was only set-up as a throwaway plan ‘B’ – that left the pellet feeder as the main focus. (Gear for this was the usual 20g small Preston Innovations pellet feeder with a 10cm hooklength of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge into a size 16 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band.)

Harris Lake at Marsh Farm

On the whistle I fed my top kit plus 4 left and right pole lines with a reasonable amount of soaked micro pellets, stuffed some of the same into the feeder and cast 4 or 5 feet short of the island. Action was hardly frantic but 10 extremely savage bites in the first 3 hours saw 9 tench fall to the pellet feeder (with a 6mm hard pellet on the hook) and word on the bank was that I was probably winning at the halfway point.

It turned into an out-and-out pellet feeder day

Things always seem to slow around lunchtime (today’s match was fished from 1000 to 1600) so I was pleased to pick-up two nice crucians in the fourth hour – though a tench just after 2 o’clock (on a bright pink Ringers fluro pop-up) was my last bite for nearly two hours when in the final 10 minutes I landed two more tench on the final two casts! (I probably could’ve managed a third in this spell but the first tench took me into some lily pads and the second dived into the roots of the tree to my right!!!)

These late fish saw me end-up with a dozen tench and two crucians for 46-5-0 and as it transpired those late tench were vital as I’d stolen a victory from Ian Dixon who was less than two pounds behind!!! (Match organiser Roger Howe was third with 36lb.)

Looking right towards the bay

Conclusions: I’ve always struggled to catch on the pole on Harris Lake and today was no exception – given the water clarity and fairly bright weather it was always going to be a feeder day. (With hindsight I’d probably have left the pole in the bag and focused solely on the tip.) The pellet feeder was once again a winner – many people still shy away from these and prefer to fish a method or cage feeder, but I have so much confidence in them that they are definitely now my first choice for fishing tight to islands.
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Monday, 6 May 2013

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

Part two of a May bank holiday weekend double header – this time back to my ‘home’ venue of Marsh Farm for an Apollo Angling Centre organised open on Richardson’s Lake. I think it is fair to say that expectations were high for this match – after all we had an extra day off work, the sun was shining and venue expert Gareth Phillips had won Wednesday’s open with a titanic 88lb! (Not bad for a tench and skimmers venue!)

Richardson’s Lake at Marsh Farm

After praying for an end peg at MBK yesterday I finally got one today as my dip into the bag of dreams saw peg 6 appear – not normally an end peg but it was for this match so happy days! To make things even better what breeze there was was blowing from my left into the spare pegs to my right – the fish at Marsh Farm really do seem to follow the wind so hopefully I’d be able to pull some fish back into my swim.

Incidentally today’s match was to be six hours in length and fished from 1300 to 1900 – this is designed to increase catches as the tench tend to feed early and late in the day. A nice number of sixteen anglers graced the bank.

Peg 6


Most of the pegs on Richardson’s Lake at Marsh Farm look very similar with between 16m at its narrowest to typically 22-25m to one of the central islands – however there seems to be a slight bay in the island in front of the tackle shop centred on peg 5 that also makes pegs 4 and 6 wider than most at nearer to 28-30m. This feature makes these pegs ideal for the method feeder and seems to be a natural holding spot of a few of the lake’s resident skimmers.

With this is mind I rigged-up two tip rods – one with a 24g Guru method feeder, the other a free-running set-up for use with a straight lead or a cage feeder. I also set-up two similar pole rigs (with the same floats but one with lighter line, the other heavier) to fish swims with the same depth at top kit plus four left and right. (As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs I find it useful having a more delicate rig and elastic if predominantly catching skimmers or crucians, but a heavier set-up just in case it is a tench day.)

Simple bait requirements

I tend to keep the bait I take to Marsh Farm matches very simple – even in winter I centre my attack on micro pellets for feed with some 6mm hard pellets and 4mm expanders as hookbaits for the feeder and pole respectively.

Recently I’ve been preparing my micro pellets by completely submerging them in water for two and a half minutes then draining all of the excess water with a sieve (the one that was a cover gift on Match Fishing magazine a good five years ago). However today I decided to revert to my previous approach and filled the bait tub with water level to the top of the pellets and simply left them to absorb all of the water whilst I prepared my tackle (you’ll see why this was significant below).

Slightly scaled-down gear for the bomb

On the whistle I fed a small amount (probably equal to a medium Cad pot) of 2mm pellets on my left-hand pole swim and picked-up my method rod. Despite copious amounts of Sonubaits Stiki Pellet binder the feed pellets weren’t behaving themselves and preferred to attach themselves to the inside of the mould rather than the feeder!!! I managed one cast but when the same thing (but worse) happened second time ‘round I picked-up my bomb rod with the intention of swapping the method for a 20g Preston Innovations pellet feeder on the other. (One of the big advantages of the pellet feeder is that they are incredibly quick and easy to load!)

On the bomb rod I had attached the same one third of an ounce Guru square lead used successfully at MBK Colour Ponds yesterday, but the end tackled was slightly scaled-down (30cm of 0.17 Guru N-Gauge to a size 16 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band) as I’d be fishing for tench with 6mm pellets. At this point there was absolutely no wind so I was able to accurately feed 6mm pellets via a catapult tight to the far bank and this led to two small tench in a row – however the breeze soon rose so I swapped to the pellet feeder, and another two fish on this saw me end the first hour nicely placed with 3 tench and a skimmer.

The heavier TK+4 rig

The second hour started with a small common carp on the pellet feeder but a lull in the action following this unusual catch saw me deposit five large cage feeders worth of micro pellets onto the far bank line and switch to the pole for the first time. (I’d continued feeding the left-hand pole swim in between casts on the tip.)

I decided to start on the heavier rig (0.13 Reflo Power mainline, a 0.1g Mo Brown Slim’o shot with 5 number 10 stotz, 20cm of 0.11 into a size 20 Tubertini 808 with blue Hydrolastic) with a 4mm expander pellet just in case the swim was full of tench – as it happened the float dipped on the first drop, a nice skimmer came to the surface and promptly shed the hook!!!

As a result I quickly swapped to the lighter rig, opened the right-hand swim and promptly hooked a tench! I got it in but it would’ve been much quicker on the kit I’d just swapped from!

The alternative track rig

Hours 3 and 4 were pretty slow and I only managed a poor return of one tench and one skimmer, both snared on the pellet feeder to the far bank. I had however infuriatingly bumped two more fish on the pole (on the light rig) and missed half a dozen proper bites – well they looked like proper bites to me anyway!!!

In order to try and get over this problem I set-up a 4x14 KC Carpa Chimp with a larger size 18 Tubertini 808 hook laying-on a few inches (the Slim’o rigs were set at dead depth) – however I couldn’t get a bite on it so I can’t claim it made a huge difference!!!

The lighter TK+4 rig

Going into hour five I was becoming a little despondent as Richard Cox on peg 7 to my left had really started bagging on his short pole line with casters. However Lady Luck decided to shine on me at last and I was soon enjoying a real golden spell on the pole with a cracking run of decent sized skimmers – I’d feed one side with a pole-mounted small Cad pot, catch a fish from the other swim, feed the side I’d just caught from and repeat.

This lasted for about half an hour with the lighter rig (0.11 Reflo Power mainline, a 0.1g Mo Brown Slim’o shot with 5 number 10 stotz, 20cm of 0.10 into a size 22 Tubertini 808 with pink Hydrolastic) doing all of the damage. After starting to bump a few (presumably foul-hooked) fish I did give the Chimp rig another go, but this only yielded a solitary tench on a segment of worm (all of the other fish were caught on a 4mm expander).

The margin didn’t happen!

The final hour was a disappointment as the pole swims slowed dramatically and I only managed a few more skimmers from them – plus I annoyingly managed to lose a good tench on the pellet feeder (the only fish I can remember losing on a QM1 in 2013 so far).

Like most of the field I was also hoping to bag-up down the edge in the last hour – however my choice of swim position (too close to the bank in too shallow a depth) and bait (soaked micros and hard 6mm pellets as feed, a worm segment on the hook) didn’t lead to any signs of a fish.

Looking right from peg 6

So six hours of fishing had soon come and gone – I was last to weigh and put 12lb of tench and 21lb of skimmers/crucians onto the scales for a pleasing 33-5-0. This left me second overall behind Richard Cox’s cracking 43lb – I’m not sure of the weights but Dave Steer and Pete Franklin picked-up the other prizes as section winners with high twenty pound returns. (Not big weights when compared to the previous Wednesday but this was no doubt due to the bright sunshine and lack of wind we had to endure (if ‘endure’ is the right word considering the spring we’ve been through).)

The pellet feeder worked today

Conclusions: It may sound trivial but the way I prepared my micro pellets had a big impact and I’ve learned a valuable lesson today – soaking and draining is definitely better for the method, covering level and leaving to absorb the preferred option for the pellet feeder and lose feeding via a pole cup/pot. I’ve also learned that the current secret to catching ‘down the edge’ is to find three feet of water (so not close in when compared to places like Gold Valley were I fish literally inches from the bank) and to constantly feed casters by hand (Richard Cox had 4 pints with him and fed between two and three). Having said that today was a great result – I certainly can’t complain after framing twice in two days!

Until next time …


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Sunday, 5 May 2013

05 May 2013, Pond 4 (MBK Coloured Ponds)

Today was the first part of a bank holiday double and something a little different as it was a ‘secret teams of four’ event! 36 anglers took to the banks of MBK Coloured Ponds (18 from Woking DAA and 18 from Godalming AS) and via the draw were sorted into teams of four, with one angler from each team on a different lake (in effect fishing in a section of 9). (Whilst each angler drew their own peg in the usual fashion the organisers had predetermined the peg numbers that made-up each team.)

MBK Coloured Ponds, Pond 4
Despite this being an inter-club match there was a good standard of angler present today with open match regulars of the likes of Ian Dixon, Simon Duke, Dave Steer and Alex Clements (who has just been called-up to the England under 23 squad). However anglers of all ability were certainly enjoying the lovely May sunshine – when is it ever sunny on a bank holiday weekend in the UK?

Many of you will already be familiar with this venue – if not follow the link below to a recent write-up that sets the scene:
Peg 5 - spirit level anyone?



Along with everybody else I was hoping for a favoured corner peg and despite there being a total of 16 such pegs in the bag lady luck decided to put me on a peg slap bang in the middle of Pond 4!!! (Not an end peg but at least I was on the lake that I would’ve chosen given the choice).

Peg 5 is something of a ‘bird cage’ given the trees overhead and the relative proximity to the banking that separates the lake from the top car park, but it is at the start of the wider pegs where the near bank opens out towards the walkway between this lake and Pond 3. As a result I settled on an opening plan of fishing the straight lead and pellet waggler over lose fed 8mm pellets at 25m, plus the pole at top kit plus 2 towards an inviting looking tree stump along my left margin.

Bait-Tech N-Tice Polony

The main baits today were 2 pints of 8mm pellets for the long line with some corn and a tin of Bait-Tech N-Tice polony for the margin swim. (In reserve I also had some groundbait, expander pellets, worms and maggots (both live and dead) in case I needed to fish for skimmers on the long pole or as a different option for the margin.)

I finally managed a fish on this in 2013!

Well it was soon 10 o’clock and time for the start of this six hour contest – on the whistle I fed my margin line (I’ve seen people catch all day from their margin on this lake before) and once again started the relentless process of firing 8mm pellets in threes and fours to 25m via a catapult.

The first hour didn’t yield any bites on the tip or from the margin swim and my only return was a single foul-hooked fish on the pellet waggler (tackle was the same 6lb Daiwa Sensor main line, 6g stumpy Preston Innovations Dura pellet waggler and 25cm of 0.19 Reflo Power into a size 16 Guru Pellet Waggler hook used at Gold Valley last week).

As ever at this venue when it’s warm there were lots of ghost carp cruising very close to the surface but proving impossible to catch!

Today's straight lead gear

However the second hour was better and saw a total of four carp fall to the bomb – the first early on after the bait had been in the water for nearly 10 minutes, the others very quickly in a row towards the end of the hour.

Starting gear for the straight lead was 8lb Daiwa Sensor main line, a 2/3 ounce Guru square lead and a 30cm hooklength of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge into a size 14 Guru QM1 with a micro bait band. However after the first fish I switched to a 1/3 ounce bomb – this seemed to make a big difference as the entry splash was much more discrete than the heavier version that I normally use.

In between the first and second carp of the hour I’d also managed to miss a proper bite and lose another foul-hooker on the pellet waggler – despite the ideal weather conditions and the visible fish this approach really wasn’t working so was pretty much discarded at this point.

New Drennan catapults

The third hour saw three more carp on the tip and I felt I was doing OK – I could see Ian Dixon and Chris Kampa in the corners diagonally opposite caching a few, but I was sure I was in touch with them and ahead of the rest of the lake/section (most of whom only had one or two carp each at this point).

However in order to ease the pressure on my 25m line I opened a new pole swim directly in front at top kit plus 3 sections with half a pot of (live) maggots at about twelve thirty – this seems to be the time of day when carp become very difficult to catch so it is worth winkling-out a few roach and perch in order to keep the catch rate ticking over.

Spare platform to the right - behind the tree!

Into the second half of this six hour match and the fourth hour saw three more carp fall to the straight lead and a few chunky perch on the maggot line. I’d been continuing to fed my left had margin with corn and meat via a cupping kit, but in order to give myself another option I set-up a second margin rig to fish in front of the spare platform to my right – I couldn’t fish tight to it as there was a rather inconvenient willow tree between myself and peg 4 but by leaning forward on my box I could get pretty close to it! (This new line was kicked-off with 4 large pots of loose groundbait and a sprinkling of dead maggots.)

Gear for the maggot line

The fifth hour only saw one carp in the net – though it was the best fish of the day at around eight pounds and took about 20 minutes to land as it was foul-hooked in the pectoral fin on my silvers rig that was set-up on blue Hydrolastic!!! (This rig consisted of a 4x12 KC Carp Chimp on 0.15 main line to a hooklength of 0.13 and a size 18 Kamasan B911 – heavy gear for silvers but I knew there was always a chance of hooking a rogue carp on this line.)

Despite others doing so I couldn’t get a bite from a carp on either of my margin lines – though I did get excited a couple of times when the float dipped but it only proved to be small perch attempting to snaffle two whole dendrabenas!

Gear for the right margin

Into the last hour now and I continued to persist with my margin lines but without any carp action – I did however manage two more carp on the bomb from my (by now) neglected 25m line. This left me with a total of 13 carp and a few perch for a pleasing 53-11-0.

Nick Stunt was to my left

This meant I was second on the lake behind Ian Dixon (who’d put 71lb of mainly waggler caught carp onto the scales) from corner peg 16, but well clear of third place (a low thirty). It also turned-out that I’d managed third overall – though miles behind Alex Clements who had a massive 144lb from Pond 3!!! Furthermore my ‘secret team of four’ took second place in the team event – all-in-all a very good day considering the sun was still shining!

Is a lighter bomb (right) the way forward?

Conclusions: Following-on from last week’s hammering by Mark Goddard I made two adjustments to my approach to the bomb & pellet that seemed to make a big difference – switching to a lighter weight and feeding more! (Even though it felt like I fed a lot of 8mm pellets in total I still probably only fed one and half pints – not a great deal compared to what I fed through my cupping kit into the margin.) I also couldn’t make margin work and wasted time on it – with hindsight I should’ve kept 25m line going properly as this had been the banker all day. Finally it is always worth opening a maggot line for silvers if things go quiet - its rather uncanny the number of times this has resulted in a bonus carp too!

Until next time …

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