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!)
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| 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.
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| 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.)
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.)
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| 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).
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| 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.
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.
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| 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!
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!
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| 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!!!
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!!!
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| 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).
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).
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| 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.
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.
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| 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).)
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| 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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