Back to winning ways....

Firstly I must again apologise for the lateness of my blog. I can never seem to find the time lately and if this continues I might have to put my blog 'on hold' until things quieten down a bit.

The last match I fished was the winter league at Whinwhistle. It fished very hard and I had 6lb 12oz of small skimmers on pole and pellet for 3rd in section. The frustrating thing was Phil James had 3lb odd of silvers but snared a 10lb carp on his silvers rig which won him the section. Without that fish I would have been 2 points clear at the top of the league but with it I was now 3 points behind with two rounds to go- a near impossible deficit.

This Saturday saw me fishing the Mannings Teams of 4 league. The first round was to be held at Orchard Lakes in New Milton. It's a venue I'd heard a bit about but never actually seen. In summer the weights are massive with people fishing on a topkit for 200lb+ as the fish average around the 1lb mark. In the week leading up to the match I spent a good bit of time on the 'phone to venue expert Nathan Fox who was a massive help and gave me first class info.

After a quick breakfast at McDonalds we drove the 20-odd miles to the venue in convoy (team-mates- Phil James,Roger Clacey & Phil Timms). After pulling itno the gates the most noticeable thing was the wind,it was howling down the lakes and being canalised it would mean fishing to the far bank would be very difficult. The team-draw was made nice and early and I was placed on B6 (peg 19). This meant nothing to me but a quick call to Nathan revealed it was in a good area but there were better pegs in the section,particularly peg 18 to my left that was on the bend and had a perfect margin to fish. After setting my gear down I had a good look at the peg and decided on my approach. Based on Nathan's info my main-line would be at around 13m where I had just over 3ft of water. Due to the wind this rig was an improvised 4x14 KC Chimp on 0.14-0.12 and a 16 gama pellet matched to double 6 slip on a pulla bung. As I was expecting a few fish shotting was simply a bulk of no's 6 inches from the hook as I wanted to get the bait down quickly. This rig was also plumbed at 4m to my right about 1m from the bank where I found the same depth. The edges hadn't produced for some time by all accounts but it was worth targetting as the wind was relatively mild. My second rig was a 4x16 KC Chimp on 0.14-0.12 and an 18 Gama pellet. This was shotted with a bulk of 9's and 2 no:10 droppers again matched to double 6 slip. I had a good 6ft of water from 4m out to around 10m and this rig would be used to cover all of this area. Both rigs had backshots and longer than normal line due to the ferocity of the wind. Lastly I set up a 10ft carbonactive for fishing the bomb and corn if I was struggling or the wind got much worse. For bait I had 2 tins of corn,a pint of 4mm soaked pellets and some expanders (Ringers Next Generation-simply awesome!)

The all in was called and I flicked a few grains of corn in at around 4-5m before potting half a medium pot of 4mm pellet at 13m and flicking a few pellets down the inside. Kicking off at 4m on a single grain of corn the float buried after 30 seconds and I soon had a 2.5lb carp in the net. This was bigger than the average so a useful start. When fishing corn down the track in this way I always like to feed by hand- never more than two grains at a time. I think the noise is a factor,and it also spreads the bait out a bit. By constantly working the bait I had 6 carp in the net after 40 minutes which was as good as anyone I could see. This line then went quiet so I decided to come off it and fish across whilst feeding the short line with a grain or two of corn every minute or so. I shipped across and was surprised I didn't get a bite straight away but by continually lifting and dropping the 6mm pellet hookbait the float eventually buried and a carp was soon on it's way in. I had 12 carp in 12 put-ins on this line and was flying with 18 carp in the net after around 90 minutes or so- far more than anyone else I could see. All the while I was flicking corn in short as the wind was getting stronger by the minute and I couldn't get the right presentation at 13m. I re-fed with half a pot of 4mms as I couldn't fish the line and hoped that there might be a few there if and when the wind died down.

Back at 4m and I couldn't get a bite so added a section and went out to 6m and found the fish again. Every time I caught a fish I threw about a dozen pellets in the edge to my right as I hoped it might be worth a fish or two late on. By regularly feeding corn by hand I was picking off carp regularly averaging around 1lb but with a few bigger ones thrown in. The weather was miserable with constant wind and rain which meant fishing long was a non-starter. This meant I had to make the short line work and whenever the line went quiet I would go slightly further out or to the side and would find a few fish. The anglers that were potting bait were all struggling and it seemed by spreading the bait out a bit I was the only one to really keep fish coming. At one point the wind dropped slightly and I went out to find the long line biteless. I don't think presentation was quite right so rather than waste time I got my head down on the corn. I had a couple of looks down the edge with no bites but kept feeding a few pellets as I had to hope the fish might turn up. The guy to my left on 18 had been struggling but in the last two hours he started to catch regularly down the edge and I was getting worried. Going into the last hour I was still picking odd fish off the corn line by searching around and constantly lifting and dropping.

With 25 minutes left I came off the corn line and dropped in down the edge on a 6mm pellet. After a few seconds the float buried and I struck into thin air! Straight back in and a repeat saw a fat little 1.5lb carp hit the net. I had another 7 carp and a 1lb skimmer down the edge in the last 25 minutes,feeding a dozen pellets everytime I hooked a fish. I netted the last fish after the whistle.

I wasn't sure how I'd done as I couldn't see all of the section but with 55 carp in the net I thought I might be ok. My main worry was the guy to my left who had caught in the last two hours and. First to weigh was Andy (andykoi) to my right who put 44lb on the scales. I was next and after two weighs I had a total of 66lb 12oz. The guy on 18 then put 54lb on the scales which was a relief as I thought it would be very close. I followed the scales round and there were a few 40's with the next best weight being 57lb (this included an 8lb+ bonus). One point I should make is the double 6 slip used. It seems to be a controversial set-up that people either love or hate and today I lost one fish all day that was bumped- the elastic was absoultely perfect for the job in hand.

Back to the hut and the rest of the team had done ok with (I think) a third and two fourths leaving us in 3rd position out of 7 on the day. After picking up my section money I headed home looking forward to getting dry!

Sunday saw the penultimate round of the winter league at Whinwhistle. Going into this round I had slipped to second place and was now three points behind Phil James in first. With only two matches to go it was going to be very difficult to make up the ground,especially as winter league attendances dwindle towards the end. What started off as a league of 24 was now left with a disapointing 11 fishing as those out of the running often don't turn up. This meant that there would be two small sections of 5 and 6,with 6 on Keepers and 5 on The Square. After a superb bacon & egg baguette I was ready for the draw. This might sound like a 'crap draw excuse' but there really was only one peg to avoid and that was peg 4 on The Square. This was the only peg without a feeder chuck and the best weight off it all winter was 4lb odd. My heart sank when I pulled my disc out of the bag and saw W4 staring back at me. I couldn't believe it and was absoultely gutted. Andy Shanks had drawn a flier in peg 1 which won the last match and I fully expected him to win the section with carp both on the feeder and down the edge. The news got worse when it emerged that Phil James had drawn end peg 16 on Keepers. At this moment I genuinely thought any chance I had of winning the league had been lost at the drawbag....

After driving down to The Square I was doing my best impression of a tourettes sufferer as I couldn't believe the peg I had drawn. It's in the middle of the bank with a spit opposite that always has pleasure anglers on it. After setting down my box I finally stopped cursing and began to think about what I was going to do

The peg had almost no chance of throwing up a carp so I thought it best to fish a light pellet approach and hope I could find a few skimmers and rescue a third or fourth in the section. My first line was straight out at 11m where there was around 4ft of water. This rig was a 4x12 KC Chimp on 0.14-0.10 and an 18 Tubertini 808 shotted with a bulk of 10's with 1 dropper. Elastic was double 5 slip. The peg was very flat so this rig also served my 14.5m line that would be a back-up for when the short line died. My final line was a bit of a throaway and was at 16m slightly to my right- same float and elastic but with an 0.12 bottom and an 18 Gama Pellet. This rig was set 3 inches over depth. Lastly I set up a maggot feeder clipped to the farbank but with a couple of pleasure anglers on that bank this was never likely to work. For bait I had half a pint of soaked micro's,some wetted crushed expander,some expanders for the hook and a pint of maggot. I also had some dryish fishmeal groundbait that would be cupped in on the 16m line.

The all-in was called and I fed a golf ball of crushed pellet with a pinch of micro at 11m,a ball of groundbait and a cup of loose groundbait,a few micro's and a few maggots at 16m before casting the maggot feeder to the far bank. I only gave this 5 minutes and as expected no bites were forthcoming so it was out to 11m with 4mm expander. I was delighted to see the float disapear first drop and a small skimmer of around 2oz was soon in the net. After 3 more in the next 3 drops I fed a tiny amount of crushed pellet through the fruitshoot pot,feeding every third fish initially. After an hour I was flying with 25 skimmers in the net. Crucially Andy was blanking which was a bit surprising. Mike Smith on peg 6 had caught a small carp on the method so we were probably about level. After 2 hours I had exactly 50 in the net and by trickling in small amounts of micro's and crushed pellets I was keeping the fish coming,hardly missing a bite and not losing any fish. Normally at Whinwhistle the pellet line dies between the first and second hour but there was no sign of it today so I was happy to get my head down and keep adding weight to the net. Mike next door had added a bream of about 3lb to his carp which would keep things pretty tight between us. Once or twice I had a slight quiet spell but I found waiting was the best thing to do as re-feeding can often be the kiss of death. After 3 hours I had around 60 fish in the net so had slowed down slightly but I was still on for a decent weight. A bite like any other saw a better fish on and I gingerly played a 2.5lb bream to the net-a real bonus.

I was still very wary that all Andy would need is two carp to overtake me but I felt the best option was to keep adding whatever I could to the net and hopefully it would be enough. A quick try on the 16m line with double dead maggot saw a pair of eyes hanging on the end so rather than waste time it was back to 11m. The rest had helped as going into the last hour I had 80 skimmers in the net,including the bonus fish and a couple of 8oz samples. Mike had added a tench to his net on the feeder to give him around 10lb,less than what I had. Andy had caught one small tench on the feeder and I had everything crossed that he wouldn't catch a few late carp. I then had another better skimmer nudging 2lb that tore off like a carp before coming in like a wet carrier bag! I had set myself a target of 100 fish at one stage but the line was showing signs of slowing. A quick try at 14.5m saw one small skimmer but it was slower than at 11m so I sacked the line.

With 25 minutes to go my worst fear happened as Andy hooked into a good fish down the edge. I knew if he got it in quickly he would have plenty of time to find another. Fortunately it took ages and with 5 minutes to go he was still playing it,netting it with just 2 minutes to. It was a right old lump and one more carp would see him overtake me. I was counting down the clock as he shipped back out and was relieved when the whistle went as I felt sure he'd have had another given a few more minutes. A quick check of the clicker showed I had 94 fish in the net and I was pretty confident of the section win.

The first two anglers had 7lb and 3lb respectively before Mike put 11lb 8oz on the scales. I then tipped 17lb 8oz on the scales and with Andy weighing in 11lb 14oz (10lb 14oz carp & 1 tench) I had the all important section win. This was all I could do and I had to hope that Phil had dropped a point or two,but being on the end peg I thought this would be unlikely. I have to say of all my wins at Whinwhistle this was the most satisfying as it was the worst possible draw and I would have taken 7b if you'd offered it at the start. I got a bit lucky in that the carp didn't really show but it was a risk i had to take and fortunately it paid off

A quick phone-call to the top lake revealed that Phil had bombed out coming 5th in section. I couldn't believe it! Although this was now his dropped result and he counted a previous fourth this meant we were now tied on points overall. So with one round to go we are exactly level on points,I have a 3lb weight advantage and we are also against eachother in the final of the Knockout. It's all to play for and the draw will be massive as if one of us draws a flier it could be all over. The final round is this Sunday and I will be sure to write a blog as it's likely to be very,very interesting!