18/07/08 – Stafford Moor - Tanners

Weight – 65lb 3oz
Catch – 12 Carp, 4 Bream, 1 Tench, 1 Roach.
Weather – Wind & rain.
Water temp – 19.0c > 19.0c
Match – Residence - 2nd

Peg 13 wasn’t exactly the drew I wanted, but I did have the advantage of effectively having an end peg, plus the wind wasn’t quite as fierce as at the other end of the lake.

I set up 2 pellet wagglers, a skud, a lead rod and finally the pole to fish the margins, so I wanted cover all eventualities. I felt the only way to compete with the pegs on the lawns and in the 30s was to feed aggressively and pull some fish into my swim.

In the first 20mins 3pts of 8mm went in on the waggler line, in front of the island.

I didn’t catch until 45mins in and I then had to keep rotating methods to keep catching the odd fish. Feeding towards the island was difficult due to the strong cross wind and increasingly heavy rain. I lost a few, either due to being foul hooked or some of them were hooked around the face, so they weren’t really having it.

Throughout I had been feeding both margins. In the last 2 hours I started to concentrate in the margins. The right hand side proved best under the pallet, where I caught 4 carp, whilst the left margin produced 1 carp. Bait was a hair rigged 11mm pellet – I had to discourage the skimmers somehow, but still managed a few.

With 10 minutes to go, Andy came around. I was surprised to hear my 12 carp was jointly leading. The weigh in started at peg 34 (peg 36 wasn’t drawn) so by the time the scales came to me 63lb was winning. I wasn’t sure

I had enough, but was pleased to weight 65lb. The only other weight to beat me was 77lb from peg 8.

Overall, I was really pleased to finish 2nd since I worked really hard to get the most from the swim. In total I fed 13pts of 8mm & 6pts of 11mm.

17/07/08 – Stafford Moor - Woodpecker

Weight – 74lb 5oz
Catch – 100 Bream, 5 Crucian, 4 Roach, 1 Tench.
Weather – Cool wind, sun & cloud.
Water temp – 19.0c > 19.5c

Decided on a days silver fish fishing. I settled on Woodpecker, because I wanted to catch a few Crucians which go over 2lb and beat my best Stafford Moor silver fish weight of 67lb.

Peg 24 offers 7ft of water at 4m, before it gradually shallows up towards the island. So 4 tennis balls of micro pellet, groundbait and corn went in at 4m.

I had set up 2 rigs, 1x 1.5g polar ice with the olivette 10cm from the hook and 1x 1.0g polar ice, shotted more conventionally with 2x no. 9 droppers. After 40 mins I started to wonder whether I had chosen the right peg, because I only had 3 fish in the net, however my the end of the 1st hour I was up to 10 fish, mostly on the light rig.

As the session progressed the fish started to come more regularly and after 90mins I was exclusively using the heavy rig. Initially I had to mess around with the feeding and found a handful size ball every 2nd fish was best. Hook bait was corn.

I experienced a bit of a dodgy 4th hour, but by keeping the feed going in the fish came back.

1st hr = 10 fish, 2nd hr = 17, 3rd hr = 23, 4th hr = 16, 5th hr = 25, 6th hr = 19.

I didn’t catch as many Crucians as I hoped, but once the skimmers arrived in numbers, nothing else stands a chance. In the end it was a great session and best previous best silver fish weight from Stafford Moor.

16/07/08 – Stafford Moor - Woodpecker

Weight – 82lb 5oz
Catch – 15 Carp, 12 Bream.
Weather – Warm, sunny and slight breeze.
Water temp – 18.0c > 19.5c
Match – Fish & Chip Open - 9th overall, 2nd in section

Over 40 anglers were booked in for this mid week match, so both Tanners and Woodpecker were in. I drew peg 6 on Woodpecker, which was OK, but I felt I was fishing for section rather than framing.

Whilst setting up, a numpty turned up to fish peg 5. I queried this with him, since I felt he should have been on peg 4, but after a bit of a discussion he was sure he was on peg 5. I knew there was a few fishing the match so I thought that Andy might have jammed a few pegs in.

I set up 2 pellet wagglers, a full depth waggler, a lead and a pole rig for the silvers in case I was struggling. On the all in I fired my 8mm pellet towards the island, the numpty on peg 5 managed to spray his pellet all over the place, but after 10mins he caught 2 carp. Oh please, don’t let me get done by a numpty.

After 2 hours I had 9 carp switching between the waggler and lead, whilst numpty continued to feed every inch of his swim. He even managed to feed Mikes swim on peg 36 and I had to tell him to stop casting into my swim! Not a happy chap.

The fishing started to get harder and from what I could see I was doing OK. Peg 36 was catching (as expected) and I was aware that peg 22 was sacking, but neither was in my section. The middle part of the match started to prove frustrating. I couldn’t get the fish to settle and I was losing fish, mainly as a result of foul hooking.

The 1 thing I have found with Woodpecker is unless you are on a flyer then you can suffer from blank spells. I decided to set a silver fish line at 5m, but this never took off at all. Most of the skimmers I caught were in 4-6oz range and they weren’t coming quickly enough, so whilst I periodically tried the silvers line during the middle period, in total I only spent 20 minutes trying for silvers

In the last 2 hours I concentrated on the island, but I could hear peg 8 starting to catch (I had trees either side of me so I couldn’t see), so I needed a few more carp. I did catch a few more, but had I caught enough? My concern was a couple of my carp were smaller (3lb) than the average 5-6lb.

Peg 8 weighed 85lb to win my section, which meant I came 2nd and missed out on £50. I let my feeling be known to the numpty on peg 5, because in transpired he should have been on peg 4. How hard is it to remember a number?

The match winner came from peg 3 on Tanners, whilst the best weight on Woodpecker came from peg 22 with 207lb on the tip for 2nd in the match. I finished 9th overall.

15/07/08 – Stafford Moor - Tanners

Weight – 81lb 6oz
Catch – 16 Carp, 4 Roach, 1 Bream, 1 Hybrid.
Weather – Cloudy, windy, drizzle & cool.
Water temp – 18.0c > 19.0c

Another crap day of weather!

I wanted to practice the waggler on Tanners and decided to fish peg 34, because I had never fished this peg before.

To cut boring story short, I struggled in the wind and would have caught more had I brought a lead rod, but the purpose of the session was to get confident with the pellet waggler.

Jon fished Pines peg 14 and caught 103-12 of silvers, which is an absolutely brilliant weight. He had loads of skimmers, plus a number of tench.

14/07/08 – Stafford Moor - Joseph’s

Weight – 82lb 4oz
Catch – 24 Bream, 12 Carp, 3 Roach.
Weather – Cloudy & cool. Tried to drizzle.
Water temp – 17.0c > 17.0c

At last, a week at Stafford Moor. This is now the 4th year I stay for a week with Dave Downton, Mike Etheridge and Jon Andres.

After arriving straight from Bullocks Farm the night before I wasn’t in any rush to get fishing. Well may be a little.

I settled on peg 4 on the dam wall. I started on the shallow pole, but I wasn’t happy. The water was clearer than I would have thought and it appears there had been a lot of rain in the previous week.

Therefore, I tried the pellet waggler, because I didn’t feel the fish were happy with a pole over their heads. Whilst I caught a few, it was hard work. Fish were topping, but actually getting them to feed was a different matter. As a back up I started to set up a margin line, both left and right. The left hand margin was 3ft deep, whilst the right hand margin was 5ft.

As usual I prefer to use paste in the margins. Initially the left margin didn’t produce, whilst the right margin produced skimmer, after skimmer. Eventually the left margin came good with 3 carp, but overall the fishing was difficult.

Jon fished peg 6 on the pole shallow and caught 67lb, Dave had 60/70lb from peg 38 and Mike had a few from an edge peg 12.

13/07/08 – Bullocks Farm – Match Lake

Weight – 26lb 3oz
Catch – 4 Carp, 4 Fantails, 3 Bream, 3 Roach, 1 F1, 1 Crucian
Weather – Sunny and calm.
Water temp – 18.0c > 18.5c
Match – Glenfall Club Match - 3rd

Moment of truth, I have sacrificed 2 days of my Stafford Moor holiday to fish this match, because I wanted to get though to the final of the knockout competition.

I drew peg 2, which was not a good start. I was stuck in the corner of the lake, with no features to fish to, other than the margins. My corner was likely to be busy, with the car park behind me and the left hand bank also serviced as a walk way to the adjacent carp lake, so I was apprehensive how I would do.

I had drawn Roger in the knockout, who drew peg 3, so at least I could keep an eye on him.

I started in the open water, but it became obvious the bright calm conditions were going to have an effect. With an hour gone, I only had a couple of fish and was already using my light right (.11 bottom & 18 B911) and maggot. Fortunately everyone I could see was struggling, but I was aware a few anglers on the other side of the lake had caught carp.

I had tried my margins but I had too much foot traffic, which was worse on the left hand side. As the match progressed, I managed the odd fish from the open water and knew I was ahead of Roger, but a decent carp would make a difference.

Left Margin

With 90 mins to go the grapevine suggested no one had sacked up, so a couple of carp, could mean a chance of framing. I had been feeding my margins, quite heavily, and decided to concentrate here until the end of the match, fishing paste.

Right Hand Margin

The left margin didn’t produce a single carp, everything came from the right hand margin. In the last 30 mins I had 3 carp, so they eventually arrived.

I knew I had beaten Roger so I had at least got though to the final of the knockout, but the question was had I done enough to frame. In the end it was a very tight frame, 28lb won, 26lb 11oz was 2nd and I finished 3rd.

Talking after the match, most people seem to have gone down the route of feeding lightly, which was completely the opposite of what I did. Towards the end of the match was throwing in a handful of micro & 4mm expanders. Make ‘em feed!

11/07/08 - Bullocks Farm - Match Lake

Weight – 54lb14oz
Catch – 13 Carp, 8 Bream, 7 Fantails, 5 Roach, 2 F1, 1 Crucian
Weather - Sharp shower to start. Mostly sunny, with odd light shower. Increasingly windy.
Water temp – 18.0c > 18.5c

Managed to get Friday off work, which meant I had 1 day to practice for Sunday’s match and 1 day to prepare for a week’s trip to Stafford Moor.

As with most pegs on the Match Lake at Bullocks Farm, peg 21 had the usual features, in this case reeds bordered by wood panels.

My intention for today was to put what I learned last week into practice. I started at 11m in the open water, after feeding micro pellet & expanders.

After 15mins I probably had 6lb in the net, which was a great start. However, as the session progressed the fish didn’t seem settled. I was soon feeding a pot of pellet and then switching to the near read swim on paste. In the end I was feeding the open water swim by a toss pot, but I would only feed once I hooked a fish, by turning the pole. This seemed to work, but only for 3 or 4 fish at a time, before having to switch to another swim.

In the last 2 hours I concentrated on the paste. I had left the far reed swim and the margins alone, but still feeding to build the fishes confidence. This paid dividends with a number of carp, although I lost a few due to hook pulls. I got the impression the fish weren’t feeding confidently and I was only lightly hooking them.

There was a 7 peg knockout on the lake, which was won with 31lb, so I was really pleased with my final weight.

05/07/08 - Bullocks Farm - Match Lake

Weight – 38lb 5oz
Catch – 13 Fantails, 11 Crucians, 9 Carp, 4 Bream, 3 Roach.
Weather – Sunny start, became increasingly blustery with odd showers
Water temp – 18.5c > 20.0c

I decided to visit Bullocks Farm, with the intention of practising for a forth coming club match next weekend.
Bullocks Farm is a small venue with 5 lakes. Although most would consider it to be a pole venue, many pegs don’t offer much room behind, which means breaking down the pole 2 or 3 times. Today I was on the match lake and I settled on peg 25, which is situated on the island. The swim offered some protection from the forecast wind & rain, but it was also a peg I had never fished before.

Bullocks is 1 of those venues I personally find difficult to fish without a practice session prior to a match. The lake is not a big weight venue, but should offer plenty of bites from fantails and crucians. There are also carp to over 10lb, although in recent years there are many more carp in the 1lb to 3lb bracket.

The normal approach is to set up an open water swim for the crucians and fantails and then fish for the carp in the margins. Typically you need to fish reasonably light for the crucians & fantails and as such I set up a drennan roach 4x12 float, with .11 bottom and an 18 B911. The margin rig was a big H 4x10, .17 line straight though to a 12 carp feeder hook, fishing paste.

The session started in frustrating manner. I concentrated on the reed bed to my left, but the fish when hooked were driving straight into them. Stepping up to .19 line didn’t improve matters either. At 1 point I even got into a boat, to recover a snagged rig and to do a bit of swim clearing!

Even my open water swim was proving frustrating, with lost carp and struggling for bites. The last time I fished here feeding micro pellet & caster proved successful, because I was able to catch roach in amongst the fantails & crucians to keep the weight building, but that was last October. I couldn’t get to the tackle shop in time to buy some caster, so I was relying on still feeding micro pellet, but this time with 4mm expanders. After my early fish loses, it became obvious the carp were prepared to feed in the open water swim, so I changed my hooklength up to .13 bottom & a 16 B911.

After 2 hours I had caught very little, mainly because I was determined to make the reed swim work. Time to concentrate on the open water swim. Earlier on I had initially fed a pot of pellet and then a tosspot over the top, but this lead to the fish rushing around and producing loads of liners. So 10 minutes before switching to the open water swim I potted a full pot of micro pellet & 4mm expanders. On the hook I used 6mm expanders, flavoured with strawberry or peeler crab (and it stinks).

I started to catch well, but I had to dot the float down to get confident bites from the fantails & crucians, although 1 small carp pulled the pole down, whilst I briefly looked away. As the session progressed I got into the rhythm of feeding a pot of pellet, fishing the feed out, then feeding another pot. But instead of fishing straight over, I would spend 5/10mins fishing for the carp. I did manage 2 carp from the reeds, but ended up ignoring it because I was wasting too much time. I had been feeding the right hand margin and a caught a few carp, but still managed to find a few snags from sunken tree roots.

At the final weigh in I managed 38lb 5oz, including 19lb of silver which was my 2nd best weight from this lake. After the poor start I was pleased with the end result and the practice session proved to be very useful.

Lessons learnt – its always difficult to assess a session when pleasure fishing and the weather meant not many anglers turned up, but I was happy that I sussed the open water swim, however based on past experience I think I will still set up a light rig for the open water, just in case the fishing becomes hard. If I drew this peg again I would probably dismiss the reed beds and concentrate mote on the right hand margin for carp.