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!)

Lindholme Lakes Open Willows Lake, Sunday 8th September

 

A weekend double?

Turned up for today's open as usual with two minutes to spare until the draw. This gave me sufficient time to pay on, order breakfast and get a couple of bags of pellets! We were only on the Willows lake today which is good because it is fair and you are not competing against a section on a lake elsewhere. There were 25 of us which meant a few anglers had pegs next to them in but generally it was peg one miss one. I drew peg 42 in what used to be know as Dead Man's Bay, because it is the shallowest bay on the lake, isn't very big and used to be considered a bad draw. In the past few years that has changed however and there are always a few fish here. The only problem today was that there were four anglers in this small bay, two of them being Sir John Allerton in the corner to my left (44) and Steve Cooke opposite on peg 46. Peg 14 on the point was also in and if were to both fish 14m at a slight angle towards each other we would have been touching poles. My peg was just catching the edge of a ripple off my back but I would have preferred to have had it in my face so I was fishing in a good ripple.

First job was to clear out the edge to my right. This peg obviously hadn't been in an open for a while as the reeds were overgrown here. I set up a rig for 7m, slightly further out than usual as the water is getting clearer and sport harder. Three shallow rigs and an edge rig completed the attack. I toyed with the idea of setting a rig up for on the deck long but in the end I couldn't be bothered and decided to convert my short line to one if I needed to. There were very few fish topping and swirling and I expected a hard match again on Willows. This proved to be the case and after 20 minutes I had a few small roach short to show for my efforts. Nobody was catching much. The angler on the point had started shallow and hooked his first fish after 20 minutes so that was my cue to venture out long. After slapping the rig in I hooked an F1 immediately. Sport was best described as steady and after an hour I had about five fish but nobody was setting the world alight. John Allerton had a solitary mirror down his edge and Cookey was getting a few fish short but I stuck shallow for two reasons. 1) the fish are bigger shallow than on the deck. 2) if it took off it gave the chance of winning the match.

The second and third hours were better and more fish were added, with some of being 2lb things. Just like last week it was a case of being patient and then a sudden run of fish would come. I considered fishing a deck rig in between these spells but reasoned it would just confuse matters and possibly slow the catch rate down shallow. After 3.5 hours, I started to catch regularly and the last hour was the best by far. I did feed the edge a couple of times but only saw movement from a few F1s, no big carp. I also changed my elastic to a lighter grade 6-10 Middy hollow, after losing a fish on the way back on white hydro. The fish are definitely slowing down a bit now and weren't as well hooked as they are when they are ravenous in the height of summer. Some anglers pull fish's heads off at the net but I've learnt my lesson in the past and it's very easy to pull out of those bigger 2lb F1s when you start using your puller on them. Now I prefer to take my time and make everything hooked count!

It had actually fished better than I'd anticipated and there were a few 90lbs recorded before my two weighs registered 108lb exactly. Dale Sheppard gave me a bit of a scare with 105lb from peg 50 but I had just done enough. Sir John Allerton unfortunately had a rare off day and really struggled in the corner, tipping back and eventually coming behind and watching me. John stuck to his plan to catch down the edge and on the waggler but today it didn't pay off. More often than not it does for him however as he picks just one or two  positive lines and sticks to them all day, that is why he wins so many matches!

 

Result
1. B Fisk 108-0-0 peg 42
2. D Sheppard 105-8-0 peg 50
3. S Rothery 95-8-0 peg 25
4. C Wood 90-2-0 peg 22

Kippax Park Open Saturday 7th September

Attack of the wasp!

 

For the third week running it was back to Kippax and I was looking forward to another day on the Lapwing Lake and hopefully a big weight of carp and ide. Those hopes deteriorated a little when I was told there was a club match on there and we were on the Osprey Lake instead. Osprey was only dug a couple of winters ago and opened last spring. It is also a snake lake, although slightly narrower at 14.5 - 16m wide but with a few more pegs. It hasn't been fishing very well apparently but as I had never fished this lake before I was going with an open mind. There was 17 of us today on the 29 peg lake which meant peg two miss one for most, but nobody could give me a definite answer to which the fliers were. Apparently you never know which peg will win on this lake, some said 8-12 were good, others wanted the end pegs, others said all the pegs on the left hand side in the 20s would win. I drew peg 21, which I discovered was on the left hand side about three quarters of the way down the lake.




A few anglers asked why I was taking my 5ft long front legs to my peg, the answer was I intended putting my footplate legs in the lake. You might have noticed this on most of the peg pictures I post and it's something I do everywhere I go where allowed and where it is shallow enough in the edge to do so. It's especially important when fishing to islands or on the long pole because it means you can fish with 2-3ft less pole. It's only a small point but today there was a crosswind and it would make my peg easier to fish. I wasn't sure how tight up to the island I would catch so I plumbed up two rigs, one tight up to the grass in 12ins of water and another off the island in about 2ft. I also set a track rig up because I'd heard there was some big skimmers in here, although there aren't that many ide. My 2ft rig also doubled up as a margin rig but I didn't expect to catch here. I had a load of maggots for Lapwing lake and I reasoned they would work on here too, but I also prepared some expanders for the track line.

Time was shouted and what ensued was probably the worst start to a match I have ever experienced. Even worse than the opening day of the Dynamite Festival this spring when I loaded a full pole cup with worms and casters on time, shipped out to 13m and my number 6 folded in half! No, this time I decided to feed my track swim first with a few micros, dead maggots and a nugget of groundbait to see if any skimmers would settle. Plopping this in at 10m all was well and good and I was just about to turn round and ship back when I felt a sharp pain on one finger of my right hand holding the pole. I looked down and there was a wasp attached to it! I tried to swat it off and then it really did bite me, the pain was so great that I dropped my pole and had to physically shake the wasp off. First thought was to rescue 10m of Airity which was by now floating off down the lake into peg 22. This was done swiftly after scurrying down the bank with my net handle. Then I started to realise my finger felt like it was on fire and I sat there for a minute in agony, teaching myself new swearwords and generally feeling sorry for myself. I then had a quiet word, told myself to 'man up' and went back on my box and taped the offending finger up with electrical tape. I've had better starts to competitions...





By this time young Matty Dickinson was already into his first carp on the peg directly to my left. Wincing I loaded my cup up with maggots and went across onto the 2ft line. I caught five ide in my first five drops but they were only 6oz apiece. Matty meanwhile had five carp in his first five drops, also on maggots. I decided to venture further across onto the tight up line to see if this would sort the carp out but it didn't, instead seeing missed bites from tiny roach. I then decided to try feeding pellet on my right hand line tight up, and after dropping on this I missed a few bites before connecting with a carp of about 1lb 8oz. No more followed. By this time I was going nowhere fast. Matty was catching steadily on pellet now and Andy Barker to his left on peg 17 was getting some lumps casting a feeder down to the empty pegs between the two. I had a feeder set up which I chucked into the empty peg to my right, but after three casts without a sign I binned it. I wasn't in the same boat as all the anglers to the right were struggling from what I could see.

I had now slowed to a halt on all my lines. A try down the middle produced a couple of micro tench (grandson of tench) on both maggots and pellets, which weren't really worth catching. By now Matty was catching well fishing to his left and it seemed that the carp were in pegs 18 and 19 which were vacant. I could see myself getting my backside kicked today. I resorted to trying to make my 2ft line work and slowly but surely I started to put a few ide together, just something, anything, to go into the net. I had learnt from last week the importance of these ide. I then had a spell where I foulhooked and lost three carp on the trot, and Matty seemed to be having a few problems with this too. So I went tight up again and foul hooked on there! I decided to just go back to the ide and grin and bear the foulhookers.

Dropping back on the 2ft line however, I found a pleasant change. The carp seemed to have settled and I started to catch them regularly for an hour spell, not big fish but welcome all the same. Both Matty and Andy Barker had slowed up and it looked like a few fish had come this way all of a sudden. Kev Worth to my right also started hooking a few after sitting there for four hours without much action. After catching well on this, it seemed to die a bit and I decided to try a new line which I had plumbed up a rig for at the start. This was at 16m to my right and was in the shallowest water I could find, as tight to the bank as I could get, fishing almost behind a sedge. The idea being to get proper bites instead of liners. I had tried this earlier for one fish but it was difficult with the wind. Now the wind had eased I could feed it again and in the last hour of the match I saw some movement there.

I caught several fish on this line, including a very welcome 5lb mirror and two ide which were 2lb a piece, to end the match with a flurry. The general consensus was that it had fished hard and I felt for Matty as his peg had completely dried up, and he had caught very little in the final few hours. When the scales got to us, just 34lb was winning. Matty's carp went 39lb 8oz and then it was my turn. I only had 35lb of carp, which was about par for the course, but crucially my silverfish net contained about 18lb of ide, enough for 53lb and another brown envelope. Paul Evans was second further up with 43lb of paste caught carp. Those ide were really important again and they kept me hanging in there until a few runs of carp came late on. Now I never want to see another wasp!

Result
1. B Fisk 53-0-0 peg 21
2. P Evans 43-8-0 peg 27
3. M Dickinson 39-8-0 peg 20
4. A Barker 34-0 peg 17

Lindholme Lakes Open, Oasis, Sunday 1st September

A decent turnout in the mid thirties today meant that we would use Oasis pegs 23 onwards plus about nine pegs on Bonsai, from two to 17. This weekend was the first where it had started to become noticeably colder and with every other peg in on Oasis I really fancied Bonsai to produce the entire frame. Praying for a Bonsai or at least a peg in the 50s or 60s on Oasis, I wasn't too happy with peg 41 Oasis. This isn't terrible but historically it's not a great area for F1s, in the past I've caught plenty of mirrors and commons in this area between 34 and 41 where the overhanging trees are, but not many F1s. With the lake level down, a cold wind and recent rain, the proper carp are not feeding in numbers here at the moment.

My main concern today was the wind, with an 18mph breeze forecast. If this was across me it would have been game over but I was relieved to find it was in my face and the trees at least broke it up somewhat. With plenty of anglers on the bank Neil was paying section money today (he does if 30-plus fish) and it would have been easy to settle on a safe match fishing on the deck down the track, looking for around 60lb for a section win. However this isn't the way I fish, I always want to give myself a chance of winning or framing and I know John Allerton is of the same thinking every time he goes. His record speaks for itself! This meant I would concentrate on two areas, the mudline tight to the far bank and an up-in-the-water down the middle. To go blasting in bait on a shallow line in a narrow peg like this was a risk on such a day, but one I was prepared to take. I also put up a token edge rig but I didn't expect it to get much action.

With the weather having now changed for the worse I decided against cutting up any meat and went for a pellet approach. My main line was under a sedge to the left where I was fishing in around 1ft of water, just off the bank, but I also had another rig for 16m to a mudbank to the left, where it was 2.5ft deep tight up. I wasn't quite ready on time so I potted some micropellets under the sedge and finished off my shallow rigs. As I did so I noticed a swirl over the fed line, so shipping out with a 4mm expander and a kinder full of bait, I investigated. I had a definite line bite but 30 seconds later something hooked itself and charged off to the left. A 5lb mirror carp was a very welcome start but it proved to be a loner and I couldn't even tempt an F1 here on pellet. I changed to the other mudline but this saw a single foul-hooker instantly bumped and lost, and that was it.

After 20 minutes I decided to look on the shallow line and the first two drops yielded two 2lb F1s. I wasn't surprised because this often happens on Oasis, I expected it to go quiet after that and maybe catch a few later. To my surprise I continued to pick up an occasional run of fish. They seemed to come in flurries of twos or threes, then I might go 10 minutes without a bite. The size of the F1s made it worth waiting however, and with nobody else catching, I persevered. I fully expected sport to get better later on on the shallow line but this didn't happen for some reason, and I found myself refeeding the mudline. I did manage an F1 from this mudline but I soon discounted it and decided to try replumbing my edge line in deeper water to give me somewhere to go while resting the shallow line. Again this was worth doing as it provided a 2lb tench to add to the sprout sack.

When the sun went in in the last hour I really expected to bag up shallow but it just seemed to get weaker and weaker. I did however manage a 3lb chub and several of the F1s I caught throughout the day were at least 3lb, including one on the final whistle. Anglers further down in the 40s and 50s had struggled and some had even packed up, so I was quietly confident of at least a section win. The scales were soon round and I was surprised to record as much as 112lb 10oz, those F1s really were big. The next best weight on the lake was 79lb, now the question was what had come off Bonsai? Although three anglers had a ton there, only one was a bigger ton than mine. Well done to my mate Steve Dyson for victory off peg 6 with 121lb 8oz. Had it not been for the wind being so strong I'm sure there would have been much bigger weights here so the breeze actually did me a favour for a change today.

Even though I've had much bigger weights at Lindholme recently, I felt this was one of the best matches I fished from the peg I was on. Most of the anglers nearby fished on the deck in the deep water and on the way home it got me thinking that many people simply don't give themselves the chance to win matches because they don't fish positively enough to catch 100lb-plus or attack a peg! I intend to make more sense by doing a blog about this soon!

Match Result (35 fished)
1. S Dyson 121-8-0 B6
2. B Fisk 112-10-0 O41
3. J Allerton 104-0-0 B11
4. J Goulding 101-13-0 B2

Kippax Park Open Saturday 31st August

Back to Kippax again for the open on Lapwing Lake and a slightly reduced turnout of 14 this week. Not a big match but a friendly one all the same, and a much welcome 10am draw (lie in again then!). This time I drew on the opposite side of the lake to last week in peg 24. I've always liked the look of this peg when I've passed it as it sits on a bend and there is a lot of water to go at. I wanted to try and fish with my rig touching the bank again but as there was lots of vegetation in the water, the only likely spot I could see was next to a sedge slightly to my left. Here I found about 6inch of water, which I fished with a cut down adapted rig. I also set up to fish for ide down the track and the same margin rig as last week to fish 10m down the peg either side. However I also put up a polyball rig to fish wetted down paste a bit closer at 6m to my left, to see if that would sort the foul-hooking problem out.

It wasn't long before tails and fish were appearing in the mudline where I'd fed maggots but I just couldn't catch them! My rig was snagging up bits of weed on the bottom and the problem was that where I was fishing dropped off suddenly from 6inch of water. After a very frustrating hour with just a carp and an ide to show for it I decided to move my line. I went to the other side of the sedge, this time in about 1ft of water, although it was tight to a weed clump and not the bank itself. As expected this produced more liners but I started catching good ide, some of which were 1lb 8oz. I caught the occasional carp but what I soon realised what there were much less carp round this side of the lake, but they were bigger, and there was more ide here.

Halfway through and I decided to feed the margins to my left. It didn't take long once again for tail patterns to appear and the first two casts went like clockwork. Two positive bites and two 5lb fish hooked and landed. The fish appeared to realise what was going on as once again the liners and foulhookers then started! I came closer to the bank but it made no difference. I started to feed my 6m paste line and when a few swirls appeared there I had a go, using the same groundbait I was feeding as a paste. A couple of chucks and no bites whatsoever despite fish being present saw me decide this was not the answer! These fish rarely touch a bait off bottom, even down the middle so I honestly think the next thing to try is the Method down the edge. I'll keep you posted on that one!

I spent the remainder of the match swapping between across and down the edge. The edge line provided more nice ide and I actually reverted back to the 6ins of water island line for the last hour and took some carp here, plus more ide. Come the end I was a bit annoyed with myself as I knew I should have done better. I was interested to know what my silverfish net would weigh because I had caught most of the ide accidentally using three maggots on a size 16. I was kicking myself for not going for them properly with lighter gear as I was on a peg where they live. I had a track rig already and set up for them but I never even picked it up, doh!

Sensas Walton's Andy Barker won the match from peg 7, next to where I was last week, with 94lb, interesting a lot of this was caught on the Method feeder. Anyway my ide went 34lb odd and my carp 50lb odd for an eventual total of 85lb 8oz. I was just beaten into third by Andy Rymer, who caught 24 carp for 88lb, but I was cursing that poor first hour and not going for the ide. It should really have been another win!

Match Result
1. A Barker 94-8-0 peg 7
2. A Rymer 88-15-0 peg 26
3. B Fisk 85-8-0 peg 24
4. B Rymer 81-0-0 peg 5

A brilliant August bank holiday

 

Saturday 24th Kippax Park Fishery Open
A new venue for the blog, this was my first visit of the year to Kippax Park on the outskirts of Leeds. Most matches are held on the Lapwing pool, a snake lake where it is 15 - 17m to the island. It's only a 6 or 7 year-old lake but it's by no means easy and a good weight at this time last year was 70lb. The target is proper carp between 2lb and 6lb plus some decent ide, although the ide haven't been showing well this year it seems looking at results. These aren't big matches and there were 17 of us on the 27 peg lake, but I like the atmosphere and I've known most of the lads who fish it because I fished with them at the Willows in York for years when I first ventured onto the open match scene. They are friendly matches and generally the right hand side of the lake is better, I fancied anywhere between peg 5 and 14 so I was delighted to draw peg 8. This is a good across and edge peg for carp.

 

To my right on peg 10 I found my old mate Andy Stonner, who I've drawn next to several times over the years at various venues. The weather today was awful and it spent most of the day raining or trying to but the lack of wind meant that the 16.5m of pole required to get tight to the far bank wouldn't be too difficult. Now in past years I've found that the carp in Kippax are probably the craftiest I've come across on a commercial - your peg can be full of fish and you can hardly get a proper bite. This is especially true on the far bank where I've found that unless your rig is touching the bank, you'll foulhook most of your fish. Today I found a nice little gap in the far side grass with 10ins of water to fish into. Here I would feed maggots, feeding pellets just sees too many line bites. I've found this true on many snake lakes up here - once the fish spawn after June, maggots always seem to be the best bait in the mudline unless the lake has hordes of bits in. The Method feeder can also work occasionally at Kippax but the fish are not daft and soon wise up to it being cast in. I put up a 10ft rod too.

I also assembled a margin rig in about 18ins of water to my left and right, about 11m down the bank. A light ide rig for down the track completed things, both these would also be fed with maggots and casters. It didn't take long for the mudline to show signs of activity and I soon found myself attached to a 2lb carp. I had five or six in quick succession and caught steadily for the first few hours, pulling away from everybody I could see. After a few hours and around 15 carp in the net things became harder, I tried for ide briefly but caught two tiny skimmers and Andy wasn't having much look on the ide front to my right either.

Halfway through I decided to give the edge a look, I love these matches because the draw is at 10am and they fish 11.15 until 5.15! So this was normal edge time anyway. After feeding it I returned to the pot of bait as swirls appeared and straight away I was into a carp. It was then that things started to go pear-shaped. I was suffering badly with foul-hookers, bites that looked proper just saw a fish quickly hooked and lost and I think I lost three in succession. Plumbing my rig up tight to the bank further down saw the same problem. I tried all sorts, just feeding maggots, just feeding groundbait, full worm on the hook, feeding next to nothing, allsorts! All I added was a few decent fish to the keepnets. Sean Rogers to my left was now starting to catch good fish regularly so I had to force myself to ignore the swirls down the edge and spent the last hour across. I've experienced this before at Kippax, fish swirling down the edge but spooking on your rig. The water is coloured and there is cover in the edge. Next time I think I might try a really smelly bait like paste.

Anyway I managed to start putting a few carp in the net, plus decent ide on the across line. I love this kind of fishing as you can see the fish swirling on the mudline, getting closer to your hookbait, and you know when you're going to get a bite! I was worried that Sean had caught me up and his blistering last few hours saw him record 83lb. But my 30 or so carp plus about six ide went 102lb 4oz, enough for a win on my return.

Result (17 pegs)
1. B Fisk 102-4-0 peg 8
2. S Raper 94-8-0 peg 24
3. S Rogers 83-0-0 peg 5


Sunday 25th Lindholme Open Willows Lake
Today 21 of us lined up for an open on Willows. I slept in so I was left with the last peg in the bag, peg 15. I had a bit of an argument with owner Neil about why he had put this in, the reason being is that it is at the start of this bay and is facing a point peg (40) about 18m away. Had he put me on the usual peg 16 in the middle of the bay I would have been much better off, especially as the next peg in then is peg 20 on the other side. No peg picture today because my phone was out of action after getting damp in it the day before!

Anyway to cut a long story short this turned out to be a rock hard match by summer standards here. An early run of good F1s shallow soon fizzled out and by the half way point I was struggling for a bite, as were many others. A few anglers started to catch on feeders so I had no choice but to prepare some micropellets and get my rod from the car. It proved to be a good move!

Casting this over my pole line gave a few nice F1s, a bream and more importantly two surprise proper carp of 8lb and 4lb. I was never going to beat John Allerton and Steve Cooke in the first bay but I managed to bag an unexpected third place. Perhaps the rain the previous day was to blame for the fishing today?

Result (21 pegs)
1. J Allerton 112-4-0 peg 51
2. S Cooke 81-10-0 peg 7
3. B Fisk 68-9-0 peg 15
4. S Rothery 60-6-0 peg 48


Lindholme Bank Holiday Monday (Laurels & Willows)

Back again and as is customary on a bank holiday, a mystery pairs event was to run alongside the normal open. It's a great idea and is done completely randomly on weight. At the end of the match, all the pegs are put back into the bag and Neil draws them out in pairs, with the weights added together, so even if you don't catch much you still stand a chance of winning money. I wasn't sure which lake I wanted to be on today as Willows had fished so poorly yesterday, but I was sure it would be better today. Ironically Neil had put peg 16 on Willows in today after I moaned so much about 15 yesterday, and he was trying to put his old curse on me to draw it! Thankfully I came out of the bag with 56 Laurels. This is a peg I've always wanted to draw but never have, in the same bay as peg 25 and with an empty platform and reedbed to the left, where you catch some big fish in winter.


No peg picture again, this is an old one from peg 25. Peg 56 is on the right of the picture next to the overhanging tree.

With only 25 or so fishing we had plenty of room, there was one other angler in my bay on the point peg 25. Odd F1s were rolling and I could feel a few fish were definitely on the cards today. Again a simple match was in order. I set up to fish at 5m, shallow at 13-14m and an edge rig to the platform on my left. There are lots of roach in this lake so I started off on hard pellet at 5m, an F1 hooked itself on-the-drop first go! I had to wait considerably longer for the next one and after 15 minutes it was time to go shallow. I caught straight away. One point here is that I see too many anglers start a match shallow. When it's ridiculously solid on Willows you can sometimes get away with this but it's always best to start short or on a feeder or something, so you can build a shallow line up. On some lakes or days it can take 45 minutes before you have the fish lined up shallow. I've seen it so many times here that anglers start shallow, can't catch, so give it up and do something else. Completely the wrong way round of doing things!

The first few hours flew by and after two hours I felt I had around 70lb in the net. Then the sun came out and started making the fish finicky. I was missing a few bites and the fish seemed to be snatching at the pellet, and it was taking longer for a bite to materialise. Even so I was still catching well, although in the middle two hours the stamp of fish became 12oz - 1lb stockies, rather than the 2lb jobs I had earlier. I decided to put a third keepnet in. Not enough anglers do this at Lindholme I don't think, but I've started doing it when a big weight is on the cards. Not just to be kinder to the fish but so that your nets are easier to lift out, especially when you are well above the water level, as you are on Laurels.

In the last hour one of the anglers from Willows came and watched me and couldn't believe how quickly I was catching. But I was adamant this was quite a wait for bites with this style of fishing here in summer, even though he timed two fish taking 13 seconds and 19 seconds respectively to be hooked after putting the rig in. Today Laurels was definitely the lake to be on as Willows fished hard again, 101lb was top weight on there. I recorded exactly 176lb which I thought was enough to win until the last man to weigh in, Dale Sheppard, plonked 182lb on the scales from peg 38 in the top bay. Dale is very fast when he's on fish and I just hadn't been fast enough today. In my defence my asthma was horrendous today and I seemed to be coughing every 20 seconds, but I felt I should still have had a few more.

Back to the club house and the mystery pairs draw. I was amazed that Dale hadn't entered the pairs but there was a further twist too. Paul Yates had been paid into the pairs by his mate and didn't know. Neil was aware and was calling upon his friend Ron in the spirit world to get me drawn with Paul in the pairs stakes! When 16 Laurels (Paul's peg) came out, I knew what was coming. 56 Laurels I bet? Yep. But when I asked to see the peg it miraculously turned into 20 Willows. Phew! I was eventually drawn with Andy Whitehouse who took 60lb from Willows, which was more than enough. I also won this pairs event in April with Steve Cooke, slightly spawny I hear you say! A great end to the three day weekend nevertheless...

Match Result
1. D Sheppard 182-2-0, L38
2. B Fisk 176-0-0, L56
3. J Allerton 140-10-0, L65
4. S Cooke, 138-2-0 L33

Mystery Pairs
1. B Fisk/A Whitehouse 243lb
2. S Cooke/S Dyson 203lb