Monday 16 April 2012

MD's inter-counties match 1

MD’s inter-county match
Saturday 14th April saw our first inter-county match this was the away leg at Rycroft fishery, just off jt24A of the M1 at Hemmington. I loaded the car ready for an early start an even woke up before the alarm which turn out to be a good thing as the car wind-screen was frozen and so I sat in the car for 5minutes with the engine running to defrost the window before setting off at about 6.15. I was first to arrive at Trowel services where we had arranged to meet up. Into the services for a quick snack and drinks then outside to wait for the rest of the team. Shortly after two more cars turned up so 5 of our 8man team had arrived, they informed me there was a bloke on a bridge near junction 30 looking like he was going to jump. I got a text from Pete our captain saying he was held up by an incident at junction 30 and had to take a detour around it, so the guy must have jumped. We eventually got to the venue to meet up with the opposition at the side of the lake we were to fish with very little knowledge a bit of banter as usual then the draw we got the odd numbers and I drew peg 3. The lake was oval and other than the wind there appeared to be no real advantage in the draw.  We waited for the open match guys to draw and move their cars off so we could park behind our pegs.
No point in complicating it so I set up two pole rigs one for worn the other for maggot and mixed a little ground bait. At the all it at about 10.30 I started on chopped worm, feeding it in the ground bait through a toss pot at 8mtrs, I was soon into my first fish a small roach and the a few more followed then a couple of skimmers, these were slightly bigger but not really big enough, I noticed next door landing a carp on a pellet waggler. I hadn’t got mine out because of the cold north wind which was getting strong as had been forecast. The I tried a piece of corn on the hook trying to temp a larger bream I had heard were in the lake. Set up with white hydro and an 0.08mm hook length to a 16 drennan silver fish hook carp were the last thing I was after, but that’s what I got a nice common of around 7-8lb, then not a lot else.



Top -bottom
Almost packed up and ready for the weigh in
Chub about 3lb
whoops, smile for the camera
That's better 13lb of carp


Next door was catching on the pellet waggler and they were big fish and so I reached for my waggler to try and play catch play catch up, but alas it was in vane, by the end of the match I was well and truly battered, and on my own pellet waggler, I weight in only 32lb to his 132lb. it was enough for me to only finish 7th in a field of 16. I suppose it wasn’t bad as it was only the first time I had ever seen the venue.

Wednesday 11 April 2012

getting busy

well with making the floats and getting tackle ready I'm glad the weather hasn't been brilliant over the last week or so. I have spent my time holed up in the garage tying rigs and hooks, ready for my next few outing's starting with a trip down the M1 this Saturday for the MD's inter-county match first leg then I will have a week to get ready for the MD's festival at Lindholme starting on the 23rd. This is my first festival and I hope my body lasts for the week, this will be the first time I have fished for 5 days in a row since I got MS back in 1999 and I'm a lot worse with it now than back the so I expect to be very knackered by the end of the week.
In the mean time in-between all this there is also TN floats to get on with we are busy rebuilding our stock and awaiting the orders coming in, at the moment they are very slow and really we would like the to speed up, hopefully once they have been in the Angling times and more people are aware of them things will pick up also the weather is not at it's best but hey summer is coming.
I know the blog is a bit boring at the moment with very few pictures, but the wife has kindly bought me a new digital camera and so hopefully I will start to add a few and make things a little more colourful

Sunday 25 March 2012

That'll teach me to rush.
After the 6 hours of fishing and 46 fish in the net, I managed to tip the scales at 56lb 9oz, the second place angler managed 44lb 9oz so I was 12lb clear and well pleased with my days work

first win of the year

Well it’s been a busy few weeks getting ready for the official launch of TNfloats both me and Terry have been busy. We have open a joint business account and relevant people have been informed, so let’s hope all goes well when we start on 1st April.

With lot’s to do with the business the fishing tackle has had to take a bit of a back seat, and so for my second match of the year, I did not preparation at all just took with me what I had. So Friday night came and a quick check over my tackle before loading it into the car ready for the short journey to Lindholme for my second match of the season. Another match with the hopefuls for the Yorks and Humber team for the maggotdrowners, we have the first team match in a couple of weeks in Nottinghamshire. By the time I was loading the car it was already dark but not a problem, the wife was watching the soaps so I wasn’t missing anything.

I was up nice and early Saturday morning 24th March, it was already light but with the think blanket of fog you wouldn’t   have known. With the fog I decided to set off a little earlier at 6.30 and just take my time. Without rushing the 10 mile trip didn’t take much longer and I was at the lakes before 7 O’clock so plenty of time. I went into the café first and sat down with two bacon butties and a coffee to set me up for the day. Outside it was still covered in a thick blanket of fog and no wind. Bonsai the lake straight outside the café was flat calm like a mill pond. Slowly more anglers were turning up with the headlights of their cars appearing out of the gloom. There were a few club matches and the last of the winter league matches on so there were a few big name’s at the venue, world champions, at least two  fish-o mainia winners plus all the venue experts, Lucky I was not fishing against these guys today and throwing my money away.

Due to other commitments only 8 of us turned up for the Match on Laurel’s, we had plenty of room pegged from 23 to 38. And for the second match in a row I drew the end peg. Steve Hepinstall had kindly got out of his bed early this bleak Saturday morning to help me get my gear from my car to my peg. I had a full bay at the end of the lake to myself, and looking at the water there were fish all over just under the surface, so there was only one way to go for me fish it shallow with a pellet waggler set about 1ft deep. I also set up 1 pole rig for the inside later on if needed, but was really hoping I wouldn’t need it.

I was ready with half an hour to go to the all in at 10.30, with 6 hours to fish, all around you could hear other matches starting before us. 10.30 cast and feed this was going to be my rhythm for the day, whilst hopefully avoiding the tree branches above my head. The fog was still thick but I could see the fish were up in the water and so that was the way I was going to fish. I had a couple of early fish, then it slowed down a little and the fish backed off and so I changed things a little, mainly the float witch was a 4AAA more than heavy enough for the distance I was casting and so I changed to a 3AAA which was easily big enough for the job. I wasn’t bagging by any means but I kept putting the small stockies of around the 1lb mark in my net. Though the match I fed 4mm pellets down the inside getting it ready for if I needed it later in the match. My main set up with the pellet waggler was my trusty 11ft Mach III pellet waggler and SPRO Red arc reel, and our own hand built 4 and 3 AAA pellet waggler set about 12inch deep with a size 16 hook and a hair rigged 6mm pellet.
Everything was going great until the final hour when a miss timed cast saw my pellet waggler get stuck in the tree so not wanting to waste an time trying to get it down or set the rod up again I just picked up the pole for the last hour, this produce a few more fish including 3 small barbel and a few more small carp.

Saturday 3 March 2012

First of the year

Today I got on the bank for the first time since November. I loaded the car up last night ready for a quick get away this morning and forgot to take my two bottles of water from the fridge uppppps. I left home just after 6.30  for the 10 mile drive to Lindholme lakes at Sandtoft, in thick fog.

I was one of the first to arrive at the fishery and the kettle had not even boiled, so had a short wait for my first coffee of the day, coffee drunk and still no sign of Aaron or Neil, god that place would just not run without Bev. A last Aaron arrived to open the tackle shop so in to get a few bags of pellets for the day, then back into the cafe for a bacon buttie to see me through the day, by now a few more people were turning up some for the open match and the others for the maggot drowners match I was fishing on Oasis lake.

we paid our pools and drew our pegs, plenty of room for us all with only 10 of use spread from pegs 35 to 63. I was happy with 63 the end peg but it was a stong wind blowing to my end of the lake all the early fog had gone.

I only set up one pole rig at about 9mtr the wind was to strong for more. I soaked a bag of micro pellets and added a few 4mm pellet to them, and at 10.15 all in and away we went, first two puttings two small F1's, then nothing this was going to be harder than I though, I tried a couple of other lines with no luck plus straight out was the only place I could hold the pole right.

After a couple of hours and only a few fish I tried the method feeder, dam I had left all my hook lengths with pellet bands on at home so tried it with just corn on the hook and managed 1 fish and two lost feeders, so back on the pole and a few more fish.

In the last hour I had a change of tact and set up a second rig for the inside, I had 3-4 fish off this in the last hour and weighted in a massive 16lb 8oz. and expected to have come last not having a clue what the others had caught. As I saw the rest of the results I hadn't done as bad as I thought and finished 7th out of 10 with the winning weight being only 27lb I was happy for my first outing of the year.

I made a lot of mistakes and should have known better, but a few more days on the bank will hopefully put that right.

Tuesday 28 February 2012

With just four Days to my first match of the year on Saturday, I am starting to check my tackle and that I have all I will need on the day.
Last night I had a chat with one of the venue regulars for some upto date info and so I'm looking forward to a good day on Saturday. We are fishing Oasis lake at Lindholme, this is a canal type lake with about 60 pegs, it is around 16mtr wide and 4-5ft deep in the middle, there are plenty of fish to go at with F1's, barbel, skimmers and roach etc.

I have sorted my box out and checked my nets, just got to dig my pole out for the first time since November last year. I will keep it simple with just pellet, corn and meat on my side tray and hopefully a few fish in the net.

The floats are still on going spent yesterday gluing a few hundred which I will sort out tomorrow when the glue has dry'd.

After the fishing and all my tackle is back in storage and out of the way I will then carry on with the floats still got loads to do, and in-between that start getting my tackle ready for the festival I'm fishing at the end of April at Lindholme.

Things are starting to get busy