Sunday 27 November 2011

Nick Speed

I recently won a days fishing with Nick Speed from the Matchfishingscene (MFS) website http://www.matchfishing-scene.co.uk/

As I write this report, reflecting on what has been a really fascinating day with Nick Speed, I’m finding it difficult to know where to start. When I arrived home, after spending 3.5hrs on the motorway, I wrote down the points I learnt and soon realised it was a lot.

Firstly thanks to BNF for arranging the prize, as well as Nick for devoting his time for free. Nick is a professional angler, who recently made the decision to start coaching. As we all know Nick is a top quality angler, who regularly wins on the northern commercial circuit, but he is also 1 of the more approachable anglers, with an easy manner, which is ideal for coaching.

When my name was drawn a couple of weeks ago, my joy was tempered by when can I go? With Christmas and the colder weather just around the corner, as well as a busy work diary, time was certainly short, however I managed to re-arrange a meeting and took Friday off.

After a couple of conversations with Nick he suggested Lindholme would be the best venue. Living in Bristol, meant a bit of travelling. Fortunately I found a cheap hotel room off the M1/M18 for Thursday night, which left a short 25 mile trip the following morning, but more importantly it also meant I missed the worse of the traffic around Birmingham.

On arrival at Lindholme it was easy to see why it is so popular. A really decent café and tackle shop. A quick walk around some of the lakes revealed a well maintained fishery, which will put some of the fisheries in the south west to shame.

I consider myself to be a decent angler (fortunately Nick agreed!), however I feel that I have hit a plateau and winning a day with Nick came at the right time to iron out any problems.

Initially we had a chat over a coffee, so Nick could gauge what I wanted to get out of the day, which I thought was great, because it meant there was no preconceived structure. The 1 thing we both agreed on is that there are too many anglers doing the same thing, day in, day out without actually thinking about it. Far too many anglers say the lake, the peg or weather was rubbish and that’s why they didn’t catch. Very few anglers admit to cocking up a peg due to their own inability. I like to think I am honest enough to say when I should have done better and certainly in the last 9 months have looked at how I fish, changing my floats, how I set them up and how I feed.

Whilst I want to improve my own fishing there are certain ruts I have got stuck in and unsure how to make the necessary adjustments. At the end of the day, results don’t lie and whilst I have had some good days, there are certainly days I have come away thinking I should have done better.

They say there is a fine line between success and a failure and my day with Nick certainly highlighted that fact. Now individually the things learnt were only small, but when added together it’s the difference between having an extra couple of fish in the net and picking up a brown envelope.

After our chat, Nick decided that we should fish peg 48 on Willows which is on the point of 1 of the arms, so we could concentrate on fishing soft pellet, which is 1 area I need to improve.

Other than Todber Manor, there are no real venues were F1’s dominate in the south west, however the things learnt today are transferable to any fishery, because the principles are still the same.

Bait Preparation
Fortunately how I prepare my soft pellet wasn’t dissimilar to Nicks, which is soaking a handful of expanders overnight. Nick isn’t a big believer in flavouring, preferring to trust his ability to feed and present the bait, however what he does do with hook pellet is add some Dynamite Bait Source which is oil based. As well as adding some flavouring, more importantly, the oil helps expel the water from the pellet, making it a little firmer. However even more importantly, the consistency of the pellet remains the same for the whole day and can still be used the following day.

Feed for the day was micro pellet, which was simply covered in water then drained off, just enough to make them soft. The critical thing about the bait preparation was the colour of the pellet and Nick is a big believer in a lighter colour at this time of year and will even use a yellow dye to lighten a pellet.

Finally, if you need to pump pellets don’t overdo them, because you will ruin the texture of the pellet and they won’t last long.

Water craft
Nick highlighted the fact he sees too many anglers not thinking about where they are fishing, in other words going straight out at 13m, but on Willow lake, fishing this way could mean competing for the same shoal of fish as another angler. I already like to fish at angles, trying to give myself a bigger swim, although I can be guilty of having various swims too close together, which in reality is counterproductive. So something for me to give more consideration to.

Plumbing
I already tend to plumb around, but Nick stressed the need to find where the bottom of the shelf starts to level out, then fish slightly up on the shelf, which means you are fishing on a hard bottom, instead of silt.

Feeding
Due to unfavourable weather conditions we couldn’t go into too much detail about feeding, since I couldn’t fish beyond 5m, due to an ever increasing wind. However Nick showed me his kinder cups and there was 1 that we ended up using I thought was brilliant and will have me heading for a shop for a supply of kinder eggs. Very simply the cup has a criss-cross of light elastic, which allows you to fill up the kinder, simultaneously feed more than 1 swim, plus there is no need to fill up every put in, thereby saving time, which means more time in the water.

Rigs
For the day I set up a Hillbilly frostie 0.3g, which Nick was really impressed with, although on the day Nick thought I could have done with a thinner bristle due to the shy biting F1 and the choppier water.

Hooklengths
If I only took 1 thing from my day with Nick, it would be his advice on hooklengths. I am very comfortable fishing light hooklengths (.10/.12) for carp, but I have always used a 6in hooklength. For pellet fishing Nick uses an 8in, because it allows for a more natural fall of the bait.

I’ve used a 6in hooklength, because it allowed me to place the last shot closer to the hook, thereby allowing me to see bites quicker. However Nicks view was an 8in hooklength allows for a more natural fall, because the loop to loop connection is further away from the hook. But what about the bait wafting too much in the tow? On lakes where the tow isn’t an issue, a slightly heavier gauge hook (which I will cover later) will help ensure the bait is presented properly, whilst also adding as a counter balance for the expander.

Even if there is a bit of a tow, there is no harm placing the last shot on the hooklength if needs be.

Stotz V Shot
Most of my rigs are made with stotz, because they sit on the line nicely and are easy to put on and take off. Nick is a big believer in using shot, because it is more symmetrical allowing it to fall through the water more naturally, but also shot is smaller for it size when compared to stotz, which again aids with presentation. Stotz do have their place, but mainly when used bulk.

Hooks
The way F1’s feed, they tend to peck at the bait, and Nick likes to use a wide gap hook so the point of the hook protrudes from the pellet, giving you a chance to prick the fish as it sucks in the bait, thereby allowing you to hit more bites.

Back-Shot
I always back shot on my rigs, usually with 2x no 9 or 8s. Nick only uses no8, but what he did do, which now seems stupidly obvious, was when the wind really picked up, bring the 2x no8 together, which definitely helped.

Floats
Interesting one this. I used a hillbilly frostie, which as I mentioned earlier Nick was really impressed with, particularly when I started to use it. However, with an increasing wind Nick thought it didn’t ride in the water quite as well as a thinner solid bristle. On the day Nick used a Tubertini Delta, which did show up the bites slightly better.

However, Nick did acknowledge that because down south, heavier baits like hard pellet and corn are more popular than up north, hollow bristle floats are more practical.

At some time most of us have blacken the tip of our bristles. Today with the bright conditions and clearing water, it was difficult to read the bites, because I could see the whole bristle, despite only having a fraction of the tip above the water. Nicks solution was to simply blacken the base of the bristle – it made such a difference.

Elastics
I used double 5, which Nick thought was spot on for the day – so no change there!

The Day
Unfortunately the weather was doing its best to ruin the day, with an ever increasing wind, meant we could only fish at 5m. I deliberately didn’t want to fish the method, because there aren’t many venues in my area where it dominates, and I really wanted to focus on my soft pellet fishing, because I feel this is a weak area for me.

As the session progressed I tried my rig and Nick also set up 1 of his rigs. As it happened my rig caught a few fish, however it was noticeable that Nicks rig after a few adjustments would get a fish slightly quicker. We also had most of our fish after lifting and dropping.

Nick sat on my box a couple of times and the good news (for me anyway) was he wasn’t catching any quicker, but to be honest, the weather was making presentation difficult, which was a shame.

We only ended up fishing for about 3.5hrs (although we were chatting for further couple of hours), deciding to cut the session a little short because the wind was getting stronger and it was beginning to feel colder, with some very dark threatening clouds on the horizon.

I found the day really interesting, particularly when discussing the theory of why something works, and whilst today was about F1s, the skills learnt can be transferred and adapted to any venue.

About 30lb of F1s
Anyone who wants to improve the way they fish, I would highly recommend speaking to Nick (07854 123215) and arranging a day with him. It was well worth the long trip.

Monday 21 November 2011

20/11/11 - Todber Manor - Park Lake

Weight – 122lb 4oz
Catch – 37 Carp, 4 Skimmer, 2 Roach, 1F1, 1 Tench, 1 Hybrid, 1 Tench
Weather – Dull start, becoming brighter.
Match – Wests Tackle Open – 1st out of 19

Another unseasonably mild day meant some were fishing in t-shirts, although I don’t think anyone fancied a swim, because the water certainly felt chilly.

As a comprise between those who wanted a 5hr match and those who wanted a 6hr match, we settled on 5½hr.

As usual everyone wanted to draw around the gap, pegs 5, 7 & 38, so I more than happy when I found myself 38. But with every flyer comes the pressure and Mark was certainly trying to pile it on with the usual banter.

peg 38

Anyway, decided I needed to keep things simple so set a HB billybob 0.1g for the far side and down the right hand margin, plus a SZ ninjaz 0.2g for down the track at 7m. Feed was 2 tins corn, plus 6 & 4mm pellet.

I was determined not to make the same mistake from 2 weeks ago at Whiteposts, so kept the catapult safely tucked away in the carryall. I really didn’t want to encourage those F1, which can be a real pain in the arse.

On the all in, a cup of corn & 6mm’s went down the RH edge at 12m and another cup at 7m. Whilst I let that settle I went straight over to the far bank, feeding a toss pot of corn/6mm’s and started to get indications straight away, soon landing an F1. Unfortunately the next hour or so was very frustrating, because I couldn’t hook a fish in the mouth. I tried varying the amount being fed and thought I got it sussed by reducing the amount going through the toss pot, but with the far bank being 15m away it was hard work for little reward.

In the meantime, I had kept both the RH margin and 7m line topped up every 20mins. After nearly 80mins I only had about 10lb, whilst Mark on peg 35 was already admitting to 30-40lb. I felt the far line was more trouble than it was worth so ditched it, hoping the RH would produce.

3 carp in 3 put ins and I was up and running. Initially I was potting in every 3rd fish, but soon switched to toss potting 6 bits of corn and 6 pellets, only potting a ½ cup when I started to get silly bites from silvers, as the carp shy away. When I rested the swim I would switch to the 7m line, were I had kept feeding pellet and corn. This line didn’t produce many fish, but they were proper ‘uns including a near 10lber.
down the margin

Most fish came to corn, I tried 6mm pellet but had to wait longer for bites, so struck with corn. With just over 2hrs to go I was up to about 20 carp, whilst Mark had about 38, so a long way behind, however Mark was insisting his carp were only small. By the end, Mark had managed a further 10 or so, plus a load of F1s, whilst I had a further 17. We both thought we had beaten each other, but as it turned out my fish were much better than the average stamp, which probably also accounts for why I only caught 1 F1 from a lake full of them.

Pleased to have beaten Mark and won the match, it hasnt happened too often this year. However 1 angler was a little too bitter & twisted saying I hadnt done well, because I had an end peg. My response was you still need to catch them. Muppet!

1st 122- 4 – Ken Rayner – p38
2nd 115- 8 – Mark Poppleton – p35
3rd 96- 5 – Nick Merry – p23
4th 85-15 – Jono – p12?
5th 52- 8 – Craig – p5
6th 46- 4 – Steve Ince – p37

Sunday 13 November 2011

13/11/11 - Ivy House - Little Lake

Weight – 3lb 14oz
Catch – 15 Roach, 2 Perch, 1 Skimmer
Weather – Bright & sunny, SE breeze.
Match – Club – 11th out of 16

We had the choice of the large or little lake, depending on how many booked in. By Friday night we had 10, so we decided on the little lake because apparently it had been fishing well, however come Sunday we ended up with 16, so a bit of a squeeze, since it was now too late to change lakes.

My drawing arm hasn’t been the best recently and it didn’t disappoint with peg 11 along the car park bank.

Since I expected the fishing to be hard, decided to knock up one of my favourite winter groundbaits, black lake with mussel & squid. 3 balls went in at 13m were it was 7ft deep with some caster and micros. Also feed caster at 8m. I would have preferred to fish shorter but the lake bed is like a bowl with no shelf.

The first 15mins was spent on the lead/corn, but with no liners or bites, switched to the short line which produced some roach. Unfortunately they weren’t coming quickly but at least I was catching unlike most, although Pete to my right had already fed enough for everyone!

After an hour a switch to the 13m line, produced more roach, then a 1½lb skimmer. With no further bites I topped with another ball of groundbait, which failed, so decided to cup in 4 balls and just leave it, but never had a bite from here. My short line produced another short burst of roach on the deck. I tried catching at mid depth, but other than 1 bite this also failed to produce.

With 2 hours left of the 5, I was falling behind as the odd carp was being landed from the opposite bank.

I had been lightly feeding a 16m swim with 3 & 4mm pellet and with an hour left decided to concentrate hoping for a carp, trying soft pellet and corn without success. In the last hour I fell further behind as Graham to my left landed a 9lber, before Chris opposite had a proper munter of 16lb on his roach rig.

Despite my best efforts I couldn’t get a carp, I even tried the margins, but with anglers either side, coupled with flat, bright conditions it was a nonstarter, but I had to try.

During the weigh in, a number of single carp weights beat me and nearly everyone had a carp from peg 18 and around the island. There simply wasn’t any carp in the deeper water in my area of the lake.

1st 33- 4 – Kev Millard – peg 1
2nd 23- 0 – Andy Lord – peg 19
3rd 19- 1 – Chris Davidge – peg 18
4th 12- 9 – Nick Pople – peg 5
5th 10-11 – Don Smith – peg 20
6th 9-10 – Tim Allen – peg 8

12/11/11 - Lands End - Match

Weight – 42lb 14oz
Catch – 7 Carp, 6 Perch, 3 Roach, 2 Rudd, 1 Bream
Weather – Cold heavy overnight rain. Very mild, mostly bright & calm
Match – Open – 2nd out of 10

I haven’t intended to go fishing today, but decided to take advantage of the mild weather, before the frosts & cold kick in.

I found myself on peg 5, which has been very indifferent recently, so wasn’t sure what to expect, particularly after last night heavy rain, which did have an effect on the fishing.

Initially decided on 3 swims, micros 13m to my left, caster by the island and 4mm’s 13m to my right. Starting on the island I had a rudd straight away on double maggot, before switching to the RH 13m line after 5min with hair rigged 6mm pellet, which produced a 2lb skimmer, then a 5lb carp within 10mins. Unfortunately that was it for 50mins, despite a couple of liners.

After catapulting caster to the island I was hoping to pull in a few fish, so was disappointed to come back with a small roach, but the next put in I had another carp to join its mate in the net, followed by a couple of decent perch before that line went dead.

Just as I wondering what to try next a carp was slurping on the surface about 5m out. I dropped double caster on its nose and it took it! At 10lb it was certainly a big bonus, on what was proving to be a difficult day. Only Martin Pettifer on peg 19 seemed to be catching and Mike West on peg 11 was already going for walk, because he had yet to catch!

I had kept catapulting 4mms to my RH 13m line and had 4 carp in a hour on corn, before that line dried up. In the meantime I had kept trickling bait into the LH 13m swim, as well as caster by the peg 6 platform, but both swims failed to produce anything of consequence. So moving into the last 90mins I concentrated on the island and the RH 13m line. The island produced a couple of quality perch on caster and a carp on JPZ pellet, but the carp just won’t settle in the shallow water by the island. The RH 13m line only produced 1 more carp.

Overall a difficult day, when I had to continually rotate swims, although I may have overfed a couple of my swims, underestimating how cold the water was. In fact only Martin Pettifer and I caught carp today, so last night’s rain definitely did its damage. However really pleased to have done so well from what has been recently a very average peg.

1st 48- 4 – Martin Pettifer – p19
2nd 42-14 – Ken Rayner – p5
3rd 25- 8 – Nigel Bartlett – p15 (all silvers – mostly roach)
4th 13- 8 0 Dave Wescott – p21 (all silvers)

Monday 7 November 2011

06/11/11 - Todber - Whiteposts

Weight – 48lb 15oz
Catch – 17 F1, 16 Carp, 4 Rudd, 1 Roach
Weather – Cold start. Cloudy with easterly wind
Match – Open – 7th out of 10

I’ve never fished Whiteposts, but reports were that the top lake had been drained and the fish moved into the bottom lake, with winning weights of 190lb. So a knock up was organized and 10 turned up. The lake itself is a long 16 peg lake ranging from 14m to 25m wide, full of small carp and F1s.

When I got to my peg I wasn’t particularly happy. It was tight with trees immediately either side, which meant no margin. There was a more open peg to my right, set back in the bay, but apparently this was 1 of the worse (& widest) pegs on the lake. I was also told the lake is 4-5ft, so was a bit surprised when plumbing up to only find 2-3ft and with the cold I wasn’t expecting the big weights of previous matches.

Settled on 3 areas. 10m to my right where I found slightly more depth, a waggler across to the far side and 10m further to my right towards the platform as far as the tree would let me, fishing left handed.

Starting off at 10m and the first hour was slow, but picked up going into the 2nd with a run of carp. I was feeding 4mm & corn via a toss pot, with corn on the hook. What was evident was the fish would drift in and out of the swim, probably due to the shallow water.

My back plan was the waggler, although a cold easterly blowing down the lake was making presentation a bit tricky, but I got the waggler sitting as it should, but only had little dinks and no fish on corn. A switch to maggot only produced tiny rudd, so that was soon binned. A switch back to corn did produce a couple of F1s but no carp.

The rest of the match was a case of scratching around for fish. A big pot of corn and pellet to my far right did produce a couple of carp, but bites simply weren’t coming quickly enough, whilst on my main 10m line I would get loads of dinks on the float, but no fish.

In hindsight, the mistake I made was catapulting pellet. I had started the match feeding via a toss pot at 10m. Sometimes I would catch at 10m, but also caught a few fishing a metre past. I started to catapult pellet over the top whilst fishing other lines and all that did was encourage more F1s into the swim and I think a lot of the sail way bites I was get were liners. I should have stuck with the toss pot, but left my brain somewhere else.

Mark won from the bottom end of the lake fishing at 9m all day, feeding via a toss pot with corn on the hook. 3rd and 4th came either side of Mark, so there was obviously a few fish in the area.

A disappointing day when I should have caught more, but I’m back at Todber on Park Lake in 2 weeks, so an opportunity to make amends.

1st 127-4 – Mark Poppleton
2nd 103-8 – Nick Merry
3rd 102-7 – Tom Ince
4th 98-10 – Terry Lead