Hello all.
Following the disappointing 1st round I decided to keep the team the same for the second round.
There seems to be a pattern developing regarding the weather for these matches in that it has been not great at all, the wind was not very strong but the rain fell for most of the match. Making it a bit cold and uncomfortable.
Anyway the team of myself, Jon Green, Alan Lamb and Phil Clare lined up in our new club provided clothing for the match. Golden arm Alan would not do the draw so it was left up to me to sort out everyone's fate.
Jon got peg 21 on Covey 1, Phil on peg 42 on Covey 2, myself was on peg 64, Covey 3 and Alan was left on peg 87 on Covey 4. We were happier with this draw. Jon had the spit to himself, Phil's peg had framed earlier in the week, my peg was probably the worst on paper, and Alan's was expected to do well in an area of pegs known for bigger fish. So we left for our pegs more optimistic than before.
My match went as follows: I set up the same rigs as described in previous matches and started dobbing bread across. No bites on this so tried bread again in the 3ft deep area. After missing a couple of iffy bites I connected with a fish that took the bait on the drop, this turned out to be a good fish a nice common about 6-8lb. This helped me to at least catch up with those around me, as they had all caught a few F1's during the first hour. After this I continued with bread for a bit longer adding a couple more F1 's. Next went on maggot again in the 3ft area. Again a couple more fish but nothing steady or consistent, I was now definitely behind those around me. As usual with about an hour to go I started fishing the track line with double maggot. After a worrying 5 minutes I finally got a bite and after this it was a bit more productive. It was noticeable that I would get bites either just as float settled or after a small lift. In the end I only managed 12 fish for 24lb and unfortunately only beat 2 others in my section of 10. The section was won with over 40lbs. I need to catch more fish in the early stages of the match as I believe these make the difference at the end, going long periods without catching is no good at all. Something to work on for further matches.
Back at the cabin for the results and as in the previous round we had struggled again. Jon weighed 19lb, Phil had 21lb and Alan had real grueller with only 4 fish in the first hours of the match managed to catch a few down the middle to get 15lb. We all scored 8 section points giving us a total of 32 points. Consistent scoring, but only a slight improvement on the first round. Once the results were totaled up we were obviously last but only 1 point behind 9th place, and not a million miles away from 8th so with have got a target to aim for in the next rounds.
Once again the match left us disappointed with more questions than answers. I don't believe it is the fault of anyone fishing not knowing what to do, just that you can only catch what is in front of you and as winter sets in getting a peg with a lot of fish in is proving difficult. I have no doubt that when we have pegs with a good number of fish in we will catch well and score good points. Just need 4 good draws then...
My next match is the annual fur and feather with POHAS again at Partridge on Covey 6. This is followed by a carvery and a few beers until late, so I think Sunday will be a day off.
As I write this on the Sunday night the day after the Partridge match I can be thankful we did not fish today as gale force winds have more than likely resulted in broken pole sections. Needless to say I did not bother fishing the Mersey today. So once again the pole and the rest of my gear is drying out ready for the next match.
Tight lines.
Sunday, 29 November 2015
Sunday, 22 November 2015
Partridge Lakes Open 22 Nov 2015
Hi all.
Fished the open today at Partridge in order to keep in touch with venue for Winter League. Earlier in the week I was beginning to have second thoughts as cold air was due to spread South across the country from Friday on wards with a strong wind to back it up. Not pleasant conditions to say the least. Come Sunday it was still cold at 5 deg C max but the wind had more or less gone.
I drew peg 27 on Covey 2. I have not fished this peg or area before so was a little unsure what to expect. The peg is 11-12 metres wide with rushes and grasses either side of the far bank mud-line gap. I set up the usual rigs as before. There were some fish topping in the area so I thought might get some at least. Planned to start on bread across to the grasses and go from there. Fished the far bank with the rig about 4 inches off the bottom for about an hour, but had no bites. Due to the cold temperatures and the weights from the previous days match being a lot lower than late I also tried bread at 10 metres in 3ft of water straight in front of me. Without feeding anything this would tell me if any fish were there or not. If I had fed this swim I might have spooked them off before getting a chance to catch them. After a couple of minutes I caught my first F1, and followed it by getting 3 more from the same swim. I moved the rig about a metre to the right and caught 2 fish again. I carried on doing this moving along the same depth of water left and right and picking up what fish I could. I never fed any bait on this line, just dropping the bread in to see if anything was there. In most cases I did not wait long for bites, so if no bites came after a few minutes I would change swims. I managed 11 fish using this tactic. I could not see anyone else around me catching much so I was pleased with the progress.
With an hour to go I started on the maggot line at 5 metres in the deepest water. I had been potting in around 20-30 maggots every 20-30 minutes or so since the start of the match. I fished double white maggot on a 18 808 hook. Again after a couple of minutes I caught another F1. I caught regularly from this swim until the end of the match, just feeding 6 maggots around the float after each fish. I was glad I caught on this line as I was worried that I might have killed it by feeding to much and spooking the fish, but I got away with it.
I ended the match with 18 fish, all F1's up to 3lb for 30lb 3oz and a section win. The next best weight from my section was 13lb so I was pleased with that result.
Next match is the second round of the Partridge Lakes Winter League, and if the rain stays off this week I might manage a trip to the River Mersey on the following day.
Tight Lines.
Fished the open today at Partridge in order to keep in touch with venue for Winter League. Earlier in the week I was beginning to have second thoughts as cold air was due to spread South across the country from Friday on wards with a strong wind to back it up. Not pleasant conditions to say the least. Come Sunday it was still cold at 5 deg C max but the wind had more or less gone.
I drew peg 27 on Covey 2. I have not fished this peg or area before so was a little unsure what to expect. The peg is 11-12 metres wide with rushes and grasses either side of the far bank mud-line gap. I set up the usual rigs as before. There were some fish topping in the area so I thought might get some at least. Planned to start on bread across to the grasses and go from there. Fished the far bank with the rig about 4 inches off the bottom for about an hour, but had no bites. Due to the cold temperatures and the weights from the previous days match being a lot lower than late I also tried bread at 10 metres in 3ft of water straight in front of me. Without feeding anything this would tell me if any fish were there or not. If I had fed this swim I might have spooked them off before getting a chance to catch them. After a couple of minutes I caught my first F1, and followed it by getting 3 more from the same swim. I moved the rig about a metre to the right and caught 2 fish again. I carried on doing this moving along the same depth of water left and right and picking up what fish I could. I never fed any bait on this line, just dropping the bread in to see if anything was there. In most cases I did not wait long for bites, so if no bites came after a few minutes I would change swims. I managed 11 fish using this tactic. I could not see anyone else around me catching much so I was pleased with the progress.
With an hour to go I started on the maggot line at 5 metres in the deepest water. I had been potting in around 20-30 maggots every 20-30 minutes or so since the start of the match. I fished double white maggot on a 18 808 hook. Again after a couple of minutes I caught another F1. I caught regularly from this swim until the end of the match, just feeding 6 maggots around the float after each fish. I was glad I caught on this line as I was worried that I might have killed it by feeding to much and spooking the fish, but I got away with it.
I ended the match with 18 fish, all F1's up to 3lb for 30lb 3oz and a section win. The next best weight from my section was 13lb so I was pleased with that result.
Next match is the second round of the Partridge Lakes Winter League, and if the rain stays off this week I might manage a trip to the River Mersey on the following day.
Tight Lines.
Wednesday, 18 November 2015
Partridge Lakes Winter League Round 1 14 Nov 2015
Hi all.
After what seems like a long wait the Partridge Lakes Winter League has started. The previous week I fished the Sunday open drawing peg 61 on Covey 3. Previous results had this as a good area with a lot of water to go at being opposite the end of the spit and having more open water to the right. I set up usual rigs of bread dobbing, 2ft pellet rig, 3ft maggot/pellet rig and a maggot rig for the deep water at 5-6metres. Started on the bread rig about 4 inches off bottom, managed 1 small F1 from here at the start, but no more bites after that. So next tried the 3ft swim slightly to the left with double maggot. This was the best line from which I caught most of the fish. Fishing in the track towards the end only produced 3 or 4 fish. I ended the match with 19 fish for 35lb 12oz. I was the last peg in the section and was lucky enough to win the section by a good margin as the pegs in the 50's did not produce. In hindsight I should have fished a line more towards the open water to my right. During the match and especially at the end a lot of fish were topping in the area between the end of the spit and the open water. If peg 75 at the end of the spit had been used in the match those fish would have been pushed back towards me. As it is the fish moved into an area with less angling pressure on the day. Mid 40lb would have seen me get in the top 6 so maybe I could have caught some fish to the right instead of expecting the track line to work.
So on to the winter league. Since starting to organise our team for this league there has been a lot of interest from the POHAS members wishing to fish it. So trying to whittle down nearly 10 names to a team of 4 was a bit tricky. So team for the day was myself, Alan Lamb, Phil Clare and Jon Green, this was based on those who had been fishing the venue most and having some success with section wins and frame placings. At this time of the year and into the rest of winter it is really important to keep attending the venue to stay in touch with good pegs and methods.
I carried out the draw which gave Phil on peg 1, Covey 1, Jon on 46 Covey 2, Alan peg 56 Covey 3 and myself on peg 96 Covey 4. From our draw we were pleased with Phil's peg and we had Jon on the spit on Covey 2. The spit usually fish well as the water is more sheltered from the weather and the fish move into these areas when the weather gets worse. Alan's peg expected to struggle as he had fished 57 a couple of weeks ago and it was not very good. My peg was also a bit of an unknown, although I was next to a bridge the pegs on the spit in my section were expected to fish a lot better.
View of peg 96, bridge on left and plenty of far bank sedges and grasses. Only 11.5 metres wide though.
Again for this peg I set up the usual rigs, bread dobbing, pellet rig for across, 3ft maggot and track rig for maggot again. Plumbing up showed that the depths along the far bank varied a lot and it was difficult finding a flat area to fish to. I fished a maggot line to the right in the deep water and next to the bridge again in the deepest water. I started on bread against the far bank grasses. I did expect to catch here as it looked like somewhere some fish would be holding up. However I did not get any bites on this. Meanwhile Shaun Cooke on my right started to catch some of the recently added stock fish close to the nearside margin, so I tried an expander feeding a few micros next to the near bank rushes, from this I only managed a small F1. It was a very slow start and I don't need to go into much detail as my match never really picked up from there. I caught 3 small Rudd on maggot across and a couple more better size F1's from the maggot lines to end the match with a very disappointing 5lb 11oz. With such a low weight I got what I expected and was last in the section of 10. After the weigh in I was told by several other anglers that my peg had been poor in recent matches, but I did not think it would be 5lb poor. I expected to catch fish under the bridge, but I could get a run of fish together and also no matter where I tried along the far bank at 2 or 3ft I only managed those 3 Rudd, it was a really bad day
I was hoping that the others in the team had fared better, sadly this was not the case and we all suffered a bad match. Phil was our best performer with 29lb getting 7 section points. Alan caught 16lb for 9 points and Jon had 19lb for another 10 points. Leaving us in last position with a total of 36 points from 40 and already a little way behind the next team above us. Guru and Garbolino Elton tied first place with 11 points, well done to those guys.
After the match our discussion centred around what could have affected our poor returns. The weather had changed in the couple of days leading up to the match, very mild for mid November, being replaced with colder winds, rain and hail, as well as strong winds. On the day the weather was not too bad, wind was not as strong as expected, but the rain was persistent when it started. All these factors affect the fishes behaviour in one way or another. Most of the good weights came from anglers who managed to catch the new stock fish, as these tend to stay close to where they were introduced and usually respond to pellet fishing. Whereas to catch the established fish it is mainly maggot fishing. We also felt that our draw was not very good, several pegs were really up against it.
So all in all it was not the start we expected and hopefully we will have better luck in the remainder of the competition. The only way is up.
The next hard part is picking a team for the next match, I had already suggested that we drop the worst points scorer in order to give those interested a chance in fishing, but the first match result has put a right spanner in the works. The initial feeling between those that fished the first match is to keep the team the same as they are the most experienced on the venue and hopefully we cannot do any worse. So I have a bit of a dilemma to solve before the next match.
At present my gear has just about dried out from the weekend and I am hoping to fish the Sunday open at Partridge. Unfortunately the weather gods are doing us no favours by forecasting cold air sweeping down the country over the weekend, but need to keep going. The league matches are every 2 weeks, so I will update after each match.
Thanks for reading, tight lines.
After what seems like a long wait the Partridge Lakes Winter League has started. The previous week I fished the Sunday open drawing peg 61 on Covey 3. Previous results had this as a good area with a lot of water to go at being opposite the end of the spit and having more open water to the right. I set up usual rigs of bread dobbing, 2ft pellet rig, 3ft maggot/pellet rig and a maggot rig for the deep water at 5-6metres. Started on the bread rig about 4 inches off bottom, managed 1 small F1 from here at the start, but no more bites after that. So next tried the 3ft swim slightly to the left with double maggot. This was the best line from which I caught most of the fish. Fishing in the track towards the end only produced 3 or 4 fish. I ended the match with 19 fish for 35lb 12oz. I was the last peg in the section and was lucky enough to win the section by a good margin as the pegs in the 50's did not produce. In hindsight I should have fished a line more towards the open water to my right. During the match and especially at the end a lot of fish were topping in the area between the end of the spit and the open water. If peg 75 at the end of the spit had been used in the match those fish would have been pushed back towards me. As it is the fish moved into an area with less angling pressure on the day. Mid 40lb would have seen me get in the top 6 so maybe I could have caught some fish to the right instead of expecting the track line to work.
So on to the winter league. Since starting to organise our team for this league there has been a lot of interest from the POHAS members wishing to fish it. So trying to whittle down nearly 10 names to a team of 4 was a bit tricky. So team for the day was myself, Alan Lamb, Phil Clare and Jon Green, this was based on those who had been fishing the venue most and having some success with section wins and frame placings. At this time of the year and into the rest of winter it is really important to keep attending the venue to stay in touch with good pegs and methods.
I carried out the draw which gave Phil on peg 1, Covey 1, Jon on 46 Covey 2, Alan peg 56 Covey 3 and myself on peg 96 Covey 4. From our draw we were pleased with Phil's peg and we had Jon on the spit on Covey 2. The spit usually fish well as the water is more sheltered from the weather and the fish move into these areas when the weather gets worse. Alan's peg expected to struggle as he had fished 57 a couple of weeks ago and it was not very good. My peg was also a bit of an unknown, although I was next to a bridge the pegs on the spit in my section were expected to fish a lot better.
Again for this peg I set up the usual rigs, bread dobbing, pellet rig for across, 3ft maggot and track rig for maggot again. Plumbing up showed that the depths along the far bank varied a lot and it was difficult finding a flat area to fish to. I fished a maggot line to the right in the deep water and next to the bridge again in the deepest water. I started on bread against the far bank grasses. I did expect to catch here as it looked like somewhere some fish would be holding up. However I did not get any bites on this. Meanwhile Shaun Cooke on my right started to catch some of the recently added stock fish close to the nearside margin, so I tried an expander feeding a few micros next to the near bank rushes, from this I only managed a small F1. It was a very slow start and I don't need to go into much detail as my match never really picked up from there. I caught 3 small Rudd on maggot across and a couple more better size F1's from the maggot lines to end the match with a very disappointing 5lb 11oz. With such a low weight I got what I expected and was last in the section of 10. After the weigh in I was told by several other anglers that my peg had been poor in recent matches, but I did not think it would be 5lb poor. I expected to catch fish under the bridge, but I could get a run of fish together and also no matter where I tried along the far bank at 2 or 3ft I only managed those 3 Rudd, it was a really bad day
I was hoping that the others in the team had fared better, sadly this was not the case and we all suffered a bad match. Phil was our best performer with 29lb getting 7 section points. Alan caught 16lb for 9 points and Jon had 19lb for another 10 points. Leaving us in last position with a total of 36 points from 40 and already a little way behind the next team above us. Guru and Garbolino Elton tied first place with 11 points, well done to those guys.
After the match our discussion centred around what could have affected our poor returns. The weather had changed in the couple of days leading up to the match, very mild for mid November, being replaced with colder winds, rain and hail, as well as strong winds. On the day the weather was not too bad, wind was not as strong as expected, but the rain was persistent when it started. All these factors affect the fishes behaviour in one way or another. Most of the good weights came from anglers who managed to catch the new stock fish, as these tend to stay close to where they were introduced and usually respond to pellet fishing. Whereas to catch the established fish it is mainly maggot fishing. We also felt that our draw was not very good, several pegs were really up against it.
So all in all it was not the start we expected and hopefully we will have better luck in the remainder of the competition. The only way is up.
The next hard part is picking a team for the next match, I had already suggested that we drop the worst points scorer in order to give those interested a chance in fishing, but the first match result has put a right spanner in the works. The initial feeling between those that fished the first match is to keep the team the same as they are the most experienced on the venue and hopefully we cannot do any worse. So I have a bit of a dilemma to solve before the next match.
At present my gear has just about dried out from the weekend and I am hoping to fish the Sunday open at Partridge. Unfortunately the weather gods are doing us no favours by forecasting cold air sweeping down the country over the weekend, but need to keep going. The league matches are every 2 weeks, so I will update after each match.
Thanks for reading, tight lines.
Sunday, 1 November 2015
Partridge Lakes.
Hi all.
After some disappointing matches on the River Mersey I decided to have a go at Partridge Lakes on a more regular basis.
I was hoping to get a better feel of the tactics required and catch some bigger weights.
View of peg 67 Covey 3. I fished here at the end of September and just missed out on a section win by 2oz!!!
In summary I still cannot get my head around fishing shallow with maggot or caster, and as a consequence during the warmer months my weights were low in comparison to the anglers who are good on this method. There are other methods to try but I struggled in the main. I have managed 2 section wins from peg 14 and 103, so sometimes I got it partly right.
Club matches with POHAS have been a little poor as well. We have traveled to some venues with good reputations but returns have been poor. My best performance was ironically at Partridge lakes catching 53lb of F1's and small carp on pellet to finish second off peg 167 Covey 6. As always the days out the POHAS bunch are a good laugh, the fishing always comes second.
As I write this at the beginning of November, although it has been mild for the time of year the weights on Partridge have started to decrease and shallow rigs are being put away for next year.
I fished the open today drawing peg 120 on Covey 5, not fished this area before but set up the usual rigs. 1 rig for dobbing bread, a pellet rig and 2 maggot rigs one for fishing at 3ft and the other for down the middle.
Covey 5 and 6 are newer lakes than 1-4 so therefore the fish are generally a bit smaller. With this in mind I did not expect to catch on bread, but the peg did have plenty of grasses and reeds on the far bank so I might get a few. I used a 6mm punch set 3 inches off the bottom. I caught 2 F1's on this, but after a while no matter which area I tried I did not get any bites. Next up was pellet set at 2 foot deep against the far bank sedges again after 2 quick fish this line died off as well. So it was time for maggot, fishing at 3ft with 10 metres of pole just to the right. After feeding 4 maggots I started to get bites and began catching a few. Not at any great pace but enough to keep going. I was missing bites as well.
I had been feeding maggots down the middle via a small pot every 20-30 minutes since the start and after 3 hours with 19 fish in the net I had a look here. After a couple of minutes I got my first fish again a small F1. Following this I caught quite well feeding just under half a kinder pot of maggots after every other fish. As per normal I missed a few bites and finished the match with 40 fish (38 F1's + 2 chub) for 32lb 12oz. This was second in the 5 peg section which was won with 44lb off peg 117. Generally speaking the fish I caught were on the small side, but that's how it goes.
In a couple of weeks time POHAS will be starting the Partridge Lakes teams of 4 Winter League. We have managed a few more visits between us lately so we are better prepared than last year and although up against some really good Partridge regulars we are hoping to finish better than last years last place.Also this year we have had more interest from the club members who want to be part of the team, which is great news but does make picking a team a bit more difficult.
Tight lines.
After some disappointing matches on the River Mersey I decided to have a go at Partridge Lakes on a more regular basis.
I was hoping to get a better feel of the tactics required and catch some bigger weights.
In summary I still cannot get my head around fishing shallow with maggot or caster, and as a consequence during the warmer months my weights were low in comparison to the anglers who are good on this method. There are other methods to try but I struggled in the main. I have managed 2 section wins from peg 14 and 103, so sometimes I got it partly right.
Club matches with POHAS have been a little poor as well. We have traveled to some venues with good reputations but returns have been poor. My best performance was ironically at Partridge lakes catching 53lb of F1's and small carp on pellet to finish second off peg 167 Covey 6. As always the days out the POHAS bunch are a good laugh, the fishing always comes second.
As I write this at the beginning of November, although it has been mild for the time of year the weights on Partridge have started to decrease and shallow rigs are being put away for next year.
I fished the open today drawing peg 120 on Covey 5, not fished this area before but set up the usual rigs. 1 rig for dobbing bread, a pellet rig and 2 maggot rigs one for fishing at 3ft and the other for down the middle.
Covey 5 and 6 are newer lakes than 1-4 so therefore the fish are generally a bit smaller. With this in mind I did not expect to catch on bread, but the peg did have plenty of grasses and reeds on the far bank so I might get a few. I used a 6mm punch set 3 inches off the bottom. I caught 2 F1's on this, but after a while no matter which area I tried I did not get any bites. Next up was pellet set at 2 foot deep against the far bank sedges again after 2 quick fish this line died off as well. So it was time for maggot, fishing at 3ft with 10 metres of pole just to the right. After feeding 4 maggots I started to get bites and began catching a few. Not at any great pace but enough to keep going. I was missing bites as well.
I had been feeding maggots down the middle via a small pot every 20-30 minutes since the start and after 3 hours with 19 fish in the net I had a look here. After a couple of minutes I got my first fish again a small F1. Following this I caught quite well feeding just under half a kinder pot of maggots after every other fish. As per normal I missed a few bites and finished the match with 40 fish (38 F1's + 2 chub) for 32lb 12oz. This was second in the 5 peg section which was won with 44lb off peg 117. Generally speaking the fish I caught were on the small side, but that's how it goes.
In a couple of weeks time POHAS will be starting the Partridge Lakes teams of 4 Winter League. We have managed a few more visits between us lately so we are better prepared than last year and although up against some really good Partridge regulars we are hoping to finish better than last years last place.Also this year we have had more interest from the club members who want to be part of the team, which is great news but does make picking a team a bit more difficult.
Tight lines.
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