outdoors

April 2024- Part 1 The Bs continue!

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With the forthcoming match at Boddington on the near horizon I took my self up there on Tuesday 2nd, mainly to check the water levels and confirm with the bailiff that he had all the details. I decided to go light and just took the whips, setting up on peg 38.

Unusually for Boddington it was like a millpond when I arrived so set up a 6m Chinese whip with a new float that had a long multi-coloured bristle with a sight bob on 0.14mm line and 0.10mm hooklength to an 18. The water was lapping the top platform and I had about 9-10 feet at 8m.

I started off with three balls of groundbait and loose fed over the top. It was slower than normal but plenty of bites, unfortunately the fish were predominately very small with just the odd better example. In the 3 or so hours I was there I had 60 roach and lost two lumps on the whip, the first probably a carp, the second a pike.

Saturday arrives along with the 47mph winds! To be fair it was very windy all day with certain periods that were worse than others and this caused problems with presentation for most. I was running the match and at the draw the last peg in the hat was mine – peg 38! Just where I had been in the week! I had intended to take the pole but with the projected winds I settled on the whips and a waggler rod. To cut a long story short I had 36 roach, lost a lump that was a pike (scale on hook) after a brief fight, had most of the fish in the first 2 hours and then struggled, a couple on the waggler but most on the whip. One of the comments on the day – “presentation was impossible with the waves, one moment the float was a foot out of the water next it was a foot under”. I did manage to sneak a couple of pictures at the calmest point of the day, at points the waves were crashing into the platforms and sending spray up in the air, particularly on the dam wall.

So Monday sees me continuing with the B theme – Burbrook, as I had booked into a match on the Sunday. As I had to collect the exchange ticket first I did not start until 9:30 and set up on peg 1. Plumbing up I had a full top kit in depth once past the initial margin shelf then it was consistent. I set up with a 0.10mm hooklength to a modern 18(explanation to follow) with a 0.6g homemade float. There were a couple of others fishing further down the other end also. I began with two hard balls of groundbait laced with casters at 8m and fed a swim to my right just over the shelf plus one to my right where I put in some chopped worm. By 1 o’clock I had caught 4 small perch all on maggot, one from the right and the rest out in front. I had lost a better fish with my only bite on the left and had two very small roach drop off on shipping back. At this point I decided changes where the order of the day, so first I put on an old style 17 hook which when you compare it to a modern day 20 is smaller! The modern hooks do not have any consistency of size across not just brands but also within brands! Secondly I put out three large pots of loose groundbait with just a pinch of caster on the 8m line. This seemed to work as between one and two o’clock I added 4 chub, a hybrid and a roach.

As the old adage goes – if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got! Change was needed and this is probably something I need to work on as I can be stubborn trying to make a method work!

Sunday arrives Burbrook is only small and the ten pegs that were in filled the place. The four left out were 1,6,11 and 14, either because they crossed other pegs or were in the process of being “desnagged”. I drew peg 13 which after being told by a regular that it was in the corner, which I thought odd as that I thought was 14, the match organiser then came around and indeed the regular was on the wrong peg so we shifted up one and finally on 13 I looked across and there was peg 1 about 20m away!

Setting up like on peg one I also set up a rig for close in (2+1) which was the same depth but used a light float for on the drop and a heavier margin rig for the left margin where I planned to put chopped worm, micro and caster. The match got under way and it was hard, after 2 hours I was blanking while the regular on 12 was catch small fish at mid depth. The light rig produced nothing but finally on my peg 1 rig I got a perch on a tiny piece of worm over my caster line. I had one perch from my margin line, so at 12:30 I cupped out three pots of loose groundbait and sat and waited. Maggot had not got me a single bite so I persisted with small pieces of worm then at 2 o’clock I had my first bite, a small chub. Twenty minutes later another came to the net along with another perch and roach. That was it, I missed three bites that I am sure were liners as the float shot under but nothing and no marks on the bait.

The match had been hard for all, with some only having one fish, with three left to weigh I was lying second with a level 2lb behind a single carp of 3lb, peg 2 then put 2-06 on the scales and Darren who was on peg 3 put 3-06 on the scales to make me 4th and one out of the money! Darren, who had lost a big fish earlier in the match said he had a last minute chub that swung it for him, proving you need to keep going right to the end.

My thoughts now turn to the three day event I am in charge of at Woodland View at the end of the month.

March 2024 – part 2, a BB finish!

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h the Bowood season closed it was on the Saturday 16th that I find myself at the Glebe again for the second of the Maggotdrowners matches. The draw arrives and deja -vu, peg 26 sticks to my fingers again!

I decided to ignore the feeder, although I still set it up and went for a pole approach with the 2+2 line as my main attack and the 13m line as a back up for when I wanted to rest the close in line. Starting on the close line having deposited three balls of groundbait laced with 2mm expanders at 13m I introduced one ball and fed a pinch of maggot every put in. Small skimmers and roach along with huge gudgeon began to go in the net but it was not frantic. In the end I stayed on the 2+2 line all match apart from a 10min stint on the longer line that resulted in a missed bite. At the all out I had put 61 small silvers in the net along with approx 11lb of bream, the carp net(s) (nets as carp under 2lb go in a separate net) held five carp 10lb, 8lb, 2x 3lb and a 1lb baby! This gave me 18-11 of silvers, 25-10 of carp for a total of 44-05. This put me 5/10 in the section, 6/20 in the silvers, 11/20 in the carp and 12/20 overall, missing the silvers section money by 14oz. The day was made by Darren who had drawn peg 2, opened up his holdall and realised he had left his pole at home, just having top kits and a no 3 section plus a waggler rod. Undeterred he fished top 2 and later top 3 to walk the match with a superb all silvers catch of 76-05.

Darren talked me into fishing a local match the following Sunday at Pockridge Lake near Corsham so as I had never seen the lake I made my way there on Tuesday to see what it was like. The ubiquitous rain we have been getting had taken it’s toll on the paths, which are apparently used by the public and dog walkers, they were now a muddy quagmire.

I set up on what turned out to be peg 4 in the match and fished at 5m before going out to 10m to see the difference. I set up one rig- a homemade taking 0.6g to 0.12mm main line and 0.10mm hooklength to an 18 – this rig would cope with both swims with the depth of each marked on the pole with different color chinograph pencils. Starting cautiously I cupped in two small balls at 10m and one at 5m, then loose fed a pinch of maggot each put in (pellet is not allowed here until April). I was soon catching small roach at 5m but decided to see if I could get a better stamp so put a piece of corn on and the bites took ever so slightly longer to come but the stamp was much better. The same happened when I went out to 10m. I fished about 3 hours and had 38 roach and 6 rudd plus dropped a few more when swinging in for approx 8lb.

Sunday arrives and I draw peg 7 which turned out to be the point almost opposite Tuesday’s peg.

It was a funny peg as I had the island directly in front, to my left was a bramble lined margin and to my right and behind me I had a weeded margin. I had not bothered to bring a rod having already made the decision just to have a pleasant day on the pole. Starting at 2+2 directly in front was my main attack but also fed two lines at 10m about 5m apart, the right hand one with caster the other with chopped worm, I also set up a heavier rig for the margin in case carp showed plus a slightly heavier rig then the short line for the long line as insurance against the large perch that were reputed to be present. The all in arrived and the first two hours went to plan with a steady stream of roach and small skimmers coming to hand, then it stopped- just like a tap had been turned off. For the rest of the match I rotated through all the lines and had only 3 further fish, one a small perch caught on worm in the left margin and two roach. Strangely I could not get a bite on corn with the fish coming to double maggot. I dropped one fish of about 3oz trying to swing it when I should have netted it but other than that I didn’t lose any. At the weigh in I was weighed first as the match organiser was on 6 and had arranged to weigh me and then for me to weigh his fish. I ended up with 2-13-8 while he weighed 2-15-0! The match was one from the other end of the lake with 10lb, second also down the other end 6lb (both had carp I believe) and third was peg 4 with 4lb which was mainly 2 big perch.

The organiser had said he was thinking of putting another match on in a couple of weeks but this time at Burbrook Lake, Bromham which is less than 10 minutes from home, so I booked on to that one. The following Friday (Good Friday) sees me at Burbrook in gloomy wet weather on Peg 3 I believe, the near bank but towards the far corner. I only took my whips as I wanted to try out a new Chinese float. It was hard with it taking a bit of time to get bites, feeding caster into the 5 feet of water at the end of the 6m whip (Chinese of course!). Eventually I ended up fishing double caster for a small skimmer, a perch, five roach and a chub of about 10oz, for a weight of 2-3lb (no scales).

Easter Sunday sees me at the second of the Bs from the title – Blacklands. Fishing peg 4 I tackled it my usual way with chopped worm at 10m, pellet at 10m 5m away to the left from the worm (11 and 1 0’clock). Fishing a homemade Chianti style float taking 0.6g on 0.12mm to a 0.10mm hooklength and an 18. No groundbait is allowed at Blacklands so loose fed caster close in at 2+2 range and over the chopped worm line with loose fed pellet over the left line.

Basically to cut a long story short, I fished for 3 hours had four skimmers (3 between 1-1.5LB), 2 hybrids of 1lb+ and 2-2.5lb,1 perch and 22 roach. Most came from the worm line, one roach on the pellet line, although the last hour on the worm line saw me fishing double caster . I had made a mental note as I was catching and thought I had between 10 and 10.5lb.

I start of April with another BB- Boddington and Burbrook!

February 2024 – Part 2 the rise and fall…

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With Gareth and family safely back in China I made preparations for a Maggotdrowners match at the Glebe on Saturday 17th. I had talked Darren into having a go and arranged to meet him at Moreton in the Marsh so he could follow me up to the Glebe as it was his first time. We arrived on time without incident and Darren drew peg 20 and I was on 26. My preparations had not been done that well as I realised that I had left my pole cup in the other bag when I had been out with Gareth, fortunately Darren lent me a spare. For some reason I forgot to take any pictures but I started on the feeder tight across and was patting myself on the back when the feeder was going down the same hole each time – a rare incident! Anyway a roach, skimmer and monster gudgeon made the way to the net by the time we reached the 30min mark while peg 24 had about 4 carp in this time.

The match had been split into two payouts- silvers only and everything counts -with each section getting a silvers and overall winner, you could win one but not both. I had set out for silvers as I wanted to see if I could get the usual bream of 1.5lb to 3lb feeding as being February I suspected the carp may be more bunched up. Hence, I had fished maggot on the feeder and had primed a long line at 13m and a short line at 2+2, the long line with groundbait, 4mm pellet and corn, while the short line received one ball of groundbait and a pot of micros with a few 4mm expanders and a few maggot. Tackle was unusual for me as the long line was normal with a 0.8g homemade float on 0.14mm line, a 0.12mm hooklength to a 16, the short line however was again homemade but took just three no8 shot spread in the last 3 feet again to a 0.12mm line and 16 hook.

The feeder was put up the bank and I had a look on the long line and began to pick up small skimmers of only an ounce or two on maggot or expander at 13m but although I was putting fish in the net along with one better skimmer of a pound it was not fast enough due to the size of the fish. So on to the 2+2 line again it was a case of small skimmers interspersed with the odd roach and gudgeon no matter whether I had maggot or expander on the hook, but expander brought the bites faster. I stayed on this line for the rest of the match but the fish were very small in comparison to the usual silvers at the Glebe. After three hours I hooked and landed a carp of around 8lb but it was the last 40 minutes when the silvers got pushed out by the carp. I caught two carp of a similar size to the first but then I managed to snap my hook off in the bank side vegetation and instead of just tying on a new hook I took the hooklength off and replaced it with a similar one but with a narrower gauge 16 hook – a big mistake as I lost three carp on the bounce as the gauge of wire was pulling through and not holding the carp. I managed one further carp of about 3lb. I was on the board for the weigh in and Darren had had a good day – sticking on the 2+2 line and feeding and fishing maggot he had caught consistently all day and ended up winning the silvers pot for the section. Looking at his fish I guessed I had caught a similar amount but mine were a great deal smaller. I ended up with 15-11 of silvers and my 4 carp went 29-10 that put me 6th overall, and 5th in the silvers.

Darren went home pleased with his day and looking forward to the next on 16th March! It was only at the end of the match that we discovered that Roy Marlow, the owner and ex-Likely Lad, had died on the bank the previous day, a true loss to angling.

Events and weather then conspired against me, with a recurrence of my dodgy knee and monsoon type weather at times I stayed in until the following Siunday when I packed the haversack seat and took a rod bag with a waggler and feeder rod up to the Stock Pond at Bowood on the premise that it would do me good and was the only place likely to be fishable. It was fishable but no-one told the fish!The main lake was muddy after all the rain and it looked as if they had opened the sluice as the water level was lower than normal. I squelched my way up to the Stock Pond and despite it only being 1C on arrival I expected to get a few bites- how wrong can you me – 9:30 to 11:30 fishing and not a bite on either waggler or lead. There had been one hardy pike angler on the main lake when I walked up but he had gone when I walked back.

Tuesday sees me pluck up the courage to go to peg 10 at Bowood, there was a lot of debris and large sticks on the platform and walkway which gave credence to the theory that the rain over the last week or so had risen the level to over the platform and the sluice had then been opened to alleviate the situation.

There was an undertow from right to left against the strong cold wind again a cold night and only 1C on arrival. I fished in my usual manner, the pike rod was untroubled but I did prevent a blank with 3 roach, 2 rudd, 2 skimmers/blades and a micro-perch for 0-06. Two other anglers came after me on the other bank but I did not see them catch, Oh for a period of settled weather! It has to be said that apart from one bite that took the float under the rest merely moved the tip a mm or so which meant I needed to concentrate hard on the float.

March means 14 days maximum of Bowood to end of season and then the return to the Glebe.