Sunday 15 February 2009

Deja Vu at Whinwhistle

If you read my blog from the last round at Whinwhistle you'll know I drew the dreaded Rail lake on peg 14- the worst peg on there. Arriving this morning for breakfast I found out I was lying in second place overall in the league and hopefull of a good draw to push on. Chatting over breakfast it emerged that at 5pm on the Saturday the only peg on the whole complex still frozen was 14 on The Rail. Into the drawbag I went and out came......................Rail 14. I looked at the coin in disbelief as I couldn't believe I had drawn it again. Last time out I had 6 fish for 2oz and 2nd in section which shows how bad it is. I can honestly say I have never ever been so disapointed with a draw,I seriously contemplated going home but as it would result in 10 points I had to try and catch a fish to get some potentially crucial points. As it was milder than last time I expected the other pegs on the Rail to stand more chance of catching,particularly down the other end where league leader Richard Allin had drawn the Rail for the first time- end peg 2. I set up a few very light rigs and a lead rod but to be honest once again I wasn't even expecting a bite. I fed a nugget of groundbait at 14.5m in front and 16m to my left,with a nugget going on top of the shelf at 5m to my left where there were a few straggly branches. I was hoping to catch a few micro perch here as there was a bit of colour in the water following the weeks rain and was a bit of a throaway line. After 45 minutes I hadn't had a bite off either long line so dropped in down the edge with a single white pinkie on 0.8 bottom and a 24 Black Gama. After 5 minutes the float disapeared and I struck into a snag. But then the snag started to move away from the edge and a ghost carp of around 3.5lb wallowed on the surface before plodding into the channel. I played this fish like my life depended on it as I knew it would be worth mega section points. After around 3 or 4 minutes the tiny hook pulled out and the rig pinged back. I didn't swear much honest!!!! Why is it always in the really hard matches that you lose decent fish?!
Over the next four hours I went through the motions and managed 4 fish for exactly the same weight as last week- 2oz! This was only good enough for fourth in section this time as Richard on the end had 4 little carp. I packed up in double quick time and didn't even go to see how the other lake's had fished- that's how fed up I was! All in all a crap day on a crap peg that has probably ruled out any chance I had of winning the league as Richard is now 5 points ahead with only 2 matches to go.

Saturday 14 February 2009

Witherington Farm pairs- 14/2/09

With nothing on this Saturday I was happy to fill in for Nick Lund in the Pairs match at Witherington Farm . I turned up at around 7.45 in plenty of time for a wander around and I was a little suprised to find half of the lakes frozen, with Tony the owner turning the aerators on as I reached Sellwood. Only half of each lake was frozen and it was only around 1/2 an inch thick so nothing too serious. Into the cafe for a cup of tea and a quick chat to my parnter Colin Sellwood revealed he was happy for me to fish Cottage as I've never fished it and fancied a change. Into the buckets I went for the draw which placed Colin on Sellwood 12 and me on Cottage 2. Peg 2 is to the right of the aerator,but atleast I was on the side of the lake that was ice-free which would save some time. Apparantly peg 2 wasn't great with little form, but Colin filled me in and revealed that there was a plateau running between peg 2 and 3 and it was worth fishing at the base of this. I decided to fish a line at the base of the bar at 13m, with a waggler and lead line to the island which was around 20m away. I expected it to be very hard with the ice on the water so set up to fish quite light. My main line was around 3ft deep so I set up a 4x10 KC chimp on 0.14-0.12 and an 18B911. I initially set this to a 10 latex but changed to an 8 just before the all in- something that proved to be a good decision. I also set up my 11ft carbonactive- 3lb Maxima-0.12 and a 20 Drennan Eyed Barbless with a Mosella micro pellet band on a hair. The lead rig consisted of a 10ft Carbonacive- 6lb matchwinner with the same hooklength as the waggler. Both rods were set with Daiwa TDR 2503CU reels. I wasn't quite ready at the start but when I was finally ready 10 minutes late no-one had caught a fish so I wasn't worried. I started on the 13m line with a 4.5m coolwater pellet and cad-potted in just 4 micro pellets. After 5 minutes I had a positive bite and soon netted a brown gold-fish of around 8oz. 2 more in the next 2 drops was a good start,especially as no-one had caught a fish by this point. After a 10 minute quiet spell I potted in another 4 micro's and started to pick up a few fish- mostly goldfish of all colours with the odd skimmer thrown in. After about an hour I had 6lb in the net and bar the odd plip no-one had caught so I decided to get my head down and ignore the island for the time being-although I had been pinging the odd 4mm pellet across. I continued to pick off the odd fish but it was by no means frantic andnd I had to keep lifting and dropping for every fish. The guy to my right had started to pick off odd fish that were a good stamp but I could see I was still winning the lake after around 2 hours. The guy to my left then went down the edge to the aerator and had a lump- followed by 2 more in the next 10 minutes! This was where I made a mistake as this unsettled me and I decided to set up a new rig and fed a line at 13m down the edge to my left. This meant I was not fishing for 10 minutes and lost my rhythym a bit. A quick look on the waggler with 4mm pellet saw a nice skimmer and a tench before I hit a lump that suddenly went solid half way in as it snagged me and broke the hooklength! Back on the pole line and I was now catching regularly by lifting and dropping and feeding minimal amounts- not big fish but I was constantly adding weight to the net. The guy to my right (Gary-didnt catch his surname)had switched to 17.5m against the island and was sacking- after around 3 1/2 hours he over took me. I then had a spell where fish were coming off the hook,not foulhooked but not feeding confidently. I cad-potted in 6 4mm pellets after every fish which seemed to sort it as I got into a rhythym again and kept putting fish in the net. With around 2 hours to go something strange happened,all of a sudden there was elastic out everywhere as everyone seemed to hook decent fish. I decided to concentrate on putting whatever weight I could in the net as the odd look over the edge line hadn't produced anything. A quick look on the lead saw a wrap around that broke me- if I had known it would fish so well I would have fished a bit heavier. With 30 minutes left it was clear I needed a decent fish as everyone had 2 or 3 by now so I put a full cad pot of pellet in and went over the top with a 6mm pellet. As expected this slowed the bites but after 5 minutes the float disappeared and I soon panned a nice 3lb ghostie. I thought this would lead to a good spell but the next fish was foulhooked,that's the trouble with feeding a bit more. A skimmer netted on the whistle finished off a great day with loads of bites but I didn't know how I'd got on as everyone caught lumps late on. As I was on scales duty I was first to weigh and my 9lb odd of silvers and 22lb of little carp and goldfish went 31-3. Gary on my right then put 50lb odd on as his island line got stronger as the match went on and he sacked in the last 2 hours. The next guy weighed a low 20,then the guy who hadnt had a fish going into the last hour had 4 for 31-8, OUCH! Then there was a 30,a 32,21,34, and a few lower weights. The guy to my left had a few more lumps for 41lb and second on the lake. All in all it was a lovely day as the sun was shining and I had bites throughout. I was disapointed with my eventual 5th in section of 11 as another fish would have seen me 3rd,and I easily lost enough to get 2nd. But still,with half the lake frozen they were cracking weights.

Sunday 1 February 2009

Whinwhistle Winter Leage- round 6

Well after yesterday's win at Witherington Farm I was raring to go for today's winter league at Whinwhistle. I arrived at the fishery at just after 8 and after paying my pools started chatting to a few of the lads and one thing was clear- nobody wanted to draw the dreaded Rail Lake! To say the fishing has been hard on there of late is an understatement. Into the bag went my hand and out came.....Rail 14! I can honestly say I've never been more gutted with a draw. Not only had I drawn the worst lake I had also drawn one of the two worst pegs on there. It turned out there was a bit of a cock-up with the draw,as there was meant to be 5 on The Rail,6 on The Square and 6 on Keepers. Somehow extra pegs were added on The Rail and 7 of us ended up on there,with only 4 on The Square. As league leader Richard Allin had drawn there and had a whole bank to himself I feared the worst,especially as I had him in the semi final of the knock-out. Top angler Phil James got in his car and went home after drawing Rail 10 which speaks volumes for what it's been like of late. I got to my peg and tried to be upbeat but knew I was in for a real struggle and didn't really expect a bite to be honest.













Nonetheless I had to try and get good section points as I was lying in second place going into this round. To cut a long story short I caught 6 fish for 2oz (mainly small stuff!) for joint second in the section. One guy had 2 carp for 4lb,two of us had 2oz and everyone else blanked. Last year's league winner Andy Shanks drew Rail 2 and fished bloodworm and joker all day without a bite which gives you an idea of how tough it was. I was quite pleased to come away with 2 points as it keeps me near the top of the league but unfortunately Richard put me out of the knock-out with a section winning 2lb 3oz from The Square. All in all a tough day but atleast I didn't blank and come away with 9 points like some people did!