This match was ‘pole only’ and ‘float only’ which prevented me from fishing the pellet waggler which is the method I would always go for on these lakes in summer. I was unsure of the potential success of fishing shallow on the pole but this would be my main line of attack with paste in the margins as a back-up plan. My target for today would be 80 fish for around 100lb which I felt would be good for a pole only match seeing as you can get 100lb to 150lb plus on the waggler.
Because I was helping with the draw, one of the guys pulled my peg and out came peg 5 on Peartree. To my left and in my section was Mark Hathway and Kevin Pack which meant the company would be good but the competition would be hard but I was dead chuffed with my peg as it was one of my preferred choices being between the islands. Even though they are well out of reach with a pole, it may be possible to draw fish from the open area and also in the last match a few weeks ago, that area produced well.
The weather has been a lot warmer around here lately and apart from some odd days of rain, a shallow approach has been producing well. As I arrived at my peg I could see some fish on the surface but I was still uncertain how well a shallow approach would work on the pole. My mind was made up though and I decided to try 2 different rigs on a shallow line at 11.5m and just have 1 margin rig set up for later in the match. The 2 shallow rigs that I wanted to try are a little different to the ones I have been using, I wanted to experiment with a different float pattern and also weigh up the difference between a long line and a short line between float and pole tip. The new float pattern is a Preston Pink dibber that has a hole in the tip so that the line passes through the body. The float is very light, just needing a single number 6 shot under it and the weight of a 6mm pellet to cock it. I also wanted to try the Drennan Carp Match hooks out and see if I bumped or lost fewer fish with them so I had a few hair rigs tied up with them on instead of the PR27's I normaly use.
The experiment with the long and short line would be to determine if more fish are caught with the ‘self hooking’ short line or if the long line caught more fish because the pole is further off the surface therefore reducing the risk of spooking the fish. I know it may seem risky experimenting with new things in a match situation but you don’t learn much pleasure fishing because you have no competition to measure your success by and the water is not under pressure.
My bait choice today was simple then, a shed load of 6mm skrettings and a pint of paste made from ground expanders. I also had some worms and corn with me but only because they were in the bag from my last match.
While I was setting up, I had to think about the distance that I would fish out shallow. If we were at Monks then I would start at about 7m so that I could feed easily by hand but I wasn’t sure if the fish would come that close in at Hartleylands. I could have fished at 10m and still fed by hand although it gets a bit hard at that length either using your weak hand or swapping the pole over to your weak hand and feeding with your strong hand. Also, I wanted to draw fish from the gap between the islands so the closer I fished to it the better. I therefore settled on 11.5m as a happy medium between ease of feeding, speed and drawing fish and I would feed by hand when playing the fish and after netting it and feed with a pult when the pole is shipped out.
So upon hearing the whistle, I threw out a couple of handfuls of pellets at my 11.5m line and then shipped out 2 large cups of pellets down my left margin under a small tree. Another couple of handfuls of pellets out on the long line and I then shipped out the pole with the long line set 12” deep and slapped the rig on the surface. After 3 slaps the elastic pulled out and a nice 1lb Carp was in the net and my ‘clicker’ got it’s first push. By feeding with my right hand while playing fish and with the pult after I had shipped out, I managed to string together about 15 fish in the first hour. This isn’t exactly bagging up but I was happy with a steady stream of fish and the probability of things picking up later on.
At the start of the second hour I foul hooked a decent fish of around 2lb and so after I netted it I shallowed up to 6”. This brought fish at a faster rate and after 2 hours I had around 32 fish in the net. Things were looking good so I thought I would try out the short line rig and so out it went. The first problem I encountered with this rig is that when you are speed fishing it is easier to tangle a short rig around your pole tip and also it is not easy to slap on the surface and make much of a noise. I caught a few ‘self-hookers’ but the action was not as good so I popped it back on the roost and reverted back to the long line. By the way, the long line was 2’ between pole tip and float and the short line was 6”.
Using the short line had taught me one thing though and that was the effectiveness of having fish self-hook themselves. I therefore adopted a slightly different approach with the long line rig which involved holding the pole so that the line was tight between tip and float and slightly to one side so the tip was not directly over the float. This had a positive result because the fish were more confident with the pole further away from them and also I had plenty of fish self-hooked while I was putting pellets into the pult. The third hour therefore went much like the second with a total of 52 fish.
At this point the sun was high in the sky and the heat was really strong. The fourth hour seemed harder and more slapping and searching out the peg was required. I didn’t want the peg to fizzle out though so I upped the feed rate as much as I could which meant having the pult in my hand permanently. I winkled out as many fish as I could manage but by the end of the fourth hour I only had a total of 62 fish, only 10 had gone in the net during the last hour.
Things were looking up though as my increased feeding seemed to draw more fish in front of me. I looked at my clicker and felt that I wouldn’t hit my 80 fish target at the current rate and estimated that about 74 would be more realistic. I wasn’t going to roll over and play dead though so out went more pellets and more pellets and even more pellets. Using the self-hooking system of holding a tight line helped me because I was feeding so much. At this point a long shadow appeared on the surface and drifted towards my swim. I had already mugged a few off the surface by slapping the pellet down in their pathway but this fish looked nice. I slapped the rig down almost on top of it, there was a huge swirl and then the latex came peeling out. Within a minute the fish was under my feet and I simply played it out until it gave in after about a dozen gulps of air. A nice 6 or 7 pounder was in the net and I was very happy with the boost that it would give my weight!
As the last hour ticked by too quickly, I managed to up the catch rate with my feeding and I was getting closer to my target. With 15 minutes left I had passed my estimate of 74 fish and was going like the clappers. I was landing my 79th fish with one minute to go, scooped it in, chucked out some pellets and shipped out so fast you would think I was throwing a javelin. I hooked a fish right away and as the whistle went it was in my net being unhooked. 80!
It would be fair to say that I was pleased with my performance especially as I did not have sight of anyone else catching at the rate I was. And then in typical fashion Mr. Gilbert ventured up the bank to scupper my hopes as he told me he had 118 Carp!
So as usual I volunteered to help with the weigh-in and was handed the sling, meaning I was about to get soaked. My 80 fish went to 104lb odd which meant that the lump I had helped put me over the ton. Nick weighed in a mental 147lb odd which he had caught at 7m! Damn, if I had done that I could have fed by hand all day and caught more fish. His plan was to start short and follow them out and my plan relied on them not wanting it short. After the match we had a chat about whether you really need to fish to the islands to get a good weight and today has left us wondering whether the pellet waggler is the best method or if shallow pole could possibly overtake it. One thing is for sure though, you CAN catch close in shallow here!
Oh yes, the Preston Pink dibber........well I had trouble getting it to cock and it seemed to either take on water or dipped under when a pellet was very wet. Either way I think it is too light or needs a wire stem to help it cock. Also, the Drennan hooks seemed better than the PR27's so don't expect to find any in the shops around here as someone has gone and bought them all :~)
The results were drawn up with me, Nick and Colin Wood all winning our sections it meant that we would all hold the same league place and only the top 2 could change. So Nick ended up 4th and I was 5th overall and I have to say that I am dead chuffed with finishing 5th as my original goal was for a top 6 position against some very good anglers. I had earned myself another £40 for my ‘pools’ bank account but more importantly I had enjoyed a very good league and met some really decent blokes.
I can't help wondering where I would have finished if I had drawn a decent peg in the first match and earnt more than 1 point! Never mind, it's easy to say 'if only' all the time!
Oh yes, as an afterthought I asked Nick if he could work out the league places if it had been done on weight instead of points:
------------------------------------------
1st Nick Gilbert, 2nd Matt Love :~)
------------------------------------------
Here are the results and the proper table:
------------------------------------------
1st Nick Gilbert 147-12
2nd Paul Kell 112-1 (guest)
3rd Matt Love 104-13
4th Collin Wood 95-12
5th Andy Goldthorpe 90-12 (guest)
6th Kevin Pack 86-1
--------------
League Places
--------------
1 Kevin Pack 333-15 26
2 Andy Silver 332-12 25
3 Collin Wood 290-12 24
4 Nick Gilbert 417-6 23
5 Matt Love 338-9 23
6 Mark Hathway 271-8 21
7 Ian Carley 261-10 21
8 Martin Charnock 156-13 20
9 Trevor Little 205-12 18
10 Tony Clark 216-11 17
11 Jay Lay 198-14 17
12 Mark Holland 186-9 17
13 Russ Evans 229-0 16
14 John Haigh 118-0 15
15 Dennis Price 167-12 14
16 Chris Jones 140-12 14
17 Martin Twine 124-13 14
18 Mark Greenway 53-11 6
19 Jim McDowell 61-13 4
20 Mike Jameson 31-6 3
There are a few opens and one or two other matches coming up soon including the angling forum’s Southern Inter-site Championship so keep an eye out for these over the next few months.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment