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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15 September 2013, Milton Lake (Bury Hill)

In the blink of an eye it was time for the final round of the Guildford Angling Centre summer league for 2013. Having gotten off to a great start in the first three matches, round 4 was a complete disaster and having missed the fifth with a holiday meant I’d slipped down to sixth position overall. However, as your best five scores count towards your final total it was still a mathematical possibility that I could finish as high as second, though in reality my aim was to finish in the top four and to secure one of the overall league pay-outs …

The fishing lodge at Bury Hill

Today’s match was to be held on Milton Lake at Bury Hill Fisheries, near Dorking in Surrey. This is leafy stockbroker belt country and those of you that live ‘up North’ may (or may not) be surprised to hear that a standard, one rod day ticket is £12!!!

In all fairness Bury Hill is a cracking fishery with four waters that cover a range of angling disciplines. Old Bury Hill is a large estate lake known for it’s bream and tench – plus cracking pike and zander sport in the winter; Bonds Lake is a smaller commercial-style lake with a central island and lots of match sized carp; Temple is the newest pool and is a dedicated specimen carp lake (run as a syndicate I believe); Milton Lake has about 30 pegs, an island and lots of swims with lily pads. Over the years any carp have been moved into Bonds Lake, leaving the main stocking as tench, crucians, skimmers and roach.

Please form an orderly queue!

YouTube video of the view from my peg

My home for the day turned-out to be peg 5 – not being a venue regular I didn’t know if this was a good area or not, but this peg is on a mini point facing into the main bowl of the lake with no obvious (visible) features. For company I had Tony Corpes to my left on end peg 6, and round the corner to the lily pads to my right C section was completed by Giovanni Barbato (4), Ian (3) and Dave Carter (2).

Because of the nature of the lake today’s match was made float only – something that strikes fear into the hearts of method feeder obsessed anglers such as myself! Having a good plumb around I found an even depth of about 4’ virtually everywhere, and hence started the match with a single rig that I could use at 13m straight in front, 13m to the right and at top kit plus 4 to the left at an angle of 45 degrees.

Given the target species this rig was made-up on a 0.11 Reflo Power main line to a 0.10 hooklength of the same material tied to a size 20 Tubertini 808 (elastic was pink Hydro). Given the strong left to right breeze (which was forecast to rise, bringing heavy rain later) I settled on a stable 4x14 KC Carpa Chimp float shot with a total of ten number 10 stotz – the initial shotting pattern was to be a spread bulk, but the use of small shots meant that I could quickly swap to a bulk and dropper set-up if needed.

Welcome to Milton Lake …

In many ways today’s match was the first autumn match of 2013 – the temperature gauge in the car dipped as low as 4 degrees Celsius on the way to the venue and heavy overnight rain would surely have an impact on sport. Bearing this is in mind I decided to start the session very cautiously, only feeding very small amounts of chopped worm and caster through a tiny Preston Innovations Cad pot attached to the end of my top kit.

This seemed to be a reasonable approach as the match started slowly and I can’t recall seeing any of the five or six anglers I had full view of on the far side catch a fish in the first 30 minutes or so! My first fish came after about 45 minutes and was a tiny roach – though it was quickly followed by two 10/12 ounce specimens.

A series of missed bites then saw me switch my shotting pattern to a bulk at 40cm and 2 number 10s pushed together at 20cm from the hook – this led to a couple more quality roach but was something of a false dawn as I struggled to the mid-point of the match with no more than about 3lb in the bag.

Looking left from peg 5

Just over halfway through the match I decided to scale-down my hooklength to an 0.08 trace into a size 22 Gamakatsu Black hook – essentially the lightest I carry at this time of year. I also switched shotting patterns back to more of a shirt button style and started loose-feeding a few casters via a catapult – first drop in and a near 3lb skimmer was the result!!!

Unfortunately this was another false dawn and all I could manage in the remainder of the match were four or five more quality roach. (The 13m line to the right, which I’d fed with micro pellets, didn’t yield any bites – a line to the rushes to my left towards peg 6 was equally fruitless.)

The moment of truth

Following a torrential downpour it was time for the all important weigh-in – had I pulled-off a miracle and managed to scrape the third in section I needed for a decent league placing? In short – no! Tony Corpes was first to weigh and put 12-2-0 on the scales from peg 6. I was up next and could only muster a disappointing 9-4-0 – made worse when I was annihilated by Giovanni Barbato’s 46-8-0 from peg 4!!! I was then ounced by Ian on peg 3 (9-8-0) and battered by Dave Carter’s 18-5-0 (peg 2) – leaving me stone cold last in section!!!

In the end the ever reliable Pete Franklin and Gareth Phillips took first and second overall (respectively), and G was pushed down to third by the narrowest of margins. Overall top 4:

1. Pete Franklin, peg 22, 48-12-0
2. Gareth Phillips, peg 23, 46-15-0
3. Giovanni Barbato, peg 4, 46-8-0
4. Martin Johnson, peg 28, 23-4-0

Today’s section winners:

• Pete Franklin, peg 22, 48-12-0
• Martin Johnson, peg 28, 23-4-0
• Giovanni Barbato, peg 4, 46-8-0

The final reckoning

After retiring to the Wooton Hatch, Pete was soon to work with his trusty laptop crunching the numbers and putting together the final league table, which read as follows:

1. Pete Franklin, 5 points, 479lb
2. Gareth Phillips, 8 points, 407lb
3. Dan Cooper, 10 points, 264lb
4. Luke Sheriff, 11 points, 255lb
5. Martin Johnson, 12 points, 349lb
6. Giovanni Barbato, 12 points, 331lb
7. Paul Williamson, 12 points, 307lb
8. Phil Morris, 13 points, 335lb
9. Mick Keeper, 13 points, 322lb
10. Paul Taylor, 15 points, 283lb
11. Shaun Sylvester, 15 points, 272lb
12. Dave Carter, 15 points, 164lb
13. Mick Seymour, 16 points, 223lb
14. Claire Hollis, 17 points, 196lb
15. Ben Hicks, 17 points, 165lb
16. Ryan Seymour, 17 points, 116lb
17. Richard Hicks, 18 points, 162lb
18. Tony Corpes, 18 points, 128lb
19. Mark Cane, 21 points, 117lb
20. Ryan Coates, 23 points, 150lb

So congratulations to those at the top of the table – a great result in what is a relatively small, yet very hard fought league! I’d also like to thank the organisers (mainly Pete, G, Shaun and Tony) for their efforts as I know it is greatly appreciated by those taking part.

Sums-up my day!!!

Conclusions: Well what can I say? After a great start to the league with two overall match wins and second in section (with what will almost certainly be my biggest weight of the year), the second half was a complete disaster with two lasts in section and match that I could make due to holiday (in other words three lasts in section), meaning I dropped to eighth place. At the end of the day this is what makes fishing a festival or a league a truer test than one-off matches, as every match means so much in terms of points and final position! To make matters worse an extra 2-15-0 today would’ve seen me jump-up the league to fourth place – if only it was that easy!!!!!

Until next time …

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08 September 2013, Harris Lake (Marsh Farm)

32 anglers, 8 teams of 4. Five and a half hours (330 minutes). Two torrential downpours and one rumble of thunder. 1 rod, 9 bites. 5 tench, 4 crucians. 23 pounds 13 ounces – job done!!!

About time we drew the scales …

Today’s event was the third in this year’s Godalming AS teams of four, a six match series held at Marsh Farm with the first three on Harris Lake, the final three on Richardson’s. It was my turn to be ‘captain du jour’ and my first action was to fail miserably at my main objective of the day – to avoid drawing the scales!!! Putting this small fact to one side I’d managed to put us on the same set of pegs as round one with Debs on 9, Bagger on 17, Dave on 30 and myself on 38.

My draw put me on what is generally seen as the best side of the lake (that nearest the railway line), but in the section nearest the shop (the area nearest to the adjacent Johnson’s Lake is normally the most productive). However the wind was blowing from the south/southwest, hopefully pushing the fish to my end of the lake.

Looking left from peg 38 on Harris Lake

I’ve written before regarding my lack of confidence of catching on the pole on Harris Lake, so I once again plumped for ledgering only tactics. In fact unlike my last match on this pond (where I set-up two tip rods, one for a pellet feeder and one for a cage feeder) I decided to put all of my faith in the pellet feeder and went with a single tip rod approach!

I initially set-up with a 20g small Preston Innovations pellet feeder – however after eventually clipping-up just short of the central island the right to left crosswind rose considerably so before the all-in I swapped to a 30g version. (Whilst I would’ve preferred to use a 20g version as it makes less of a disturbance on casting, in my book accuracy is the single most important factor when fishing to an island/far margin so I was willing to sacrifice a little subtlety for extra precision.)

The view to the right

YouTube video of the view from my peg

Regular All the Gear, No Idea readers will have spotted that I normally have the scene-setting ‘view from my peg’ video a little nearer the top of my blogs – however if you take a look at the clip above you’ll see that I was able to induce a very subtle bite from a 4lb tench first cast!

This was a great start, but something of a false dawn as I didn’t get another bite until 45 minutes later – though two tench for 7lb is a pretty decent first hour return for any match at Marsh Farm!!!

Micros treated with Almond Supreme Goo

During the second hour of the match (1100-1200) I decided to keep myself amused by experimenting further with some Kiana Goo. I quite often squirt some Tutti Frutti power smoke directly into a pellet feeder, but today I decided to colour/flavour a portion of my soaked 2mm feed pellets with some Almond Supreme bait smoke. (It seems that the power smoke Goos are really thick and hence better for applying to PVA bags or method feeders, whereas bait smokes are much thinner and hence better for applying to feed pellets or groundbait.)

You can see from the photo above that the Goo certainly coloured the pellets nicely – however what you can’t get a sense of here is the amazing almond smell! First cast with the flavoured pellets led to a big liner, but no indications on the second drop in saw me switch back to unflavoured pellets next cast and a third (but smaller) tench in the net. So the question is: did the Goo pull the tench into the swim or was that fish already there and in fact put off by it? Answers on a postcard or sealed down envelope please …

Just pellets and Goo today!

Midday brought the forecasted rain and our first soaking of the day, though during this torrential downpour I was able to pick-up a small crucian that boosted my weight to about 10lb.

A lull in activity of about an hour was then followed but what can only be termed ‘spectacular sport’ by Marsh Farm standards – three fish in three casts!!! The first (a nice crucian) came after the feeder had been in the water for nearly 20 minutes – a second crucian fell next cast after 3 or 4 minutes and the third fish (a decent tench) grabbed the bait as I was sinking the line!!!

Time for a second soaking!

Normal service was soon resumed and the final two hours (1330-1530) only saw two more bites – one from a small crucian at about 2 o’clock and another from a good tench 2 minutes from the final whistle (after the feeder had been in the water for well over half an hour). In fact the final tench nearly pulled my rod in as I’d started to pack-up and I had it balanced beach caster style on my keepnet with the butt on the ground!!!

Results for A and B section

By the time the scales (which were in my hands) arrived at my peg Ian Dixon had already secured C section with 18-13-0 and Mick Mahoney was winning D section with 19-1-0. As a result I was rather pleased to see my 5 tench and 4 crucians go 23-13-0, enough to win the section and secure individual top spot on the day!

Overall top 4:

1. Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 38, 23-13-0
2. Mick Mahoney (Chertsey Baits), peg 36, 19-1-0
3. Ian Dixon (matchangler.com), peg 27, 18-13-0
4. Max Calverly (Guildford AC), peg 26, 15-10-0

Section winners:

• Darren Dodge (matchangler.com), peg 3, 13-15-0
• Brian Ward (Team Rog), peg 19, 10-0-0
• Ian Dixon (matchangler.com), peg 27, 18-13-0
• Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 38, 23-13-0

Top 3 teams on the day:

1. Matchangler.com, 12 points
2. Chertsey Bait, 16 points (on overall weight countback)
3. Guildford Angling Centre, 16 points

League standing after round 3:

1. Matchangler.com, 26 points
2. Guildford Angling Centre, 41 points
3. Trev’s Tornadoes, 54 points
4. Chertsey Bait, 54 points
5. Brian’s Bandits, 54 points
6. Team Bagger, 58 points
7. Team Rog, 67 points
8. Buster’s Bandits, 77 points

Unfortunately whilst Bagger (second in section) and myself had secured good points on the day for Team Bagger, Dave and Debs had both struggled with poor draws leaving us in fifth place on the day. In terms of the league Team Bagger are now sitting in sixth – too far behind to be aiming for first or second, but still in with a chance of third with three rounds to go.

Scores on the doors for C and D

Conclusions: once again my single minded, feeder only tactics seemed to pay-off on Harris Lake. For my money chopping and changing between the feeder and the pole/waggler on this lake can see the match winning fish move through your island swim without a bait in the right place – a fatal mistake given the light stocking levels and the type of fish present. It might be boring, but unlike your typical match carp venue the old fashioned approach of setting trap and be patient seems to be the way to go!

Until next time …

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26 August 2013, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

Today’s match was the third annual August bank holiday Monday charity match at Marsh Farm – this is a regular event so if you fancy fishing at Marsh Farm and doing your bit for charity then pencil next year’s date (25/08/2014) into your diary now!

Some could hardly contain the pre-draw excitement!

YouTube video of the view from my peg

Despite living locally to Marsh Farm I’d not actually fished on Richardson’s Lake since the previous bank holiday at the end of May so it would be interesting to see if my usual approaches were still working.

My dip into the bag of dreams produced peg 27 – this is a good looking peg on the Johnson’s Lake bank with a nice gap between the overhanging trees on the far bank and some interesting looking lily pads close in to the left. For company I had Dave Carter on (end) peg 25 and venue expert Russ Berryman to my left on peg 29 – superstar angler Dave Johnson was also within earshot (I think he was on 31 but he was probably audible to the majority of angler’s fishing today).

All the gear …

After assessing my peg I came-up with the following pre-match plan:

• Pellet feeder tight over
• 4mm expanders over micros at top kit plus 5 to the left at 10 o’clock
• Chopped worm and caster at TK+5 to the right at 2 o’clock
• Chopped worm and caster at the back of the pads

Hopefully this would cover a few options and help me build towards my target weight of 35-40lb. The corresponding rods/rigs were:

• 10’ tip rod, 8lb Daiwa Sensor mainline, small 20g Preston Innovations pellet feeder to a 10cm hooklength of 0.19 N-Gauge with a size 16 QM1 and a hair-rigged pellet band
• Pink Hydro top kit, 0.11 mainline a 15cm hooklength of 0.10 to a size 22 Tubertini 808, the float being a 0.1g Mo Brown Slim’o
• As above but a blue Hydro top kit, 0.13 mainline a 15cm hooklength of 0.11 to a size 20 Tubertini 808
• Blue Hydro top kit, 0.13 mainline a 15cm hooklength of 0.11 to a size 18 Tubertini 808, the float being a 4x14 KC Carpa Chimp
• Black Hydro top kit, 0.15 mainline a 15cm hooklength of 0.13 to a size 16 Kamasan B911, the float being a 4x12 KC Carpa Chimp

Pellet feeder to the far bank trees

The first quarter of the match (1000-1130) was steady if not spectacular with three small tench and two crucians falling to the pellet feeder with a 6mm pellet hookbait – bites on the feeder taking on average six to eight mins to develop.

I also started regularly feeding the pellet line at top kit plus 5 to the left with micro pellets after forty five minutes – I did try it once or twice with a 4mm expander pellet on the lighter Slim’o rig but no bites materialised.

Peg 27 today

The second ninety minutes started badly when I lost the lot when a good fish took me into a snag on the pellet feeder, but finished well with two nice skimmers on the same method. In between I had a good run of tench, crucians and skimmers on 4mm expander or red 6mm Marukyu JPz over micros on pole – as per usual there was lots of fizzing and dragging the float slowly from one side to the other over the baited area seemed a reliable way of inducing a bite.

Perfect weather for it!!!

Marsh Farm Tench on the Pellet Feeder

As per usual sport started to slow from about 1 o’clock and the period between 1300 and 1430 only produced two tench and a surprise carp on the feeder, plus one further small skimmer on the pole line where I’d been feeding micro pellets.

During this spell I had started feeding the top kit plus 5 line to the right with chopped worm and caster but no bites were produced on the 4x14 KC Carpa Chimp rig.

Lily pads to the left

The final part of any summer match can often be the most productive and the final 90 minutes (1430 to 1600) today were pretty decent with four further tench and one decent skimmer falling to the pellet feeder tight over. Interestingly most of these fish came when I’d added a squirt of Tutti Frutti Goo between the initial loading of pellets and the hookbait/final amount of pellets.

Unfortunately none of the three pole lines produced any bites (during the final hour I started feeding chopped worm and caster just beyond the very fishy looking lily pads to my left).

Bagger continued her good form with fourth overall

In the end my 20lb of tench/carp and 8lb of skimmers/crucians gave me a total of 28-6-0 – I didn’t manage to get a photo of the final board but this was probably just about in the top half, 4lb behind Russ Berryman who picked-up the double-default section.

In terms of the frame Bagger continued her good form with 35lb for fourth overall, no more than 10lb behind the winner – I think the weights were 43lb, 41lb and 38lb but don’t quote me!!!

Overall top four:

1. Phil Worrell
2. Ian Dixon
3. Mark Harrington
4. Claire Hollis

Please go ‘round!!!

Conclusion: Unlike yesterday I do have a few ideas as to where I went wrong today and with hindsight (a beautiful thing) I should have squeezed enough from the peg to pick-up some money. Looking back I should’ve simplified my approach and stuck to the pellet feeder and a single Slim’o pole rig (the lighter one), sticking with micro and 4mm expander pellets only, starting new pole line when the current one died – typically rotating from 11 o’clock to 1 to 10 to 2. Having bought a pint of casters and some worms I felt obliged to use them, even though pellets were already producing!

Until next time …

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25 August 2013, Gold Lake (Gold Valley)

In the blink of an eye we are onto round four of the Guildford Angling Centre summer league and a return to the canal bank of Gold Lake at Gold Valley – a venue that has been fishing it’s rocks off lately. This is a six match series where your best five scores count towards your final total – however as I’ll be missing the next round because of a holiday I was really looking for a good result today to cement my position in the top four places.

The parallel bank to the side of peg 1

YouTube video of the view from my peg

Since returning from White Acres at the end of June I’ve had my fair share of luck and I’ve enjoyed some good results so I can’t really complain – but unfortunately the bag of dreams handed me a tough assignment when peg 3 bubbled to the surface!

This is not a noted peg and it was going to be a big ask to get a result against peg one (which had the parallel bank to fish along) and pegs five and nine (which both had access to one of the central islands). However the peg did give plenty of open water go at, the vacant platform of peg 2 to fish to and it had produced a big weight (120-10-0) in Wednesday’s open match so perhaps things weren’t too bad after all …

Terminal tackle for the pellet waggler

As ever my basic Gold Valley summer plan consists of four tactics and three lines – the method feeder to the rope, the straight lead/pellet waggler at 25m and a strong pole rig for the edge. As a result, before the start I set-up the following rods/rigs:

• 11’ tip rod, 8lb Daiwa Sensor mainline, small 30g Preston Innovations pellet feeder to a 10cm hooklength of 0.19 N-Gauge with a size 14 QM1 and a hair-rigged bayonet (for an 8mm pop-up boilie). I also added two number 8 stotz an inch from the hook to stop the boilie popping-up too far
• As above but with a 1/3 ounce Guru square bomb free running to a 30cm hooklength with a hair-rigged pellet band (for an 8mm pellet or a Ringers Banded Allsort)
• 11’ pellet waggler rod, 6lb Daiwa Sensor mainline, 6g Preston Innovations Dura pellet waggler (the slim version with a disk) to a 25cm hooklength of 0.19 N-Gauge with a size 16 Guru Pellet Waggler hook and a hair-rigged band
• Red Hydro top kit, 0.21 Reflo Power direct to a size 12 MWG, the float being a 4x12 KC Carpa Power with a stem trimmed to 65mm

(The water in front of the adjacent platform of peg 2 was about two feet deep, hence the decision to use the Carpa Power with a 65mm stem.)

The island accessible to pegs 5 and 9

To cut a long and very boring story short I could only muster three carp and three eight ounce skimmers for a level 17lb – as a result I was absolutely battered by Mark Cane on peg 5 (59-10-0), Paul Williamson on peg 1 (81-4-0) and Pete Franklin on peg 9 (83-12-0) for a rock bottom last in section!!!

For the record this is how my match went: no bites for an hour then a carp out of the blue on the pellet waggler and three skimmers on the straight lead (on 8mm pellet hookbaits); no bites for two and a half hours then two carp in a row on the straight lead; no bites in the final forty five minutes – happy days!!!

Paul Williamson weighing-in on peg 1

Overall top 4:

1. Paul Taylor, peg 28, 85-2-0
2. Richard Hicks, peg 24, 84-1-0
3. Pete Franklin, peg 9, 83-12-0
4. Paul Willamson, peg 1, 81-4-0

Today’s section winners:

• Pete Franklin, peg 9, 83-12-0
• Ryan Seymour, peg 15, 60-4-0
• Luke Sheriff, peg 18, 59-10-0
• Paul Taylor, peg 28, 85-2-0

League standing after round 4:

1. Pete Franklin, 5 points, 414lb
2. Phil Morris, 8 points, 326lb
3. Luke Sheriff, 9 points, 192lb
4. Mick Keeper, 10 points, 275lb
5. Shaun Sylvester, 10 points, 272lb
6. Paul Williamson, 10 points, 267lb

The only good thing about today was that I found myself in a section of four as opposed to a section of five – this meant I was somehow able to cling onto second place in the league, just ahead of Luke Sheriff who has leapt-up the table following his second section win in as many matches. Pete now seems odds on to win the league but it is mighty close behind with the next seven anglers only separated by two points.

Ouch!!!

Conclusions: Normally when I’ve fished a bad match I have a few ideas as to where I went wrong and I’m able to put together a plan for how I’d fish the peg differently next time ‘round. However in this case I’m going to have to put it down to experience because if I drew the same peg tomorrow I’d fish it in exactly the same way as today – and probably get the same result!!!

Until next time …

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