All the Gear, No Idea

Saturday, 5 April 2014

05 April 2014, Big Lake (Wood Lane)

Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!! Under construction!!!

Sunday, 30 March 2014

30 March 2014, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

Sunday, 23 March 2014

23 March 2014, Pump Station (MBK)

Sunday, 16 March 2014

16 March 2014, Syndicate Lake (Gold Valley)

Saturday, 8 March 2014

08 March 2014, Middle Lake (Gold Valley)

After a few weeks of really rather dull weather things have really picked-up as of late and with the forecasters predicting a balmy 14 degrees Celsius coupled with a nice southerly breeze it was about time to book in for my first trip of the year to Gold Valley ...

I've not been for so long they've had time to build a brand new tackleshop!

YouTube video of the view from my peg

Having checked my diary I can see that my last visit to Gold Valley was back in August of last year - a fatal blow-out on Gold Lake in the 2013 Guildford AC summer league where I was given a battering by Paul Williamson and Pete Franklin. (For some reason when I look back on previous matches it is always the times I get a hammering that stick in the mind more than those days where I've been successful - I'm sure you amateur psychologists out there can draw your own conclusions from that statement!)

Anyway with the improvement in the weather noted at the top of this blog it was time to pluck-up the courage to dial those fabled digits - 0.1.2.5.2.3.3.6.3.3.3. - and book-in for the Saturday open match on Middle Lake. Today's dip into the bag of dreams (or in the case of Gold Valley a silver coloured ice bucket on rather long legs that certain vertically-challenged anglers often struggle to get their hands into) yielded peg 93 - not a hoped for corner but a rather average looking swim on the far bank of Middle Lake, somewhere in centre of the bank just as it narrows-up towards the A331.

Time for a tune on the banjo?!?!?

Today's plan of attack was to be a battle fought on three separate fronts - a small banjo feeder fished to the central dividing rope, the bomb & pellet at 25m and the pole down the edge to my left with groundbait/dead red maggots. (The banjo feeder was one of the small 30g Preston jobbies, but slightly modified as I'd cut-down the stem to about half of the original length - out of the box these feeders have rather long stems which are great for distance fishing, but rather obtrusive if you're faced with an average chuck.)

All the gear ...

After a slow start (and a lost carp whilst filming the video you can see above) the banjo feeder to the rope eventually yielded two carps and two skimmers - some on simple 6mm hard pellet hookbaits, some to brightly coloured 8mm pop-ups.

Looking slightly to the right from peg 93 on Middle Lake

Throughout the match I'd been pinging 8mm pellets over the 25m line so after a couple of hours of hardly hectic action to the rope I decided to drop my banjo feeder over this part of the swim and was rewarded with a quick carp and another skimmer. Whilst this tactic would no doubt have continued to produce, a switch to the straight lead rig with 8mm pellet hookbaits saw six decent carp in the bag - including three in three casts during a real golden spell just after lunch (a tuna mayo roll and a packet of Quavers if you're interested).

A photo of some keepnets (satirical or what?)

In the end the pole down the edge didn't produce any bites, but my 9 carps and 3 skimmers dragged the dial 'round to a satisfying 74-0-0 - enough for third behind venue regulars Myles Levy and Jeb Attwood. Final scores:

Myles Levy (Bag'em Matchbaits), 111-14-0
Jeb Attwood (Gold Valley), 85-12-0
Phil Morris (Team All the Gear, No Idea), 74-0-0
Lynas Neale (Gold Valley), 61-8-0

Conclusions: well that's more like it! After a disappointing trip to MBK Coloured Ponds last time out today's match was much more like it - much better weather and a few pulls on the old quiver tip. Long may it continue!!!

Until next time ...

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Sunday, 23 February 2014

23 February 2014, Pond 4 (MBK Coloured Ponds)

I'm not going to dwell on this match as for one reason or another I found the whole day rather uninspiring - I think ultimately I was undone by a longing for those glorious summer days where the sun is shining and the fish are feeding freely!

The weather matched my mood!

YouTube video of the view from my peg

Today's match was a return to the Coloured Ponds at MBK and as per usual I managed to avoid a favoured corner peg by country mile! In fact I drew the peg next to the one I'd drawn last time at this venue (last time I was on Pond 4 peg 6, this time I was on peg 7) but unlike last time I couldn't put a run of skimmers together and in the end I weighed 3-11-0, mainly due to a bright orange goldfish that was certainly the brightest thing about the day!!!

"Roll on summer" I say!!!

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Sunday, 9 February 2014

09 February 2014, Furnace Lake (Furnace Lakes)

Following yet another week of wet and windy weather today’s forecast was actually pretty good for the time of year, so it was all systems go for only my second ever visit to Furnace Lakes …

Furnace Lakes overview

As I noted in my blog entry from my first visit to Furnace Lakes this time last year this is venue that was once the place to fish as lots of anglers were consistently smashing-out big bags of skimmers on the pole – however in recent years the fishing seems to have really dropped-off, with the corresponding match from last year being won with a modest 14 pounds of feeder caught skimmers.

Putting that to one side there were still prizes up for grabs and a total of 23 anglers from Godalming AS and Woking DAA were all eagerly anticipating a plumb draw and the walk of glory come the end of the match!

All the gear ...

YouTube video of the view from my peg

Today’s dip into the bag of dreams saw number 20 attach itself to my lucky left hand – this translated to permanent peg 6 which is situated on the far bank (from the car park). Peg 1 is the swim next to the dam wall so I was towards the deeper end of the lake and I found myself on one of those long, narrow platforms that protrude into the lake where any items of tackle that drop-off of your side tray will never been seen again! I had good friend Dave for company to my right and for the third time in 2014 I had Sir Ken Cardwell on the next peg to my left – something as a coincidence as I’ve only fished five matches this year and on the other two Kenny was on the next peg but one!!!

Given the strong, gusty left to right wind blowing down the lake I decided to leave my pole and waggler rods in the bag, instead focussing on a single feeder rod. Given that sharp breeze and the long drop from the platform to the water I set my Daiwa Tournament Pro 10/11 tip rod at eleven feet – as we were fishing for skimmers I also plumped for the ultra-sensitive 1 ounce mega tip. As ever my rig was free-running, a Preston Feedabead slipped onto the line before tying a simple figure of eight knot into my 6lb Daiwa Sensor main line. The starting hooklength was the same 18 inches of 0.13 Guru N-Gauge and size 18 LWG used to good effect at Willow Park last week.

Looking right from peg 6 on Furnace Lake

Given the great bream fishing weather (mild, breezy and cloudy) and the light, chocolate brown colour of the water I decided to be bold from the off and kicked-off my match by spodding five Drennan XL feeders’ worth of Sonubaits F1 Dark groundbait, dead maggots/pinkies and soaked micros to my mark at 33 turns of my trusty TDR. I didn’t expect an immediate response, but after an hour without a single indication I was starting to get worried!!!

Luckily the start of the second hour saw a tiny twitch on the tip followed by a proper full ‘round and the first of four nice skimmers in four casts was winging its way into my waiting net. (All of these fish fell to a triple dead fluro pinkie hookbait.) As quickly as the fish arrived they disappeared, and before I knew it I was back to watching a motionless tip!!!

Some people cast longer shadows than others!

As sport had died-off following that superb run of 4 fish in a row during the second hour I decided to react quickly and at the start of the third hour I re-spodded with 7 small Drennan cage feeders’ worth of bait to try and get some fish back into my swim. (The feeder in question was the 20g version – it is tagged as ‘small’ but is actually quite big!)

Once again there was a dearth of action for a reasonable period (45 minutes this time) but a sporadic 4 fish spread over the next 75 minutes saw me go into the fifth and final hour with a reasonable 8 skimmers – unfortunately I didn’t catch anything in that last 60 minutes so that was my lot!

Sir Ken Cardwell on the peg next door

As luck would have it (after what had been a completely dry match), just after packing-up the heavens opened and for about 5 minutes we were battered by an intense hail storm – however this didn’t stop the scalesmen doing their duties and here is the resulting overall top three:

Andy Rogers (Godalming AS), 34-13-0
Dave Steer (Woking DAA), 19-15-0
Colin Underwood (G), 18-10-0

Section winners:

TBC (W), ??-??-??
Lee Simmons (G), 15-13-0
Phil Morris (G), 10-0-0

As you can see I’ve managed to lose track of one of the section winners – I know he was fishing for Woking DAA and weighed about 6lb from the tough area nearest the car park, so if you have the details ping me and I’ll update! Anyway well done to Andy Rogers for securing another convincing victory and congratulations to living legends Dave Steer and Colin Underwood for filling the remaining top 3 spots. (My 8 skimmers went a level 10 pounds and was enough to take the section.)

As per usual the wind dropped after the match!

Conclusions: hardly a bagging session, but enjoyable nonetheless as I’d like to think that I learned some lessons from last time – ‘spodding’ fairly heavily (in winter match terms) initially put the fish off but had a positive impact in the end. Dead (frozen then defrosted) fluro pinkies were definitely the best hookbait again – these really do seem to be the bait of the moment and they are something that I will be looking to carry-on using over the coming months on skimmer dominated waters.

Until next time ...

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