After a few weekends off it was finally time for the first outing of 2013! The venue was Middle Lake at Willow Park for one of their Saturday opens - not a huge turn-out (a total of eight) but that gave us plenty of room and I drew peg 11, which like most of the others gave me a spare peg either side.
The pegging meant I had plenty of open water to go at, and even though it was pretty windy it was fortunately blowing straight over my back, so I settled on a basic plan of a small feeder cast to about 30m and the long pole at 14.5m slightly to my left (to leave an option of opening a new line slightly to the right during the match if needed). (Even though I had a nice overhanging tree to my right and a spare platform accessible to the left I decided that given the time of year and the weather, fishing any closer than 14.5m wouldn’t be productive.)
The initial feeder rig consisted of a 20g Guru cage feeder on the usual 8lb Daiwa Sensor reel line with a 12” hooklength of 0.13 Reflo Power into a size 18 Drennan Barbless Carp Feeder hook. I settled on two pole rigs – the first a 0.1g Mo Brown Slim’o on 0.11 Reflo Power into a hooklength of 0.10 with a size 20 Tubertini 808, the second a 4x14 KC Carpa Chimp on 0.11 into a hooklength of 0.11 with a size 20 Tubertini 808 again. (It was actually quite deep on the pole line (a good six feet) and with hindsight I should’ve swapped the first rig onto a 0.2g Slim’o). Elastics were a double 4 and blue Hydrolastic respectively.
After a few more liners I switched the feeder to a small 20g Drennan open end feeder (as the Guru model basically decided to disintegrate) and my hooklength to 12” of 0.17 Reflo Power with a size 16 Guru QM1 and a hair-rigged pellet band to fish with a 6mm hard pellet. This switch led to 2 more skimmers in quick succession and by 1200 I had five in total - which seemed to put me in a good position as only Ian Covey seemed to have more than this.
Despite the cold weather most bites materialised after the bait had been in the water for between 90 seconds and 3 minutes, and leaving the feeder in for longer than 5 minutes was in effect a waste of time. I had also been trying the pole with a 4mm expander pellet during this period, and even though I didn’t have a bite on it resting the feeder line seemed beneficial as on two occasions I had a bite on the feeder first cast after returning to it.
At about 1200 the rain and sleet set in making conditions fairly miserable and knocking the fishing down a bit – in final three hours I only managed one skimmer on the pole (to the Chimp rig with a 4mm expander pellet) and one more on the tip (plus one fish that gave a really funny bite and fell-off half way in).
This gave me a total of 7 skimmers than went 19-12-0, enough for second overall behind Chris Love’s 26-12-0 – however as Chris was in my section, and due to the continental payout adopted at Willow Park, I ended-up penniless as the second place money went to Ian Covey as the winner of the other section with 18-10-0.
Overall, despite the poor weather and the lack of a brown envelope, I enjoyed the day and will certainly be looking to fish a few more matches at Willow Park this winter and spring.
Why not follow me on Twitter? @philip_r_morris
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| Peg 11, Middle Lake at Willow Park |
After a few weeks of mild weather the wind had shifted to the north/east so it was much colder than of late - even though it was dry at the start we were subjected to freezing rain and sleet from about midday and I have to admit I was pleased to get back into the cafe at the end!The pegging meant I had plenty of open water to go at, and even though it was pretty windy it was fortunately blowing straight over my back, so I settled on a basic plan of a small feeder cast to about 30m and the long pole at 14.5m slightly to my left (to leave an option of opening a new line slightly to the right during the match if needed). (Even though I had a nice overhanging tree to my right and a spare platform accessible to the left I decided that given the time of year and the weather, fishing any closer than 14.5m wouldn’t be productive.)
The initial feeder rig consisted of a 20g Guru cage feeder on the usual 8lb Daiwa Sensor reel line with a 12” hooklength of 0.13 Reflo Power into a size 18 Drennan Barbless Carp Feeder hook. I settled on two pole rigs – the first a 0.1g Mo Brown Slim’o on 0.11 Reflo Power into a hooklength of 0.10 with a size 20 Tubertini 808, the second a 4x14 KC Carpa Chimp on 0.11 into a hooklength of 0.11 with a size 20 Tubertini 808 again. (It was actually quite deep on the pole line (a good six feet) and with hindsight I should’ve swapped the first rig onto a 0.2g Slim’o). Elastics were a double 4 and blue Hydrolastic respectively.
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| Fishing the feeder |
On the whistle I fed some softened 2mm fishery pellets and a few live maggots on the 14.5m pole line, then loaded the feeder with the same pellets and some dead maggots and cast to about 30m with a single white maggot on the hook. I decided to be fairly positive (for the winter) and to re-cast every five minutes, and after a few early liners my first fish of 2013 (a 2.5lb skimmer) was in the net after about half an hour (this fish fell to a single dead red maggot hook bait).After a few more liners I switched the feeder to a small 20g Drennan open end feeder (as the Guru model basically decided to disintegrate) and my hooklength to 12” of 0.17 Reflo Power with a size 16 Guru QM1 and a hair-rigged pellet band to fish with a 6mm hard pellet. This switch led to 2 more skimmers in quick succession and by 1200 I had five in total - which seemed to put me in a good position as only Ian Covey seemed to have more than this.
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| The view to my left |
At about 1200 the rain and sleet set in making conditions fairly miserable and knocking the fishing down a bit – in final three hours I only managed one skimmer on the pole (to the Chimp rig with a 4mm expander pellet) and one more on the tip (plus one fish that gave a really funny bite and fell-off half way in).
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| The final reckoning |
This gave me a total of 7 skimmers than went 19-12-0, enough for second overall behind Chris Love’s 26-12-0 – however as Chris was in my section, and due to the continental payout adopted at Willow Park, I ended-up penniless as the second place money went to Ian Covey as the winner of the other section with 18-10-0.
Overall, despite the poor weather and the lack of a brown envelope, I enjoyed the day and will certainly be looking to fish a few more matches at Willow Park this winter and spring.
Why not follow me on Twitter? @philip_r_morris
