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.

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.