whip

November 2025 part 1-no fireworks here!

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First outing is on the 4th when I took the Frenzee waggler to the Pondtail peg 1 and had a pleasant couple of hours fishing (9:45 to 11:45) double maggot and just loose feeding a few maggots at intervals. I set the homemade peacock waggler with the bulk around the float , a no. 6 about 2 feet from the hook and a no. 8 about six inches from the 18 hook, the result was 3-06 comprising of 36 roach and 4 perch.

Friday sees me wander down to peg 10 at Bowood, fishing 10-12. The pike rod with sardine went out to no avail and the lighter elastic and winter rig with a homemade body down float taking a bulk of 1g and 2 no 8 droppers to an 18 carried double maggot to start and later worm but no real size of fish came to this even with a bit of chopped work in the initial two balls of groundbait. 17 rudd, a roach, a microscopic perch, a hybrid and a skimmer managed to pull the scales round to 2-03.

Wednesday sees me back at Bowood but I changed plans as there was a car already parked up and I recognised it as an angler that in all likelihood would be on peg 10, no with the lake still holding vast amounts of weed the only peg worth fishing with known clear areas was 10 so I made the decision to leave the sardines in the car and fished the Pondtail on the pole for a change! Fishing 9:30 to 11:30 I started with 2 firmish balls of groundbait with some wheat and then loose fed wheat every few minutes, only topping up the groundbait with a ball every 40 mins or so. The weather was typical November- wet but this time quite warm at 14C. I set up with a lighter elastic than usual teamed with a BGT Blues taking 0.75g to a 0.10mm hooklength and an 18 with double maggot. Shotting was the usual bulk set about 3 feet from the hook with two no.8 droppers. Bites came steadily apart from a couple of blank periods when the flow changed, fifteen roach and two perch took the scales down to 1-10.

Friday was going to be my next outing but waking up to a dark oppressive gloom and rain I took the easy option and decided to write this instead! On the other side of the world Gareth had returned to the commercial he had visited previously- the one where you got money back for every fish you caught!

Fishing a whip he ended up with 3 large tilapia (4-5lb) and a carp fishing the traditional two hook method with a soft paste on the top hook and a firm paste on the bottom hook. All the fish came to the bottom hook with a paste made from the fishery provided pellets he was loose feeding.

One of the tilipia had a tag which apparently made it count as 3 fish – only 100 fish in the whole lake were tagged and of course he had to get one! The most fish caught when he was there was 5 and the lowest 2 so he didn’t do too bad in the four hour session.

A pike from Bowood now becomes a target for the remainder of the month!

September 2025 Part 1 -World apart

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A bitty start to the month with various commitments like car MOT and service among others, anyway I got out on the 5th and settled o peg 10 at Bowood fishing 9:30 to 11:30 by which time I was pulling out what little hair I have left! The reason for my frustrations were the hundreds if not thousands of tiny rudd about 2 inches long constantly attacking the float and the corn, often preventing the corn from sinking by creating a ball around it as they tried to get it in their mouths! I had fished my usual rig with all the shot six inches fro the hook. By 11:30 i had managed to get 4 rudd on maggot, a roach and a rudd on corn and a roach on a Chinese honey jelly pellet! A total of 10oz.

Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th see me at the Glebe outside Hinckley for a two day invitational that I was running on behalf of Herbie. I had informed Herbie that this was likely to be my last MFS event. Money taken, nets dipped and draw made, the last peg left was mine and it was my usual area peg 24!. I set up a feeder with the intention of swapping to a straight lead later , a long pole rig with a 0.8g homemade long rugby ball float teamed up with 0.18mm line and a size 16, a short line with a similar float taking 0.6g and a 14 (my paste line!) and a rig for the margin 0.20mm to a 14.

It was slow I resisted the temptation to put the feeder up the bank and go on my long pole line that had been primed with 3 balls of groundbait initially and a pinch of 6mm pellets every couple of minutes, as it was evident it was a struggle for everyone. Ninety minutes in and I get my first bite, a small skimmer!, Ten minutes later the rod pulls round and I latch into a real lump that decided to run along the far bank and smash me in the reeds! The joys of fishing! I finally snared a carp of about 3lb on the feeder.The inside line proved empty despite regular feeding and efforts throughout the match, margin produced nothing and in the end I stayed on the 11.5m long line with 6mm pellet giving me 7 carp. At the weigh in I had 48-13 of carp and the skimmer of 0-04 for a 49-01 total. Annoyingly I had also lost a double figure carp that I had in the net twice and it swam out twice before I could lift the net, losing it eventually after a hook pull. One of my landed carp was in the 12-15lb range but this one was bigger!

Day 2 came and this time I was left with peg 8.

From yesterday I had gleaned that the people who had caught well were on the bomb about half way out, pinging pellet over the top. So I amended my approach to start on the bomb, also setting up the same rigs as the day before. Now peg 8 has a pole stuck in the water about 5m out and 6-7m down the peg, I have fished this peg before and have always been able to steer the carp around the pole without issue. The day went slow again with me getting 3 carp on the bomb and pulling out of 4 more, while the 11.5m line produced not a single bite! The 5m line towards the pole got me one skimmer and the right margin gave me 4 carp with 3 lost and 3 skimmers. Carp weighed 39-11 and a level 4-00 for the skimmers making a 43-11 substandard total!

Sunday sees me licking my wounds and going for a short session on the Pondtail before the rain and wind arrive! I set up on peg 1 although it was now getting overrun with plant life!

I opted for the 3m Chinese whip and a Chinese float set up with olivettes and a single no12 dropper to a 18 hook. I started with two plum sized balls of soft groundbait and fed wheat every few minutes during the session from 9:35 to 11:10. When I set up I realised that I had not got a landing net head in the net bag!

The set up – the distance from the hook to the olivettes is about 2 feet whereas the total depth is approx 5ft. Fishing double maggot alongside the furthest bunch of the two weed bunches I manged 32 roach and a solitary perch for about 3-3.5lb

Now fishing in China is different to say the least, Gareth sent me some pictures of a visit to a commercial he had heard about.

Only whips allowed, it was very busy, need to draw your peg before you start -you draw 2 pegs and choose which one you want to fish! 300 yuan (approx £30) to fish but they refund you 25 yuan (£2.50) for every fish you catch but you are on a timer, 300 yuan 4 hours, 600 yuan 8 hours. When he arrived the “regulars” were making comments unaware that he could understand a lot and Wendy, his wife, was also present and heard them say that he stood no chance of catching!

He used his own 4.5m whip, but they also supply if needed but maximum length allowed is 5.4m. They gave him pellets, paste, landing net and an umbrella. You can see every peg has its own permanent keepnet in the water. Next time the manager said she will give him a proper box to sit on she also said biggest fish is 20lbs and listed the species but no idea what they are as she only spoke Chinese, she said the smallest fish around 4lbs in there. The whips are powerful enough to get them out, 0.25mm to 12lbs braid with about a size 6 hook everyone using 2 hooks, 1 hook has big ball of sloppy paste on and other hook small piece of harder pace. Around 5pm everyone started feeding pellets in the margins and fishing close in (just like here!). He saw lots of lost fish , they are big and fight hard. So how did he do? Well the regulars making the remarks blanked and he caught two tilapia the one in the photo is 6lb (weighed) and he also had another of 7lb(weighed).

March 2025 part 2 – Going light

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So Bowood is no more, until June 16th, so the canal is available for piking until the end of March so Tuesday18th sees me heading to Rowde with the rucksack bag, a 3m whip and a pike rod, large oval landing net and unhooking mat (compulsory on canal for pike) and fold-able groundbait bucket with bait. I was planning to fish the first pound away from Devizes from the road bridge, on arrival there were several boats moored up and I ended up in a large gap well away from them about half way down the wall.

Loose feeding on the whip I began slowly with a a solitary roach and a perch before one of the boats moved off and went through the swim, it took over an hour before the next bite but I then had a further roach and two perch before I hooked a decent fish that I had on for a few minutes before the hook pulled, I suspect it was a good perch. Only other bite was a missed run on the pike rod to a smelt. I packed up shortly after to end the short session as the bank was getting increasingly busy with walkers.

Rest of the week I was tied up with various things but Saturday sees me travel up to the Glebe for a Maggotdrowners match. This was to be a 6 hour match with everything counting. I arrived in good time and ended up drawing peg 8 which I didn’t mind as I have fished it before albeit in the summer months.

I set up a feeder, a rig for 13m, one for 2+2 and a margin rig. Feeding the 13m with three balls of groundbait with a smattering of 2mm and 4mm pellet plus a few grains of corn. The other lines were loose fed with pellets. Although the day was quite settled and warmish everyone was struggling apart from peg 1. The feeder lasted half hour before moving on to the pole as others on the feeder were also biteless. From the start at 11am to 3pm I had two bites that resulted in two skimmers plus I had lost two carp in the first hour that were foul hooked. From 3pm to 4pm I lost a further carp which I had on for about 5minutes that was a real lump before the hook pulled but did manage to put a carp of about 4lb in the net plus a further two skimmers. In to the last hour and I took a chance and chopped up some worm that I put on the 13m line , worm on the hook resulted in four further carp (why didn’t I try worm sooner?). At the weigh in my skimmers went 4-12 and the five carp 27-07 for a 32-03 total and 3rd in section. It had been a good day until 15minutes from the all out when we had a biblical rain and hail storm that soaked everything!

Tuesday 25th sees me back at Rowde, this time taking the 5m Chinese whip and float with the intention of feeding micro and fishing expander, I also had the pike rod but that did not get any interest.

I started on maggot but fed micros and bumped four good fish early on, possibly perch but after a small skimmer on maggot I changed to the expander and ended up with 7 skimmers (best 1-01), 6 roach and a rudd for approx 2-08.

I waited under Monday 31st and headed off to Boddington as I was running a silvers match on the Saturday and wanted to check the water level and have a word with the bailiff about adding a couple of extra pegs. I set up on peg 39 and was pleased to see that the water level was up to the first platform down.

Fishing at 10m I had about 10ft of water and as it was very calm I fished a light 0.3g float set to fish on the drop with a 0.10mm hooklength to a 16. Three balls laced with caster were introduced and caster loose fed over the top with a further ball being added every 45minutes or so for the 3 hours I fished. It was frustrating at first as the top I had chosen was just not right as I bumped ten fish before changing for a lighter elastic which sorted the issue. I chopped and changed trying different things but still ended up with 25 roach plus a perch of 1-01. There were a couple of quiet periods when there was possibly a pike in attendance but I did not hook any.

I packed up at 1pm to get home avoiding the usual traffic around Oxford. Next month sees the Boddington match and a surprise!