Round 2 of the winter league was on the bottom pond (Oscars). There was no ice breaking to be done this week as the temp had risen very slightly and the saturday open on Emily's had produced some good weights all round the lake so i approached the draw with some optimism of a good day i just needed a good draw to get my winter league back on track. On a approaching the draw Roger held the bag out in front of me and greeted me with the words "this should be a good one" what did he mean? In went the hand and gave the bag my usual shuffle around and one fell into my hand and out came peg 4, with Roger calling me some strange names i made my way to my peg.
I had my Uncle John for company in peg 3 and Jasper in peg 5. There are 2 very good pegs you want on Oscars peg 5 and 11, but i was still very happy with peg4.
I set 3 rigs up as follows.
All rigs on Stroft 0.12
Floatwise on the 2ft ish line i used a Gerry's TBF in 4x10 size
On the 4ft ish line i used Ackoo's Pellistix in 0.3g size.
For down the track work (6ft+) on of Ackoo's slim jims in 0.4g size.
Hooks were the Mustad wide gape size 18 on all rigs.
All rigs to white hydro.
I put the plummet on and plumbed the the 3 sedges im my swim. The centre sedge was going to be the swim i fed and the left and right sedges wouldn't be getting any, my reasoning for this is if the adjacent pegs feed there swims wrong there fish may move out of there swim down to a place with no feed in and settle there, in theory.
At the start of the match i cupped in half a dozen casters at my centre sedge (2ft rig) and fished my left hand sedge with a single red maggot and the float settled, i dragged the float around the slope very slowly and eventually it dipped slightly and i lifted into my first fish which was a small stocky less than a pound. i chopped and changed between my left and right sedge taking stockies off each line with the odd 3lber making an appearance. These lines then began to slow so i tried my centre sedge.....nothing i never had a bite over an area i fed, where as jasper next to me in peg 5 was catching well over his feed.
I had no option but to go on my 4ft line to my left and right with maggot hookbaits and managed to find a few more fish but not of any size, jasper was catching a lot better stamp of fish and was looking like winning the match and 2nd was up for grabs as people all over the lake looked like they were catching very similar to my catch rate. I was very anxious at the weigh in hoping i had blown a decent peg. They started weighing at peg1 and Uncle John put 22lb on the scales then i put 36lb dead on and new jasper had better stamp of fish he put 54lb on the scales (well done mate)
and won the match. I had a long wait until i packed up and made it back to the car park to find out how i had done. I knew it would be close between me and Mathew Spruce and the far side so i asked for the results and found out i was 2nd Mathew wieghed in 35lb 20z, phew that was close!
My uncle John also won his section so we had some more beer tokens for the after match. Next week back to the open match on emily's with strong winds and rain forcast there should be some fun and games.
Thanks for reading
Tight lines
Lee.
Thursday, 18 December 2008
Monday, 15 December 2008
Birkwood Open
The morning of the match broke extremely cold and frosty as my Uncle John picked me up the temperature in the car read -3.5 degrees at 7am it was going to be a grueller.
As we drove down to the lake we were greeted with a very frozen snake lake. In the distance you hear Chris's tractor driving down from the farm to smash the ice with his little "icebreaker"
As we drove down to the lake we were greeted with a very frozen snake lake. In the distance you hear Chris's tractor driving down from the farm to smash the ice with his little "icebreaker"
Before the draw Roger said he was going to leave my dreaded peg 23 out and boy was i happy about that, so i went into the draw bag with renewed confidance. In goes my right hand and gave the disks a good swirl around until one stuck in my hand. Peg 32 graced my palm this week, just off 30 and 31 which had good weights off them the week before, i might be able to nick a few fish off it. On getting to my peg there was still plenty of ice around and needed breaking for me to fish the far side slope where the fish usually patrol.
This was my swim after i broke the ice with the ice breaker and a short rope. All i had do now was move it so i could fish it. After a while i had moved most of it to enable me to fish half way down the slope around a "good" 3ft. I was going to fish maggot,bread and corn and just fish single hookbaits to mug the odd fish that move out of the flyers. Tackle wise it was the usual stroft line in 0.12 diameter, Ackoo's Pellistix and Mustad wide gape match hook size 18 to white hydro. I had 3 swims to fish at different depths but i only had my 4 bites on one line (pictured below)
I ended up catching three carp one on maggot and two on bread punch dipped in Carp Vader Pineapple, i weighed in and was initially disappointed with 7lb 10oz, i only weighed in because a lot had packed up early and hoped it fished hard elsewhere.........it did. 24lb won it, 20lb was second and Uncle John was third with 8lb and i scraped last in the money. me and Uncle John share our winnings so went home happy and some beer tokens for the obligatory after match pint!
Whilst i was waiting for my 4 bites i did get a bit bored and saw some scurrying about in the reeds opposite so i cupped in a bit of corn and see if it would come onto the ice for it, hope you can see it.
Round 2 of the Winter League next week. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Birkwood Winter League Match No1
It was the start of the Birkwood WL and the sunday morning broke and it was bloody freezing. The temp as we made our way down to the cafe was hovering around zero.
We dined on 3 slices of bacon, 2 slices of spam, black pudding, 1 egg, mushrooms, beans and toms. 2 slices of toast and coffee for the grand sum of £3.80. Bargain.
On leaving the cafe in noted the tempperature in my Uncle John's car and was reading +0.5 degrees....it was warming up. We entered the fishery and came past the large lake and it was ice free(minus 2 when we arrived) but the aerators had been on, what would our lake be like further down the complex with no aerators on it................FROZEN. Bloody typical first match and it's frozen solid. Anyway Chris (owner) came down in his tractor with a great big arm on the back of it and smash the daylights out of the ice, but how would it fish after that?
On the last 2 opens i have fished at Birkwood i have drawn peg 23 on Emily's, weights so far from it 10lb odd and a DNW. I was praying i didn't get 23 again even i wasn't that unlucky. The usual banter was exchanged at the draw, i even had a quid with Daz that i couldn't possibly draw 23 again. Uncle john has vast experience of match fishing and told me to hang around the draw bag until 23 came out then draw, did i listen, did i hell. Some how i ended up third or fourth to draw and the disc came out face down, i flipped it over and Roger Movely let out a huge laugh, i had pulled 23 out again.......gutted. Got the usual "fish have got fins" comments, but i was stunned.
Anyway i was going to be positive and after smashing some ice at 14.5mtrs it was time to set the rigs up.
Line was 0.10 stroft
Floats were ackoo's Pellistix and a pretson PB1.
Hooks were Mustad wide gape match (as07b) size 18 for the maggot rig and G pellet and paste for the other baits (4mm polar ice feed pellet and corn.)
Laccy's were white hydro and preston 9 hollo with an 11 hollo if i was catching well, all with pull bungs.
I had 4 rigs to plumb up. Bottom of the far and near shelf. One for half way up the shelf. and one for top of the shelf just of the far side sedges, i also put a PB1 up for poking into the gaps in the reeds on the far side with just a single hook bait. Some of these rigs were used to fish my margins as well.
At the start i started half way up the shelf without feeding any bait just a single maggot just to see if i could find any fish, after half hour without a bite i tried the top of the shelf rig....nothing. Bottom of the shelf nothing, rotated the baits, draggedthe baits about on the slopes and shelves for not a bloody bite. I went back on the half way up the shelf rig 3ft-4ft ish. I fed small amounts of maggots and after another half hour i needed some bovril i was frozen, turned round to pick my flask up still keeping my eye on the float it dipped very slightly and managed to lift in time to connect with a fish! I played this fish as though my life depended on it, managed to land it and it was barely hooked. Anyway tried the PB1 poking it into the holes in the reeds with various baits, the only bait i could get another bite on was maggot and they were 4 to the ounce roach.
At the weigh in Roger was winninng with 49lb odd in peg 18 and the weights tailed off up to me and recorded a massive 5lb, not bad eh.
Results can be found herehttp://www.birkwoodfisheries.co.uk/matches_and_results.php
Next match is in a fortnight anyone got the odds on me getting 23 AGAIN.
Thanks for reading, tight lines
Lee.
We dined on 3 slices of bacon, 2 slices of spam, black pudding, 1 egg, mushrooms, beans and toms. 2 slices of toast and coffee for the grand sum of £3.80. Bargain.
On leaving the cafe in noted the tempperature in my Uncle John's car and was reading +0.5 degrees....it was warming up. We entered the fishery and came past the large lake and it was ice free(minus 2 when we arrived) but the aerators had been on, what would our lake be like further down the complex with no aerators on it................FROZEN. Bloody typical first match and it's frozen solid. Anyway Chris (owner) came down in his tractor with a great big arm on the back of it and smash the daylights out of the ice, but how would it fish after that?
On the last 2 opens i have fished at Birkwood i have drawn peg 23 on Emily's, weights so far from it 10lb odd and a DNW. I was praying i didn't get 23 again even i wasn't that unlucky. The usual banter was exchanged at the draw, i even had a quid with Daz that i couldn't possibly draw 23 again. Uncle john has vast experience of match fishing and told me to hang around the draw bag until 23 came out then draw, did i listen, did i hell. Some how i ended up third or fourth to draw and the disc came out face down, i flipped it over and Roger Movely let out a huge laugh, i had pulled 23 out again.......gutted. Got the usual "fish have got fins" comments, but i was stunned.
Anyway i was going to be positive and after smashing some ice at 14.5mtrs it was time to set the rigs up.
Line was 0.10 stroft
Floats were ackoo's Pellistix and a pretson PB1.
Hooks were Mustad wide gape match (as07b) size 18 for the maggot rig and G pellet and paste for the other baits (4mm polar ice feed pellet and corn.)
Laccy's were white hydro and preston 9 hollo with an 11 hollo if i was catching well, all with pull bungs.
I had 4 rigs to plumb up. Bottom of the far and near shelf. One for half way up the shelf. and one for top of the shelf just of the far side sedges, i also put a PB1 up for poking into the gaps in the reeds on the far side with just a single hook bait. Some of these rigs were used to fish my margins as well.
At the start i started half way up the shelf without feeding any bait just a single maggot just to see if i could find any fish, after half hour without a bite i tried the top of the shelf rig....nothing. Bottom of the shelf nothing, rotated the baits, draggedthe baits about on the slopes and shelves for not a bloody bite. I went back on the half way up the shelf rig 3ft-4ft ish. I fed small amounts of maggots and after another half hour i needed some bovril i was frozen, turned round to pick my flask up still keeping my eye on the float it dipped very slightly and managed to lift in time to connect with a fish! I played this fish as though my life depended on it, managed to land it and it was barely hooked. Anyway tried the PB1 poking it into the holes in the reeds with various baits, the only bait i could get another bite on was maggot and they were 4 to the ounce roach.
At the weigh in Roger was winninng with 49lb odd in peg 18 and the weights tailed off up to me and recorded a massive 5lb, not bad eh.
Results can be found herehttp://www.birkwoodfisheries.co.uk/matches_and_results.php
Next match is in a fortnight anyone got the odds on me getting 23 AGAIN.
Thanks for reading, tight lines
Lee.
Saturday, 26 July 2008
Ackoo's Handmade Floats
For this installment i thought would let you all in on a little secret of mine (and a bit of a fetish i have). Floats. I don't know why but i just love having loads of them especially handmade ones.
Just recently i came across a guy called "Ackoo" (Mark) on a forum and we exchanged emails about floats and one morning a tube arrived in the post with some floats for me to try out for him, so me being the float tart that i am said "Oh go on then".
I had always struggled using the self cocking paste float and needed something that would take a bit weight and hold dead still in any tow and Mark asked what size i wanted and a couple of days later they were on the doormat for me. Pictured Right. These are mega stable with a fibreglass stem and ideal for what i want.
After more and more emails and chats various other models arrived for me to use, i was like a kid in a sweetshop. Pellet floats, pellet wagglers, blobby floats and some all new pellistix floats which look like being a good winter F1 float and can't wait to try them.
Just recently i came across a guy called "Ackoo" (Mark) on a forum and we exchanged emails about floats and one morning a tube arrived in the post with some floats for me to try out for him, so me being the float tart that i am said "Oh go on then".
I had always struggled using the self cocking paste float and needed something that would take a bit weight and hold dead still in any tow and Mark asked what size i wanted and a couple of days later they were on the doormat for me. Pictured Right. These are mega stable with a fibreglass stem and ideal for what i want.
After more and more emails and chats various other models arrived for me to use, i was like a kid in a sweetshop. Pellet floats, pellet wagglers, blobby floats and some all new pellistix floats which look like being a good winter F1 float and can't wait to try them.
I have spoke to "Ackoo" Mark on various occassions and has come up with the goods every time and delivery time was usually the day after, mightly impressive for the quality of these handmade beauties. He can make any float you so desire, all you have to do is ask.
You can get in touch with Ackoo thru the Carp Vader website via private message and while you are there you can pick up on some the special offers Carp Vader are doing at the minute. If not email him direct markup@blueyonder.co.uk
Saturday, 12 July 2008
Friday night evening matches.
I fish a place called in Garforth Nr Leeds called Lindhome on a Friday night after work. I am usually picked up by mate Gary Watson around 3.30pm and we set of to cross Leeds which at this time is a feat itself.
We usually get to "Gaping Goose" public house and met a couple of the lads fishing and have a chat over a pint or two.
The draw is usually around 5 ish and we fish 6-9 and weights can exceed 60lb, i have had a few 2nd places this year but as yet have to win one. My last time there i had 40lb and was doing well on Pineapple flavoured meat (turns the meat yellow) fish to the side of a bush in peg 9. Tackle for this is as follows as this place has seen many many poles broken, due to snags and how well the fish fight.
Pole .... Abu ambassadeur elite.
Line.....Stroft 0.18.
Hook Colmic 501 size 14.
Float MW diamond .3.
Elastic Vespe hollow Orange.
I was catching well by the side of the tree on pineapple flavoured meat, getting the odd lump. This place isn't what you would call a commercial fishery so bites can be at a premium. Coming into the last hour i thought i was i doing ok and fancied a decent weight until slices of bread and floating pellets came floating past my swim and up came the fish (don't you just hat that). I didn't have any floaters with me and the lad at the side of me began to catch well on the floating pole at 13mts. I by now was winding myself up about floaters and the floating pole and ended up third beaten by the floating pole 1st and floaters 2nd. Would be interested in your comments on the floaters and the floating pole, should it be allowed in matches????
I think 50lb won it and 46lb second and i had 41lb, one hell of a frustrating match for me.
I am still fishing the opens at Oak tree leisure at Huby but to be honest i am struggling getting to grips with the place at the minute but i will gety my head round it eventually, i hope.
I have a club match this weekend at Birkin nr Selby. About time i had a good result or a good draw.
Thanks for all your comments i appreciate the feedback and nice to know someone reads about me rambling on.
Tight Lines
Lee.
We usually get to "Gaping Goose" public house and met a couple of the lads fishing and have a chat over a pint or two.
The draw is usually around 5 ish and we fish 6-9 and weights can exceed 60lb, i have had a few 2nd places this year but as yet have to win one. My last time there i had 40lb and was doing well on Pineapple flavoured meat (turns the meat yellow) fish to the side of a bush in peg 9. Tackle for this is as follows as this place has seen many many poles broken, due to snags and how well the fish fight.
Pole .... Abu ambassadeur elite.
Line.....Stroft 0.18.
Hook Colmic 501 size 14.
Float MW diamond .3.
Elastic Vespe hollow Orange.
I was catching well by the side of the tree on pineapple flavoured meat, getting the odd lump. This place isn't what you would call a commercial fishery so bites can be at a premium. Coming into the last hour i thought i was i doing ok and fancied a decent weight until slices of bread and floating pellets came floating past my swim and up came the fish (don't you just hat that). I didn't have any floaters with me and the lad at the side of me began to catch well on the floating pole at 13mts. I by now was winding myself up about floaters and the floating pole and ended up third beaten by the floating pole 1st and floaters 2nd. Would be interested in your comments on the floaters and the floating pole, should it be allowed in matches????
I think 50lb won it and 46lb second and i had 41lb, one hell of a frustrating match for me.
I am still fishing the opens at Oak tree leisure at Huby but to be honest i am struggling getting to grips with the place at the minute but i will gety my head round it eventually, i hope.
I have a club match this weekend at Birkin nr Selby. About time i had a good result or a good draw.
Thanks for all your comments i appreciate the feedback and nice to know someone reads about me rambling on.
Tight Lines
Lee.
Monday, 12 May 2008
Oak Tree Leisure. Huby. North Yorkshire.
Daz Harrison and Jasper booked me and my uncle John on for the open on lake 4 and said it was fishing well so was looking forward to fishing it. Started off with my usual brekkie and a chat with the lads in the cafe and we set off for the lakes.
We got there in plenty of time, the match was an 11 o'clock start, so we had a walk round the lake and there spawning fish everywhere literally climbing the bank in some pegs and there were some big fish in amongst them. The pond was a snake type lake 14.5mts wide (ish) with the usual reed and sedge cover to the far side.
The draw was made Daz drew 29 which was stuffed with spawning fish, Jasper drew 25 and was told he was on a flyer and to take 2 nets, my ucle John drew 44 and i drew 23 with a spare peg between me and Jasper.
Bait for the match was .......
Carp Vader 4mm breamax feed pellets.
4 and 6mm expanders
6mm cubes of meat.
On getting to my peg it looked the part especially the margins with a few big tails wagging at me as i set up. I also noticed fish swimming into open water off the point off the island and this looked ideal for pellet up in the water at 14.5mts.
For the margins i set up to fish meat and it was very shallow arond a foot deep.
Line was 0.18 stroft
Hook Tubertini 175 size 14.
Float Gaz Malman Thicko 4x12.
Elastic Vespe Hollow Orange.
My up in the water rig was ......
Line 0.16 stroft
Hook G - point pellet eyed size 16
Float MW Cookie.
Elastic black hydro.
I started on meat down the margins and struggled with liners in the first half hour, but eventually got my first fish and it a near double figure carp, nice start. I was constantly feeding pellets onto my far line while i was fishing the margins and after a few fish the margins died and was forced onto my shallow line. For this line my hookbait was what i was feeding a Carp Vader 4mm breamax feed pellet banded. I began to catch well on this line and the highlight was a big grass carp that i thought was near 12lb and i struugled to get this into my landing net, i was a very long fish. All the time i was feeding my margins at 4mts and 14.5mts and kept nicking fish off each line when my other lines went quiet.
I could see another angler down the lake catching well and had no idea how much i had but new i had over the "ton" when time was called but you can never be sure can you?
The scales got to me and was told someone up my end of the lake had done the ton, i think they meant me but i got very worried for a minute. I asked what was wining so far and was told 88lb was the leading weight so far, i would have to beat my personal best in a match of 82lb to beat him. I was bricking it!!!!!
Anyway after two weighs i had 85lb with a net still to weigh. I lifted the last net and new there was a lot more than 3lb in there. It turned out there was 55lb in it. I had finally done it, finally got a 100lb bag in a match with a bit to spare! What a week to forget your camera.
I weighed in 140lb and won the open, i was well happy. 88lb was 2nd.
A big thanks to Nick and Vicky at Carp Vader for your support in helping me achieve one of my goals in match fishing.
Start my Friday night matches this week at a local pond in Leeds, some real munters in the place.
Thanks for your time in reading this.
Cheers
Lee.
We got there in plenty of time, the match was an 11 o'clock start, so we had a walk round the lake and there spawning fish everywhere literally climbing the bank in some pegs and there were some big fish in amongst them. The pond was a snake type lake 14.5mts wide (ish) with the usual reed and sedge cover to the far side.
The draw was made Daz drew 29 which was stuffed with spawning fish, Jasper drew 25 and was told he was on a flyer and to take 2 nets, my ucle John drew 44 and i drew 23 with a spare peg between me and Jasper.
Bait for the match was .......
Carp Vader 4mm breamax feed pellets.
4 and 6mm expanders
6mm cubes of meat.
On getting to my peg it looked the part especially the margins with a few big tails wagging at me as i set up. I also noticed fish swimming into open water off the point off the island and this looked ideal for pellet up in the water at 14.5mts.
For the margins i set up to fish meat and it was very shallow arond a foot deep.
Line was 0.18 stroft
Hook Tubertini 175 size 14.
Float Gaz Malman Thicko 4x12.
Elastic Vespe Hollow Orange.
My up in the water rig was ......
Line 0.16 stroft
Hook G - point pellet eyed size 16
Float MW Cookie.
Elastic black hydro.
I started on meat down the margins and struggled with liners in the first half hour, but eventually got my first fish and it a near double figure carp, nice start. I was constantly feeding pellets onto my far line while i was fishing the margins and after a few fish the margins died and was forced onto my shallow line. For this line my hookbait was what i was feeding a Carp Vader 4mm breamax feed pellet banded. I began to catch well on this line and the highlight was a big grass carp that i thought was near 12lb and i struugled to get this into my landing net, i was a very long fish. All the time i was feeding my margins at 4mts and 14.5mts and kept nicking fish off each line when my other lines went quiet.
I could see another angler down the lake catching well and had no idea how much i had but new i had over the "ton" when time was called but you can never be sure can you?
The scales got to me and was told someone up my end of the lake had done the ton, i think they meant me but i got very worried for a minute. I asked what was wining so far and was told 88lb was the leading weight so far, i would have to beat my personal best in a match of 82lb to beat him. I was bricking it!!!!!
Anyway after two weighs i had 85lb with a net still to weigh. I lifted the last net and new there was a lot more than 3lb in there. It turned out there was 55lb in it. I had finally done it, finally got a 100lb bag in a match with a bit to spare! What a week to forget your camera.
I weighed in 140lb and won the open, i was well happy. 88lb was 2nd.
A big thanks to Nick and Vicky at Carp Vader for your support in helping me achieve one of my goals in match fishing.
Start my Friday night matches this week at a local pond in Leeds, some real munters in the place.
Thanks for your time in reading this.
Cheers
Lee.
Monday, 5 May 2008
Sam Hostick's. Beverley.
This sunday it was the turn of Sam hostick's ponds, Island and Moat. It was the BobCo teams of 4. I had heard that the place was fishing very hard and the winning weights were of ide.
They are a few bait restrictions at Sam hosticks so baits were limited to caters, worms, plain pellets (no flavourings or dyed baits) and corn, no meat or bread of any description. My bait for the day was.......
3pts casters
1/2 kilo worms
1 tub 4mm pellets
1 tub 6mm pellets
1 tin of corn.
I was nominated to draw the envelope for our team, me a drawbag.....never!
I let my Uncle John open the envelope and we picked our pegs.
Peter Milner and Bob Jones drew on Island lake we knew this was gonna be a very difficult lake as Bert Lockwood told us 10lb would be very good weight off this lake today, so Peter and Bob had there work cut out today.
Me and John were on Moat i had peg 10 and John drew 18.
I had Dave Spruce (owner of Bobco) in my section and John had Dave Glover (Bobco coffee drinker) in his, Bobco usually win this team event so these were the guys we had to beat in our section.
Ide Rigs were tied up on 0.12 stroft to mustad wide gape match hooks size 18.
Floats were a Preston Pb1 for shallow work and MW slim for the far shelf work.
Top kits were 8 and 10 latex.
Carp rigs were 0.16 to clomic 501. To similar floats except for shallow work a MW pea was used.
Top kits black and purple hydro.
I started on the far shelf line 14mts (pictured) fishing a worm head on the hook and feeding chooped worm and caster with the odd grain of corn incase any carp were about.
I caught steadily on this line catching mainly ide with a bounus tench 2lb plus and some skimmers. But i kept feeding caster by hand at 5-6mts and with the catty into open water at 11mts, in case this line died, which it did at 12 o'clock the place just died, i even spotted someone laid out on the grass having a kip.
I tried my other lines but i was just nicking the odd ide off them and i would die, if anyone can offer any help on why this happens, please do so.
For the remainder of the match i kept altering my lines and depths and could only get the odd fish and losing a very big ide near 3lb at the net at the time i thought that fish is gonna cost me today!
Time was called and i think everyone was glad to be honest.
As the scales got to me Dave spruce was leading the section with 23lb and i had no idea how much i had.
The carp net was thrown up the bank with nowt in it. Pulled my silvers net out and thought it was gonna be close, will that lost big ide cost me the section.......nah i weighed in 25lb dead and was leading the lake and won my section,job done!
Got round to my Uncle and he was admitting 10lb ish and he was right. Then Steve from Meanwood Ac plonked 27lb on then it got worse Dave Glover plonked 45lb on and said it died on him too, looks like going to the casino all night worked Dave!
John was 4th in his section and i was 1st in mine so we had 5 points from our lake, how had Peter and Bob done.
Bert Lockwood (Bobco) won his lake with 11lb and therefore the section so things were looking good for them, but it got worse for us. This lake fished rockhard and Peter and Bob struggled. Peter had a 4th in section with 2lb and Bob DNW . Disaster!!!!
Back to the pub for Stella, chips and the results.
1st Bobco select
2nd Meanwood Ac
3rd White Horse. (Our team)
Idividual
1st Dave Glover well done Dave.
2nd Steve......ooops forgot his second name,
3rd Me.
Thanks to all the lads at Bobco, great day. See you next year, another venue pehaps?
Thanks for looking.
They are a few bait restrictions at Sam hosticks so baits were limited to caters, worms, plain pellets (no flavourings or dyed baits) and corn, no meat or bread of any description. My bait for the day was.......
3pts casters
1/2 kilo worms
1 tub 4mm pellets
1 tub 6mm pellets
1 tin of corn.
I was nominated to draw the envelope for our team, me a drawbag.....never!
I let my Uncle John open the envelope and we picked our pegs.
Peter Milner and Bob Jones drew on Island lake we knew this was gonna be a very difficult lake as Bert Lockwood told us 10lb would be very good weight off this lake today, so Peter and Bob had there work cut out today.
Me and John were on Moat i had peg 10 and John drew 18.
I had Dave Spruce (owner of Bobco) in my section and John had Dave Glover (Bobco coffee drinker) in his, Bobco usually win this team event so these were the guys we had to beat in our section.
Ide Rigs were tied up on 0.12 stroft to mustad wide gape match hooks size 18.
Floats were a Preston Pb1 for shallow work and MW slim for the far shelf work.
Top kits were 8 and 10 latex.
Carp rigs were 0.16 to clomic 501. To similar floats except for shallow work a MW pea was used.
Top kits black and purple hydro.
I started on the far shelf line 14mts (pictured) fishing a worm head on the hook and feeding chooped worm and caster with the odd grain of corn incase any carp were about.
I caught steadily on this line catching mainly ide with a bounus tench 2lb plus and some skimmers. But i kept feeding caster by hand at 5-6mts and with the catty into open water at 11mts, in case this line died, which it did at 12 o'clock the place just died, i even spotted someone laid out on the grass having a kip.
I tried my other lines but i was just nicking the odd ide off them and i would die, if anyone can offer any help on why this happens, please do so.
For the remainder of the match i kept altering my lines and depths and could only get the odd fish and losing a very big ide near 3lb at the net at the time i thought that fish is gonna cost me today!
Time was called and i think everyone was glad to be honest.
As the scales got to me Dave spruce was leading the section with 23lb and i had no idea how much i had.
The carp net was thrown up the bank with nowt in it. Pulled my silvers net out and thought it was gonna be close, will that lost big ide cost me the section.......nah i weighed in 25lb dead and was leading the lake and won my section,job done!
Got round to my Uncle and he was admitting 10lb ish and he was right. Then Steve from Meanwood Ac plonked 27lb on then it got worse Dave Glover plonked 45lb on and said it died on him too, looks like going to the casino all night worked Dave!
John was 4th in his section and i was 1st in mine so we had 5 points from our lake, how had Peter and Bob done.
Bert Lockwood (Bobco) won his lake with 11lb and therefore the section so things were looking good for them, but it got worse for us. This lake fished rockhard and Peter and Bob struggled. Peter had a 4th in section with 2lb and Bob DNW . Disaster!!!!
Back to the pub for Stella, chips and the results.
1st Bobco select
2nd Meanwood Ac
3rd White Horse. (Our team)
Idividual
1st Dave Glover well done Dave.
2nd Steve......ooops forgot his second name,
3rd Me.
Thanks to all the lads at Bobco, great day. See you next year, another venue pehaps?
Thanks for looking.
Monday, 28 April 2008
Birkwood Farm.
Hi and welcome to my attempt at blogging. My name is Lee Varley, i am fortunate to be sponsored by Carp Vader aged 30+ and hail from the footballing capital of the world...Leeds,LOL. I predominately fish commercials, prefering snake lakes or canal type lakes around the Yorkshire region.
Over the last couple of months i have been fishing at Birkwood Farm with reasonable success. The open matches are run on the 2 snake lakes, Emily's and Oscar's. Both lakes are around 13-14.5mts wide with depths to 6-7ft. Dick and Chris really look after us and thanks must go to them for letting us fish a quality fishey.
My usual approach to these lakes is the pole (if the wind allows) My farbank lines usually invlove fishing over to any cover, sedges or reeds. With a rig for "dragging" around on the slope and a rig for down the track.
Open match 27th April.
You can't start without a good cholesterol boost on a morning so it's of to the cafe for a brekky. There we usually have a chat with some of the lads who are fishing the match to find out how the match fished on the saturday and the general feeling was that it was very windy and very difficult to present the bait over on the long pole line. The saturday match was won from peg23 with 38lb 10oz, 2nd peg 18 28lb 3oz and finall 3rd peg 20 with 27lb 8oz. All the weights had come from the far bank toward the top end of the lake.The wind had dropped for sunday, but it was raining. Would the fish be still up the top end?
Time for the draw, i hear a few good pegs have been drawn so i stick my hand in the bag and glance at the peg number it was blank, don't you just hate that. Any way after flipping it over and seeing peg 20 (see main pic for my peg) i thought that will do nicely!
After speeking to Roger Movely in the cafe in new the lad in peg 20 had caught on pellet to the sedges, he had framed from the peg as well, so the pressure was on!
So after loading the gear up and walking round i find i have Daz "have you got
asthma" Harrison to my left, so we should be in for some funnies stories. Daz is pictured right.
I set my 3 rigs up as follows...
Rig 1 for the sedges and reeds. I use a MW slim pattern in 0.1 gram 0.12 stroft line straight thru to a tubertini 808 in size 18. This is usually fished 12-18" deep shotted with four number 11 stotz bulked 5-6inch from the hook, the float tip is usually "greased" up as i like to over shot the float the use grease to keep the float visible.
Rig 2 same set up just the float is heavier and the rig is 4ft deep.
Rig 3 Is for down the track a Gaz malman stable 4x14 fished in about 6ft of water.
All rigs are on Preston latex size 10.
At the start of the match i cup a few micro's flavoured with Carp Vader Pineapple 360, (this has won me a few quid over the winter and still working into the spring) to each of the sedges in my swim, then fish the 4ft line for the first hour to give the fish time to settle over my feed, i still feed the sedges while fishing the 4ft line. On goes a 4mm expander flavoured with the Carp Vader pineapple. After dragging the rig around getting it to fish right on the slope the float eventually dips and my first carp about 2lb is netted. Sport is very slow during the first hour and the pegs to my right 22 and 23 are catching well and i was falling behind.
First put in and the floats burries and another 2lber goes in the net, this carries on for a couple of hours alternating my swims feeding one and fishing the other taking fish off each swim then resting it.
Then it stops dead! Tried the four foot line, nothing. Tried the down the track rig, nothing. This cost me the match this period, but i learnt something from it, i stuck on an extra section and went further down my swim to the next sedge 16mts away! Managed to get a few more fish, but the pegs to my right were catching well during my "quiet" period.
Allout was called and wondered if i had done enough for a placing.
As the scales went round they were a few 20's and 30's then they got to my uncle (John Chapman) who plonked 49lb on and led for all of 2mins, when Jaspa stuck 50lb 2oz on the scales to lead the match, it got to me eventually and new i was weighing in for 3rd as those to my right had caught well. The digital scales started reading 52lb then dropped and settled on 50lb 9oz, i did Jasper by 7oz, happy days, next peg weighed 54lb 9 and the end peg weighed 61lb 5. I wasn't that far off but the quiet period cost me, lesson learnt. Results can be viewed here Talk Angling
I am on the BoBco teams of four challenge next week at Sam Hostiks, i won the individual last year, and our team was 3rd, if i remember rightly, so tune in next week and get in touch with any feedback on my attempt at blogging.
Thanks for your time.
Bingo!
Over the last couple of months i have been fishing at Birkwood Farm with reasonable success. The open matches are run on the 2 snake lakes, Emily's and Oscar's. Both lakes are around 13-14.5mts wide with depths to 6-7ft. Dick and Chris really look after us and thanks must go to them for letting us fish a quality fishey.
My usual approach to these lakes is the pole (if the wind allows) My farbank lines usually invlove fishing over to any cover, sedges or reeds. With a rig for "dragging" around on the slope and a rig for down the track.
Open match 27th April.
You can't start without a good cholesterol boost on a morning so it's of to the cafe for a brekky. There we usually have a chat with some of the lads who are fishing the match to find out how the match fished on the saturday and the general feeling was that it was very windy and very difficult to present the bait over on the long pole line. The saturday match was won from peg23 with 38lb 10oz, 2nd peg 18 28lb 3oz and finall 3rd peg 20 with 27lb 8oz. All the weights had come from the far bank toward the top end of the lake.The wind had dropped for sunday, but it was raining. Would the fish be still up the top end?
Time for the draw, i hear a few good pegs have been drawn so i stick my hand in the bag and glance at the peg number it was blank, don't you just hate that. Any way after flipping it over and seeing peg 20 (see main pic for my peg) i thought that will do nicely!
After speeking to Roger Movely in the cafe in new the lad in peg 20 had caught on pellet to the sedges, he had framed from the peg as well, so the pressure was on!
So after loading the gear up and walking round i find i have Daz "have you got
asthma" Harrison to my left, so we should be in for some funnies stories. Daz is pictured right.I set my 3 rigs up as follows...
Rig 1 for the sedges and reeds. I use a MW slim pattern in 0.1 gram 0.12 stroft line straight thru to a tubertini 808 in size 18. This is usually fished 12-18" deep shotted with four number 11 stotz bulked 5-6inch from the hook, the float tip is usually "greased" up as i like to over shot the float the use grease to keep the float visible.
Rig 2 same set up just the float is heavier and the rig is 4ft deep.
Rig 3 Is for down the track a Gaz malman stable 4x14 fished in about 6ft of water.
All rigs are on Preston latex size 10.
At the start of the match i cup a few micro's flavoured with Carp Vader Pineapple 360, (this has won me a few quid over the winter and still working into the spring) to each of the sedges in my swim, then fish the 4ft line for the first hour to give the fish time to settle over my feed, i still feed the sedges while fishing the 4ft line. On goes a 4mm expander flavoured with the Carp Vader pineapple. After dragging the rig around getting it to fish right on the slope the float eventually dips and my first carp about 2lb is netted. Sport is very slow during the first hour and the pegs to my right 22 and 23 are catching well and i was falling behind.
First put in and the floats burries and another 2lber goes in the net, this carries on for a couple of hours alternating my swims feeding one and fishing the other taking fish off each swim then resting it.
Then it stops dead! Tried the four foot line, nothing. Tried the down the track rig, nothing. This cost me the match this period, but i learnt something from it, i stuck on an extra section and went further down my swim to the next sedge 16mts away! Managed to get a few more fish, but the pegs to my right were catching well during my "quiet" period.
Allout was called and wondered if i had done enough for a placing.
As the scales went round they were a few 20's and 30's then they got to my uncle (John Chapman) who plonked 49lb on and led for all of 2mins, when Jaspa stuck 50lb 2oz on the scales to lead the match, it got to me eventually and new i was weighing in for 3rd as those to my right had caught well. The digital scales started reading 52lb then dropped and settled on 50lb 9oz, i did Jasper by 7oz, happy days, next peg weighed 54lb 9 and the end peg weighed 61lb 5. I wasn't that far off but the quiet period cost me, lesson learnt. Results can be viewed here Talk Angling
I am on the BoBco teams of four challenge next week at Sam Hostiks, i won the individual last year, and our team was 3rd, if i remember rightly, so tune in next week and get in touch with any feedback on my attempt at blogging.
Thanks for your time.
Bingo!
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