Sometimes there is little you can do to frame and even to win your section but in a league that is all about points then you can at least try to do something about getting the most out of your section and out of your peg. Today was a hard, cold day on a fickle venue that usually fishes well through the warmer months but can be harshly affected by conditions. Raised high and with no protection from the elements, the match lakes at Monks can suffer with howling winds and bitter cold even though down in the car park things seem quite calm.
So today I pulled up into the car park and met a few of the lads by the café. Within minutes I was regretting the fact that I had only worn a pair of shorts and a fleece and before long I was rummaging around in the car for a pair of waterproof trousers I thought I had lurking around. Thankfully they were there as my legs were beginning to turn a worrying blue colour and we all know that I don’t do BLUE! Having discussed the weather prospects, I visited the on-site shop and bought 4 pints of maggots as the only bait I had brought with me were hard sinking pellets and a few worms.
So today I pulled up into the car park and met a few of the lads by the café. Within minutes I was regretting the fact that I had only worn a pair of shorts and a fleece and before long I was rummaging around in the car for a pair of waterproof trousers I thought I had lurking around. Thankfully they were there as my legs were beginning to turn a worrying blue colour and we all know that I don’t do BLUE! Having discussed the weather prospects, I visited the on-site shop and bought 4 pints of maggots as the only bait I had brought with me were hard sinking pellets and a few worms.
At the draw I pulled out peg 13, an end peg but up the wrong end, on the wrong side of the lake! For company to my right was Johnny Watt who also insists on buying red gear so our corner of the lake looked like a poppy filed with red luggage and clothing all over the bank. To his right was Rusty and being a good shallow angler I expected him to try and catch up in the water which might help me out to determine whether it was going to work. In other words, if I see him catching shallow then I know that I need to give it a go.
Today was going to be tough to call. Would it warm up a bit? Will they feed shallow? Should I focus on points and small baits? Where in my end peg should I fish? Will the wind become stronger and ruin any long pole line? How much tow will there be? I needed to do some serious thinking! I set the pole up and shipped out with a deck rig and plumbed up. At a comfortable 8.5m I had a very shallow 3’ so on went another section where I found 3’ 6” and decided to fish here for 2 reasons. Firstly, if the wind became any stronger and I fished further out then I would risk not being able to fish the swim I had fed. Secondly, if the fish come shallow then I would want to fish fast and easy and 10m is about the limit for feeding with one hand and slapping the rig with the other, especially if it is windy. So my decision was made to fish an easy length where I could fish up or down comfortably in the strong wind blowing from the right.
Towards the corner of the lake to my left, I also had an inviting line of reeds with a depth of around 3’ along the edge. My previous experience on hard days at Monks has taught me that feeding down the edge can rescue your position, especially later in the day when everything seems to have died out in front. I have had success feeding both caster and small pellets but using half a Dendra on the hook. A constant feeding pattern of a good handful every 5 or 10 minutes seems to attract and hold some decent fish. Given that this feed rate works out a bit expensive with casters and a waste of money if you don’t use them, I now opt for pellets unless it is winter and I know the fishing will be hard. Pellets need to be small but micros are too small for windy days so I opted for 2mm although 3mm would have been better in the wind. I also took some hemp for the same line as there are plenty of Barbel in the venue and I doubt either the Barbel or Carp would mind it going in as well as the pellets.
So, I now had 3 options in 2 swims. The margin, the 10m line with maggot on the deck and the 10m shallow if possible. I also brought with me a pair of pellet waggler rods and a bomb rod. I took out one of the waggler rods to fish either of 2 lines. Firstly out in front thinking that if it was a nice day then some of the bigger Carp could be hanging out in the middle and secondly I had the left hand bank which isn’t pegged and although shallow and featureless, there could be Carp there having been ‘walked up’ the bank.
Top kits were set up with doubled 8 slip for the shallow rig, doubled 6 Slip for the margin (I am currently trying this ‘doubled slip’ fashion thing) and then standard 12 latex for the maggot rig.
Today was going to be tough to call. Would it warm up a bit? Will they feed shallow? Should I focus on points and small baits? Where in my end peg should I fish? Will the wind become stronger and ruin any long pole line? How much tow will there be? I needed to do some serious thinking! I set the pole up and shipped out with a deck rig and plumbed up. At a comfortable 8.5m I had a very shallow 3’ so on went another section where I found 3’ 6” and decided to fish here for 2 reasons. Firstly, if the wind became any stronger and I fished further out then I would risk not being able to fish the swim I had fed. Secondly, if the fish come shallow then I would want to fish fast and easy and 10m is about the limit for feeding with one hand and slapping the rig with the other, especially if it is windy. So my decision was made to fish an easy length where I could fish up or down comfortably in the strong wind blowing from the right.
Towards the corner of the lake to my left, I also had an inviting line of reeds with a depth of around 3’ along the edge. My previous experience on hard days at Monks has taught me that feeding down the edge can rescue your position, especially later in the day when everything seems to have died out in front. I have had success feeding both caster and small pellets but using half a Dendra on the hook. A constant feeding pattern of a good handful every 5 or 10 minutes seems to attract and hold some decent fish. Given that this feed rate works out a bit expensive with casters and a waste of money if you don’t use them, I now opt for pellets unless it is winter and I know the fishing will be hard. Pellets need to be small but micros are too small for windy days so I opted for 2mm although 3mm would have been better in the wind. I also took some hemp for the same line as there are plenty of Barbel in the venue and I doubt either the Barbel or Carp would mind it going in as well as the pellets.
So, I now had 3 options in 2 swims. The margin, the 10m line with maggot on the deck and the 10m shallow if possible. I also brought with me a pair of pellet waggler rods and a bomb rod. I took out one of the waggler rods to fish either of 2 lines. Firstly out in front thinking that if it was a nice day then some of the bigger Carp could be hanging out in the middle and secondly I had the left hand bank which isn’t pegged and although shallow and featureless, there could be Carp there having been ‘walked up’ the bank.
Top kits were set up with doubled 8 slip for the shallow rig, doubled 6 Slip for the margin (I am currently trying this ‘doubled slip’ fashion thing) and then standard 12 latex for the maggot rig.
All floats today are made by Nick Gilbert, a dibber, a 0.6g Diamond for out in front and a 0.4g short Diamond for down the edge. The tow will be harsh and these fibreglass stemmed floats will be very stable. Although the shallow rig and margin rig were tied to 0.20 Fox Micro, I did step down to 0.14 on the maggot rig (for anything that swims) and a B911 hook.
Nick blew the whistle at 10.30 and I threw 2 handfulls of hemp and 2 of pellets down by the reeds and shipped my maggot rig out with a toss pot full of maggots. I didn’t want to use the catty at first as the wind would blow the maggots all over the place and although I usually feed a lot heavier than 1 toss pot every few minutes, I decided that it would be best to keep things tight in the wind.
After a few lifts and drags the float dipped and a nice carp was in the net. Another pot full and another few minutes later Carp number 2 was on it’s way in. Things were looking steady and after half an hour I had 5 fish for about 6 pounds which although is not good going for this place, it was steady and promising.
The steady sport continued up to the end of the first hour until I detected that the swim could do with a rest. Having fed the margin regularly, I decided to take a look so re-fed the maggot swim and ship half a worm down the edge followed by a handful of hemp and pellets. After a wait of 3 or 4 minutes the float slid under and a nice 2lb Carp came in. I re-fed the maggot line and shipped another half worm down the edge but the tip remained above the water with no further indications. I therefore decided that the margin swim needed longer to settle and went back out onto the maggot line where there were a few blades and the odd Carp and Ide waiting for me.
Hour 2 went by with smaller fish going into the net and bites slowing down. I estimated 15 proper fish and some bits for around 15lb. Another look down the edge brought me a small Tench and one more Carp but I had to swap between lines to string a few bites together. As time wore on, the sun came out and although the wind was still strong I noticed Rusty catching quite well on a shallow rig so it was time to give it a go. For 20 minutes I pinged pellets out to 10m and slapped and tapped all I could but to no avail. I just couldn’t buy a bite and was now worried that I may have over-fed the maggot swim with pellets. A look on the maggot rig provided little other than a few bumped blades and an odd Ide. Things were now looking grim!
I re-fed the maggot line to get them back onto the smaller bait and started feeding more heavily down the edge thinking that I might need to make the swim work better for me during the last hour or so. A quick look earned me another Carp around 3lb which was VERY welcome but still I could only draw one fish at a time from the swim.
Around the 4 hour mark I decided to take a chance and chuck the pellet waggler out just in case there were some nice fish sitting out in the middle. The sun was quite warm now but the wind was still cutting but I thought it was worth a look. 20 minutes of pinging and re-casting brought me nothing but 1 jerk on the tip which was probably the hook pulling from a foul-hooked fish.
With about 45 minutes left of the match I needed to decide what I was going to do with the time. I looked up the bank to assess what I thought my section had caught. Johnny next door was having a rough time and I was sure I was beating him. Rusty next to him was way ahead but the next 2 pegs along seemed not to have caught a great deal. I made the call and opted to ensure that I got every ounce of fish in the net that I could and try hard to take a section 2nd. I wanted to feed heavy with maggots but still be accurate so I brought the 10m maggot rig in to 5m and started feeding by hand. It was the time of day that fish expect the margins to get fed with unwanted bait and so maybe I could kick-start a new line.
Within minutes I was picking up blades and the odd Ide and I was hammering the bait in. Half a handful every 30 seconds or so and this was bring me bites but mainly from small fish. I kept this going until within 10 minutes I decided to look down the edge for one more decent carp. After a couple of minutes I missed a bite but sat there until the last minute hoping for a last bite…………..and it came. The whistle went and I called ‘fish on’ and gently played a 2lb Carp to the net. I guessed at 30lb overall but it is difficult to be accurate with so many small fish in the net.
There was plenty of groaning around the lake and a few guys approached me to report their stories of woe. I was expecting Nick to have winkled out a few but he walked along the bank with his head held low. The flyers would probably have done ok but it seemed that most other pegs had struggled. Me? I was just clutching on to the possibility of 4 points and luckily I got them having come 2nd in section.
A hard day’s work it was and I am not too disappointed that I have to miss the next fixture which is on notorious lake 2 at Monks. Seeing as we are able to drop our worse result though, I might just have chosen the right match to miss as the final 3 are all at Hartleylands where things are far more interesting and the weather probably a lot better.
So I will leave the league now for a few weeks being join 1st on 9 points but when I return I shall be half way down the table at least with a lot of climbing to do. See you then!
1 Collin Wood 60-12 Peg 23
2 Nick Allen 59-7 Peg 36
3 Dennis Price 57-14 Peg 22
4 Rusty 57-00 peg 16
5 Russ Evans 53-10 peg 24
6 Squeaky (guest) 51-0 peg 31
League Placing
1 Ian Carley, 5-4, 124-8 9
2 Matt Love, 5-4, 107-1 9
3 Nick Gilbert, 5-3, 133-13 8
4 Collin Wood, 3-5, 110-9 8
5 Dennis Price, 4-4, 105-1 8
6 Nick Allen, 3-5, 103-1 8
7 Jonny Watt, 5-3, 95-5 8
8 Mark Hathway 4-4, 69-15 8
9 Russ Evans, 4-3, 104-3 7
10 Jeff Driscoll, 4-3, 82-14 7
11 Russell Graves, 0-5, 57-0 5
12 Paul Kell, 0-5, 44-4 5
13 Pete Allen 2-2 63-11 4
14 John Haige 2-2 33-1 4
15 Chris Jones 3-1 27-6 4
16 Brian Pink 2-2 19-15 4
17 Trevor Little 2-1 81-6 3
18 Paul Slater 3-0 39-7 3
19 Al Loader 0- 11-10 2
After a few lifts and drags the float dipped and a nice carp was in the net. Another pot full and another few minutes later Carp number 2 was on it’s way in. Things were looking steady and after half an hour I had 5 fish for about 6 pounds which although is not good going for this place, it was steady and promising.
The steady sport continued up to the end of the first hour until I detected that the swim could do with a rest. Having fed the margin regularly, I decided to take a look so re-fed the maggot swim and ship half a worm down the edge followed by a handful of hemp and pellets. After a wait of 3 or 4 minutes the float slid under and a nice 2lb Carp came in. I re-fed the maggot line and shipped another half worm down the edge but the tip remained above the water with no further indications. I therefore decided that the margin swim needed longer to settle and went back out onto the maggot line where there were a few blades and the odd Carp and Ide waiting for me.
Hour 2 went by with smaller fish going into the net and bites slowing down. I estimated 15 proper fish and some bits for around 15lb. Another look down the edge brought me a small Tench and one more Carp but I had to swap between lines to string a few bites together. As time wore on, the sun came out and although the wind was still strong I noticed Rusty catching quite well on a shallow rig so it was time to give it a go. For 20 minutes I pinged pellets out to 10m and slapped and tapped all I could but to no avail. I just couldn’t buy a bite and was now worried that I may have over-fed the maggot swim with pellets. A look on the maggot rig provided little other than a few bumped blades and an odd Ide. Things were now looking grim!
I re-fed the maggot line to get them back onto the smaller bait and started feeding more heavily down the edge thinking that I might need to make the swim work better for me during the last hour or so. A quick look earned me another Carp around 3lb which was VERY welcome but still I could only draw one fish at a time from the swim.
Around the 4 hour mark I decided to take a chance and chuck the pellet waggler out just in case there were some nice fish sitting out in the middle. The sun was quite warm now but the wind was still cutting but I thought it was worth a look. 20 minutes of pinging and re-casting brought me nothing but 1 jerk on the tip which was probably the hook pulling from a foul-hooked fish.
With about 45 minutes left of the match I needed to decide what I was going to do with the time. I looked up the bank to assess what I thought my section had caught. Johnny next door was having a rough time and I was sure I was beating him. Rusty next to him was way ahead but the next 2 pegs along seemed not to have caught a great deal. I made the call and opted to ensure that I got every ounce of fish in the net that I could and try hard to take a section 2nd. I wanted to feed heavy with maggots but still be accurate so I brought the 10m maggot rig in to 5m and started feeding by hand. It was the time of day that fish expect the margins to get fed with unwanted bait and so maybe I could kick-start a new line.
Within minutes I was picking up blades and the odd Ide and I was hammering the bait in. Half a handful every 30 seconds or so and this was bring me bites but mainly from small fish. I kept this going until within 10 minutes I decided to look down the edge for one more decent carp. After a couple of minutes I missed a bite but sat there until the last minute hoping for a last bite…………..and it came. The whistle went and I called ‘fish on’ and gently played a 2lb Carp to the net. I guessed at 30lb overall but it is difficult to be accurate with so many small fish in the net.
There was plenty of groaning around the lake and a few guys approached me to report their stories of woe. I was expecting Nick to have winkled out a few but he walked along the bank with his head held low. The flyers would probably have done ok but it seemed that most other pegs had struggled. Me? I was just clutching on to the possibility of 4 points and luckily I got them having come 2nd in section.
A hard day’s work it was and I am not too disappointed that I have to miss the next fixture which is on notorious lake 2 at Monks. Seeing as we are able to drop our worse result though, I might just have chosen the right match to miss as the final 3 are all at Hartleylands where things are far more interesting and the weather probably a lot better.
So I will leave the league now for a few weeks being join 1st on 9 points but when I return I shall be half way down the table at least with a lot of climbing to do. See you then!
1 Collin Wood 60-12 Peg 23
2 Nick Allen 59-7 Peg 36
3 Dennis Price 57-14 Peg 22
4 Rusty 57-00 peg 16
5 Russ Evans 53-10 peg 24
6 Squeaky (guest) 51-0 peg 31
League Placing
1 Ian Carley, 5-4, 124-8 9
2 Matt Love, 5-4, 107-1 9
3 Nick Gilbert, 5-3, 133-13 8
4 Collin Wood, 3-5, 110-9 8
5 Dennis Price, 4-4, 105-1 8
6 Nick Allen, 3-5, 103-1 8
7 Jonny Watt, 5-3, 95-5 8
8 Mark Hathway 4-4, 69-15 8
9 Russ Evans, 4-3, 104-3 7
10 Jeff Driscoll, 4-3, 82-14 7
11 Russell Graves, 0-5, 57-0 5
12 Paul Kell, 0-5, 44-4 5
13 Pete Allen 2-2 63-11 4
14 John Haige 2-2 33-1 4
15 Chris Jones 3-1 27-6 4
16 Brian Pink 2-2 19-15 4
17 Trevor Little 2-1 81-6 3
18 Paul Slater 3-0 39-7 3
19 Al Loader 0- 11-10 2
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