28 April 2013, Middle Lake (Gold Valley)

Two weeks after my first visit of 2013 it was back to Gold Valley again for the Sunday open – this time the whole of the Middle Lake was included, along with the much fancied near bank of Syndicate Lake (which provided the first and second placed anglers in Wednesday’s 130 peg Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier).

Welcome to Gold Valley!

Just like last time the clubhouse before the draw was filled with top class southern anglers (including the likes of Will Raison, Paul ‘Tommy’ Hiller, Robbie Taylor, Mark Goddard and Linus Neale) – as a result I decided to keep the £5 winner takes all entrance fee in my pocket before spending it on a bacon sandwich and a cup of coffee!!! (In effect I was paying £20 for a pleasure fishing day with keepnets and the chance to rub shoulders with some of the people you only normally see in Match Fishing magazine and the Angling Times.)

Looking right from peg 92

YouTube video of the view from my peg

Due to the leisurely consumption of the previously mentioned bacon sandwich I was last to draw – though when I dipped my hand into the famous Gold Valley bucket there were 3 wooden disks remaining – and lady luck presented me with peg 92. (This peg is on the far bank of the Middle Lake and three pegs closer to the clubhouse than my previous visit (when I was on 89).) This is a pretty average peg with no obvious features or form and to make things even tougher I found myself sandwiched between Eddie Green and Mark Goddard, plus I was in the same section as England regular and former world champion Will Raison!

Gear for the straight lead

On first arrival at the peg I paid serious consideration to fishing on the deck at 14.5m and pinging pellets over the top – however after shipping out the pole to this length it simply didn’t feel right as it wasn’t even halfway to the central rope (which must’ve been 35 or 40m away). So I soon packed most of my pole away and instead set-up for the method feeder to the rope, the straight lead/pellet waggler for 25m and a margin pole rig for tight to the bank on my left at top kit plus a short number four.

The improved Preston method feeder

On the whistle I started on the method towards the central rope, and started the relentless process of pinging 8mm in twos and threes to 25m. (Today I’d dropped the banjo feeder used last time and switched to a small 30g Preston Innovations method feeder – these have been slightly refined and now feature a first rib that is at an angle, in theory reducing the likelihood of a pellet or mini boilie hookbait becoming trapped. The feeder was loaded with the usual soaked 2mm pellets and Stiki Pellet binder, hookbait was a hard 6mm mounted on a hair rigged pellet band tied on 10cm of 0.19 Reflo Power with a size 16 Guru QM1.)

My tip remained motionless but amazingly Mark Goddard was straight into a good fish – a sign of things to come perhaps? In fact after 30 minutes I was still fishless, the only signs of life being a few twitches (probably caused by silver fish feeding over the feeder) and a massive liner (almost certainly caused by a big fish moving through the 25m line) – though things seemed a little tough generally as Mark Goddard was still only on one fish and I hadn’t noticed anyone bagging.

So half an hour into the match it was time for a change – 10 chucks on the pellet waggler didn’t produce anything but by the end of the first hour I had managed to winkle out a carp and a decent hybrid on the bomb with an 8mm pellet. (Gear for this rod was the usual 8lb Daiwa Sensor main line, 2/3 ounce Guru square lead and 30cm of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge to a size 14 Guru QM1 with a hair rigged band.)

Unusually this pouch didn't last long!

The second hour was also fairly slow all ‘round, though I did manage to sneak out a carp out of the blue on the method and another on the bomb and pellet – in fact at this point I’m pretty sure I was leading both Eddie Green and Mark Goddard! (Don’t worry it wasn’t to last long!)

Groundbait for down the edge

Hour 3 saw things start to improve and I managed two carp and a good skimmer on the straight lead – a decent return but I’d taken a battering from Mark Goddard who was now in full flow and seemingly playing fish after fish on the bomb!

Even though we seemed to be fishing in a very similar fashion I was clearly doing something wrong (or at least not as well as Mark) so it was time for plan B – consequently four jaffa-sized balls of Sonubaits Supercrush Green groundbait mixed with some dead maggots were swiftly launched onto my edge line!

My margin swim

I started the fourth hour by impaling the two biggest dendrabenas I could find onto the hook of my edge rig, slapping them on the surface of the water three times (to stop them wriggling about) and praying the float would go under straight away – and as it happened it did! The float dipped immediately and I struck into thin air – a tiny perch biting-off more than it could chew perhaps? Second drop in and the same thing happened again! Fortunately it was third time lucky and this time I was attached to a proper Gold Valley margin munter!!!

Strong gear for the margin

Since my previous trip to Gold Valley I’d made some tweaks to my edge rigs for this venue and a nice 8lb mirror was soon in the net thanks to a combination of a size 12 Guru MWG, 0.19 Reflo Power and some 17h Hollo elastic!!! (This is certainly as heavy as I’d go on the pole, but is tackle that I feel is appropriate when trying to land carp that run as big as 20lb.)

After re-feeding the edge line it was back to the bomb and pellet to allow it to settle – the rest had certainly done this line some good too as after casting out and having a look around the lake I glanced down to see my Preston Innovations 10’ Mini Carp rod doubled-up with an angry carp on the other end! Back onto the edge line and I was into another carp after 2 or 3 minutes – this one was even bigger than the first and as there were still 90 minutes to go for a split second I imagined making an impression on the frame with a sack full of edge dwellers!

Tommy Hiller and John Light on the far side

Unfortunately it wasn’t to be and I didn’t manage any further fish from the edge, the only return from the final hour being 2 carp, a roach and a skimmer on the bomb and pellet. By the end of the match I’d managed 10 carp (2 on the method, 2 down the edge and 6 on the straight lead) and some silvers for a total of 51-0-0 – my biggest weight of 2013 to date, but 80 pounds behind Mr Goddard!

The final reckoning

Back in the clubhouse for a cup of tea it was soon apparent that there had been quite a few big weights and a very close finish between the top 3:

1. Mark Goddard, 131-0-0
2. Charlie Dalton, 128-6-0
3. Jebb Attwood, 126-14-0

Second and third had indeed come from the fancied Syndicate Lake – in fact the average weight of the five anglers pegged between 113 and 118 was 109-1-0!!! Added to this there were two big 90lb weights that didn’t even win a bean today!

Preston 17 Hollo worked well today

Conclusions: despite being bashed-up by the next peg I enjoyed the day and had a reasonable result – fourth out of 8 in a section that included Will Raison and (2013 Maver Match This finalist) Mark Goddard, plus I was only one margin munter away from third in section. (I beat Eddie Green to my left who didn’t weigh in.) Swapping to Preston 17h elastic for my edge approach also worked well – fishing with light elastics and pulla kits has its place when fishing for big fish (e.g. shallow into open water), but using stronger elastics for really big fish (ten pounds plus) gives you much more control as it prevents them from bottoming-out your elastic and talking a walk through your neighbours peg!

Until next time ...

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21 April 2013, Harris Lake (Marsh Farm)

Today’s match was a Godalming AS organised open match on my ‘home’ venue of Marsh Farm – however regular readers will know that I have managed to blank on my last two visits to Harris Lake! A total of 27 were taking part today – a mixture of Godalming AS stalwarts and open scene regulars from Milo Bordon and Colmic Apollo.

Harris Lake at Marsh Farm

I’ve written a fair bit about Marsh Farm in the past so I won’t repeat myself here – though it is worth noting that Harris Lake isn’t the one that is normally used for matches (that’s Richardson’s Lake) and is fairly sparsely stocked with specimen sized crucians and tench. As is typical this time of year there was a very sharp frost overnight, but the forecast was for a warm, sunny day with little or no wind to speak of.

Peg 19

YouTube video of the view from my peg

On the way to the draw I was thinking a wide peg on the railway bank where I could fish the method feeder would be nice, so of course my hand settled on peg 19 – the narrowest peg on the lake at about 18m and situated under an overhanging willow tree that made fishing the pole the only option! Having said that I did have a spare peg to my right – and two to my left – and as there was no wind to speak of holding 16m of pole was going to be relatively straight forward. (Doing so would put me on the far slope at a sensible distance from the bank given the low water temperature and the relatively clear water.) Unfortunately in the warmer months this part of the lake (the bowl at the far end from the tackle shop) can be notoriously poor with the majority of the feeding fish seeming to prefer the wider pegs along the middle of the railway bank – would today be any different?

Starting components for the Slim’o rig

Before the start of proceedings I set-up two rigs – a 0.1g Mo Brown Slim’o on 0.11 Reflo Power main line to a hooklength of 0.10 into a size 22 Tubertini 808 in conjunction with pink Hydrolastic, and a 4x12 KC Carpa Chimp on 0.13 into a hooklength of 0.11 with a size 20 Tubertini 808 with a blue Hydrolastic top kit. The first rig was for fishing down the middle with a 4mm expander pellet, the second for 16m with worm segments and maggots. (It’s worth noting that a size 22 808 is more like a traditional 20 and a 20 looks like a normal 18.) Despite the target fish being pretty big, relatively light gear is needed to tempt them at Marsh Farm and I’ve found the rigs described above to be a good compromise as there are very few snags to speak of.

Today’s bait selection

My bait selection for today was pretty standard stuff – soaked 2mm pellets and 4mm Sonubaits Fin Perfect expanders for down the middle, plus some dead red maggots, worms and 4mm pellets for the 16m line. (My expectation was that I’d be targeting crucians down the middle and tench further across towards the far bank.)

Balanced tackle for the 16m rig

On the whistle I deposited a frugal amount of soaked 2mm pellets, dead maggots and two chopped worms on the 16m line (which was directly in front of me into about 3 and a half feet of water) and a tiny pinch of micro pellets at top kit plus four sections to the extreme right of my peg. (At Marsh Farm anti-cormorant wires have been fitted half way between each peg that run across the lake to the central islands – these seem to be very effective and have the side effective of forming a clear boundary between each peg.)

I then shipped-out to 16m with a tiny worm segment mounted on my Chimp rig and promptly missed a good bite – annoying but a good sign! No further indications followed in the next ten minutes so it was over to the top kit plus four line with a 4mm expander – again this lead to an immediate bite that eventually saw a decent tench in the net. This was a very hairy scrap on pink Hydro and a 0.10 bottom so rather than continue with this gear I swapped the rig onto a blue Hydro top kit and replaced the hooklength with the same as the Chimp rig (0.11 Reflo Power into a size 20 Tubertini 808).

Two rollers for fishing long

No more bites materialised in the next five minutes so I re-fed with some more 2mm pellets and had another look at 16m. Again this led to another quick bite – I managed to hook into this one but after pulling 10cm of elastic from the end of my pole it pinged-off! Luckily I dropped my worm hookbait back in and I was straight into another fish – this time a small (one pound) tench found its way into the net.

This pattern continued and by the end of the first hour I had a pleasing total of five tench and a nice crucian (over 2lb), the majority of which came from the top kit plus four line.

During the second hour I continued to swap between my two lines, feeding very lightly via a cupping kit (as opposed to a Kinder-style pot) and lifting/dropping my hookbait in order to induce a bite. Doing so resulted in another nice crucian from my track swim and two more tench long on double maggot.

Further to my right towards the low numbered pegs

However things had really started to slow now and the third hour only resulted in a single tench from the 16m swim at 1215 (we’d started at 1000 and this was to be a 6 hour match).

The fourth hour was absolutely dire and I can only remember having one slight knock at 16m (then again this could’ve been the wind that had started to rise slightly) – though the resident grebe was busy about his work up and down the far bank! In order to keep myself amused I attached a plummet to the Slim’o rig and found a suitable spot to my left and fed some micro pellets on the off chance of pulling a fish or two from the spare pegs on that side.

Bits for the edge rig

During the fifth hour I decided to set-up an edge rig to fish the margins in two and a half feet of water on a top kit plus two left and right, both sides having some nice cover in the form of water plants that had just started to sprout. (This rig consisted of a 4x12 Preston Innovations Durafloat 10 on 0.13 Reflo Power straight through to an eyed Kamasan B911 size 18 on white Hydrolastic – as heavy as I go at Marsh Farm but sensible as any tench that come into the margins are likely to be big!)

I did also manage to snare another tench – a fairly decent fish that fell to a 4mm expander on the newly opened top kit plus four swim to the left.

My left hand margin

Into the sixth and final hour now and most people are wondering why this isn’t a 5 hour match as the majority haven’t caught anything for 2 or 3 hours! I continued to swap between my 16m, both top kit plus four and two edge swims but couldn’t muster a bite!

Mark Harrington doing the honours

After a final four hours that were remarkably uneventful it was time for the weigh-in – I was the last to weigh on my bank and top so far was Claire ‘Bagger’ Hollis with a terrific 23-5-0 (mainly caught on the method feeder). Unfortunately my 9 tench and 2 crucians could only register 20-12-0, one or two fish behind but good enough for second on this half of the lake.

Looking across the lake to Gareth and spectator

Back in the tackle shop it soon became apparent that Gareth Phillips had secured another convincing victory and that John Taylor was the best of the rest on the railway bank with nineteen pound odd, leaving Claire second and myself third.

The frame:

1. Gareth Phillips (Guildford AC), 37-5-0
2. Claire Hollis (Godalming AS), 23-5-0
3. Phil Morris (Godalming AS), 20-12-0
4. John Taylor (Colmic Apollo), 19-4-0

Looking left towards peg 22

In conclusion: despite initially fearing a poor draw today turned into a good day and in the main I feel my approach was correct. The top kit plus four line once again came-up trumps and is a swim that I’d fish on any peg at Marsh Farm – however one small tweak I will make in the future is to set-up two rigs for this line. The first would be a lighter rig for skimmers and crucians with 0.11 main line and a 0.10 hooklength with a size 22 Tubertini 808 (elastic pink Hydro), the second a heavier rig for tench with 0.13 main line, a 0.11 hooklength with a size 20 808 (elastic blue Hydro) – both would feature my favourite 0.1g Slim’o. The long pole also worked well today, but I’d only fish it on narrow pegs where the far slope is in range – otherwise I’d use a small method or pellet feeder (an approach that is already starting to work and one that will become more and more relevant as we approach summer). As ever tight, frugal feeding is the key at Marsh Farm – the fish here simply back away from any volume of bait and its very easy to kill your peg on the starting whistle with an overzealous approach.

Until next time …

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14 April 2013, Middle Lake (Gold Valley)

Despite living fairly nearby (about 20 miles according to Google Maps), today was my first visit to Gold Valley for over a year - so long ago in fact they've built another building since I was there last! (I believe it is destined to be a new all singing, all dancing tackle shop.)

Gold Valley, Aldershot, Hampshire

On entering the clubhouse for this Sunday open it was a little like a "Who's Who" of southern match fishing with Daiwa Dorking legends such as Will Raison, Steve Sanders, Mark Goddard and Ben Leach all fishing today. This, combined with a large number of other venue experts and internationals also competing, led me to keep my £5 winner takes all entry firmly in my pocket as I handed over my 20 quid to John Raison!

Weather forecast according to the Met Office app

The weather has certainly changed for the better over the last week or so, with a shift from those bitingly cold northeasterlies to southerly and southwesterly winds bringing higher temperatures but rain during the week.  However today was very warm and sunny - but with mega, mega winds! (So strong in fact that I saw at least three pole sections broken during the match, including John Light who managed to smash the number 6 and 16m sections of his Daiwa Airity!)

YouTube video of the view from my peg

After the Daiwa Dorking lads had drawn all of the good pegs on Syndicate lake it was eventually my turn to dip my hand into the bag of dreams and out popped peg 89 on Middle lake - a very average draw 5 pegs from the fancied far corner and probably one of the narrowest pegs on the lake (the chuck to the central rope was only about 35m).

Plenty of options!

As I had plenty of time to set-up (I was at my peg by 0915, with the match starting at 1100) and as I wasn't on an obvious flier I decided to chop and change tactics throughout the match to try and catch the odd fish here and there. To this end I set-up for a total of 5 different approaches:

• Banjo feeder to the central rope
• Straight lead at 25m
• Pellet waggler over the straight lead
• On the deck with the pole at top kit plus 3 (about 6m)
• Tight to the bank to my left on only a top kit

Today's bait selection

Bait for today included some softened 2mm pellets (with added Sonubaits Stiki Pellet) for the banjo feeder (with some hard 6mm pellets and 8mm fluro pop-ups for the hook), 8mm pellets to catapult over the 25m straight lead and pellet waggler line, corn for the longer pole and some Sonubaits Supercrush Green groundbait plus dead red maggots for down the edge.

The pellet waggler didn't work today!

At the start of match I feed some corn and a squeezed ball of 2mm pellets at 6m, followed by a full cup of lose groundbait and dead maggots down the edge (conventional wisdom says you should only start to feed down the edge in the last 2 hours but I felt my peg was so average I had nothing to lose!). I then picked-up the pellet waggler rod (which included a slim 8g Preston Innovations Dura model on 6lb Daiwa Sensor main line with a 25cm hooklength of 0.19 Reflo Power into a size 16 Guru Pellet Waggler hook with a hair-rigged band) and had 10 expectant chucks without feeding a thing.

This tactic has worked for me previously (most notably on Pollawyn at White Acres) but it didn't today so after five minutes I was down the edge on my top kit only rig with 6 dead maggots impaled on the hook - this tactic was even less likely to work at this stage of the match than the pellet waggler but I thought it worth investing 60 seconds or so just in case a double figure carp had moved straight over the groundbait!

The banjo feeder and two different hooklengths

So eight minutes into the match I was already trying my third line of the day and the one that I was really relying on - the banjo feeder tight to the central rope. (Most of you will already be aware of what a banjo feeder is, but for those that aren't it is basically a variation on the method feeder designed by Andy Findlay and produced by Preston Innovations.) One of the interesting features of the banjo feeder is the long stem - this makes this kind of feeder a little obtrusive on short chuck venues (such as Marsh Farm and most of the lakes at White Acres), but for open water venues where a longer cast is needed (such as Gold Valley) I'm pretty sure the banjo is going to be my number one choice as they really do cast very well indeed!

(The model used today was the small 30g version on 8lb Daiwa Sensor main line stopped on the line with a Drennan quick change bead. Hooklengths were 10cm of 0.19 Reflo Power with a size 16 Guru QM1 for a 6mm pellet and a size 14 for an 8mm boilie.)

Waiting for a bite on the tip

When fishing on the tip I always time the length of each cast very carefully with the stop watch function on my wristwatch - this allows you to build-up a pattern as to when a bite is most likely to occur and I believe gives a real edge over those that don't do so. Today was no exception and my plan was to recast every 4-5 minutes as now the weather is improving the carp should be more active and more likely to come to the splash of the feeder.

Anyway I had plenty of time to test this theory as the first hour passed-by without a bite! However I was in the same boat as those around me so I was very pleased when the tip did eventually go 'round just after 12 o'clock - unfortunately it was a small skimmer that took a fancy to my white pop-up and not one of the lake's big carp I was hoping for!

A nice day for it!

The only other action of the second hour was a bumped fish on the 6m line on corn followed by a four ounce roach on double maggot - however the start of the third hour saw a flurry of activity with a carp on the straight lead with an 8mm pellet and two more carp (in two casts) on the banjo feeder with a 6mm pellet on the hair. All of these fish came out of the blue and (as is often the case) whilst I was playing those carp the anglers either side of me also hooked into fish - I'm not sure what the scientific reason behind this is but I can only assume that either a shoal of carp moved through our pegs or that certain precise weather conditions triggered fish that were already present into feeding at the same time!

Unfortunately this proved to be a false dawn and the only other action up until the end of the fourth hour (ninety minutes later) was a proper "three foot twitch" on the banjo feeder that I still cannot believe wasn't a hooked fish - but that must've been a liner as there was nothing on the other end! Luckily 10 minutes later the tip did go 'round (and stayed 'round this time) and carp number 4 was soon in the net.

Gear for down the edge

Despite chopping and changing between the banjo feeder, straight lead and pellet waggler (I'd been pinging 8mm pellets to 25m all day) no further bites materialised on my rod and line approaches so I decided to spend the final 15 minutes down the edge. As with most established commercial fisheries the fish that come close in to the bank at the end of matches tend to be very big so strong gear is needed - however as the water was still very clear I stepped-down slightly from my normal edge gear and my rig today was a 4x14 Preston Innovations Durafloat 10 (as it was nearly 3' deep tight to the bank) on 0.17 Guru N-Gauge straight through to a size 16 Guru MWG. Elastic was grey Hydrolastic through a pulla bung.

Marginal feature

Tennyson famously once wrote "Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all ..." which I'm going to rephrase as a question - is it better to have hooked and lost a real munter that would've doubled your weight or to have never hooked it at all??? Yes you've guessed it - with less than 10 minutes to go the float shot under and I was attached to a real beast! To say it wasn't happy is the understatement of the year and I had absolutely no control over this fish - my grey Hydrolastic was soon fully extended and I felt certain that the fish was going to appear the other side of the central rope! It did eventually come back towards me before veering to my right and heading towards the angler to my right (who was two pegs down as there was a spare platform on this side) - then as the fish started to inch along the bank in my direction disaster struck and the hook pulled-out! The rig was fine and the worm hookbait was still on the hook though now masking the point - though I can't be sure if this is the reason the fish parted company or if it happened afterwards.

As I was staring up at the sky in disgust the final whistle was blown and my 4 carp, one skimmer and a roach went 16-4-0 - enough to beat the three anglers to my left (including the end peg) and one to my right but to be absolutely nowhere near picking-up a brown envelope!

The final reckoning

As with every match there are winners and losers - some had a good day and some went home thinking that they really must try harder!

The frame:

1. Pete Arnold, 92-14-0
2. Malcolm Bond, 76-8-0
3. Roger Beale, 64-6-0

Section winners:

• Charlie Dalton, 40-12-0
• A Thomas, 38-10-0
• Pete Franklin, 49-0-0
• Milen Petrov, 58-4-0

In conclusion: I only normally focus on one or two approaches in a typical match but even though not all of the lines were productive today I still feel they were all valid. The pellet waggler was probably the least likely to work but it will come to the fore over the coming weeks if the weather is good. (With hindsight I should've swapped to 4lb main line to aid casting and reduce the drag on the float once it was in the water. I should have also tried a big (15g) waggler tight to the rope.) The straight lead is a favourite of mine at Gold Valley but perhaps again it was a little too early for it as the carp aren't evenly spread and actively looking for food yet - plus the high winds made catapulting 8mm pellets accurately nearly impossible. (I could've stepped-up to 11mm pellets but these seem very big to me.) The pole at 6m only yielded a four once roach - but this put me 2 ounces in front of the guy to my right so would've been very important in a festival or team event. The banjo feeder worked well today and gave me the majority of my weight - any sort of feeder to the central rope is going to be an effective tactic at Gold Valley at any time of year. My down the edge rig nearly got me to a decent weight - I've seen before that the fish do come very close to the bank and very close to anglers (I was only using a top kit today), but I should've opened a second line to the right so I could see if groundbait and dead maggots were more effective than (say) pellets and corn. I'll also be stepping-up to either 0.17 straight through to a size 14 MWG and black Hydrolastic or 0.19 to a size 12 and red Hydro.

Until next time ...

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07 April 2013, Canal (More House Farm Fishery)

What a difference a few days make! After what seemed to be an eternity of bitingly cold north easterly winds I was sunbathing in the garden yesterday afternoon in what felt like a balmy 15 degrees Celsius! However an upshot of the change in the weather to clear skies and very light winds has led to some very severe overnight frosts and the temperature gauge in the car was reading a very chilly minus three on the way to East Sussex for the Supercup clash of the first round between (the aptly named) Jack Frost Tackle of Crawley and the mighty Godalming AS …

A frozen More House Farm Fishery

As a result of the fall in temperature overnight the lake (Canal at More House Farm Fishery) was covered in a thick layer of ice, so despite being April the icebreakers were called into action and in order to allow a decent amount of time to set-up the start time was pushed back by an hour to 1100. (At this point I’d like to say a big thank you to the chaps from Jack Frost Tackle for helping our guys with the clearing of swims – never has an icebreaker been thrown so accurately to a far margin!)

Peg 8 on Canal

YouTube video of the view from my peg

Canal is a uniform rectangular lake approximately 16m wide with 20 pegs, so as our draw only saw two teams of 8 going head-to-head it was a simple case of pegging every platform from 2 to 17 with no gaps in between – of course this made the two end pegs the fancied draws (but more of that later).

My draw saw me pretty much in the middle of the lake on peg 8 – there are no visible features on this lake but I did seem to be in an area that was slightly wider than average and shipping-out my trusty old Garbolino 995 to 16m confirmed this as I was about 3m short of the far bank!

However this wasn’t an issue as I’d decided to target a depth of 3 feet and I found this exact depth at 16m slightly to the right of centre – apparently when this lake as dug it was created with a double shelf on the near and far margins, and whilst in some areas this has been eroded I personally found a nice flat area around my intended focal point. Given the cold start to the day and a target species of carp in the 1 to 3lb bracket I settled on a compromise of blue Hydrolastic, 0.13 Reflo Power main line into a hooklength of 0.11 and a size 20 Tubertini 808 – the float was a 4x12 KC Carpa Chimp.

I also set-up a second pole rig to fish down the track at 8m in 4 feet of water with a 0.1g Mo Brown Slim’o (same gear as the Chimp rig but a slightly lighter 0.10 hooklength) and two tip rods – one with a free running set-up for a straight lead or cage feeder, the other with a 24g Guru method feeder.

Posh sweetcorn today!

It may sound a little posh but today I’d be trying Tesco Finest sweetcorn for the first time – not because I’m a sucker for branding but because it was the cheapest on offer! In fact it was only a little over 40p a pack and I’m going back during the week to buy a case of it before the price goes up!!! The grains of corn are a fantastic texture for hooking and the colour is slightly washed-out (potentially not as obvious as the vibrant Jolly Green Giant), hopefully meaning the fish won’t be as suspicious as the bait immediately looks like it has been in the lake for days.

The usual suspects!

Other baits for today were half a pint of red maggots (live for a change), some Sonubaits Fin Perfect 4mm expanders and some 2mm hard pellets that were soaked for two and a half minutes before being drained and left to stand.

Looking right

11 o’clock soon came around and things were already starting to warm-up given the bright sunshine and still conditions, but despite this I decided to start very cautiously and carefully counted 6 maggots, 4 grains of corn and a pinch of 2mm pellets into my cupping kit before shipping-out to 16m and depositing accurately on my mark – the last thing you want to do (and believe me I’ve done it before) is bounce your pole off a roller a spill your feed into a random spot in your swim!

I shipped back and slipped a nice looking grain of corn onto the hook, whizzed back to 16m and settled into a rhythm – ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, lift, drop, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, lift, drop, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one …

And they're off!

Twenty minutes later the float disappeared from sight and after a few hairy moments involving the line cutting though sheets of ice I had a nice looking pound and a half ghostie in the net – not  a huge fish but when fishing a team event where blanks are very likely it’s great to get something in the net early doors! (At this point, with the exception of the two end pegs, very little had been caught but straight after I landed my fish the guy I was fishing against latched into an even bigger fish on the method – typical!)

I gave it another ten minutes without feeding, but nothing materialised so with half an hour gone I was feeding my second helping of 6 maggots, 4 grains of corn and a pinch of 2mm pellets – a further 30 minutes of lifting and dropping later the float dipped again and a second ghostie was in the net (the hookbait was two red maggots).

The ice didn't last long

This time I decided to feed straight away but unfortunately the following 25 minutes disappeared without an indication, so in order to try something different I cast a straight lead rig with an orange fluro boilie beyond my pole line to about 1m from the far bank. Things had really started to slow across the whole lake now so it was no surprise that I didn’t get an indication on this, nor after 20 minutes back on the pole or on the straight lead rig cast towards some reeds slightly to my left (which were now accessible now that the ice had melted).

By now it was about 1330 (the halfway point) so I thought it was a worth having a quick wonder along the bank to see where we stood in terms of the team event – by my estimation we were winning 3 sections, losing 4 and tying another (we had 3 blanks at this point, Jack Frost Tackle only had 2) which meant the score was probably 14-16 in Jack Frost Tackle’s favour. I did my best to encourage those that were blanking to catch even the tiniest of fish – but these things are as ever easier said than done, especially as we were fishing a lake with carp but completely devoid of silver fish!

Nice to see the sun again!

Funnily enough the little walkabout seemed to have done my swim the power of good as after shipping out the pole to 16m again (this time with a red Marukyu 6mm JPz on the hook) I missed a sharp bite almost immediately but made no mistake 2 minutes later and carp number three was in the net!

Unfortunately (despite fishing the original 16m line for another hour, opening a new 16m line to the left at 1445 and fishing the method for the final 45 minutes) I never had another bite – I wasn’t alone and I’m pretty sure the fish I caught just over the halfway point was the last one caught outside of the two end pegs!!!

So even though it was by now a gloriously sunny day I think most anglers were pleased when the ‘all out’ was called at 1600 as it had been a real struggle for bites and it was soon time for the all important weigh-in.

Bagger happy to be back in the money!

First to weigh was Claire ‘Bagger’ Hollis (Godalming AS) with an impressive 39-12-0 from peg 2 and my 5-0-0 was also enough for a section win, but 2 blanks meant that after the first 4 sections we were tying on 8 penalty points each. Unfortunately the final 4 sections only gave my Godalming AS team one section win against Jack Frost Tackle’s three, meaning the final score was 14-16 to Jack Frost Tackle (who also had a convincing weight advantage thanks to Mark Parrot’s titanic 64-14-0 from the far end peg).

The final reckoning

Final team score:

1. Jack Frost Tackle, 14
2. Godalming AS, 16 

Individual:

1. Mark Parrot (JFT), 64-14-0
2. Claire Hollis (GAS), 39-12-0
3. Johnny Mott (JFT), 12-0-0
4. Gary Daniels (JFT), 10-0-0

So that’s my Supercup over for another year. As ever it has been fun fishing a new venue and meeting some new faces – well done to Jack Frost Tackle and good luck in the next round!

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03 April 2013, Canal (More House Farm Fishery)

Yet another battering from a harsh easterly wind - but at least I caught one this time! Today's session wasn't a match, but instead it was a practice for the upcoming Jack Frost Tackle versus Godalming AS head-to-head in the Angling Times/Bait-Tech Clubman Supercup competition to be held this coming Sunday on the More House Farm Fishery (which is found near Haywards Heath, East Sussex).

Canal, More House Farm Fishery

There are three different lakes on this complex: a specimen lake, an interesting looking snake lake and a match lake - the latter (known as Canal) is the venue that has been booked for the Supercup.

Aerial view of the venue from Google Maps

This lake is a long, thin rectangle with 20 pegs - similar to the high numbered Twin Oaks at White Acres, but only about 16m wide. In theory it should be possible to reach the far margin with a pole, but the wind was so strong (and bitingly cold) today that I didn't even get it out of the bag!

Looking left from peg 11

YouTube video of the view from my peg

On arrival we had a quick walk along the lake - however as there are no visible features and each peg basically looks the same I decided to randomly set-up on peg 11 with Dave on 10 and Perry on 9. Given the strong, freezing wind and the fact that the bankside vegetation hasn't had a chance to regrow after it's winter haircut the place had a pretty barren look to it - though there was plenty of colour in the water and my initial research had shown that there are plenty of small (2-4lb) carp to be caught - so as ever I started with high expectations!

The method!

Given the high winds already mentioned the best bet seemed to be some form of legering device so I opted for a small 24g Guru method feeder on one rod, and a running set-up on the other that could be swapped between a straight lead and a small cage feeder as required.

Pellets, corn and dead maggots

Baits for today we some soaked 2mm pellets (with added Cell stick mix liquid and Stiki Pellet binder) for the feeder with dead maggots, corn, 8mm fluro pop-ups and 6mm hard pellets for the hook.

Ready for that tip to wang 'round!

I started on the method and my first three casts (to about six feet from the far bank) each lasted 5 minutes, but even though I rotated through 6mm pellet, white boilie and dead red maggot hookbaits no indications were forthcoming. On the fourth cast I returned to the 8mm white boilie and decided to leave the rig in place a little longer - this did the trick and after 9 minutes the tip did go 'round and a 2lb ghostie was soon in the net.

Unfortunately this proved to be a false dawn as it was my only bite of the day and we only managed to catch 3 carp between the three of us! However we gained some valuable information on the venue and it looks like a small cage feeder with a little fishmeal groundbait and 2 red maggots on a light 12" hooklength cast towards the far bank is going to be the team plan.

If the weather stays the same then it is going to be a hard match and there are going to be some blanks. However the Supercup is an interesting format as effectively there are 8 head-to-head mini matches between an angler from each team so it's all to play for - roll-on Sunday!

Link to the More House Farm website 

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