Another session on the Chop


After having a great result fishing chopped worm and caster, I decided to go back again and see if I could have another good netful of silvers. It was only going to be a quick after school session, around 3 hours fishing time. There was no time to loose, I wheeled my gear to a nice looking spot and quickly set-up my things. I only set-up 1 top kit today, I used 0.11-0.10 line high-tech line. The hook was a 16 red maggot hook and float was a SPRO pencil style float in a .3 size. The elastic was a 6 hollow which had a pulla bung attached. I started off the session buy putting a nugget of mole hill, casters and chop worm in a small pole pot, I cupped that out and I was ready to get started.

I hooked on half a dendrobaena and got fishing, it was a surprisingly slow start, I had not had a bite for 10 minutes. I finally got a bite and managed to put a 8oz roach in the net, after this it was a bite a chuck, fish ranging from 4-6oz but a couple a bit bigger. I plugged away at it trying to get a better fish.....I finally got a good bite, I lifted and the elastic poured out the pole, I thought it was a carp. I got to the top kit only to see it was a 1lb roach, what a lovely fish.

 The next drop in resulted in a 10oz skimmer, after that the swim started fizzing, it was obvious that the better fish had moved in over the chopped worm and had bullied the small fish out. I put a big chunk of worm on the hook and sat on it, the float lifted flat I was in to a big fish. The elastic was about 12m out but I didn't let that worry me, as I was on a soft elastic with a pulla bung, I could ship in nice and quick and pull lots of elastic out of the bung so it was probably now the strength of a 12-14 elastic. After a 5 minute fight on 6 elastic, I had a 4lb carp in the landing net. I put that straight back into the water as I didn't want to put a big carp on top of silver fish.



 The next few drops resulted in 3 10oz Crucian carp. The fish were feeding very well but we only had 20 minutes of light left. There was no time to loose so I got out again only to hook another big fish. The elastic poured out the pole at the start but when I got down to my top kit he finally realised it was game over. This was a beautiful Tench of about 2lb. I dropped in again and I could not believe it, my elastic was flying out again. This was another Tench but only 1lb this time.
Unfortunately, the light was getting the better of us so it was time to pack up and weigh the fish. The Roach, Skimmer, Crucians and Tench went to 12lb 10oz, the carp was 4lb so that make a total of 16lb 10oz. What a great session on the chop!



 

Chop vs. Slop
What's Better??


Tuesday evening we popped down to a local club lake to see what was better, paste and pellets (man made) or chopped worm and caster (natural). I fished 2 lines both at 8m, my paste line was down in the margins and the chopped worm line was right in front of me in the deeper water. I decided to start off the session using paste, the paste was a soft paste, it was stiffer than what I usually use because there are lots of 1 oz rudd that will soon knock the paste of the hook. The paste was made out of Bait-Tech Special 'G' Green, the pellets I were 2mm Bait-Tech Premium feed pellet. I set the timer for 3 hours and then we were off.

 I quickly cupped a small pot-full of slightly soaked 2mm pellet where I was going to be fishing and them moulded a golf ball sized ball of paste around my 12 hook. I put that in the pot on the end of my pole and shipped out, I dropped the paste in and it immediately got hammered by small Rudd, it finally got down to the bottom.

 The paste dotted my float perfectly, 5 minutes later the float was gone and the elastic was screaming out the end of the bending pole, I was on 13 hollow elastic, the line was 0.16 so I was confident nothing would break.
I steadily played the fish in, it was now a fight on the top kit. A couple of minutes later I had a beautiful 3lb Common carp looking a little bit angry in my net.
 Half way through the paste session I had caught 4 carp ranging from 2lb to 3lb.



 The fishing was slowing right down, I carried on and put another ball off paste in my pot and got it out there again. The float flew under and an angry carp was screaming through the Lilly pads to my right. Shortly...he was out but my float was ruined. The stem was snapped in half, the body was not attached to the stem any more, no bristle and a ripped eye...this float was beyond repair.

 I managed to land the fish, it was only about 2lb! unbelievable after the battle it gave me.
I took the float off and just free lined paste on my pole, the bites were very aggressive they were pulling my pole tip under water! I had a few more fish but then unfortunately my 3 hours was up I counted 7 carp which would have probably weighed......18lb I would say. My dad thought I had 18lb as well. So 18lb for the man made baits now its time to fish natural.



Firstly I plumbed up at 8m so that I was just off bottom, I then chopped up some worms into a bait box, threw in a handful of casters and then added 2 handfuls of mole hill to get the bait down to the bottom quickly before the Rudd could get to it, I cupped in 1 pot-full, then ripped the top off a dendrobaena worm and the 3 hours stated!

 First drop resulted in 4 oz roach, so did the second. The 3 fish stretched the 6 elastic a little bit more. I played it in gently and slipped the net under it. A beautiful 12oz roach. The fishing slowed down so I cupped in some more mush using a tiny cad pot. I was now catching good sized, 6oz Roach, every put in Until........the float dipped under, I lifted and a nice amount of 6 elastic came out, I thought it was a Crucian carp. Then I saw a flash of silver, it came up to the surface and I saw it was a big Roach of 1lb 1oz, not a monster but very good for this lake.

 I got out there again and the float immediately flew under and it was another Roach pushing 1lb.  I steadily started catching roach, not as big as the other 2, but still fish to about 12 oz. It went all quiet, my swim started fizzing, I dropped a worm down there and I hooked into what was obviously a carp, Over 15m of 6 elastic came out until it pinged. I was lucky.....the carp didn't smash me up!
 The swim went dead, I tried putting in another big pot-full of chopped worm, caster and mole hill but it was still quiet.
It was fizzing but they wouldn't pick up my worm.

 I decided to put a single caster on to my 18 hook. 5 minutes later the elastic peeled out... I thought I had hooked a small carp, but no...It was a strangely hard fighting skimmer. I had fished this lake religiously for 2 years and never hooked a skimmer, first time fishing caster and chopped worm and I've got one... Incredible ! This skimmer was pushing 1lb.
 I decided to try caster again, another hard fighting skimmer.....well over 1lb this time. Next drop in, another infact I had caught 5 healthy skimmers all about 1lb on the trot! Unfortunately, they moved on, I only had 40 minutes left now, I had caught lots of big roach and was already into double figure weights of silvers.


As the fishing slowed down, I put a worm on to see if I could sneak out a bigger fish or two... 10 minutes later I had a bob on the float, then it slid away, it was a lovely 1lb Crucian. The next 2 put ins resulted in the same, after a couple more roach we were into the last 2 minutes. I quickly put a whole worm on to see if I could get a big perch, with 30 seconds left to go, my pole was nearly taken out of my hands, my 6 elastic was stretched to the max....my heart was beating as my alarm clock went off.... I had 15 minutes to play it in.

 After a while, I could finally get to my top kit, luckily I had a pulla bug so I pulled a load of 6 elastic out and now had a bit more control, with 3 minutes to go, the carp came to the surface and went to make another dive, I took a lucky scoop and lifted the net up to see if he was there. YES!!. He was in !, it was a nice Carp of around 5lb, it was good fun on 6 elastic. I took the hook out and put it back. The session was over.
So....How did the natural baits perform, I probably had 10lb of roach, 5lb of skimmers, 3lb of Crucians and that 5lb carp. That makes 23lb!

Overall the results were:
 Man Made baits (Slop)- 18lb
Natural Baits (Chop)- 23lb

Overall I enjoyed fishing light tackle for silver fish more than catching carp on paste, I also like the feeling of uncertainty when you do hook a big fish on light tackle. Just proves you don't always need to catch carp on man made bait like pellet, paste or boilies to have a good day out.
I will certainly be back again to see what happens in round 2 of chop vs. slop!

 

Pole Fishing on the River Thames

We decided to take a trip to my local stretch of the River Thames, the river has been fishing hard at the minute but I decided to give it a go. When I arrived, it was very windy, unbelievably windy. It still didn't put me off fishing! We walked up the river until we found a nice low quiet spot were I could jump down in to the water with my box to save me having to use another 2 sections of pole. I quickly set up 1 top kit. I used a 6 elastic, 0.10 main line to an 0.09 hook length. As the river was very slow, I used a 1g SPRO Walter Serie float, a 1g float is perfect for shy biting fish in slow flowing rivers.

  If the river was fast I would have used a 3g or even bigger, the hook was a size 18 B520 and bait was single bronze maggot. The shotting pattern on my rig was an 0.8 gram olivete, then I had 13 no.13 shots spaced evenly so the bait would sink very slowly.
I started off by feeding 1kg of Bait-Tech Mantra, 1kg of Brown Crumb and 1kg of Mole hill to help the bait bomb down to the bottom into my swim without getting disturbed, I added 2 pints of hemp and half a pint of bronze maggots into the mix. I balled this in around my float.

I dropped my float in a had 2 dace in about 2 minutes. My swim was already full of dace but nothing of any size. I stuck with it for 30 minutes and managed to catch some small dace, I then started "pinging" hemp and maggots around the float via catapult. I was now having to net some fish, dace to about 6 or 7oz, my best fish was a nice perch.
Later on in the session I caught some more nice fish including a couple of Bleak. It was a fantastic 3 or 4 hour session and I weighed in 4lb 6oz.

  
What a day, I really enjoyed my self and learnt a lot.
Here is a YouTube video of the session.......


 

Angling Trust Junior National Championships on the Trent and Mersey Canal
2 day crash coarse in canal fishing
Having never really fished a canal I was a little shocked when Colin Dance from Maver Farnborough asked me to fish for them, 2 weeks prior to the match we travelled up to Derby for a 2 day practice which could only be described as a crash coarse in canal fishing, after the 2 practice sessions with some of my team, Farnborough Juniors, I had a rough idea on how to fish the canal, but by no means an expert.
Tactics
 The tactics were very simple, fish 0.08 mainline to 0.06 hook lengths, there were very few fish bigger than 2oz so this would be fine, the hooks were size 22 and the floats were Fox Match MP6 4x10. We would set up 3 lines all with No 2 elastics, one for the inside shelf, one for the far shelf and another slightly longer. On all of these lines we fished red squat and pinkies and fed a few balls of groundbait.

When we arrived at the canal, I was shocked to see the amount of people. There must have been at least 70 anglers 13+, I was one of the youngest there. I had been told by Colin Dance ,team coach, that I need to try and get as high up in my section as it scored points for the team, my aim was to get in the top 3, that wouldn't be easy as there were some superb anglers.
John......I mean Tom "team captain" told me that I was in E section....one of the worst sections running alongside a main road.... Great!! After the draw we had a short drive to find the section car park, we finally got there, unloaded and pushed our gear up the long narrow road to the canal entrance...., when we arrived the steward told us we were at F section.

 We pushed all of the gear back along the road and got in the van and set off to E section....., it wasn't long until we were there. I was now 1 hour into the 2 hours setting up time, I had done most of my preparation days before so it didn't take me long at all to get everything ready.
I was luckily enough to have been given lots of advice from people so my confidence was reasonably high, and for some reason I had no sign of nerves.
We had 10 minutes left to set up, in that 10 minutes, Barry phoned me wishing me good luck. I have learnt so much from Barry Parker, he has helped me improve my match fishing so much over the last 2 years.


The Match
After a short chat...were were "all in", I started the swim off by cupping 1 ball of groundbait on my long line and 2 in the near and far shelf. I then put a red squat on my inner shelf rig and had look there, straight away I was catching the odd small 1/4 oz-1/2oz roach, perch and Gudgeon and a few tiny fish which were impossible to identify. My plan was to catch fish on the inner shelf for 1 hour and then go to the far shelf. I had caught 12 fish on that inner shelf in the hour so now it was time to have a look on the far shelf.

The float bombed under and my two elastic poured out, bonus fish are so rare....I kept thinking if I could land this it would put me right up there. After a slow fight, I stood up with the top kit in the air and slipped the net under a 1lb Bream. YES!!! I thought, I knew I was on my way to my target. The next put in resulted in a Gudgeon but nothing else, I cupped in a more balls of groundbait.
 I started catching the odd smaller fish throughout the middle of the match but not enough. I now had just over an hour left and had had about 16 small fish and that bonus bream. I knew I need 1 more bonus fish to compete for the section. After thinking that, I shipped out with a single red squat and the float slipped under and would you believe it, my 2 elastic shot out the end of the pole and I had another healthy 12oz bream. I definitely was in the top 3 in my section now I was told that somebody in the fox match team had been bagging up on silvers.

In the last hour I only had 2 more silvers. I had to feed a lot to get the bigger fish, 2KG of groundbait and 1pint of molehill.
The whistle was blown and we were now doing the weigh in, 700grams was winning so far and I was sure I had more than that. It was me now, I pulled in my fish and weighed in a good canal net of 950grams (about 2lb in real money).
After 3 more people had weighed in, I found out I had won my section. I was over the moon, I had been told that winning your section on this level was an amazing achievement...especially with only 2 days canal practice.

I was told that I came 10th overall, 2 places off qualifying for the junior fisho final. I was still really pleased and to top that off, I had full points for Farnborough who came 3rd overall.
What a day, I will never forget it.




Thanks to everyone
Thanks a lot to everyone all the members on Simple Match fishing Forum, Tony, Barry Parker, Ramzi King, Adrian from Harefield Tackle and Mick ( Intertype Bailiff) and especially Colin Dance for helping me out and giving me lots of advice to help me get the result I did.
 

Marlow Angling club John Hester memorial junior match March 11th 2010



Today was the day of the Marlow angling club John Hester Memorial Match, could I win it for the second year running? I was really excited about the match although the lake was only 10" deep in places and very peggy... I had a few secret tricks up my sleeve which I was desperate to try.
The lake welcomed 13 keen under 16's and wasn't long until the draw got under-way, and guess what, I didn't have a great draw.. peg no.2.
At first I was sure I couldn't win from this peg but I was determined to work my socks off.

At the start of the match, I filled my small pole mounted feed cup with a mixture of 1mm-4mm pellet , slightly soaked, to hopefully "feel my way" into the swim. I looked around and saw exactly what I wanted to see.....Everybody was cupping out big pot full's of bait. Now I new I had a chance....I knew that in this lake the fish back right off of heavy feed and would possibly kill their swims for up to 2 hours. I started of catching the odd 4oz skimmer, I had 10 in the first half hour while everybody else had 1 or 2 tiny roach. I plodded away feeding a a pinch of pellet every 4 put ins and finally the Carp moved in. I now was catching the odd small carp every 10 or so minutes. The next hour they were coming quick, mirror, common and Crucian carp from 4oz to just under 2lb. I was constant and catching steadily during the middle of the match.
In the last hour, it slowed down, and I was back to catching skimmers regularly but couldn't find the carp, which had possibly moved on to the heavy feed area's.

 After 4 hours, the whistle was blown and I counted 35 small carp and some silvers which I believed would be enough to frame.
Everybody said that Callum the guy on the other side of the island (which I couldn't see) had won with a massive net of fish, I was pleased how things went I maintained a steady work rate and kept myself to myself throughout the match!....not giving to much info away in a match has been another valuable lesson I have recently learned.



I was 3rd to weigh in, I pulled in my net and there was an uncomfortable silence, I had just over 22lb, Callum was the last to weigh so I had a long wait, after everyone weighed in I had won by 3lb, which was a pleasant surprise.
 I was very happy, especially as I have won this trophy for 2 years on the trot.
I really enjoyed my day and can't wait until the Junior national later this month.... Those tricks definitely did the business (thanks to Colin Dance) and a massive well done to Callum who fished an excellent match !.

    

New Baits from Bait-Tech
In this session I decided to test out 2 new baits from Bait-Techs N-Tice range. These baits were the N-Tice Pollony Luncheon Meat and the N-Tice Meaty Mix Groundbait. I decided to punch the Luncheon meat and put it on a hair rig, the groundbait was light and fluffy.
The tackle I was was a SPRO Inspiration 10ft Picker Rod matched up with a SPRO Dragmaster E-Class reel. The method was a simple cage feeder which had 2 float rubbers on the line above and below the feeder, this is so the fish hook themselves against the weight of the feeder acting as a "safe" bolt rig. The hooklink was 0.15 which is about 4lb and I had a size 14 hook with a long hair rig.

 

Before I connected the hook link I cast the feeder and groundbait out 7 times in the same spot to get a bed of bait down to hold the fish, after that, I was ready to fish!
I attached the hook link on and hair rigged a piece of punched meat, after about 20 minutes, the rod tip slowly pulled round. I struck and hooked into what I knew was a large Bream. After a slow sluggish fight, I netted the fish....A lovely Bream of about 8lb. I was more than happy with the result as I thought it would take longer than that for the fish to settle on the bait.

 
I cast out again and a short time later I had another bite!!!
 I had a fin perfect little 3lb Common Carp in the net. The luncheon meat had a strong smell combined with the meaty mix groundbait so the fish found it easy to target my bait.
After another short wait, I finally had another bite, this one nearly pulled my rod of the rest!! It screamed of all around the lake, I knew it was a small fish but it didn't know when to give up....Just as I began to gain control...the hook pulled and I lost the fish right at the net. It looked like a Wild Carp of about 5lb. After that we called it a day and packed up, I really enjoyed the session and thought the new baits from Bait-Tech performed very well.

 

To watch videos of this session, click these links.........Bait-Tech review-Part 1......Bait-Tech Review-Part 2.......
 

A great day slapping!
It was early afternoon and we decided to have a go slapping on the pole at a local commercial fishery.......Bray Field Lake. My tackle was so simple.....19 hollow elastic, 0.19( 8lb ) high-tech line straight through to a size 16 hook with a hair rigged bait band, the bait was a 6mm white pellet.
The idea of slapping is to gently tap the water with your pole tip and mimic pellets hitting the water, this is such a fun method but after a while tires you out.
Once I was set-up, I had my first put in, seconds later my pole flew under the water and the elastic shot out- After a short fight a small carp slid into the landing net. The second put resulted in the same thing... the third was a slightly better fish of around 2lb.



1 hour into the session I was getting a small Carp every drop, but then...............The pole flew under the water and nearly shot out of my hand, this was a much better fish. I was sure this was one of the resident beasts, they get up to over 30lbs in this lake! The fish felt well over 15lb... I carefully tried to ship back but......snap....0.19 line snapped like cotton! I was well and truly gutted!

I got out again hoping the better fish had moved in but I was wrong, the small carp kept taking the pellet. Oh well, it was still great fun!
Unfortunately, we had to pack up and go home as this was only going to be a short session. What a great session slapping!!




Watch the pole tapping action here !! Pole tapping for Carp
 

My Pairs Match at Wood Lane fisheries.
On Wednesday 14th April I had arranged to have a Junior and Adults Pairs Match, what a result it was. The wind was very strong making the fishing difficult but everyone had a great time and managed to catch some nice Skimmers and Carp.
 14 people arrived early in the morning and got ready for the draw, nobody knew what peg the match would be won from as the fish move around throughout the day.
The methods that everybody fished were the pole and pellet for skimmers and the Pellet waggler and method feeder for Carp. A couple of us struggled for a fish!, while others were bagging from the start.


Results:
Individual Adult Winners-1st-Nigel Parkes (SPRO) with 42lb 10oz 2nd-Steve Pratt with 40lb 3rd- John Raff 35lb
Individual Junior Winners-1st- Bradley Gibbons with 39lb 2oz 2nd-Harry with 33lb 4oz 3rd-Mike 17lb 4oz
Pairs Winners- 1st-Bradley Gibbons and John Raff with 74lb 2oz 2nd-Harry and Pete with 58lb 4oz 3rd-Mike and Steve with 57lb 4oz.

Many thanks to Nigel Parkes from SPRO/Cralusso for helping out on the day and giving out prizes to all the juniors.
Also, well done Brad Gibbons for winning the Pairs and individual Juniors, you fished very well matey.

Nigel Parkes from Spro awarding Bradley his well deserved prize
 

My new PB Carp on the Slop
After Lunch we decided to spend a couple of hours at a club lake which has not been fishing to great. In fact, a month or so ago, I even blanked on Bloodworm and Joker there! I've heard 1 or 2 bream were coming out of the far bank but that peg was taken. After speaking to everyone on the lake, they said it was fishing bad and nobody had caught much. I decided to fish a small snaggy peg for big bream as one of the anglers was just packing up and leaving it vacant. The bream get large in this lake and I've had them into double figures but the Carp average 3lb with none really bigger.
My methods were fairly straight forward, a self cocking hand made float, 0.17 line straight through and a size 12 B911 hook, the elastic was 19 hollow. I was going to use my favourite bait, my sloppy paste! To fish paste you need to plumb up exact to the millimetre so that the paste is dead bottom. It is also important to have a float with a long bristle so that you can see lift bites.
I was going to start of by fishing my top two's down by the reed bed and feeding 1 or 2, 4mm pellets by hand.
After 1 hour, my float finally shot under and a fat 15lb mirror came strait to the surface, looked at me and then slowly surged away in no rush at all. The sheer weight and power of it was incredible and no matter how hard I tried to get him in the net, he just swam away with out trying. My 19 elastic was slowly tarring out of my pole and was shooting to the reeds, I could feel my elastic bung creaking as it set harder into the pole, .
 A few minutes later it buried his head in the reeds so I was now fighting a massive carp and a few reeds!, then the pole feeding pot elastic snapped and came off the top... This was so scary as I really didn't want to loose the incredible creature. This was one of the monsters that I had heard rumours about but had never seen! After 10 minutes it was tiring and I slowly brought him to the net but one slow flick of the tail and he powered of again. He surfaced again and took a gulp of air. In the bag!!! He was a massive mirror Carp with a beautiful scale pattern.
My dad ran round the lake to try and find some scales and luckily enough, a very kind guy let us borrow some and a weigh sling. The fish went just under 14lb and it is a new personal best.
What a result!!!!

 

To watch the full story, click on this link........Massive Carp on the slop........
 

My Paste fishing Guide

Making the paste:
I decided to go to a small club water to make a video on how to use sloppy paste and catch well on it, Everyone has their own idea on how to make paste, this is how I like to use it for pole fishing.
 This method is taken from one of the great Andy Findlay video's on how I make paste, he has been a great inspiration to me and one of my top all time anglers
 Firstly "over soak" 1-4mm pellets until it turns into a sloppy horrible mixture... Then add even more water to the bank.
 After half an hour the paste should have a consistency of porridge and look a little bit like this............


Sloppy paste have confidence in your approach

Feeding and Accuracy:
When fishing with paste it is important to use a paste pot, I make mine out of bottle lids, they do the job perfectly.  I like to half fill the pot with small pellets which the paste is made out of every so often to keep the fish looking for sloppy pellets which are now my paste. It is also good if you can fish to a marker in the margins as paste is a great method of catching big fish and the bigger fish are usually close in.


4mm pellets before the paste                                                           Fish to a feature and keep the float still

The theory:
It is important to take your time when shipping out.
Once you get to your spot, turn the pole pot and your sloppy paste and pellet feed will fall out, it is now really important to not move your float now. You'll find when paste fishing you usually catch fish as soon as the float settles, that means the fish are searching for your bait. It is good if you use a long bristle self cocking float so that there are no shot on the line to pull the hook out of the paste, that's why you have to plumb up perfectly. The reason why a long bristle float is good is so you can see lift bites which just means that the fish has picked your bait up of the bottom.

Bites and playing fish:
Usually, bites with paste are very good, the float either shoots up out of the water (when you bait is picked up) or shoots straight under (when the fish is aggressively taking the bait). As you are on such a soft bait, you only need to lift into the fish and the hook easily comes out of the paste and sets in the fishes mouth. Here I fished a snaggy swim tight to the margins, that is the ideal paste swim. So that meant as soon as I hooked a fish I had to pull the fish out of the snags into open water. Now you have to take your time keeping the pole low to the water. It is important to not rush things now as paste fish are usually big and it doesn't take many of them to get a good weight. As the fish are a fair size you need to use stepped up tackle, I've managed to catch Carp very near to 15lbs using this method so you have to be tackled up for them.



The Tackle:
For paste fishing you need strong tackle as bigger fish love this bait. You need big strong hooks and I leave a tag when I tie the hook, that acts as a barb for retaining the paste. As I use great big lumps of paste even for smaller fish, I would go no smaller than a 10 or 12 B911 hook. With the line I'll never go lighter than 0.15 and elastics never lighter than 12. At places with big fish ( around 7-10lb average like Rolfs Lake) I would go no lighter than Red Hydro or 19 hollow. You can't let the fish run you around in snaggy areas...In open water it is ok to work with lighter elastic.
I only use my tackle straight through for paste because it is all strong and I like to land all of the fish I hook, don't we all?

How the Paste Session went:
In the end I managed to catch 10 or so Carp to around 6lb fishing the sloppy paste at 13m, the fish turned out much bigger than what I usually catch from there on corn or pellet. I think the session went very well if I consider how it was fishing a week or so ago when I was struggling for a bite!




To watch the session and to learn some paste fishing tips, click this link........Paste fishing effectively.............

 

A great days sport fishing the long pole and pellet cone
I woke up early and got ready for a long walk to the lake. For this session I wanted to try a couple of things that I don't do enough of and hopefully make and interesting video for YouTube. These methods were the long pole at 14.5m and the Pellet cone. On both methods I was fishing Pellet and Maggot, on the pole I was going to lift and drop the bait every 15 seconds or so. Lifting and dropping the bait is vital and can be devastating on commercial Carp waters.
The tackle I was using for the Cone was so simple, I used my SPRO Inspiration picker rod and a SPRO Dragmaster E-Class. The main line was 4lb and I had an 0.11 High Tech hooklink, the hook was a size 22 which was for single or double red maggots. I used fine tackle as the biggest fish we were likely to catch was a 2lb Carp. As the water is shallow, they cannot dive down so they can only go outwards, that is why they fight so hard.

To fish the Cone you need to mix up some slightly dampened 1-3mm pellets, this allows you to have a pinch of pellets all around you hook bait... it is really important to not move the bait one you have cast out.
Moving on to my pole rigs, I had a light 4 elastic tensioned light, this is perfect for 1lb Carp and skimmers in the winter. In the summer they liven up a bit more so I like to scale up and use a no.6 or 8, it is also possible to hook a big bonus Tench in the Summer at this lake to. The rigs for the 14.5m line were 0.10 to a 0.09 hook length, the float was .1 of a gram... the hook was an 18. On my pole line I was going to be using Expanders, Bait-Techs Premium hooker Pellets and Corn for later on in the session when I get the fish feeding comfortably.

Fish to a feature always feed the exact spot                                                         slowly ship back keeping the pole low

Before I shipped out, I filled my pole mounted feeding pot with 1mm micros. When I got to 14.5m meters, I twisted the pot and my feed was accurately sprinkled in. Unfortunately it took me 20 minutes to get my first bite on the plain expander and it was only a 2oz skimmer.
 I decided to try my top two's under the holly bush and nicked 2 more skimmers of a similar size. That was no better so back out to my long swim, I lifted and dropped the bait and then....BANG! The float shot under and the elastic flew out, I had a nice 10oz Common Carp in the net. The next 3 put ins resulted in the same... they were all on the the "lift and drop" method. After that I had a bite less hour so I had a look on the cone.... immediately the tip flew round and I had a good sized Carp for this lake in the back of the net, it was probably over 1lb. After hitting the same spot for a few casts I began to get some bait down and I started getting a few more indications that fish were feeding down there. I managed to catch 3 more from that spot but I wasn't catching regular enough so I decided to have another look on the pole. It was so quiet, they were not feeding on normal Expanders or even pinkie! I knew I had to change something so I put a Bait-Tech Premium Pellet on the hook.....First drop in I had a fish and it was a very nice mirror which must have been touching the 1lb mark. After the bait change I started sacking up, it was unfortunately the last hour when I realised what bait they were on.
The fishing started to get better and better, I wish I switched to Premium Pellet's earlier, yet again these Pellets have caught me fish when other baits haven't.
My final bag:
It was know time to pull in the keepnets and have a look at my final catch, I had managed about 20 skimmers and 25 Carp for a total weight of around 25lb! It was great sport today as I was on light tackle, they didn't half stretch my 4 elastic!
 
 

To watch the complete session, click on these links....Carp on the pole part-1....Carp on the pole part-2.....Carp on the Pellet Cone

 

My First Ton
It was time to fish my first match for my new angling club, Tumbling Bay. The lake I was fishing was a lovely Reservoir called Holme Grange, the lake has depths to over 20ft!
When we arrived at Holme Grange fishery, the sun started to come out and the temperature crept up. And to top that off, some Carp were topping and enjoying the warm weather.
After admiring the lake, I went up to the car park and introduced myself to everybody. They made me feel more than welcome to be part of the club. After half an hour of talking to some new people, the draw got under way. I was 3rd to draw and got an average swim- Peg 11 on the far bank ( that was the longest walk from the car park, just my luck!)
When I arrived at my swim I saw some Carp on the surface at pole range, there were also a few topping right in the middle so I decided to fish up in the water. The methods I set up were very simple, I used my soft action SPRO Dome Gabor 12ft Pellet Waggler rod and SPRO Passion reel that was loaded with 5lb line. On this I attached a Cralusso Waggler adaptor so I could change float very quickly, the floats were Cralusso Pellet Rockets I inserted a small red flight for better casting and vision.

Cralusso rocket pellet waggler with flight attached

 The hook link was 0.16 G Line and the hook was a size 14 with a small bait band hair rigged. I also had a Grey hydro top kit set up which was again 0.16 G Line straight through with a size 16 hook with a bait band, the float was a small polly ball.
 The only bait I used was 6mm White pellets which are a great pellet for fishing shallow. As all the swims were taken, we all had to fish close to each other so that meant we couldn't fish the margins.
After getting my station tidy and having a quick coffee, the whistle went and I quickly shipped out my pole, as soon as the pellet touched the water I was into a nice fish which stretched my grey hydro to the max, unfortunately it came of but it was still a good sign. I stuck with the pole for a couple more minutes but couldn't get a touch so I decided to swap to the pellet waggler.......First cast and I was in to a Carp of about 3lb, this happened for the next 10... the fish were averaging 2-6lb!
After catching a few of the average sized fish I decided to try a bit closer in with a 5g waggler to see if the bigger fish had backed off of the loose feed.


 After putting in a small amount of feed, the float bombed under and the tip flew round.
 This was a much better fish so I took my time, after a 5 minute battle I finally got the fish to the net- A lovely fat common carp about 11lbs. I managed to catch 3 more nice doubles but then the smaller ones started to get to the bait first. At least I was still catching when others weren't.
We were now 3 hours into the 6 hour match and the fishing completely slowed down, I was now only picking up the odd fish. The reason why this was happening was because the fish refused to feed in the wind, as soon as the sun popped out for a few minutes, they went crazy again. While we all were struggling, Gavin on peg 9 was catching less fish but they were much better than the rest of ours, he had a lovely 15lber too!
It was now the last hour and the wind stopped blowing. I was now getting an average of 2-4lb carp every chuck. It looked like I was on my way to my first ever ton! All I needed to do was keep plugging at it and trying to speed up my match.
Again the fishing went slow so in the last 15 minutes I tried my close line and managed to nick another 3 fish. As I netted a fish the whistle went and the match was all over, I new I had definitely caught over 100lbs of fish. I was hoping to get a good place in the match as well. I knew 5 of us were very close.
In the end I weighed in a total of 128lb 8oz and came 4th overall, loosing out on 3rd place by only 6oz. I was very happy with the result as I wasn't to far from winning!

 

  
 

Rolf's Lake Open Match
 13/3/2010
After a couple of cold icy weeks, the weather finally warmed up and the sun started to shine. The temperature was creeping up to 10 or 11 degrees and a few carp and orfe were starting to come up to feed on bread in the nursery. The question was, would they start to move around the other pegs or stay shoaled up in peg 22 like the week before when it was won with over 220lb.... that was the peg everybody was hoping for.
Soon enough, all 8 anglers got ready to draw, we were all going to fish the far end of the big lake so we should all be in for a good session. I drew first and chose peg 26 and John Bennett second with 24.

The whistle blew and we were all in, I cast out a bomb at about 20m out and was the first to hook into a Carp. It was a big fish and felt like a high double but the hook pulled  at the net. John and Paul were both had fish at the same time and both successfully got them to the net.
I managed to redeem himself by getting a nice Carp, Paul, John and myself were all on the same tactics fishing the bomb and corn and pole and pellet which was proving very successful.

After 1 hour, everybody had managed to tempt 1 or 2 carp into their nets but a lot of the Carp hooked were unfortunately lost. I had managed to catch a nice 10lber along with Paul over on 14, John however had caught 5 carp all around the 7lb mark, some bigger some smaller. It was going very wrong on 22 with 7 carp being lost and 2 landed, it was more or less the same story on 18.

With half an hour to go John had walked away having a great result of about 8 carp, Paul and I were very close with 3 carp....each had one of about 13lb. I had lost 4 in the end and 1 was very big!

It was now the end of the match and we all gathered for the weigh in.
In the end John won the match with 66lb 4oz, Well Done John!! Paul Jay came 2nd with 33lb 8oz and I came 3rd with 31lb. Well done to everybody that fished.
 

Winter match fishing tactics at Rolf's Lake
Having struggled over the last 2 winter matches at Rolfs Lake, I decided to pay a visit for a practice session. The night before I had gathered some advice from some of the top anglers that fish there, and was determined to fish my 5 hour session exactly how I was instructed.
 The tactics were simple, my bomb rod had 6lb maxima main line, a small "modified" guru bomb and then I had a Korum quick change bead connected to an 0.15 hook length. My pole rigs were 0.17 to a 0.15 hook length, the elastic was Vespe red which  performs very much like Red-Hydro. The baits were simple, hemp, corn, expanders, pinkie, fishery pellets and caster.
After setting up I cupped out about 5 fishery pellets and a pinch of hemp and corn, this is enough to get 1 fish feeding. As I was letting my feed settle, I gave it a few chucks with my bomb rod. On the 3rd cast my tip flew round and that resulted in a nice bend in the rod and a good 10lb common carp in the net - What an excellent start ! About half an hour later I hooked my next fish, this again fancied a grain of corn.
 After a 3 minute fight I had another similar sized common in my keep net, the swim went very quiet so I decided to have a look on the pole line.



As soon as my pellet hit bottom, the float dipped under and I was in to a big lumpy fish. I didn't really fight that much and it just felt like I hooked the bottom. After a short struggle the fish surfaced and I scooped the net under it, it was a very big winter Carp probably about 13lb. The next drop in resulted in nothing and so did the next few so I decided to give up on the pole line.

When I was about 4 hours in to the session, I started to struggle for a line bite, the fishing just got worse and worse. I now had to make something happen, I decided to take the line of the clip and give it a long cast as fish have the habit of pushing away from the feed area. Straight away my rod was nearly pulled in to the water by a very aggressive fish, I played the fish carefully and tried my best to put the carp in the net. It wasn't long until the fish ran out of power, the fish came up to the surface a took a gulp of air, it was a beautiful fully scaled mirror carp of about 8lb. This was one of the prettiest fish I had ever caught.
The fishing got very hard again so I decided to try a bunch of maggots on a size 16 hook, as this was the last cast of the day I was going to sit on this line this one out until my 5 hours practice was over ( I was treating the day as if it was a match). After a long wait, my tip dropped back and my line started to slacken. I tightened up until I felt the pressure from the fish.....I was in!! I would have been playing this carp on the whistle if it was a match. The fish was only a baby of about 7lb but it may have been the match winning fish that could have pushed my bag over 50lb.
It was now the end of the session and we packed up the basics and got ready to weigh in my catch. My first attempt at pulling the fish out failed but I finally managed to get them safely up the bank and into my weigh sling. My Dad zeroed the scales and lifted up the bag.......48lb 12oz, what an amazing bag of big fish, especially for the winter! After a couple of photo's I safely returned my catch.

To watch videos of the session, click on these links.......Winter at Rolfs-Part 1.......Winter at Rolfs-Part 2...

Fantastic winter surprises.
I woke up early on Sunday morning and got ready to break some ice at a local lake, I knew it was going to be hard. My dad decided to join in with me today and have a little 3 hour silver fish match.
   
 Our rigs were pretty much the same I used 5 elastic with a small Preston connector, 0.10 to 0.08 line with a 24 hook. My float was a MAP C4 ..... my dad used a Tuff eye which is his no.1 all round float mainly because he is to tight to buy anymore.
 The main baits were Pinkie and chopped maggot but I did have some back up baits like Bait Tech Xpand Expander pellets or bread punch.

      After clearing the ice from my peg and then plumbing up......I was ready to cup out 10 chopped maggots on my main line at 10 meters (as I did that, it began to snow). Now I was ready for the first put in of the session, this did not produce a fish as I was expecting....In fact the next 5 didn't. It was actually 30 minutes into the session until I hooked my first fish and my dad has his first at the same time- 3oz roach. My dad was steadily feeding his short 7m swim by using a small Fox Match toss pot. His hook bait was chopped worm and he managed 5 in the first 1 and a half hours while I was sat there with a motionless float.
2 hours into the match my dad was ahead with 10 small roach for about 1lb while I had 2 for 4oz, I was sure I couldn't get back into this match and my dad would beat me in our first match and teach me the lesson he had been threatening me with.
 I kept positive and finally my float bombed under it was a good fish and felt like a fish of nearly a pound but as you guessed...the story of my life....It spat the hook. I lost 2 more good fish until I finally landed one of them, this was a fairly good roach which probably weighed around 10oz.

My was dad steadily bagging up on 1/2-1oz roach while I was picking up the odd good sized one. I managed another 2 roach and 2 perch which together probably weighed 1lb.
10 minutes left of the session and I could well and truly say.....I was getting trashed, I had just under 2lb in my keep-net my dad had near to 3lb in his......Time was slowly ticking and I was waiting for my phone alarm to ring but then, out of nowhere, the bristle of my float dipped under. A slight lift and I was in to what I thought was one of the only carp in the lake, I had meters of no.5 elastic shooting out of my pole tip and heading under the ice towards the weed beds. I got the fish to my top kits as a sharp, spiny dorsal fin sliced the waters surface, I saw the fish and new that is was well over 2lbs!! I scooped it up in the landing net and shouted......In the bag!!! As I was unhooking it my dad had another quick perch but my phone alarm went off. It was all over now and my dad was first to weigh in.......an impressive bag of winter silvers for 3lb 5oz. I weighed my silvers in first and they went 2lb 3oz and then the monster perch which was 100% a PB........3lb 2oz.What a lump.
After the match my dad stopped fishing and we made a short video showing the cold conditions and different methods...there is a link at the bottom of this article
This session goes to show.....It is still worth fishing in cold conditions because you can still have a great time and get some fantastic results. I will never forget the time when I landed that Perch....One of my greatest angling moments yet!



Here is a quick video of the cold winters session.......Winter angling tips for juniors........

Rolfs Lake Winter League Round 5 17/1/2010
It was Sunday morning and I was again fishing the Rolfs Winter League for Match Fishing Scene. As soon as all 17 keen anglers turned up...The draw got under way. I chose peg 23 which is a meant to be a great peg for winter fishing and yet again I had Simon sitting opposite me. The rigs that I set up were the same as the last match but early on I decided to use my Shimano Technium XT 1300 with a red hydro top kit , the rig was 0.17 powerline straight through to a 14 PR28 hook I thought the carp were possibly going to feed after the big freeze so I wanted to be prepared. If the fishing was really hard, I had a bomb rod set up with an 0.10 hook link with a 20 hook.
All of a sudden, the 'All In' was called and I cupped out a very small amount of chopped worm...then had a quick coffee and let my swim settle, I then shipped out with a grain of corn and left it out there for half an hour, occasionally bobbing the float...nothing.
 I then had a look on my silver fish line.....nothing, and then finally on my long bomb line.....nothing.


It was 3 hours into the match and very few anglers had had a bite. I had another quick look on the tip and had a bite on the drop...the fish pulled a few meters of line and then spat the hook so I tried again.....another small nudge on the line and I was in again, the line went slack as the hook hold came out. The next cast resulted in the same.....but then I finally got a good hook hold..... The clutch screamed of but my Preston Carbon Active rod managed to absorb the lunges..... It was now 5 meters in front of me and I felt it tiring, as I was about the pick up the landing net...PING!! My bomb shot out of the water as the hook was straightened. That fish felt like it a good mid double which isn't big for Rolfs, I can only assume they were foul hookers.
Mike who was next to me managed to land 2 good carp on the pole in the next 20 minutes! The odd carp were showing but they had moved out of my peg.
The final whistle was blown I was very disappointed with the outcome but knew I has done the best I could...It was very comforting to know so many other good anglers also blanked.
I would like to say thanks to Eddie for helping me out during this session. Here is his new updated blog which I think is great!!........Eddie's Rolfs lake blog

Rolfs Lake Winter League Round 4  3/1/2010
A couple of weeks ago I asked Rick from the Match Fishing Scene forum if I could fish a Rolfs Winter League round, he said I was very welcome and also mentioned that they needed another angler in the team. Match Fishing Scene also known as MFS were currently in last place because of poor attendance over the last couple of rounds. I was hoping to gain some more experience and a few points to help us climb the ladder. Rolfs Gold and Rolfs Diamond were very close and were way ahead of everyone else.
The Wednesday before the match was my practice day, which was pretty unsuccessful with gusting rain and freezing temperatures, I had 6 perch, after about 5 hours we decided to give up and go into Johns little shelter and cook up some pasties.
The set up was going to be same as match day, 0.13-0.11 and 0.11-0.10 line on my 2 rigs. They both had 4x8 Jolly floats and size 20 PR30 hooks. The elastic was white hydro which is a good all round elastic. I knew the match would be hard so I was definitely not expecting any big bags to come out.

Match day
 

We arrived at the wonderful Rolfs Lake and watched John Bennett breaking some of the ice around the pegs to make it safer. He said I would have to break the ice as soon as I got to my peg which was going to be exceptionally hard work. . Me and my team mates decided who was to fish in each section, Ron was in A, I was in B and Rick was in C. The draw got under way, I had peg 10 which in the Summer produces some big carp weights. After an hour of throwing a large brick around my swim and getting the basics ready the whistle was blown. In the first minute of the match Simon Mound was into a decent perch of over 1lb, my first fish was also a perch but this one was only 3 ounces. I had to wait over 1 hour for my next bite and this one was another tiny perch.

The day got worse because the ice was catching up on me...the only clear patch of water in my peg was quickly freezing over again, I only had one choice-fish tight down the edge. I was really struggling so I went down to a 0.6 bottom with a 26 hook and half a pinkie. Nothing!! I looked around only to see Neal Riddy playing a foul hooked 11lb 6oz mirror on his light waggler set up. My dad had a walk around to see how Ian McCullock was doing he had had a double figure carp. The day got worse and worse.

The match was approaching the end and the sun was setting... I suddenly started catching!! I lost a nice perch around 10oz but managed to land 4. I was pleased to hear that Rick and Ron had all caught and that there were a lot of people that blanked.
It was time for me to weigh in my catch- 13oz. That was enough to get me 2 points and 10th out of 18 in the match but the main thing was that I enjoyed the day.
Here is a link to the match fishing scene forum forum.....Match Fishing Scene........
 

Deadly approach for catching Winter Bream 25/1/2010
I woke up early on Sunday morning hoping that I would be able to demonstrate the 'Cone' on the match lake. When we arrived at Wood lane Fishery in Iver we saw that the car-park was full and there was a match on, I had no choice but to go on to the specimen lake. This is a harder lake and is a real challenge in the Winter. I managed to get special permission to fish this lake as the rules are over 16's only.
My skimmer set-up was slackened of white hydro with a Preston Pulla bung, 0.10-0.09 rigs with a 22 B911 hook. These rigs were strong enough to land small carp. I had been told before hand that it would be unlikely for me to hook a carp on this lake in the Winter. The baits for the day were worm, pinkie, Bait-Tech Xpand pellets, Dynamite 3mm soaked swim stim pellets, Bait-Techs feed pellets and Bait-Tech Premium pellets.

The first thing I did was cup out some chopped worm and pinkie on the short line then pinkie and 4mm feed pellets on the long line, this was enough to hold the fish.
After that I was ready to try the short line with a single pinkie......nothing, I kept positive for the next half an hour but there were no signs of any fish. I decided to have a quick look on the long line.....with in 30 seconds the float buried and I was into a good fish. I finally managed to get the fish down to my top 2's and then used the pulla bung to tighten the elastic.
 With in minutes the fish was safely in the net. This fish was a lovely 2lb F1, what a great start!!

The next put in surprisingly resulted in another 2lb fighting fit F1!!..I decided to get a tiny bit more feed out to help get the fish more confident.
After 20 minutes I was in again but this fish felt much bigger....After 4 minutes of playing it I had it under control on my top kit, the fish rose to the surface and I saw that it was a lovely F2. I played it carefully for the next couple of minutes and than I finally managed to scoop it up with the landing net. A lovely F2 carp over 3lb!!
After that short spell of which resulted in 3 carp....I could catch anything. I had not had any skimmers which was very disappointing. I only had 1 option left and that was set-up my Preston Carbonactive rod with a cone, the bait would be a hair rigged strawberry Premium Pellet. My first cast resulted in a few tiny taps and the second was a great wrap round....A small 1.8lb F1.
2 hours later
I couldn't catch any more on the cone so I went back onto the pole and pinkie.......again......nothing. When I struggle I always try using an expander pellet, so one of them went onto my hook. The float dipped under and I had my first skimmer in the bag. The next put in resulted in a lost carp, I had now found the bait they were on. I began to catch skimmers ranging from 4oz-10oz regularly. In just over 1 hour I had caught about 15 skimmers. I kept plugging away at the small bream as I was hoping the bigger ones would come later in the day.
The next bite resulted in a better fish which was stretching my elastic out a good 3ft. I was happy to see it was a big skimmer and even happier to see it in the net....A lovely Bream of about 1lb.
The fishing slowed down a lot after that and I only managed to pick up 10 more very small skimmers with another being about 1lb again, I was really happy at the amount of fish I had in these freezing cold conditions.


Here is a short video of some of the action
Catching skimmers at wood lane fishery in Iver Buckinghamshire