Tuesday 30 August 2016

Sunday 28th August - Ivy House open match

Today I decided to go to ivy house for the open match.
With 21 anglers fishing we were spread over the match lake and Willows.
I really wanted to draw on the match lake.  Somewhere in the middle of the lake. 
I drew peg 4. This is a good area. It's not quite in the middle of the lake so I'd of preferred peg 5 but I fancied peg 4.
I just set up to fish a simple pellet match.
Paste short at the bottom of the shelf.
0.3 gram float. 0.18 F1 spider mainline to an 0.15 hook length. With the 2.6mm colmic Hollow elastic.
I also decided to fish pellets at 14.5m where I'd fish loose feed pellets and fish shallow or paste over the top.

I began the match short and foul hooked one and lost it within the first 2 minutes. 
I then went out to 14.5m and began catching a few carp steadily on paste. At around 2 and a half hours in I had about 4 carp and a bream.
Gary Donachie on the opposite bank was catching well and I think he had around 7 fish so I was behind. And had to do something to catch him up.
I picked up my shallow rig and really tried to make it work as normally the fish here are bigger shallow.
Soon enough.  After 15 minutes of really working I began catching the odd fish shallow and they were deffintly a better stamp.
Going into the last hour I had around 12 or 13 carp and was hoping i could catch a few more to try and bump up my weight. 
I thought I could get into a bit of a rhythm by catching 1 on the paste then nick one shallow but this didn't really go to plan. I only managed 1 carp last hour and somehow hooked 4 and lost them all!
I managed to weigh in 79-0-0 which after packing up and going back to the cafe I found out it was enough to win!
I'm hindsight I felt I should of not bothered with the short line as I wasted to much time trying to catch on that and I think its to shallow on this bank to catch that short but It should help my approach for next time.



Monday 15 August 2016

Saturday 13th August - Manor farm open match

My plan for today was to go to Manor Farm for the open match.
With it being on my 2 favourite lakes I was really looking forward to it.
Middle and Ash pools were in.
Normally middle will win as the carp feed more in there but ash pools one of my favourite lakes and is full of F1s.
I drew peg 7 on ash pool, a peg I've never drawn in a match but always wanted to.  This is a good F1 area. With the airator to your left at around 17m.
I based my attack on fishing shallow all match as the fish were already topping all over the lake so I fancied it.
Set up 5 shallow rigs. 
2 decks rigs and a Waggler Incase they backed off my pole line. 
I started the match at 14.5m on the deck and caught 2 F1s straight away.
I was having liners so picked up my shallow rig...
And I didn't look back. I caught solidly on this for 2 hours after fine tuning the rig and feeding and changing depths when it went quiet.
Feeding was best by firing in 10 pellets at a time and as the day went on it got more and more and the fishing got better.
Going into the last hour I had 65 F1s and 1 big mirror Carp. So was hoping for a good last hour.
And I did.... I couldn't get in quick. And I thought Chris Cameron opposite had a similar weight to me and we were fish for fish last hour.
So I stepped up my elastic and really caught well.
I thought Chris was beating me so I tried to catch him up.
I clicked 88 F1s and 1 carp so I had 23 F1s in the last hour which was good!
I fed quite heavily to keep them there. 
I manged to weigh in 222-12-0 to win the match.  A personal best match weight for me.
Chris Cameron had 202-0-0 but I thought it would be closer than that!
I think I fed around 3 and a half pints of pellets so for over 200lb of fish that isn't really a lot I don't think. 
My gear for the match was
COLMIC AIRON F44. 14.5m.
Colmic Yellow and Blue Hollow elastic.
0.152 F1 Spider mainline to and 0.13 F1 spider hook length. Then fished 0.152 Spider hook length last hour. 
Had probably the best days fishing I've ever had today!
Until next time!



Friday 12 August 2016

Thursday 11th August - Manor farm open

Today I decided to go to manor farm for the open match.
With 20 anglers fishing all on windmill pool it was going to be a tough match!
I drew peg 18.
This is the deepest end of the lake around 10ft at 13m.
I had a very inviting tree to my right as well so decided to fish to that with 17.5m of my Colmic F44.
I began the match catching well at 13m on the deck and had to keep chasing fish up and down catching through the water. 
I did have a look down the edge a few times and only caught a few F1s and an 8lb mirror.
I caught a lot of small F1s between a pound and 2 pound and a few bonus carp in amongst them.
I weighed 70-12-0 enough to win the match!
Roll on next time!


Thursday 11 August 2016

Tuesday 9th August - Ivy House open

18 fishing spread over the match lake and speci lake. 
I drew peg 23 on speci.
Caught 2 carp and some skimmers to weigh 34-0-0 for second on the lake.

Monday 8 August 2016

Sunday 7th August - Manor farm open.

Drew peg 37 on island pool.
Struggled all day.
I should of fished rods all day but tried to catch on the pole.
Weighed 30-0-0 for nowhere!
Roll on next time!

Saturday 6th August - Ivy House open

With 16 fishing and bright sunshine it was going to be tough.
I caught at 14.5m on paste and some shallow on pellets. 
Had 14 carp for 58lb.
Enough for second overall.
61lb won so wasn't to far off. 
Roll on next time.

Friday 5th August - Bourton on the water open.

Drew peg 11.
Started at 11.5m on pellets and caught quite well early then struggled for a bite.
Came short and caught some more then fished shallow short for the rest of the match. 
Had a nice day.
Weighed 87-0-0 for 2nd overall.

Wednesday 3 August 2016

Sunday 31st July

Ivy House open match.
I've only been going to ivy house for the last month or two but I am really beginning to like it there. 
It's a hard venue. But deffintly one of the fairest there is around which is why I like it so much. It is never normally won from the same peg.
Getting onto the match, with 17 people fishing and only 20 pegs on the lake it was always going to be tough.
I drew myself peg 12.
This is peg is really close to those either side than most of the other pegs but at an angle to the left you have a bit of room to yourself.
So I decided to target this area more than in front of me.
I started short on pellets at 5m which as I've written about before can produce an early carp or big skimmer. I managed 1 roach about a pound on this so a nice fish none the less. 
I then opted to feed my worm line that was straight in front of me and then go on my paste line where I'd fish to my left with a little bit of room.  I began catching a few carp on this and felt I was doing ok.
Looking round the lake no one was really catching. The guy a few pegs up had caught more carp than me and with 2 hours to go I was hoping to try and catch some skimmers to try and bump my weight up as the carp had shut up shop in my peg.
In the remaining hour I didn't really put a lot in the net at all!
I had some Ripple in my peg now and strangely I didn't catch when that came along! Normally that's a good thing when you have Ripple!
I had 9 Carp and 8 Big Skimmers which resulted in me being 2nd overall and 2nd in the silvers.
My carp went 42lb
And my Skimmers went 21lb
Leaving me with a total weight of 63lb.
29lb won the silvers which I felt I should of had as at one stage they were then they'd disappear again!
I was quite happy with that from that peg and I learnt a lot about Ivy house that day!
Until the next time!!!



Monday 1 August 2016

Saturday 30th July.
Today I decided to go to manor farm on the open match.
There were 17 of us fishing and with us all on island pool it was going to be a struggle from some pegs.
I found myself heading towards peg 21, this peg isn't normally in which maybe can be a good thing?
but with this being on the corner of the island and pegs in either side I felt it could be tough.

Like I do with all my fishing I kept things dead simple:

14.5m of my Trustee Colmic Airon F44 pole on the deck and 3 shallow rigs.
My shallow rigs all consisted of a MAP SF1 floats to 0.16 F1 spider mainline to an 0.13 hook length. Where'd id fish a lasso'd 4mm pellet.

11ft Colmic Next Adventure 60 Rod. With a pellet feeder and an 0.15 F1 spider hook length.
11ft Next Adventure 45 Rod. Set up to fish a lead either over my pole line or 3/4 the way across if I needed to.

I began my match by feeding my pole line and chucking the feeder tight to the Island
 and sat there hoping for an early fish.... this didn't happen, looking around no one had caught and thought we could be in for a tough match. But I persevered on this for the first half an hour.

With this resulting in no bites I decided to have a look on the pole, starting on the deck.
By now the wind was making things a little difficult with an awkward cross wind but it was no match for my F44 and I could comfortably lean into it. I began catching steadily on this putting a few small F1s in the net, and then I began missing bites. All the while I had been pinging this line and I thought the fishing might of been coming shallow.

So out came the shallow rig. I caught a few on this but I would catch one then have to change depths, they weren't settling at any one depth.

By now we were just over half way through and as I've said in the past Manor Farm always switches off around this time. And sure enough everyone stopped catching.

I think I had around 30lb in the net which I felt was doing ok for the area I was in so decided to sit on the feeder for the remainder of the match and hoped id catch late on the pole. I did have quite a good spell on the feeder where I put 6 fish in the net in 30 minutes and they were a decent stamp.

So last half an hour I decided to have a look back shallow on the pole and this saw me have 3 quick F1s and then they went again. So back out on the feeder for a late fish or 2.

I managed to hook one with 5 minutes to go but it took me into a snag that I didn't know was there, which resulted in me pulling for a break.

I managed to weigh in 68-0-0 which put me 5th overall and a section win! Which from the area I was quite happy with.