First evening match of the year

Yesterday saw the first evening match of the year at Whinwhistle fishery. I hadn't fished there since winning the last round of the winter league so was looking forward to the evening opens kicking off. The first match was an early start due to the light levels and was scheduled for a 4pm draw with fishing from 4.30 to 7.30. I didn't think I'd get out of work in time for the early one so asked for a peg to be left in the bag and I hoped to get there by 4.30....better late than never! Becuase I thought I'd be late I loaded the car with minimal gear-seatbox,1 method rod,nets and a small bag of bits...simple! As it happened I managed to get away from work at 3.45pm so made it just in time for the draw. There were 8 fishing which wasn't a bad turnout for the first match,especially as it was an early start. As soon as I arrived it was time for the draw and today we were on Whinwhistle Islands. I was second into the bag and out came peg 8....flyer! I have only fished this peg once before and that was in the first round of last years summer league and I managed to win the match off the peg that day. It's a bit of a zoo creature peg and the hardest part is getting the fish out as it's pretty shallow and full of features. People have blanked on the peg on occasions because although they get a few bites,getting a fish in the net is what counts. (the pictures are from when I drew the peg in last years summer league)

The start was put back to 4.45pm to allow people enough time but I was ready within 5 minutes,not like me atall! The rod was an 11ft Shimano Beastmaster,Daiwa TDR,6lb sensor,a small inline 30 g feeder with an 0.18 hooklength to a size 16 GURU QM1 with a bayonet on a hair. For bait I had a kilo of swimstim mixed the night before,some mini 8mm boilies and a tin of corn. I clipped up to the side of the pads opposite at around 14m. I would also use this clip down towards the small bay to my right and I planned to throw most of the tin of corn in at 5m to my right on the corner. With everything ready I went for a walk to have a chat with a few of the others.

The all-in was called and I fed the corn and 1 small ball of groundbait at 5m to my right before plopping the feeder out by the pads. I planned to give each cast 3 minutes inititally but after 20 seconds or so the rod was pulled off the rest but unfortunately the fish broke me. A new hooklength was clipped on and the process was repeated. This time I had to wait all of a minute before the rod wanged round but this time I managed to control the fish and a few minutes later I had a fat 8lb mirror in the net. After a few more casts the tip wanged round again and once again my hooklength gave way. The trouble was I only had 0.18 hooklengths tied up with bayonets. I knew I couldn't keep losing fish so decided to tie up a new hooklength on 0.22 but with a korum quickstop on the hair. This meant I would need to fish corn,something I don't like to do on the method generally,but atleast it would give me a better chance of landing fish. Soon after the tip slammed round and after a bit of tooing and froing I managed to control the fish and it was soon safely in the net,this time a bit smaller at around 5lb. The next two fish hooked broke me on 0.22,there was simply nothing I could do as it was like hooking turbo charged submarines.

This line then went quiet,no doubt caused by all the disturbance,so it was time to chuck down to my right. I had managed to cadge a slice of meat from Andy Franks so went with a 6mm punch and second chuck the tip went round and I had a 1lb tench in the net. Second chuck and I hooked a carp which annoyingly fell off. This line then also went quiet and with just over an hour to go I had 2 carp in the net and needed to find a few more. I plopped the method in at 5m to my right on a grain of corn and after a couple of casts the tip went round and I soon had a chunky mirror of 3-4lb in the net. After this I was getting silly bites from skimmers so came off this line,took the clip off and chucked down towards the sluice in my peg. I was now back on the 0.18 trace as I prefer to use mini boilies and as I wasn't fishing tight to a feature I felt I would be ok. However it can be very tricky to land fish from this area as you have to guide them between two sets of lillies on each bank. After a few casts the tip slowly went round and I was convinced I'd hooked a skimmer as it didn't really fight. I was a bit surprised when it turned out to be a common carp of around 4lb. The next fish I hooked towards the sluice kited straight into the pads and after 5 minutes or so the hooklength went bang.

There was now 20 minutes to go and I decided to focus on the long chuck. Soon after the tip went round and straight away I stood-up on my footplate with the rod behond me as high as I could get it. This worked as planned as the fish wallowed on the surface allowing me to pick up the slack and I soon had a nice 4-5lb fish in the net. 10 minutes later the same thing happened and once again I got the rod as high as I could and the fish was soon safely in the net with his 5 mates.

The all-out was called at 7.45pm and with 6 carp and a small tench in the net I thought I must have 25lb +. After packing up in about 2 minutes (again not like me!) I went for a wander and it looked like the win was mine. I was first to weigh and the scales settled on 32lb 4oz. The other weights were quite consistent with most anglers registering double figures,with 22lb enough for second place. It was nice to start the evening matches with a win and in the 16 I fished last year I picked up in 13 so I wouldn't mind matching that again!

This weekend sees me at Witherington Farm for the Steve Ramsay memorial. It's a weekend of drinking with a bit of fishing thrown in so although I'm booked in for the bank holiday Monday open at Whinwhistle there's every chance I'll be in no fit state to fish it!

Blast from the past....

Well once again my blog is a bit late. It's been a hectic couple of weeks with work,my birthday and also a family bereavment so I simply haven't had the time. There are 3 matches to write about. The first was on Saturday 10th April at Greenridge Farm. I drew peg 19 on canal 2 and the consensus was that it wasn't the best peg and hadn't produced for a good while. By fishing meat tight to the farbank I managed to take 24 carp (with a further 4 on corn short late on) for 76lb. The guy on end peg 20 had 102lb for the win with 2nd place coming from the other end of the canal with 79lb. I lost a couple of fish which cost me 2nd spot but I was pleased overall as I am starting to get to grips with the venue more and more.


The following weekend I was supposed to be flying to Ireland on the Friday night,landing back at Bristol on Sunday night and then driving straight back to my parents house in Wales as I had a funeral to attend on the Tuesday so had some time-off. Well,thanks to that Volcano my good plans were scupperedwhich meant one thing.....fishing! After a couple of quick PM's to Jake Cork on the Friday I found myself booking into the Saturday open at Hillview Lakes in Tewkesbury. My new plan was to set off at around 6.30am,drive the 2 hours to Hill View,fish the open and then have an hour long journey back to my parents house in South Wales. Hill View was always my favourite venue and I used to regularly fish the Wednesday,Saturday and Sunday matches from the age of around 17-20. It was strange pulling into the carpark for the first time in 4 years and I soon saw some of the old faces as well as some new ones. After Jake came over to say hello I polished off a massive breakfast and was ready for the draw as were 28 others. Both lakes were in along with canal 1 and the general feeling was to avoid the canal,so anything below peg 40 would do. Into the bag went the lucky left hand and out came.......37,that'll do! This put me towards the end of the causeway bank on Heron. After getting to the peg I had Ian Didcote (diddy123) behind me on Moorhen peg 9 so atleast I'd get to see a few fish!


Going from past experience along with speaking to a few people before the draw I had a rough idea of my approach. The sun was blazing with very little ripple and a few fish were mooching about near the surface. I planned to start on pellet short at around 4-5m,shallow meat long between 13m-16m and corn down the edge in front of the spare pallet to my left. My short pellet rig was a 4x12 Chianti on 0.16-0.14 and an 18 B911 to yellow bungee. Shallow rig was a 4x10 Chianti on 0.18-0.16 and an 18 PR36 with a band on the hair and yellow bungee. I set the rig at 8 inches with a 3ft lash as I used to find a long line worked better on bright still days at Hillview. Finally the edge rig was a 4x10 Chianti: 0.18-0.16 and a size 3 Tubertini 175 matched to red vespe. This was plumbed in front of the platform in just over 3ft of water. For bait I had a bag of fishery 4mm pellets,3 tins of meat (2 x 6mm,1 x 8mm),2 tins of corn and some expanders.


The all in was called and a pot of corn and pellet went to the edge swim before I baited with a 4mm expender,put a few 4mms in a cadpot and shipped out to 5m and 3 cubes of meat were pinged out to around 13m. After 5 minutes of lifting and dropping I hadn't had a bite so added a few more 4mms to the cadpot and repeated the process, all the while pinging meat long. Neville Groves had a few early carp short but it was pretty quiet and after 50 minutes I had a skimmer of around 1lb in the net from the short line and despite trying the long line a couple of times I hadn't had any signs shallow. A carp swam past a few metres out so I flicked the rig in front of it and it snaffled the bait but frustratingly fell off after a few minutes. However this led me to believe the fish weren't really feeding so it was back long & shallow but I flicked the rig past and to the right of where I had been feeding. After a few seconds the float buried and a carp was on. A few minutes later and a fat 10lber was in the net. Next put in after a few slaps the float buried and another carp was soon in the net,this time a good 9lb fish. Over the next couple of hours it was a case of flicking the rig around the peg and snaring the odd fish although they were clearly not really in a feeding mood. I kept pinging meat to the same spot at around 13m but was only feeding one or two cubes every 5 minutes or so and picking off fish beyond the feed. All the while I had been feeding to the next platform and hoped that it would be worth a few late on. Ian had been struggling behind me but with 2 hours to go he switched to the margins and started to bag a few.

I managed two fish down the edge but one was foul-hooked and I also lost one before the all-out was called. I thought I had 60-70lb and with Neville admitting to a ton plus I had to hope I might sneak the section. I was the last angler to weigh and when it got to me Neville had put 120lb on the scales,Jake had put 68lb but most others on the lake had struggled. Diddy had put 106lb on for second overall. My weight was called at 66lb 12oz- less than 2lb off second on the lake and a couple of lost fish had cost me. Chatting to Ian afterwards I realised I had fished the edge wrong as it was far better to fish to the side of the platform where it was that bit shallower than in front of it. It's little things like this that can make a big difference and I knew it had cost me.
I heard a rumour that somebody had dropped out of Sundays match so when I got home an hour later I rang to see if I could get on and was told that I had infact won my section and there was an envelope there for me....doh! The sections were split which I wasn't aware of. With a space available for Sunday I duly booked on....well,I had to collect my winnings didn't I!

Arriving at the venue at around 8.45am I duly paid my pools and with 40 fishing there would be 15 on each lake with 10 on canal 1. Once again I really wanted to avoid the canal so was pleased when peg 10 stuck to my hand,almost behind where I was the day before. It was the end peg on the causeway bank with a corner to my right. the next peg to my left was in so there was no platform to fish to and with Neville Groves on a good peg in peg 8 I knew he would be a real threat. My plan was similar to the day before with a shallow 'mugging' rig although this time it was a Scone AM Wellardz on 0.18-0.16 and an 18 PR36 with a band on a hair and yellow bungee. The edge rig was a 4x10 Scone GAZE on 0.18-0.16,Tubertini 175:3 and orange wilkie elastic. I found 2.5ft at 5m to my right and 12m along the bank. The long line would be potted and the short line would be fed by hand. Finally I set-up a short rig at 4m- 4x14 KC Chimp on 0.16-0.14 and a 18 B911. For bait I had 3 tins of 6mm meat,2 tins of corn and half a bag of 4mm feed pellets.

The all in was called and 2 pots of corn with a pinch of meat and pellet were cupped in long down the edge,a handful of meat went short down the edge and a cadpot of pellets went in at 4m,followed by 3 cubes of meat pinged out to 13m. No bites short so I was soon on the long shallow rig and found a few carp. It was hard going for most and several people were fishless after a couple of hours. I had 5 carp in the net all on shallow meat,Shaun Wilson & Richard Ahearne were catching well on the pegs in the far corner and Neville was picking off odd fish shallow. At this stage my peg dried up and I couldn't buy a bite anywhere. I'm really not sure why as I even went out to 16m and played about with the depth etc but it was like a switch had been thrown. I had a couple of looks down the edge but this was also devoid and I knew I needed it to come good to stand any chance. I had been feeding the long edge with half a big pot every half an hour or so but this clearly wasn't working so with just over an hour to go I decided to feed a full kinder pot every 5 minutes. This worked to an extent as in the last hour I managed to get 6 carp down the edge but there were no real lumps and when the all-out was called I expected to have somewhere in the region of 40lb.

The scales made their way around with Richard Ahearne putting 98lb of maggot caught edge fish on the scales before Shaun tipped 84lb of shallow caster fish into the sling. Most other people struggled big time and my 11 fish went 42lb odd,but with Neville framing with 94lb and the overall winner coming from the bottom bank with 102lb I picked up £40 for the section win.

Having not been to the venue for 4 years I was pleased with 2 section wins and I learned plenty and there's a few things I would do differently next time,especially when fishing the edge. I had a good chat with Neville after the match and picked his brains on a few things which I will utilise on my next visit. After packing up I went round to see Shaun & Richard and spent a good hour catching up. I used to fish with them regularly and used to travel with Shaun so it was good to see them. Hillview is 2 hours away from me but I absolutely love the place and will be making the effort to get up there a few more times this year.