Well the winter weather has finally kicked in. Woke up to see the first proper frost of the year. We just get rid of Abigail and Barney and straight into the cold winds from the Arctic Circle. At least today stayed relatively mild considering the overnight frost. I comfortable all day in a set of thermals, track suit bottoms, T Shirt and hoodie underneath my Bib and Brace.
I always make a note of the first frosts because it is the time of year that I scale down my gear. Gone are the .18 line and now .14 with .12 hooklengths. Smaller hooks are the norm and have started using the B911 F1 hooks and have been impressed in the smaller sizes.
Today I was guesting with the Maver team, and would end up on peg 15 on Pines, not really where I fancied being, but you cannot get it right everytime. Peg 15 is a good summer peg, it has good margins and you can fish the edge of the island with a small feeder or bomb, or fish the pole at length where you will find 3ft of water.
I decided to start off the match fishing banded pellet at 12m feeding 3 or 4 4mm fishery pellets every 30 seconds, after 20 minutes and no bites I decided to feed a small pot of micros on this line with a few maggots in. Another 10 minutes passed and the float goes and I have foul hooked a carp which promptly shed the hook. I shallow up a touch and next put in the same thing happens. I switch to a lighter elastic but for no reason I cannot get a bite. After an hour and a half I have my first fish in the net at around 3lb. A relief because I seriously thought a blank was possible today. I was behind the guy on 12 who had caught two good fish, but the angler on 10 was still biteless. A switch to 14.5m to the right saw another fish come, this time on Amino Chocco Maggot. but it was the only bite for 20 minutes. I refed the line and went back to the line in front of me. It was hard going, you would not get a bite, regardless of feeding. I felt as if no matter what i did it would not make a difference. I pinged, tosspotted, big pot little pot it made no difference. I even tried fishing shallow for 20 minutes for no bites. The margins were a no no as I could see the bottom 10ft from the bank, it was that clear.
I did manage another couple of carp on the maggot towards the island, and to be honest thought it was all I could get from the peg, today.
Our section was won with 49lb by Colin Fossdyke, Roy Makins turned in 32lb and my 12-11 was only good for 6th in section. There were definately no fish up our end of the lake, with the other section on the lake fishing more consistently, although still hard.
Sunday 22 November 2015
Sunday 8 November 2015
How End Yasi's 08 11 15
We have all said it before, we will have to go there one day, well I have been saying that about How End Fishery since it opened. There are two lakes on the complex, Yasi's and Dani's and both are liberally stocked with carp, skimmers, chub, ide and barbel. You get bites on any method, dependant on the weather. It is not all pellet either as most of the top weights come from maggot, caster or worm. So as you can see it is a proper mixed fishery, where bites can be had. Something I have needed of late. On site is a furnished tackle shop with bait available on the day. What more can you want on a November morning.
I had been talking with Nick Rowe on FB and he suggested we go on the weekend betweens winter league commitments. I arranged to meet him at the Little Chef at Marston Moretaine and after a breakfast we were soon pulling into Phil Stones (Pebs) little paradise. He had built the venue from scratch and looked at it from a match angler's perspective. I must admit I was impressed. The lake we were to fish was Yasi's, Nick had booked us both into a small club match to have a competitive edge to the day. My home was peg 5, and not a good peg according to Trevor Jeans, a venue regular, and who had drawn next to me on 6. At least I could talk to someone I knew. Nick had drawn peg 13 and a lot better area.
Yasi's has an island at 13m which runs through the middle of the lake, I had been told to start long in the shallow water and then settle in at the bottom of the far shelf, I also set a rig to fish at the bottom of the near shelf in the deepest water I could find, this was at around 5m. I also set up a margin line but did not expect to catch here, as there was plenty of dying rushes getting in the way and very little colour in the edge.
For across i fished a MW Rattler float taking just 2 no10 stotz, this was on .14 stroft to a .12 hooklength which I had tied with a B911 F1 size 20 hook, this was for fishing either single maggot or double pinkie and was set to fish in 18inches of water.
My long deep line was at around 10m where I could find 4ft of water and fished a NG .4g Deano float, I had bought these earlier in the year and never tried them but today I felt it was the right conditions. Again it was .14 to .12 and a size 20 B911 F1 hook. My near line at 5m was again a NG Deano set another 5inches deeper, this time to a size 16 B911 F1 hook. All my elastics were either grey hydro or white hydro.
At the all in I decided to hang back a minute and see how everyone around me started off, no one potted in, so I decided to go with a toss pot approach that was similar to the locals. With a single maggot on the hook I shipped across and started getting tiny indications and soon switched to double pinkie. This did the trick as a couple of nano ide came to rest in my keepnet. A dull spell after around 15 minutes and I started coming back towards the shelf. Back on the maggot and a couple of Ide around the 1lb mark before again this line went quiet. Back to 13m and nothing, A couple more Ide came and after about 2 hours I reckoned on having 8 Ide for about 10lb.
I had been throwing around 8-10 maggots out to 5m since the start and decided to have a quick look and see if the fish were in the deepest part of the peg. I had a good run of Ide and a single skimmer all on double maggot hookbait. Trevor was matching me fish for fish but slowly I was pulling away from him. Then as I was getting into a rhythm, it was over, no more bites, I tried different shotting patterns but still nothing. I was back out to 10m and getting odd indications on this line but time was running out. I needed to get a couple more fish to fend off the barbel and carp Trevor had caught, so upped the feed rate and this seemed to do the trick as more bites were forthcoming. At the all out I was playing another Ide and unfortunately it came off on the way back. I hoped it would not be costly. By all accounts it had fished hard, yet I had thoroughly enjoyed myself. I had to work at getting bites and trying to hook those crafty Ide.
I had been talking with Nick Rowe on FB and he suggested we go on the weekend betweens winter league commitments. I arranged to meet him at the Little Chef at Marston Moretaine and after a breakfast we were soon pulling into Phil Stones (Pebs) little paradise. He had built the venue from scratch and looked at it from a match angler's perspective. I must admit I was impressed. The lake we were to fish was Yasi's, Nick had booked us both into a small club match to have a competitive edge to the day. My home was peg 5, and not a good peg according to Trevor Jeans, a venue regular, and who had drawn next to me on 6. At least I could talk to someone I knew. Nick had drawn peg 13 and a lot better area.
Yasi's has an island at 13m which runs through the middle of the lake, I had been told to start long in the shallow water and then settle in at the bottom of the far shelf, I also set a rig to fish at the bottom of the near shelf in the deepest water I could find, this was at around 5m. I also set up a margin line but did not expect to catch here, as there was plenty of dying rushes getting in the way and very little colour in the edge.
For across i fished a MW Rattler float taking just 2 no10 stotz, this was on .14 stroft to a .12 hooklength which I had tied with a B911 F1 size 20 hook, this was for fishing either single maggot or double pinkie and was set to fish in 18inches of water.
My long deep line was at around 10m where I could find 4ft of water and fished a NG .4g Deano float, I had bought these earlier in the year and never tried them but today I felt it was the right conditions. Again it was .14 to .12 and a size 20 B911 F1 hook. My near line at 5m was again a NG Deano set another 5inches deeper, this time to a size 16 B911 F1 hook. All my elastics were either grey hydro or white hydro.
At the all in I decided to hang back a minute and see how everyone around me started off, no one potted in, so I decided to go with a toss pot approach that was similar to the locals. With a single maggot on the hook I shipped across and started getting tiny indications and soon switched to double pinkie. This did the trick as a couple of nano ide came to rest in my keepnet. A dull spell after around 15 minutes and I started coming back towards the shelf. Back on the maggot and a couple of Ide around the 1lb mark before again this line went quiet. Back to 13m and nothing, A couple more Ide came and after about 2 hours I reckoned on having 8 Ide for about 10lb.
I had been throwing around 8-10 maggots out to 5m since the start and decided to have a quick look and see if the fish were in the deepest part of the peg. I had a good run of Ide and a single skimmer all on double maggot hookbait. Trevor was matching me fish for fish but slowly I was pulling away from him. Then as I was getting into a rhythm, it was over, no more bites, I tried different shotting patterns but still nothing. I was back out to 10m and getting odd indications on this line but time was running out. I needed to get a couple more fish to fend off the barbel and carp Trevor had caught, so upped the feed rate and this seemed to do the trick as more bites were forthcoming. At the all out I was playing another Ide and unfortunately it came off on the way back. I hoped it would not be costly. By all accounts it had fished hard, yet I had thoroughly enjoyed myself. I had to work at getting bites and trying to hook those crafty Ide.
Overall
1st Paul B 48-13
2nd Nick Rowe 34-08
3rd Pip 34-04
4th Darryl 29-12
5th Simon 26-08
6th Keith Ashby 23-10
Well done to all those who framed, it was a hard day and you had to work at your fishing. Thank you to Kingfisher Club for allowing me to fish with you, a good bunch of lads who were quick to notice me losing a fish swinging it in. At least I did not fall in after the weigh in. Thank you to Pebs for allowing me to grace your fishery, I will be back and finally Nick Rowe who without his push would have seen me still not visiting How End. All in all a very good and enjoyable day.
Sunday 1 November 2015
Alders Farm Pines Lake 01 11 15
For once the weatherman got it right, I awoke from my slumber to be greeted by fog, however it was lifting by the time I loaded up the car and although cool, it was planned to get warmer throughout the day.
I was not planned into a team today for the winter league, but as luck would have it, one team was short on the day so I was a Maver angler today. I would be back up on Pines today, in fact the same peg 3 I had last week, which i would say was probably my worst day's fishing on Pines, yet strangely very enjoyable.It is not the best peg in the world as it is 6ft deep at 13m and the fish seem to prefer the shallower water at the top of the lake. Last week I had a few fish deep and odd fish shallow so set up to fish the same again. This time I would attack the peg from the start with micros on the deck with a good helping of holding corn. I also again set up to fish 2+2 with corn and a margin to the front of peg 2.
It seems strange to me, the amount of people who want to get included in the blogs both Roy Makins and I write, a prime candidate was my neighbour on peg 4 Matt Grant, in fact Matt was sandwiched between my self and Roy, so i am sure he will get a mention.Personally I think it is so they know how NOT to fish a peg.
On my other side was Fossy who announced before the match he was going to get married in the New Year. Congratulations Colin and Partner.
Any way back to fishing, I started off fishing long and deep, for a few small indications but nothing hitable. I did lose one on the deck on a banded 6mm pellet. A look on corn produced my first fish of around 4lb. I had a go shallow as I had been pinging 4mms but again nothing. A look to 2+2 and nothing , a quick look down the edge saw two maggots simply drowning themselves. So it was back out to 13m. Another couple of 4lb fish came but I was having to feed heavily with a catapult to draw fish in. I was not getting any liners so tried deepening the rig and ended up with a foul hooked carp of around 2lb to show. I tried coming up in the water slightly to see if the fish were just off bottom, but nothing.
Matt had been catching a few fish on the bomb and was getting a few on the long pole on the deck. Roy was catching well fishing shallow with maggot. Colin had struggled fishing long with only a few fish to show for it. However he was now down the left hand edge and getting a few bites. Mick Dickens was a forlorn figure, not even getting bites from peg 31. Nick Darke on unfancied peg 24 was getting a couple of fish.
I did start getting a few bites shallow on pellet late on with another couple of fish coming to boost my weight. I had said to Matt before the match I just wanted to beat last weeks weight and I did that, just.
The section was won by Roy Makins with 72-12, Richard Fullam on peg 18 had 60-13 and Matt was third in section with 45lb. My 26-06 was good enough for 6th in section, so not last in the section.
Going to have a day over How End next weekend for a change. Never been before but heard some good things about the place.
I was not planned into a team today for the winter league, but as luck would have it, one team was short on the day so I was a Maver angler today. I would be back up on Pines today, in fact the same peg 3 I had last week, which i would say was probably my worst day's fishing on Pines, yet strangely very enjoyable.It is not the best peg in the world as it is 6ft deep at 13m and the fish seem to prefer the shallower water at the top of the lake. Last week I had a few fish deep and odd fish shallow so set up to fish the same again. This time I would attack the peg from the start with micros on the deck with a good helping of holding corn. I also again set up to fish 2+2 with corn and a margin to the front of peg 2.
It seems strange to me, the amount of people who want to get included in the blogs both Roy Makins and I write, a prime candidate was my neighbour on peg 4 Matt Grant, in fact Matt was sandwiched between my self and Roy, so i am sure he will get a mention.Personally I think it is so they know how NOT to fish a peg.
On my other side was Fossy who announced before the match he was going to get married in the New Year. Congratulations Colin and Partner.
Any way back to fishing, I started off fishing long and deep, for a few small indications but nothing hitable. I did lose one on the deck on a banded 6mm pellet. A look on corn produced my first fish of around 4lb. I had a go shallow as I had been pinging 4mms but again nothing. A look to 2+2 and nothing , a quick look down the edge saw two maggots simply drowning themselves. So it was back out to 13m. Another couple of 4lb fish came but I was having to feed heavily with a catapult to draw fish in. I was not getting any liners so tried deepening the rig and ended up with a foul hooked carp of around 2lb to show. I tried coming up in the water slightly to see if the fish were just off bottom, but nothing.
Matt had been catching a few fish on the bomb and was getting a few on the long pole on the deck. Roy was catching well fishing shallow with maggot. Colin had struggled fishing long with only a few fish to show for it. However he was now down the left hand edge and getting a few bites. Mick Dickens was a forlorn figure, not even getting bites from peg 31. Nick Darke on unfancied peg 24 was getting a couple of fish.
I did start getting a few bites shallow on pellet late on with another couple of fish coming to boost my weight. I had said to Matt before the match I just wanted to beat last weeks weight and I did that, just.
The section was won by Roy Makins with 72-12, Richard Fullam on peg 18 had 60-13 and Matt was third in section with 45lb. My 26-06 was good enough for 6th in section, so not last in the section.
Going to have a day over How End next weekend for a change. Never been before but heard some good things about the place.
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