The year 2014 so far...

 

 

 

I can’t believe it’s been about 11 months since I last managed to find the time to do a blog so here’s a bit of a catch up on a few highlights so far, from what has to be my most successful year ever...


WINTER
Unfortunately it wasn’t a kind winter for me and for the second year in succession I finished just out of the main frame overall in the Lindholme Winter League. Unfortunately a combination a bit of bad luck and a bad run at the drawbag really did me in. Well done to Craig Elkin who won the league, narrowly beating Dale Sheppard and Paul Yates for the title on the very last match. It was actually quite a difficult winter at Lindholme and especially on Bonsai Lake a lot of the weights were made up of proper carp rather than the usually reliable F1s. That meant methods such as the bomb and bread came into play, not something I particularly enjoy and something I was a little slow to cotton onto. I also had a few trips up to the Oaks at Sessay on Cedar Lake, which was hard work but very rewarding fishing, switching lines all the time with expanders and fishing for 20 – 40lb.


FISH O’ MANIA QUALIFIERS
Unfortunately I only got on four qualifiers this year, The Oaks, Barford Lakes, Woodlands Lakes and Lindholme. When I drew on Ash at the Oaks with four or five spare pegs to one side due to one of the many no-shows I thought I had a serious chance but the cold rain the night before really shut down these lakes and a pitiful 25kg was only good enough to top Ash Lake.  The top two came from Alders. I also recorded section wins at Lindholme and Woodlands but that was the Fish O’ campaign over for another year. Well done to my old mate Andy Geldart who went on to win a very tough final, getting his tactics absolutely spot on at Cudmore! One thing which really struck home with me this year is how the same faces seem to qualify for the final so often, with Perry Stone, Andy Power and last year’s champ Jamie Hughes all getting through again. Jamie in particular has been in the final for the past three years I believe. Why? Not only are they all very aggressive anglers who know how to win, they give themselves as many chances as possible by travelling all over the place in search of one. This made me re-think my own approach to such events. While I believe the odd qualified undoubtedly turns up on speck and gets through on pure luck, a lot of the finalists are seasoned, dedicated anglers who put the time, effort and miles in!




THE BIG BASH 2014
The Big Bash is one of the UK’s biggest charity matches (for Breast Cancer Care) and one I’ve tried to support in the past where I could. This was to be the last one organised by Kevin Allen and the turnout at Lindholme Lakes for this was a whopping 184 anglers. In this match in the past I’ve been stuck on Loco, Laurels or Beeches and not had a chance but this time I finally drew Bonsai and a decent peg in 75, but just about every peg on the lake was in. You were never going to need a huge weight. It was a hot, calm day around spawning time and the fish weren’t really feeding properly, the only way I could catch was to fish the full 16m into the reeds just 6ins deep, feeding and fishing 6mm meat cubes. By blasting bait at any reeds in these pegs it’s possible to get the fish ‘slurping’ off them. I caught mainly proper carp up to 6lb, mainly in the first two hours and last half hour. I was one of the last to weigh and 96lb was winning the entire match. Thankfully I just managed to eclipse that with 103lb 11oz and finally the Big Bash trophy was mine, something I have wanted to get hold of for quite a while! It was a great day and as I collected my trophy I thanked Kevin and his team for their hard work in raising a total of over £70,000 for this charity.



LINDHOLME SPRING FESTIVAL
I gave White Acres a miss this spring and instead opted to do the May festival at Lindholme for the first time, as I usually just do the July one. It didn’t turn out to be a bad decision!
On day one I was fortunate enough to draw my favourite peg 78 on Bonsai. I fished shallow for most of the day then came down the edge to the next pallet in the last 40 minutes and caught seven fish which will have gone around 45 - 50lb, for a total weight of 192lb 8oz and a match win, a great start. Oasis peg 28 was the next day’s destination – I made some very bad decisions during the day, especially in the last few hours when I hardly caught anything, but luckily a weight of 85lb 4oz was enough to get away with a section win. Willows 38 saw a third section win with 143lb 1oz on pellet shallow, then I drew Loco peg 43 on Thursday. Unfortunately I couldn’t catch much on a feeder to the sticks in the middle but a few runs of big F1s long and shallow saw 68lb 1oz recorded on a hard day and a fourth straight section win. As nobody else could get a perfect 4 points the festival was mine with a day remaining, happy days!



LINDHOLME SUMMER FESTIVAL
At the end of July it was time for the Lindholme Summer Festival and with temperatures averaging about 25 degrees this was a cracking week, and the fishing turned out to be unbelievable.
On Monday I wasn’t too sure about Bonsai 28 on the road bank as the wind was blowing out of it down the other end. However I started on a bomb for a few quick fish, then found my shallow line at 14.5m solid. I weighed in a new personal best match weight of 223lb 1oz, which gave me section win and second overall as Andy Bennett managed a huge 254lb. Then it was Laurels peg 41 and after half an hour I was struggling on my usual pellet shallow tactics and a change was required. Out came some sloppy groundbait and a kinder pot and this transformed the peg, resulting in 212lb 8oz and another section win and overall second.

On Wednesday it was the turn of Loco, Beeches and Strip and I drew 18 Loco in the middle of the lake with the wind slightly off my back and across me. It looked perfect. Second cast on the Method to the sticks I had a 7lb mirror, then I noticed a swirl on my shallow pole line. I put my rod down and shipped out my pole, and I was soon playing the first of around 200lb of big f1s or smaller carp. In the last 40 minutes I knew I was ahead of the rest of the lake so I chanced my arm down the edge and this produced six proper fish, the biggest around 15lb. My final weight was another personal best of 275lb 7oz, a third section win but incredibly not a match win! John Allerton had crashed out 278lb from Strip and both our catches set new lake records.



Going into Thursday and Andy Bennett and I were both tied on three wins as we moved onto Oasis Lake. I really fancied my draw, peg 33 but I was drawn next to John Allerton and I new we’d have a bit of a battle. I started across and took a couple of early carp and f1s, before changing to a shallow line and never looked back. 184lb 7oz of mainly f1s was enough for the match win, John unfortunately having a very rare off day with about 50lb. Andy Bennett was second in the match and we were still tied going into Bonsai on the final day, although I had a big weight advantage over him.

I drew peg 76, another reedy island peg and an area of the lake I know well. For the first few hours sport was patchy with just an odd fish or two shallow but in the last few hours I really motored and I completely lost track of what I’d caught. I weighed in 237lb 3oz and was gobsmacked. However Dave Shires on the end peg 84 in my section had also caught but he fell one fish short with 234lb! This meant Andy Bennett would need a ridiculous weight to beat me, but he had just that, having extracted 321lb from peg 24. This was a new lake and venue record, but in the end I had done him by about 28lb over the week, nothing really. I had a 1,132lb and he had 1,103lb or something, both of us averaging 224-226lb a day! It took me three days to recover…


MAVER MATCH THIS CAMPAIGN
With only a couple of Fish’ O tickets I planned to hit Match This hard in 2014. First up was a qualifier at Decoy Lakes near my work place in Peterborough where I drew out of it on the Willows Lake and managed a £180 lake win with just 86lb caught shallow on pellets. Fortunately my travelling partner for the day Lee Kerry won the match with 134lb from Beastie Lake so it was a very happy van on the way back. Next up was the Lindholme qualifier and I wasn’t happy with Beeches 6. I had a bit of a nightmare, broke my old carp pole on a fish and had just 58lb, 2lb short of a section win. I then went back for the second qualifier at Decoy and peg 2 on Six Islands only gave me 97lb.

I then had a very strange event of fortune/fate. I was supposed to be going to my company’s annual awards do in London when two cheap Maver tickets for Partridge Lakes and Heronbrook came up on Facebook so I snapped them up instantly. The Partridge qualifier had clashed with the Bauer Awards at the end of May and it isn’t a venue I’ve ever got on with on any of my previous four visits when I’ve been pegged on the Covey canals, in fact I’ve hardly caught anything there. This time however I drew peg 10 on Marsh, one of the smaller lakes at the back. An old mate of mine Shaun Cooke had won the Fish O’ Mania qualifier off peg 9 on Marsh so I knew I had a chance. He caught on pellets tight across and weighed 110lb but I knew you’d need more than that today.

I decided to start on pellets across and caught a couple of fish but when I changed to my caster shallow line after 20 minutes I never looked back and I had an ide, F1 or small pasty carp every cast for the remainder of the match and didn’t change anything else. A couple of things are important with this kind of fishing, mainly fishing with a very short line to the pole tip and also the necessity for at least 4-5 pints of casters. I weighed in 148lb 6oz which was enough to win the match by 8lb from Andy Bennett and Micky Rogerson, who both had around 140lb from the Ribbon pool. After four years of trying I was into my first Match This final, something I had wanted so badly since the competition started!

The Parkdean Masters Final 2013, Jennys Lake

After presentation night and a quick cider, I was up until 1.30am Saturday morning sorting my gear out for the final and tying new rigs and hooklengths. With £25,000 at stake no chances could be taken and I didn’t want a lack of preparation to potentially cost me. The Parkdean Masters is different to the other big money finals such as Fish O and Match This in that you don’t have months to prepare and practise. A lot of the time it comes down to who does it best on the day, especially with the match only being four hours long.

It was a bit of a rush to pack all my gear and bags and vacate the lodge in time for the 9am meet but it was done and Lee, Andy and myself found ourselves nervously waiting for the draw to commence. When it did, I managed to pull peg 8 out for myself. My first thought was one of disappointment that I had not found 15 or 16 where the proper carp live but I soon realised I was in a very good area for F1s. I decided to get my head down and fish for them using Lindholme methods and ignore proper carp altogether, even though I knew a lot of other anglers would be fishing worms to try and catch them.

Peg 8 is in the middle of a gap with a gravel bar in the middle. My opening gambit was onto this bar with a method feeder but it was very slow, not just for me but for everyone in our arm of the lake. Martin Holmes, Cameron Hughes, Des Shipp, Nick Speed, Neil Mckinnon, Andy Power and James Dent were all to my left and not much was being caught. A quick change to pellets saw three quick fish but then that seemed to be after another two casts. Already I was thinking that we were all drawn in the wrong area of the lake here and the other side would dominate the match.

I decided to go onto my shallow line after about half an hour and immediately I caught an F1. Was it a one off? Next cast I got another, then another, but it wasn’t easy. The wind was howling into my face, making it difficult to get bait out there, and presentation wasn’t great. I just tried to get my head down, be as smooth and quick as possible, and come back with a fish every cast. I had a good two hours shallow but word came down that Andy Leathers already had 60lb on peg 16. I was really pleased for him and I just carried on catching, my immediate thought was to try and win the pound side bet or ‘mini section’ I had with Martin to my left and Steve Conway and Harry Billing to the right, which I seemed to be doing with ease as they weren’t catching much.



As the match went on I realised I might be on for a weight and I really pushed myself to go as fast as I could but it wasn’t easy after so little sleep and five days of continuous high pressure fishing before that! I suffered a very bad spell in the third hour, I was still catching but it was taking a long time for a bite to materialise. I didn’t want to change methods in case I risked losing them so I stuck with what I was doing and hoped the fish would return properly. In the last hour they did much to my relief and one of the spectators watching on the opposite side told me that I caught 19 F1s in the last half hour alone.

I wasn’t really sure what I’d got but the word on the bank was that Andy Leathers had won it. I duly weighed in 97lb 15oz, more than I thought but Andy had well over 100lb people were telling me.
I didn’t pay too much attention to his weigh in until he pulled his second net out and deep down I somehow just knew I’d been beaten. I wasn’t quite prepared to be beaten by just 5oz though. Although I wasn’t actually very gutted at the time as seeing my friend Andy take all the plaudits and go up for his trophy, cheque and traditional dip in the lake really gave me a buzz. He’s a top guy and he deserved it. It was the days after that what had happened really began to hit home. What if I’d gone shallow earlier? What if I’d not lost that fish? I can recall losing just one fish on the way in and one at the net, out of 90+ f1s, and in all honesty Andy lost a couple of fish too. I really felt I gave it everything I had but sometimes something just hasn’t got your name on it. Once again I remembered losing the Kamasan British Open in 2009 by just 3lb at Moorlands Farm, losing a couple of fish that day too. Now I know how Grant Albutt feels – hopefully one of these days I might just win something! This result put me down for a few days but I was soon back fishing and I am really determined to get back in the Masters final next year to put this result right.








Footnote: An excellent video of the match by Tight Lines can be viewed here…

http://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/tv-shows/tight-lines/8991656/parkdean-masters-2013

Preston Festival White Acres, 14th - 18th October

I've been fishing White Acres festivals for about six years now, and every year I do both the Dynamite Baits event in Spring and the Preston festival in October. The Preston is probably the most prestigious of all because you have to qualify for it by coming in the top 60 of the spring festivals and then the top 24 in the Preston then make up the Parkdean Masters final the day after the festival ends, where £25,000 is at stake for the winner. I was sixth in this final in 2010 but since then my performances in all festivals have been mostly very very average! I was keen to put that right this year.

When I first started going down to these festivals I stayed with my good mates Lee Kerry and Joe Carass. Since then others such as James Dent, Pete Thomas and Frankie Gianoncelli have also joined our lodge and have briefly come and gone, but going into this festival only Lee and I remained. We were to stay with our mates from the Browning Hot Rods team, Andy Leathers and Tim Nash, both exceptional anglers. Thankfully we all drew in different section zones so we would all have different stories and information to pass on over the week! Looking at the sections this year, I don’t think I have ever seen as strong a line up for a festival here. Usually there is one section which is known as the section of doom but this time there were five out of five! My own group contained the likes of Alan and Sandra Scotthorne, Lee Edwards, Neil Machin, Rich Hull, ‘Roob’ Wootton’ and Tommy Hillier.   I was drawn in E which meant I would start at Bolingey and end on Porth reservoir. So onto the festival...



Day 1 – Bolingey Lake peg 14

I wasn’t too pleased to draw this peg. It’s in the biggest arm of Bolingey, the island arm, which is often throws up the highest weights. The only problem is its tucked in a corner and is the only peg without a chuck to the island! Never mind, at least it meant a simple day on the pole. I remembered reading in PoleFishing magazine not so long ago a Steve Ringer feature, looking back on a few of his matches. He had drawn this peg in spring and had a weight fishing a line at an angle at about 10m where there is a flat plateau. I duly found this plateau and set a rig for there. I also set up to fish long both on the deck and shallow, and an edge rig into the corner and to the left. That was it.

It was a slow start for me on that 10m line with meat and after an hour I had just a single carp in the net. This didn’t unduly worry me as this often happens on Bolingey, and you tend to amass most of your weight in the last two hours. Alan Scotthorne was the next peg round on peg 11, a bit of a point out into the lake with an island, and he was catching well at 6m but I wasn’t sure if he was in my section or not.

Things slowly improved and I managed to put a few quick lumps in the net shallow but that soon died. A few fish began to show at 10m before I decided to plumb up the opposite side with my long rig, and start loosefeeding here at 6m to be more aggressive and draw fish in during the last few hours. This turned out to be my best line. I made a mistake and got a bit distracted by the margins – after no signs there for hours, the fish suddenly turned up in the last 40 minutes but they were very cute, I think because there was no depth in the corner and it was gin clear. I caught just one lump here, despite trying various depths on the shelf and baits. Eventually I learnt my lesson and caught two fish in the last 10 minutes at 6m. A weight of 70lb 12oz was not great and I was beaten up predictably by the island pegs to my left, where Paul Burton had an awesome 185lb on the feeder on 17. Alan had 139lb to my right after a super match at 6m. I packed up a bit disappointed, I wasn’t sure where the sections went and I knew I was fifth or sixth at best in the section of eight or nine. However when I looked at the board the following morning, I was actually third. My peg was put in with the pegs in the 20s where it’s not so great either. A third is a counting result in Parkdean week!




Day Two – Pollawyn peg 21


On Pollawyn I normally draw the high bank flier pegs 26 or 28, or end up in the crap first section in the low numbers. I had never drawn on the left hand side of the lake so I was interested to see what this peg would have in store. It has the start of an island going down a narrow arm to go at, where there are usually a few carp, plus the back of another island the main part of the 45 yards away but I’ve never seen anyone catch much on the feeder on this peg. Once again I had plenty of meat with me and anticipated a day on the pole. The 5 metre line is one of the most important lines at White Acres but I never seem to be able to make it work. However I learnt a lot yesterday watching Alan, who incidentally was in my section today on peg 23 on the point to my right.

I decided to start my match at 5m to see if I could get an early mug carp before going longer and I couldn’t believe it when I hooked one of about 4lb after about 60 seconds. 10 minutes later I hooked another but just as I was about to net it, a fairly hooked fish, the hook came out and my rig went in the tree above. Not ideal! Thankfully I caught an 8lber on the following cast but that was it for the 5m line. I moved out to the island and spent the next few hours here, putting several carp in the net. Things were going well with about 40lb on the clicker half way through. Then the carp seemed to move out of the arm I was fishing in and it became a real struggle. I picked up the feeder because Paul Carpenter to my left on 20 was catching a few to the main island, but for me it produced just a skimmer. The only things I added to my net on the pole across were an f1 and a 2lb perch! I also tried fishing long down the edge to my right but to no avail and the short line hadn’t produced anything else either.

With 45 minutes to go the short line finally yielded a welcome 8lb fish but then it went quiet again. A look down the edge saw nothing so I made the decision to sit it out at 5m for the last half hour, with the match finishing at 5pm. At 4.50pm I hooked and landed a mirror carp of around 12lb. At 4.55pm a repeat performance and another fish of around 11lb. I had time for another drop but there wasn’t another there. Normally I am the most impatient angler and if I’m not getting bites I switch lines but today I was surprised I had the confidence to just sit there late on and it actually paid off. That late burst of fish took me up to 80lb exactly. Alan weighed in 63lb and Neil Machin at the other end of the section had 72lb so I won the section. I was even more amazed to find out in the car park that the high bank had been poor and my weight was enough for my first White Acres match win!






Day Three – Trelawney peg 20


My mind was set firmly on Twin Oaks so when I drew Trelawney a slight rethink was called for! Peg 20 is in a corner with the end of the island to go at, at just 13m. This isn’t necessarily a good thing as the lake widens out into a big bay on pegs 22 and 23 to my left which always hold a lot of fish. However 20 has a very fishy looking corner to go at to the right, but it is notoriously hit and miss and my peg brought a lot of differing opinions. Just 60lb was needed to win this section yesterday so I took plenty of casters, expecting a hard match.

Starting again at 5m, I was very irritated to lose my first two fish, a carp and an F1. That was it for the line so I moved out to the island where I had two lines on the go. Neither of these produced anything more than a few roach and I was starting to fall behind pegs 22 and 23. I came in close with casters and started to catch some roach, I altered my feeding a bit and had a run of six F1s but all the while I was mindful that this was very negative. I had started to feed a line at 14.5m into the corner and an hour and 15 minutes into the match I decided to try it. After five minutes I caught a carp of around 4lb, followed by its twin 15 minutes later, and that made my mind up to stay here for the rest of the match. I caught in spells and once again sat there patiently waiting for a fish to turn up. A few F1s also got in on the act.  The only change I made was to replumb my rig closer to the bank – this saw fewer bites but when it did go it was a proper carp and not one of the earlier F1s.


Because it was very windy today, I used a long line between my float and tip and a 4 x 14 float in 2ft of water to anchor the bait still for proper fish. I would have caught more if I had been able to clear the bottom out properly but I didn’t want to flaunt the ‘no gardening’ rule in place. I was delighted to record a weight of 93lb 10oz for my second section win in succession, Rob Wootton coming second from peg 31 with 82lb of f1s. I didn’t frame in the match however, because both Twin Oaks lakes threw up several 100lb-plus catches. However with 25 points out of a possible 27 on the board, a place in the top 24 was now a very realistic proposition. All I needed was a top three or four section finish in the next two matches.



Day Four – Trewaters peg 49


This section is between the two lakes at Trewaters, Canal and Acorn. I just wanted to avoid Acorn as the other three lakes are predominantly small carp and f1s, which I hoped would be right up my street. Trewaters peg 49 is on the bottom lake, which is notoriously harder than the top lake, and the boards showed that a weight of 50lb came second in this section yesterday. For company directly to my left on 47 I had Alan Scotthorne so I would have a serious battle on my hands today and there were a few other anglers on the lake such as Alan Rutherford and Wayne Kearney who are very good at this kind of small carp pellet fishing, and would be dangerous too.  
On this lake the island is about 17.5m -18m away but there is a 16m pole limit in place. Mr Scotthorne was setting up a variety of long line rigs to fish to the island but with the wind in my face, I wasn’t sure I could do it on my peg so I decided against setting one up. Instead I decided to fish down the edge, long pole lines on the deck at 14m and 16m, and the Method feeder. However the fish had been hammered for nearly two weeks now and with the water clear I doubted whether the feeder would work very well.

I used my 14m rig to fish at an angle at 5m to start the match on but this produced nothing so I soon moved out to 14m. I’d really thought hard about how I was going to fish these long pole lines today and had come up with a plan. Basically I had a negative line on the left which I would kinder cup small amounts of bait in, and a positive line well to the right where I loosefed from the start to try and catch shallow. I had an inkling it might work as I’d read on the website that Jon Arthur had caught this way earlier on in the week on this lake.  If it didn’t work, I had the negative line to fall back on.

Moving out onto the negative line I took a few small f1s but was going nowhere fast. Then I began to miss bites I expected were liners. I came in and picked up a shallow rig and moved across to the positive line, and for the next two hours I enjoyed a steady run of fish. Alan had responded by going on his long line rig and he was catching a few too. Then my fish dried up and looks elsewhere on the feeder and edge produced nothing. People further up were catching now and I needed to do something, I couldn’t just sit there. As the wind had eased I got off my box and put a long line rig up, on a 1g float to the island because of the wind. It wasn’t as far as I thought it was and I only needed a full top kit of line. First drop in I caught a carp but it was far from easy and I really had to work hard to get the rig in place and hit bites.

My first few hours produced 38lb of f1s shallow and the last 90 minutes saw around 18lb of proper carp on the long line rig for a total of 56lb 13oz, but it was going to be a close section! Alan weighed in 49lb 3oz, then the chap to my right had 50lb 3oz, then finally Wayne Kearney on 53 weighed in 49lb exactly! Phew! Another section win and suddenly I was on 34 points. This was more than enough to make the final and now I could look at getting in the top 10 of the festival. A look at the sheets that night saw me fifth in the festival.  
I was pleased to see fellow Leeds lad Martin Holmes in first place with a perfect 36 point score. Today Martin had drawn my peg from yesterday on Trelawney. He is a top bloke so without hesitation at the draw I told him exactly what to do and he romped the section with 80lb.



Day Five – Porth Reservoir peg 40

Porth is a bit of wildcard in the festival week, a large reservoir where you are targeting roach and skimmers, and on a select few pegs bream. I was grateful that I didn’t need to rely on today for a score because I do so little of this kind of fishing, in fact the only time I do is actually twice a year at Porth! I love the place though and if I can come away with a third in section here I’m happy every time.

Peg 40 is the end peg on the near side and is one of the best pegs on Porth, without doubt my best draw of the week. The only problem was that I had a very tough section today. To my left on 39 was Welsh international Lee Edwards, then there was Ed Warren of Starlets, Tommy Hillier of Dorking and on the other end peg Rob Wootton. Realistically I didn’t have a chance of beating Lee and the others are all miles better than me too. Today was all about getting as high a section score as possible to act as my dropper, hopefully for the top 10 in the festival. Therefore I didn’t want to do anything silly. My good mate Tom Scholey had 12lb of this peg yesterday and Simon Colclough had 13lb the day or so previous. Both these anglers are very tidy on silverfish so if I could get anywhere near these weights I would be happy.

I had full instructions from ‘captain Kerry’ and I was to keep things simple. I fished a longer line at 13m to my right for skimmers, although the wind was threatening to wreck this, and what I thought would be my main line at 10m for roach. It was a slow start but I soon found myself falling behind Lee and I was soon on my roach line. Unfortunately what had worked well earlier in the week (finely mushed worms) wasn’t working today and after an hour I had to change things, instead moving onto loosefeeding maggots.

Slowly my catch rate began to increase but because of my rustiness with roach I was slow to change things to up my catch rate. I really had to concentrate and think about what I was doing, for example taking a section off, coming shallower, bulking the rig etc. When I dared to live a bit dangerously and took a second section off, bites weren’t as abundant so I had to go back out! Most of the roach were small, apart from one rogue ‘dog’ which must have been 12oz easily, and in the last few hours I tried to work my socks off. I was first to weigh and I was surprised that I had recovered enough to put 11lb 10oz on the scales. Lee Edwards had a super 17lb of roach but then again he is one of the best in the UK at this game! Thankfully I couldn’t see him for the tree between us, only his pole zipping in and out! Ed Warren had a big 13lb and Rob Wootton a 12lb to relegate me to fourth in the section, which I was more than happy with.

The presentation was awesome and I picked up £400 for seventh place, my best ever result in a White Acres festival. Big well done to Martin who pulled it out of the bag every day to record a staggering five section wins. In our lodge Lee Kerry finished 12^th with 33 points and Andy Leathers just scraped the 24^th and last spot in the final with 31 points. Three of us were having a dip in the bag the day after in the Parkdean Masters final. Could any of us well and truly cap a brilliant week off?

Festival Result

1st	Martin Holmes	36 (Dropping 9)	334lb 15oz
2nd	Des Shipp	35 (Dropping 6)	369lb 10oz
3rd	Simon Fry	35 (Dropping 5)	316lb 7oz
4th	Neil Machin	34 (Dropping 7)	412lb 4oz
5th	Nick Speed	34 (Dropping 6)	350lb 10oz
6th	Steve Conway	34 (Dropping 6)	325lb 2oz
7th	Ben Fisk	34 (Dropping 6)	312lb 13oz
8th	Harry Billing	34 (Dropping 5)	430lb 7oz
9th	Neil Mckinnon	34 (Dropping 5)	401lb 14oz
10th	Cameron Hughes	34 (Dropping 9)	394lb 16oz
11th	Scott Russell	33 (Dropping 8)	269lb 7oz
12th	Lee Kerry	33 (Dropping 7)	374lb 5oz
13th	Steve Ringer	33 (Dropping 6)	388lb 11oz
14th	Andy Nelson	33 (Dropping 6)	372lb 8oz
15th	Andy Power	33 (Dropping 6)	337lb 12oz
16th	Simon Colclough	33 (Dropping 4)	298lb 6oz
17th	Richie Hull	32 (Dropping 7)	400lb 15oz
18th	Matt Godfrey	32 (Dropping 6)	386lb 6oz
19th	Rob Wooton	32 (Dropping 6)	350lb 2oz
20th	Tim Rowe	32 (Dropping 6)	298lb 2oz
21st	James Dent	32 (Dropping 5)	348lb 8oz
22nd	Ed Warren	32 (Dropping 5)	331lb 12oz
23rd	Gareth Malham	31 (Dropping 7)	308lb 8oz
24th	Andy Leathers	31 (Dropping 7)	267lb 4oz

Lindholme open Sunday 22nd September

 

Oasis Lake was the destination for today's Lindholme open but with a turnout of 34 on the 63 peg lake it meant a few anglers would have people right next to them, these pegs are usually put together on the bends where there is more water to go at anyway. It was bright and very mild for the time of year. I was really hoping for a very early or very late peg today so I wasn't too impressed when peg 38 came out for me. It can be a good across peg as it has a bit of cover in the form of a reedbed on an otherwise bare mud bank but it wasn't the area of the lake I would have chosen. Very simple stuff today, I had a rig for fishing almost tight up to the bank in about 14ins of water on two or three lines, another for fishing further down the shelf to the reeds and a couple of shallow rigs. I was interested to see if the shallow rigs would work in this area of the lake which is notoriously narrow and featureless.


I couldn't take a picture straight on because of the sun! Note the shadows which were eventually created, giving my pole a bit of cover on the shallow line


I went straight across to the island with pellets and after a bit of a wait a 2lb F1 was safely hooked and landed. Back out again and a repeat performance about 8 minutes later. Then I hooked something bigger in the form of a 4lb carp but this was a good start and I was happy. I had plenty of maggots left over from the day before so I decided to try them and I soon had a swirl over the bait and hooked another proper carp. Unfortunately this shot into the reedbed next to where I was fishing, the float jammed on a reed and it snapped me. Now this is where I lost my way a little. With proper carp around I decided to plumb further along the bank away from the snags and put a bit more bait in, in the form of maggots and groundbait, thinking I was being clever. This never produced a bite! I went back to the original line again but it was now seemingly dead and I think I overdid it a little. I decided on an early look shallow but it took far too long for a bite, although I did get two fish. I was convinced the bright sun and lack of ripple was not very conducive to shallow fishing today.

My next move was to drop down the shelf on two lines. The one in front didn't produce anything, most unusual considering the amount of silvers in here which readily take a pellet. However first drop in to the reeds produced a bonus in the form of a 6lb-plus carp. I then caught a small F1 before the bites from proper fish stopped and the roach and skimmers took over. I tried a few more lines to the right and left with no success. Nobody around me was catching and I had another look shallow, which produced a few more fish and left me thinking this might be my only chance today. This soon died a death however and I was left scratching my head, along with everybody else around me.

It was after 1pm, half way through the match now and I suddenly began to get stomach rumblings. I tried to fend it off but it wasn't going away fast and so I made a quick hot foot down the lake to the toilets in the café. I would have been annoyed if I was catching! Walking down the lake I saw one fish caught and I was thinking that it was fishing hard. Arriving back feeling somewhat relieved with weight of my stomach (must have been those beans that morning) I took stock of the situation. The sun was moving further and further around, and the far bank trees were now creating a shadow on the lake. I decided to restart my shallow line in one of these shadows, in the hope they would obscure the shadow of the pole itself. It took a while but I started to catch a few more shallow, before it died once more. I then decided to move my shallow line again towards the reeds where there was even more of a shadow now, and this proved a good move as the peg became very strong in the last hour. Steve Cooke came to sit behind me for the last half hour and in that time he counted 11 F1s for around 25lb. One of them was a real beast of around 5lb, the biggest F1 I have ever caught.

I was never going to break any records but a catch of 75lb 10oz was enough for a section win and was the best weight on my side of the lake. Elsewhere Paul Yates won the match off end peg 2 with 130lb caught shallow, and John Allerton was second fishing pellets across on peg 26.

Match Result
1. P Yates 130-14-0 p2
2. J Allerton 124-4-0 p26
3. R Lidgard 110-10-0 p29
4. C Elkin 93-3-0 p8

Kippax Park Open Saturday 21st September

 

Saturday saw me at Kippax Park once more, I enjoy the fishing here at this time of year but there are probably only a few weeks left before this venue becomes really hard and it will be it for me for the year. Today I was back in one of my favourite areas of the lake, peg 7, though I was warned that there can often be a lack of carp in pegs 2-7 and Andy Stoner to my left on peg 5 was not too optimistic. Judging by the scum in peg 1, the wind had been blowing down the lake, would this mean the carp were down here with it?





A bit more of a modest 16.5m this week put me tight to the bank, but with only one main spot to fish inb etween two sedges, I decided not to put a Method feeder rod up this week. Basically I didn't want to throw a feeder into the spot I was polefishing too. I set up a mud rig, a deeper across rig, a track rig for ide and a margin rig. I was going to try something different this week and fish my margin rig further down the shelf in 2.5-3ft. After feeding across with maggots, I started down the shelf a bit but it wasn't long before I saw signs of activity in the mud so I soon brought this rig in and picked up my shallowest one. The first four drops produced four ide for around 6lb, a decent start on this venue. But anglers further down the lake were already catching carp, and Andy Stoner caught one first drop on his ide rig. He then started catching big ide down the track on worm.

I persevered in the mudline but when I did get a bite the culprit was an ide. Forcing the peg with more bait failed to tempt any carp in, but the ide were still there. I decided to replumb my deeper rig just off the mud to target the ide specifically and hope for carp later on. After catching a few this started to die off and I had a couple of looks down the track, catching a few more good ide here too. Half way through the match and I was getting a bit concerned, as although I had plenty of ide, I only had three small carp to go with them. Andy had slowed right up and was struggling down the middle and across. The lads in the early and late numbers were catching carp, while to my right at the top end of the lake very little was being caught.

My hopes now lay with the margins as the ide had seemingly deserted me (or I'd caught them all!). The deeper line failed to produce so I replumbed much tighter to the bank and soon saw a swirl or two. I quickly caught the customary two mug carp in the edge before they started to become cuter. The usual scenario started to have me tearing my hair out again, I then decided to try the Method down the margins and caught one on this, but then they seemed to spook at the splash. I took another on the pole and also added a few carp across later on. Andy had managed some bigger carp down the edge and was catching me up again.

The result of my days efforts was 30lb of ide and 32lb of carp for a total of 62lb 4oz. Andy had a mid fifty but neither of us main framed and I took the section by default. The match was won by Sean Rogers on peg 25 with 86lb, Andy Barker was second on peg 2 with 85lb of carp and Steve Mazza third with 71lb. It's safe to say the carp were at the bottom end today!

Match Result
1. Sean Rogers 86lb p25
2. A Barker 85lb p2
3. S Mazza 71lb p26
4. B Fisk 62lb p7

The Oaks Open Sunday 15th September

The forecast today was horrendous with heavy rain and 20mph-plus winds forecast, so I hadn't intended to go fishing. However, I woke up early and the jack russell pup was jumping all over my bed so I had a look out of the window. It was too late to make Lindholme and the forecast was slightly better further north, so I tied up a few last minute light Method feeder hooklengths and threw the gear in the car. I phoned ahead and the draw had been made when I got there, leaving me peg 14 Ash in the bag. This is one peg out of the corner and since fishing the new lakes last year for the first time I have drawn peg 10, peg 11, peg 13, peg 14 twice and peg 16, I cannot get near the middle and other end of the lake which is consistently better!  Last time I was at the Oaks Sycamore Lake was dominating results but now apparently it had gone off the boil and you wanted to be on Beech or even Ash. We would soon see...

I wasn't happy to see Phil Sellars on our lake on peg 7 when I got there. Phil is probably the best paste angler I have ever seen and he always frames fishing this bait on the new lakes. He has the method and paste mix well and truly sussed, and when everybody else can't catch 140lb-plus shallow or on the Method feeder, he is very difficult to beat. He fishes paste exclusively 12m out going up the bar, and also down the edge. Infact I would rather fish against William Raison or Alan Scotthorne on these lakes than Phil! I also had another 'paste head' opposite me in the form of Greg Norris. If it was a paste day these two would be hard to beat on our lake. Paste is not one of my strong points so I tend to avoid it at all costs, and too my cost sometimes! Paste is so good on these three square lakes because the fish find it so quickly without much feed around it. Pellet tends to see too many liners.


Why does the wind always change or drop when the match finishes?!

I had just enough time to set up a 9ft wand with a 20g Method, a 5m rig for corn or expanders and two edge rigs. One was reasonably tight in in about 18ins of water just above the margin cliff face, while the other was at the base of the cliff face in 3ft, because word here was that the fish had moved down the shelf in the recent colder weather. I was soon into action on the Method at about 14.5m but bites were few and far between and despite ringing the changes with groundbait or pellets around the frame, and maggots and pellets on the hook, I was struggling. I even tried chucking a peg down into the corner banking itself and this produced just a couple of liners. By now Phil was edging ahead of the rest of the lake and I realised the only way to beat him would be to catch closer than him. I had considered putting up a long pole but that 20mph wind was now coming across me and so it was deemed a no go. I reverted to the edge but the 18ins deep saw no action whatsoever. The locals were right, the fish had moved further down the shelf and so I fed here and went back out on the feeder for five minutes.

 

The 3ft line started to produce a few fish but only in spells and there were a few liners in this depth too. One of the problems on these lakes is that you have only one margin swim because the rule is you can only do gardening in your peg to the right hand side, the left hand side is too overgrown to get tight in. I had a few tries at 5m but to no avail, the wind was blowing even a heavy rig towards the bank. I had to resign myself to another battering by the paste lads, as Phil went on to come third overall with 131lb, with Greg taking the section by default with 105lb. I recorded a disappointing 70lb exactly, but to be fair the two other lads on our bank, who have been framing recently, didn't fare much better with 69lb and 73lb each. I did partially get the methods right because Dean Smith won the match with 151lb down the edge on pellet on Beech, and Chris Hall was second on the feeder from Sycamore.
Next year I might have to try and learn how to fish this doughy stuff which comes off the hook when you strike!

Match Result
1. D Smith 151lb Beech 22
3. C Hall 132lb Sycamore 26
3. P Sellars 131lb Ash 10
4. T Watson 108lb Beech 15

Kippax Park Open Saturday 14 September

Well it had to happen, after a run of top three places in open matches it was finally back down to earth with a bump! As soon as I started publicising this blog a little a few mates were quickly jokingly suggesting that 'you only post when you frame'. I've posted all my matches since the end of July but now it's time for a bad weekend! First up, the Kippax Park open. A few more on this week (22 anglers) and with that figure most thought that both match lakes would be used. But because Osprey had been so hard the previous week, Sean the match organiser put us all on the 27 peg Lapwing. I had no problems with this as at least it was fair for everyone and in any case I have a lot of respect for anybody who organises matches for others at no gain for themselves. It did however mean that space was at a premium and a hard match was expected.

Out of the bag came peg 12. This peg is nothing spectacular but I wasn't too unhappy, the only slight problem is that it is the full 17.5m to get across to the island here and in recent weeks there seems to have been very few ide caught in the area. There were around six spare pegs dotted around, giving those next to them an advantage but I wasn't one of them. Infact every peg was in from peg 7 right through to 16. I couldn't have drawn more smack back in the centre of this line of anglers if I'd tried! The pegs here are quite close together which doesn't help matters either. I had Andy Barker next to me, who does well on the venue, and also another old mate in the form of Bob Rymer to my right. Bob is part of a band of three Rymer brothers who all fish together and were present today!


I set up my usual Kippax rigs to fish tight across and down the side, plus an ide rig for the middle. I also put up the Method rod and a slightly deeper rig for across, on lighter tackle than usual for those ide, which I have come to learn the importance of. This was about 2ft deep next to a sedge. The match started slowly but I soon had an ide and an early mug carp in the net, taken from the mudline. However sport began to slow as the fish realised what was going on with all these anglers around the lake! An early look down the middle produced a surprise small carp and a few ide but bites took an age to materialise.

At one stage I managed to get the deeper island rig working and took a run of ide, then a run of three carp in a row on it, but that soon died. In the last few hours Andy Barker managed to get some big carp going down the edge to his left towards peg 10, but strangely didn't get a thing towards me. I fed a line towards a small pipe at 5m to the right in the edge but the fish were extremely spooky and I could barely even get a liner, never mind a proper bite. Bob had tempted a few better fish too fishing to a sedge in deeper water down his edge, but he was having to wait for them. I could sense I was falling behind...

In the last hour I managed to get a few fish feeding on the mudline again but I was having problems with vegetation in the water, which had been disturbed by feeding fish and moorhens! I couldn't get my rig in sometimes, even after trying to clear it with a special top kit I have with a blade attached. It was very frustrating but I did get a few late carp. Andy Barker weighed in 58lb of bigger fish, as did Bob with 48lb. Most of my carp were 2-3lb things and I had 9lb 12oz of ide, for a very disappointing 44lb total. Fishcaked I was! I was pleased to see Andy Stoner win the match with 73lb (14 carp and 14 ide) from the other side of the lake, his first result in a while, the man is BACK!

Result
1. Andy Stoner 73lb peg 23
2. Sean Rogers 68lb peg 15
3. Andy Barker 58lb peg 11
4. Neil Rymer 57lb peg 7

 

 

Andy Stoner (Rod Stewart when he takes that cap off!)