I enjoy the Tuesday Opens at Alders, there is less fuss and a more go with the flow attitude, everyone gets on (well apart from Madd and Brainy) and pitches in.
Today saw 10 of us on Ash Lake and with good weather predicted I was hopeful of having a few fish. Although I still had to scrape my car windows before leaving. There was still a chill in the air as I pulled up at Alders and after dipping my nets, but getting your gear on a barrow and pushing it along the path to the café soon made me feel comfortable.
With monies all paid in the draw went Ernie on 1, Charlie 2, Mick K 4, Madd 6, Neil 8, Colin 10 before turning the corner and Brainy 14, myself 18 Mick W 19 and Trevor on 21. Some good anglers on good pegs, it was going to be hard to frame today. Still as Madd repeated on more than one occasion " a bad days fishing is still better than a day at work" . I thought he had retired.
I was basing my approach around corn again and thought I would be able to catch close as the breeze was pushing into the dam wall. With this in mind I set up 3 rigs. A margin rig to fish around 2ft from the reeds, a 2+2 line and a 2+3 line with .4g MW diamonds to a size 16 PR36.
I also had a few expanders as a change bait if required and would feed corn and fishery 4mm pellets.
At the all in I cupped a pot of corn and pellet down the edge and threw a dozen grains of corn followed by around 4 or 5 every minute. After 10 minutes I had my first bite a carp around a pound. My next bite came after another 10 minutes and this set the pattern for the first hour, 6 fish for around 8lb in weight, not the start I wanted or expected. Mick had a couple of fish and Trevor was getting a couple by the tree. Colin was get a couple of fish but no one was really pulling away.
Hour 2,3 ,and 4 flew by, I could nick a couple of fish at 5m before it died, go to 6m and the same, back to 5m and nothing, long waits between bites. A switch to 6mm expander again nicked a couple of fish but again it died. It seem as if you caught a couple then they spooked, I tried to the sides to no avail so decided to plug away on the corn in the last hour at 6m. By feeding heavier, I started to get a few fish but then had a couple of foul hookers, In that last hour I reckoned I doubled my weight, just goes to show that if you persevere the rewards can come.
Overall
1st Trevor Price 162-08
2nd Ernie Waterfall 138-07
3rd Colin Spencer 108-08
4th Keith Ashby 95-14
5th Phil Young 86-08
6th Charlie Lancaster 78-02
Overall not a bad match, It fished hard or is it that our expectations are too high. I managed another MK Nugget from Mick who has claimed he will perform his usual comeback towards the later part of the year. Still I make it 4-0 so far.
Tuesday 21 April 2015
Tuesday 14 April 2015
Alders Farm Affordable Pines Lake 14 04 15
Today saw me back at Alders Farm, this time on Pines Lake. I liked this lake before the changes at Alders and like it even more since. There are plenty of quality skimmers and decent Tench to back up the carp weights and if your not catching one your catching the other, the float never seems to stop.
There were nine of us booked on and with plenty of room, Richard Brain set about sorting the pegs out whilst I took the money.
Richard drew peg 4 with Mick Wright on 6, Terry Lancaster on 8 and Vic Nugent on 10. He must like that peg. I drew 15 and knew it was all wrong for what I wanted to do ( fish corn my style) Colin and Ernie were on 17 and 19 respectively with Mick Kelly on 21 and ever consistent Charlie Lancaster on 26.
As I stated earlier I did not think the corn method would work today due to lack of depth in this peg, however I would give it a go and see how it went. I spent a little bit longer than usual plumbing around my peg until I could find at least 2ft of water. This was around 2+3 sections and slightly to my left. It deepened off a touch there and this would be were I would concentrate the corn. I also set up a long line at 11m where I had 2ft 6" and would use this to give the main line a rest if needed. A margin line towards the corner completed my rigs.
At the all in I cupped in a pot of 4mm fishery pellets and around 20 grains of corn to 11m and threw a handful of corn down the edge. A couple of grains to 2+3 sections followed by the rig, a shot pause and the float goes and 3lb common was in the net, another couple of grains and a skimmer, more corn and a smaller carp. With an hour gone I had around 10 fish for 20lb and the peg was getting worse, I would have to wait for a bite and it did not matter how I fed it, tight via tosspot, spread by hand, little or a lot, it made no difference and was dying. I decided to try 11m and nicked a couple of fish from here, before having a quick 5 minutes down the edge for no bites. I tried fishing a little closer to no avail and then to the side and snatched another couple of fish. It was now 2 hours in and around 30lb in the net. Vic was catching odd fish at 11m from peg 10 and the word was it was fishing hard except for Colin and Ernie on 17 and 19.
I made a conscious decision to stick at it, I was still picking up odd fish but they seemed to spook easily in the shallow water and back off after a couple, but by persisting I managed to keep the coming. I did have a couple of looks down the edge for 4 fish in total, but again you could see fish in the peg but they were just coming in and not really feeding fish.
I thought I had around a ton at the end and would have to part with a MK Nugget to Vic or Mick who I could not see, and with both admitting to 70lb knew it would be close. However it was not to be.
Overall
1st Colin Spencer 229-04
2nd Keith Ashby 124-13
3rd Richard Brain 108-07
4th Ernie Waterfall 99-01
5th Mick Wright 98-09
6th Terry Lancaster 97-12
7th Vic Nugent 97-02
8th Charlie Lancaster 90-14
9th Mike Kelly 45-06
To be fair it was a close match bar Colin, who really has got to grips with paste fishing, a couple of fish here and there made all the difference. Still I had a nugget off both Vic and Mick and take a 3-0 lead in our little head to head challenge.
There were nine of us booked on and with plenty of room, Richard Brain set about sorting the pegs out whilst I took the money.
Richard drew peg 4 with Mick Wright on 6, Terry Lancaster on 8 and Vic Nugent on 10. He must like that peg. I drew 15 and knew it was all wrong for what I wanted to do ( fish corn my style) Colin and Ernie were on 17 and 19 respectively with Mick Kelly on 21 and ever consistent Charlie Lancaster on 26.
As I stated earlier I did not think the corn method would work today due to lack of depth in this peg, however I would give it a go and see how it went. I spent a little bit longer than usual plumbing around my peg until I could find at least 2ft of water. This was around 2+3 sections and slightly to my left. It deepened off a touch there and this would be were I would concentrate the corn. I also set up a long line at 11m where I had 2ft 6" and would use this to give the main line a rest if needed. A margin line towards the corner completed my rigs.
At the all in I cupped in a pot of 4mm fishery pellets and around 20 grains of corn to 11m and threw a handful of corn down the edge. A couple of grains to 2+3 sections followed by the rig, a shot pause and the float goes and 3lb common was in the net, another couple of grains and a skimmer, more corn and a smaller carp. With an hour gone I had around 10 fish for 20lb and the peg was getting worse, I would have to wait for a bite and it did not matter how I fed it, tight via tosspot, spread by hand, little or a lot, it made no difference and was dying. I decided to try 11m and nicked a couple of fish from here, before having a quick 5 minutes down the edge for no bites. I tried fishing a little closer to no avail and then to the side and snatched another couple of fish. It was now 2 hours in and around 30lb in the net. Vic was catching odd fish at 11m from peg 10 and the word was it was fishing hard except for Colin and Ernie on 17 and 19.
I made a conscious decision to stick at it, I was still picking up odd fish but they seemed to spook easily in the shallow water and back off after a couple, but by persisting I managed to keep the coming. I did have a couple of looks down the edge for 4 fish in total, but again you could see fish in the peg but they were just coming in and not really feeding fish.
I thought I had around a ton at the end and would have to part with a MK Nugget to Vic or Mick who I could not see, and with both admitting to 70lb knew it would be close. However it was not to be.
Overall
1st Colin Spencer 229-04
2nd Keith Ashby 124-13
3rd Richard Brain 108-07
4th Ernie Waterfall 99-01
5th Mick Wright 98-09
6th Terry Lancaster 97-12
7th Vic Nugent 97-02
8th Charlie Lancaster 90-14
9th Mike Kelly 45-06
To be fair it was a close match bar Colin, who really has got to grips with paste fishing, a couple of fish here and there made all the difference. Still I had a nugget off both Vic and Mick and take a 3-0 lead in our little head to head challenge.
Tuesday 7 April 2015
Alders Farm Ash Lake 07 04 15
Well it has been a busy start to the year and the fishing has had to take a back seat for a while, but I had booked into the Tuesday open at Alders Farm and managed to coerce Mick into coming along as well. So if nothing else the MK Nugget will be contested.
Arriving early I had already developed a plan of attack and that involved corn, surprise there. I had with me 3 kilos of the stuff and dependant on how it was fishing would expect to use most of it. I also picked up a couple of bags of 4mm fishery pellets as they compliment the corn feed well.
The match itself was to be on the café bank and dam wall of Ash lake with 11 pegs put in for the 10 anglers. Dennis was on peg 2 with Shaun Weed on peg 3, Del Smith had somehow sneaked peg 4 and Colin Spencer making the long trip from Nottingham on 5, Brainy was on 6 with Paul Higgins on 7. Terry Lancaster was on 8 with Trevor Price on 9. Mick was on 10 and" happydays" I was pegged next door on 11. Never a good omen.
However, Trevor had been for a walk and my peg 11 ended up on old 23 by the fallen tree and end peg. What I did not expect though was three pleasure anglers arriving as we were setting up, despite being asked to fish the area opposite the café. "You can tell anglers".
Still undeterred I set about tackling up, a starter line at 2+2 for the corn, another line at 6m slightly past the 2+2 line and down the shelf, and a throw away line at 11m in case I needed a get out of jail line. All were MW Diamonds .3g to a size 16 B911s.
At the all in I potted a half pot of pellet and corn to 11m and threw around a dozen grains to 2+2. I started off on this line and in the first hour managed to net around 12 fish ranging from a pound to 4lb. Still feeding regularly I was slowly putting a weight together, I could see others catching and I was on a par. I was also catching 2 fish to Mick's one so knew I was on course for the Nugget. I suffered my first lull in proceedings with around 3 hours gone, I tried going shorter on a top three and nicked a couple but the fish did not stay, tried just past the line at 6m for another couple of fish before spending 15 minutes at 11m for a single carp, albeit around 6lb.
I heard a rather large crack at this point and looked around to see Mick trying to recoup his pole sections from the water to no avail. However a couple of chucks with his feeder rod managed to snag the line and retrieve the sections and the fish.
I was still feeding the 2+2 line and looked in again and profited from the rest as the fish seemed to respond again, this time to Pineapple Gel It corn, Hour 4 and 5 flew by and although I was catching I felt I was still behind Trevor and Colin. I was now fishing just past my feed in the slightly deeper water and still putting fish in the net but another lull followed with around 45 minutes to go. Luckily it only lasted about 15 minutes before I managed to find them again and catch a few towards the end.
I never touched the tree during the match as I felt the pressure of both myself and the pleasure anglers would push them out to the open water. It just goes to show.
As we packed up I thought I had fished a good tidy match, I had taken a Nugget off Mick, so that's 2-0 to me so far, but it's a long way to go. Well done to Colin for the first double ton of the year.
Arriving early I had already developed a plan of attack and that involved corn, surprise there. I had with me 3 kilos of the stuff and dependant on how it was fishing would expect to use most of it. I also picked up a couple of bags of 4mm fishery pellets as they compliment the corn feed well.
The match itself was to be on the café bank and dam wall of Ash lake with 11 pegs put in for the 10 anglers. Dennis was on peg 2 with Shaun Weed on peg 3, Del Smith had somehow sneaked peg 4 and Colin Spencer making the long trip from Nottingham on 5, Brainy was on 6 with Paul Higgins on 7. Terry Lancaster was on 8 with Trevor Price on 9. Mick was on 10 and" happydays" I was pegged next door on 11. Never a good omen.
However, Trevor had been for a walk and my peg 11 ended up on old 23 by the fallen tree and end peg. What I did not expect though was three pleasure anglers arriving as we were setting up, despite being asked to fish the area opposite the café. "You can tell anglers".
Still undeterred I set about tackling up, a starter line at 2+2 for the corn, another line at 6m slightly past the 2+2 line and down the shelf, and a throw away line at 11m in case I needed a get out of jail line. All were MW Diamonds .3g to a size 16 B911s.
At the all in I potted a half pot of pellet and corn to 11m and threw around a dozen grains to 2+2. I started off on this line and in the first hour managed to net around 12 fish ranging from a pound to 4lb. Still feeding regularly I was slowly putting a weight together, I could see others catching and I was on a par. I was also catching 2 fish to Mick's one so knew I was on course for the Nugget. I suffered my first lull in proceedings with around 3 hours gone, I tried going shorter on a top three and nicked a couple but the fish did not stay, tried just past the line at 6m for another couple of fish before spending 15 minutes at 11m for a single carp, albeit around 6lb.
I heard a rather large crack at this point and looked around to see Mick trying to recoup his pole sections from the water to no avail. However a couple of chucks with his feeder rod managed to snag the line and retrieve the sections and the fish.
I was still feeding the 2+2 line and looked in again and profited from the rest as the fish seemed to respond again, this time to Pineapple Gel It corn, Hour 4 and 5 flew by and although I was catching I felt I was still behind Trevor and Colin. I was now fishing just past my feed in the slightly deeper water and still putting fish in the net but another lull followed with around 45 minutes to go. Luckily it only lasted about 15 minutes before I managed to find them again and catch a few towards the end.
I never touched the tree during the match as I felt the pressure of both myself and the pleasure anglers would push them out to the open water. It just goes to show.
Overall
1st Colin Spencer 219.14
2nd Keith Ashby 171.08
3rd Trevor Price 151.04
4th Richard Brain 140.13
5th Shaun Weed 131.00
6th Del Smith 127. 07
As we packed up I thought I had fished a good tidy match, I had taken a Nugget off Mick, so that's 2-0 to me so far, but it's a long way to go. Well done to Colin for the first double ton of the year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)