Partridge lakes winter league

January 21st

I have been to partridge lakes today for the second round of the individual winter league and after missing the first match because i was a bit rough due to my wife’s birthday I was always going to be up against it to make the top ten like last year ,with the weather forecast due to be shocking with snow, sleet plus an easterly wind it was never going to fish well and i couldn’t afford to miss another of the rounds , so a good draw would obviously be an advantage as there is certain areas which threw up a good weight all over the winter months , but after arriving at the fishery a bit later than usually there wasnt a great deal left to go at in the bag of doom and peg 141 covey six was going to be my home for the next few hours which wasn’t great but also not the worst in the section either so i hoped that i might be able to get a bite or two during the next five hours .

After arriving at my home for the next few hours i decided to set up the usual f1 rigs minus the Dobbin rig because i figured that i had wasted too much time trying to make it work on my matches over the colder months ;

3ft rig for fishing maggots and i used a 4×10 Md slim pattern float with a spread bulk of number eleven stotz along my 014 garbo main line , attached to it was a six-inch 010 garbo hook length with a size twenty gamma black hook .

4ft rig for fishing maggots on both far and near slopes , i used a 4×12 Md slim pattern float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern along my 014 garbo main line and attached to it was a six-inch 010 garbo hook length with a size twenty gamma black hook .

Channel rig at six meters towards my left in the deepest water that i could find and i used a 4×12 Rw maggie float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern along my 014 garbo main line and attached to it was a six-inch 010 garbo hook length with a size twenty gamma black hook .

Bait for the day was really simple ;

1 pint of red maggots

1/2 pint fluro pinkies

1/2 pint micros

small tub of 4mm and 2mm expanders just incase .

When the all in sounded i started the match by trickling in half a dozen maggots at 4ft across to my marker and after about 20 minutes i had an f1 in the net which thankfully saved the blank , a further 20 minutes passed with just a missed bite to show for it , by now the wind was gradually increasing and the snow coming down quite thickly thinking back now i probably neglected my feeding during this time because my hands were beginning to crap up a bit . When the conditions began to improve i decided to put in another swim in at the same depth a meter further to the right and i pricked a fish straight away which came off on the way in, .but after a bit of a wait I had my next f1 in the net which was slightly deep hooked so no doubt i was not seeing a lot of the bites from the f1s , I then went nearly two hours without an indication despite setting up numerous new swims in 4ft going to both extremes of my peg .

 

I made the decision to switch to my 3ft rig and I was a bit reluctant to do this as i didn’t expect the f1s to be sat in this depth of water with all the snow and rain going in , i was kind of right because although i was back catching again they was only small chub and i was just glad to be putting something in the net , i had been putting in a few maggots down the track since the match started and with the last hour fast approaching i decided to drop on it hoping that a few fish might have settled on it but i never had a sign , with the anglers towards my left catching the odd f1 across I went back on to my 4ft swim and managed two more f1’s before the all out sounded , when the scales arrived I ended up with just 7lb which beat all the angler’s towards my right but unfortunately unlike on the first round they wasn’t in my section and I ended up fourth leaving me on nine points .

Not a great day but at least I caught a few fish on a very cold days fishing and there was a few weights lower than me today , i think i ended up 5th or 6th on the lake and it’s just that i was in the section which fished the better of the three on covey six .

Cunneries fishery

January 20th

I have been to the cunneries fishery today to contest the open match and with nearly forty anglers fishing it was going to be split over the three of the lake’s , obviously a good draw would be an advantage and unsurprisingly I managed to pull out yet another end peg this time peg 26 on the S canal , but after all the recent cold rain and sleet going in over the past few days it was going to be hard work so i felt that it could be a good draw on the wrong day which was just my luck recently .

On settling in at my home for the next few hours and I set up the usual rigs, dobbin, track and 4ft.

3ft maggot rig , 4×10 Md maggie float which had an on the drop shotting pattern spread along my 014 garbo hook length and attached to it was a six-inch 010 garbo hook length .

4ft maggot rig , 4×12 Md maggie float which had an on the drop shotting pattern spread along my 014 garbo hook length and attached to it was a six-inch 010 garbo hook length .

Dobbin rig , 4×12 Md rugby ball patterned float which most of my shot under the float with two size 11 stotz spread along my 014 garbo main line and attached to it was a six-inch 012 garbo hook length .

Track rig ,4×12 Md maggie float which had a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern spread along my 014 garbo hook length and attached to it was a six-inch 010 garbo hook length .

When the all in sounded i began the match by dobbin bread towards the bridge in three-foot which was six-inch of the deck and i managed one quick f1 before I somehow managed to miss four bites on the trot, i just couldn’t work out how they wanted it despite changing depths + punch sizes and im really struggling with dobbin for some reason this winter.

Golden f1

With an hour gone and after seeing a few people catching f1’s by feeding I decided to follow suit and began trickling in a few maggots on my 4ft rig directly in front of me, after a couple of feeds I had another f1 before I foul hooked one which killed the swim and the fish were very shy which was understandably as the cold rain fell ,  i set up multiple new swims in the same depth all along the far bank and had the same problem every time as i would catch an early fish then struggle with foul hookers and my match was going pear-shaped , I then went two hours without a bite despite searching all over my peg and in desperation I kinder potted some micros in then fished maggot over the top on my original 4ft swim this got me two quick f1’s before the all out sounded , calling time on another frustrating match and for some reason this year im really struggling catching f1s which i can’t really get my head around because the last few years i have had some good results at this time of year when you need to scratch around for bites .

At the weigh in my six f1’s went just short of 9lb which was only good enough for half way on my two legs of the canal and the weights got gradually better the further you went to my right towards the car park so yet again i was on a good draw on the wrong day.

Bradshaws fishery , last round of the winter league

January 14th

I have been to Bradshaw’s fishery today for the delayed last round of my winter league and it was due to take place on lake’s 5+6 both of which I hadn’t much experience on , because i had fished lake six just once before which was a couple of years ago and i didn’t do that well on that match . Thankfully the weather had improved during the week although there was still a cold easterly wind but with the two lakes we would be fishing in a slight dip i hoped it wouldn’t be too bad , after meeting up with the rest of the lads which i had not seen since before Xmas and it turned out a few decided not to fish the match so we had 16 anglers split over the two lakes this would give us all a bit of room .

At the draw I pulled out peg 11 on lake six which didn’t mean a great deal and after the very long walk  to my home for the next few hours I decided to set up ;

6m pellet rig , after plumbing up i found just over four-foot on the crease of the lake bed were it sloped off very slightly and i used a 4×14 Md pellet float with an inch spread bulk starting above my four-inch 010 garbo hook length .

13m caster rig which i positioned at an angle towards my left in a depth of five foot and i used a 4×16 Md silver float which had a bulk plus two dropper shoting pattern , my main line was the usual 014 garbo and hook length was six-inch of 010 garbo attached to it was a size 16 guru pellet hook .

16m caster rig which was the same depth as my 13m line but i decided to use a lighter float with an on the drop shoting pattern because i felt the extra distance might enable to catch a few fish as my rig fell through the water , i used a 4×12 Md slim float and my main line was the usual 014 garbo which had a six-inch 010 garbo hook length attached .

Shallow rig just in case set at three-foot deep which was just over half depth , i used a 4×12 Md maggot float with a bulk and dropper shoting pattern spread along the 014 garbo main line which had a six-inch 010 garbo hook length attached .

Bait for the day was ;

1 pint of casters

1/2 pint dead maggots

1/2 pint micros

small tub 4mm expanders

2 pints of ground-bait black swim stim and frenzied hemp mixed 50/50

When the all in sounded I fed three balls of ground-bait mixed with 50ml of casters + dead maggots on my 13m line and started on my 6m swim while it settled , thing’s didn’t begin to well as I was bite less for thirty minutes but nobody else was catching a great deal either just the odd little roach coming out and i was thinking that i might have over done it putting too much bait in on my long line ,a switch to my 13m line after an hour and I was soon catching some small silvers with the odd better skimmer mixed in but nothing decent , it was only when I began cattying in half a dozen casters in every five minutes that I managed to drag some ide+chub into the swim and with half the match gone I had a dozen of them all around the 10oz mark.

The only trouble was that the lad’s opposite were beginning to catch f1’s so I needed to find a way of catching them if i wanted to do have a chance of framing in the match , so I went out to 16m because the only people catching f1s were fishing long and they must have been a group of fish sat in the middle of the lake , i began by kinder potting in micros mixed in a nugget of micro+black swim stim and after a while I had my first f1 , for the remainder of the match I decided to sit it out on this line catching well in spells but they wasn’t the same stamp as those angler’s facing me , at the all out I managed 19lb which was good enough for third on the lake and match behind a 23lb + 27lb .

This result consolidated my 2nd place in the overall winter league standings and I was only two points away from winning it which was more than possible if luck had gone my way on a couple of the rounds , but I had managed to pick up money on every match and caught plenty of fish along the way so all in all another enjoyable winter league.

Cunneries fishery pairs match

January 6th

I went to the cunneries fishery yesterday to contest the pair’s match which i think is a really good idea and something that other venues should look at doing because it certainly breaks the monomity of matches in the winter months , my pair for the day was my old Adlington angling captain Jordan Cameron who I fished with on the last pair’s match here were we just missed out on a top three finish so understandably we was both looking forward to it , the weather during the week had been cold+wet and on arrival to the venue the water levels were quite high plus the bright conditions would make things a bit difficult today .Unsurprisingly I was in charge of picking the pegs and I put myself on end peg 38 s canal which I would normally have been happy with but just recently all the f1s had shown on the middle part of the canal , with my mate sitting on peg eight on the old canal so not a very good draw and i have not been having a great deal of luck in the draw bag recently .

On settling in at my home for the next few hours i set up my usual rigs ;

3ft maggot rig 4×10 Md slim float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern spread along my 014 garbo main line , attached to it was six-inch 010 garbo hook length .

Channel rig towards my right were it was six-inch deeper and i used a 4×12 Md slim float Md slim float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern spread along my 014 garbo main line , attached to it was six-inch 010 garbo hook length .

4ft maggot rig 4×12 Md slim float Md slim float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern spread along my 014 garbo main line , attached to it was six-inch 010 garbo hook length .

Dobbin rig 4×12 Md diamond float Md slim float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern spread along my 014 garbo main line , attached to it was six-inch 010 garbo hook length .

My bait for the day was ;

2 pints of red and white maggots

1 pint of micros

1 pint of black swim stim ground-bait

1 slice of bread .

When the all in sounded I began the match by Dobbin bread all along the far bank reeds and for the first forty minutes I was fish less but I was getting all sorts of strange indications on the float which kept me interested , but despite changing depths+punch sizes i just couldn’t get a proper indication and it seemed there was a few fish in the area but I couldn’t work out how to catch them .With other anglers around me putting the odd fish in the net by feeding so I decided to follow suit and began trickling in a few maggots through a small kinder pot , I began in four foot towards my left about a foot away from the far bank cover and I managed a little run of fish but I must have over done it with the feed because I started foul hooking the odd fish , i tried three-foot rig which didn’t produce a bite so for the next couple of hours I set up multiple new swims in four-foot picking up a few f1’s from each but I didn’t think there was much in front of me as i had to work really hard for them , after yet another quiet spell I went long towards the left hand corner and worked all along the far bank without any success which was strange because i expected there to be a few f1s sat there out of the cold easterly wind .

I kept trying my channel  swim which i had trickled in a few maggots all through the match but i never managed a bite from it so with an hour of the contest left I finally found a couple more f1’s at 13m towards the point of the island in three-foot and I felt that I might have missed a trick not searching in that area earlier because at this time of year the fish don’t come to the bait and you need to find them but fishing at this angle it made shipping back awkward , to be honest I expected the fish to be in the deeper water due to the conditions but I never had an indication over four-foot which just goes to show you can’t turn up at a match with a pre set plan in mind as you can be made to look a bit foolish .

At the all out I had managed to catch 15 f1’s which went 21lb and this put me third in the section getting proper smashed up by the pegs in the middle of the canal who both had around 50lb but it was still a good days fishing for this time of year , Jordan had also finished third agonisingly missing out on the section and lake win by just over a pound this left us on a disappointing six points for no good . Well done to my mate John Unsworth and Shaun Welsh on the win and all the other framers , both the Leigh tackle team’s did really well in the match today as well which is hopefully a good sign for future matches .

 

My year in fishing 2017

As the year turns i always like to have a look through all my match results to see how well or badly that i have done , after deciding not to do any of the major qualifiers this time as i have usually struggled to get a day’s fishing on any of them preferring to take my chance on a few of the local festivals and team events as i had been invited to join the Daiwa Adlington squad this turned out to be a good decision for me as i managed ;

Partridge winter league individual ended up 13th with ten points from five rounds but an extra point here and there would have made all the difference .

Weston pools spring three-day festival a bad last day pushed me out of the top ten into 14th .

Cunneries spring league teams of three which was my first attempt at team fishing and Adlington ended up 4th overall .

Mossella summer league after missing two rounds i had no room for error and one bad match dropped me down to 9th .

Weston pools natural bait festival ended up joint 5th with 3 points although i tried to force my peg on the last day because i needed a good weight to make the frame which didnt really work out for me .

Cunneries autumn league teams of three were we ended up 5th .

Old Hough winter league after winning the first three matches i am now second with one round remaining but there’s only one point in it so hopefully i can pull it back next year .

 

I also did a few one-off events which i did reasonably well on ;

Cunneriers charity match win with sixty anglers contesting the event my biggest match win to date .

Golborne miners charity match win at cunneries fishery

Cunneries pairs event finished sixth overall with three points and i managed a section win .

Bradshaw’s inter club challenge i ended up third overall but the team struggled .

Partridge pairs event were we had a top 12 finish .

Angling times supercup  where i managed a section win for the 4th year running but the team got beat 4-2 .

North vs South at Tunnel barn farm i was second in my ten peg section which helped the North win for the second year running .

Hooked for heroes match on Wrightington canals were i ended up third overall .

Lloyd’s meadow interclub match i ended up fourth and the team won on the day .

In the few open matches that i managed to squeeze in during the year i had a mixed bag of results which was only to be expected on the venues that i fished , my best match was a third place finish at Partridge lakes although i was on a very good peg ;

Wins — four

Second — two

Third–four

Sections–ten

In the heart of summer i went on a good run of getting five straight ton plus weights from three different venues ;

Hall lane bessies pool on the mossella league 170lb and 103lb

Cunneries s canal 110lb and 100lb

Weston pools belvedere 100lb

Of all the matches that i have contested during this year the one which sticks in my mind the most is the open about a month ago at Partridge lakes when i just missed out on getting on the board with just twelve f1s for 17lb and i had to work really hard for every single one of them , missing a grand total of just two indications i felt that i had made the correct decisions and got the most from a very average peg which means more to me than winning any open match .

So all in all i feel that my year has gone really well for me as i am just an average angler who lacks a winning mentality but if i want to keep improving that will be something that i need to work on , my plans for next year will be very similar but i need to give myself a better chance on the festivals and leagues by doing more practice on the venues rather than trying to wing it which gives me little room for making bad choices , i would also like to thank Leigh tackle for inviting me to be part of the newly formed match group which i am really looking forward to and also everyone that has taken the time to read and like my blog because after four years it is still going strong even after the influx of blogs which have made their way onto Facebook .

Partridge lakes open match

23rd December

I have fished the partridge open match today because i wanted to try to get back in touch with the fishing before the individual winter league starts in January and after meeting up with a couple of friends all the talk when I got there was that you needed a draw on covey five to have a chance for a good days fishing because the other coveys 1-4 wasn’t producing at the moment due to the up and down weather conditions last week it was frozen solid then today was 10 degrees .It was soon time for a dip in the bag of doom and my bad run at the draw bag continues as I pulled out peg 65 on covey three not the best of areas in summer never mind at this time of year and it’s never a good sign when you get to your peg and they give you plenty of room especially when the lad towards my left didn’t turn up so there was plenty of room for the f1s to back off.

I decided to set up ;

Channel rig towards my left at six meters where the aerator used to be and after finding six foot when plumbing up i thought that this would be a really good swim , i used a 4×12 Md maggot float with a bulk plus two dropper shotting pattern and my main line was the usual 014 garbo which had a six inch 010 garbo hook length attached

Four foot rig directly in front of me but i sent up multiple swims along the far bank at this depth and i used a 0.2 Md maggot float which had a tapered bulk shoting pattern spread along the 014 garbo main starting above the six inch 010 garbo hook length .

Dobbing rig set at 4ft but would alter the depth as and when i needed to , i used a 4×12 Md diamond float which had the bulk of the shotting under the float with a couple of number eleven stotz acting as droppers along my 014 garbo main line and hook length was six inch of 010 garbo which had a size 16 guru lwg hook attached to it

Bait for the day was ;

1/2 pint of micros

1/2 pint black swim stim ground bait

1 1/2 pints of red maggots

small tub of 4mm expanders

When the all in sounded i spent the first hour of the match dobbin bread about a meter away from the island in 4ft and i worked my rig 14m either side of me with only a couple of liners to show for it, but nobody within eye shot was catching a great deal apart from the lad directly opposite on peg 58 who was catching the odd stockie so I wasn’t really that far behind . My next move was to start tapping in maggots in front of me in 4ft and after about twenty minutes i had my first fish which was a small ide at least i had not blanked , a short while  after I had my first f1 about two pounds then another small ide and I was just thinking that I might have a good run of fish but that was it from the swim , maybe i should have been a bit more patient but i decided to put in two more swims at the same depth either side of me even though i fed them both the same I only caught on the one towards my right although even then they was just small ide .

With two hours remaining I had a look on my track line and missed a bite but not long after the slightest tremor on the float resulted in a nice ghostie coming to the net but despite quite a few tries during the remainder of the contest that was the only fish I caught from that swim, i tried putting in a new line in front of the platform to my left and after trickling in a few maggots i never had a bite from it which was strange because it just looked right for a few f1s and with time running out i went further to my right still in 4ft and i managed a couple of small f1’s before i foul hooked a couple of better fish which might have been carp judging by the size of the scales , for the rest of the match I rotated all my swims without much success and i managed two quick stockies about ten minutes before the all out from directly in front of me it was just a shame they didnt turn up any sooner .

When the all out sounded it called an end to a very frustrating contest because i just couldn’t manage a run of fish from anywhere and i just hope that it improves before the individual winter league starts i think we need a run of continuous temps for that to happen ,I tipped back about 16lb of fish because 30lb was winning the section when they came to my peg and i am not sure what I could have done different today just a lack of fish in front of me i think .

Old hough winter league

December 12th

Today was the penultimate round of my winter league and with the last round being cancelled due to the snow i hadn’t been out for a few weeks so was really looking forward to it , although the weather wasnt going to make things easy because it had taken a dramatic drop in temperature with every were being frozen solid . The day before i had rung the fishery to find out the conditions of boulders+goose and they told me it was mostly free from ice with just the odd peg being covered in cat ice which sounded promising , i did decide to take my ice breaker with me just in case and it turned out i had made the right decision because on arrival there was a lid on the lakes .

In the conditions a good draw was going to be a massive advantage because there was a few areas that had fished hard on the earlier rounds , it was soon time for the draw and i left it till late to have my pick in the bag of doom pulling out 14 on boulders not what i wanted especially after leaving the lakes flyer in the bag which my main rival for the winter league was going to be on . When i arrived at my home for the next few hours i decided to break out three channels in the ice to eleven meters because i did not feel that the carp would want to be tight towards the far bank , after removing all the floating icebergs from my swims i had a quick plumb up and after finding just over four-foot everywhere in my peg i figured i was on for a tough match but at least i wouldn’t need lots of different rigs so i decided to set up ;

Pellet rig i used a 4×14 Md wire stemmed float which had an inch spread bulk starting above my four-inch 010 garbo hook length , i expected this to be my banker swim with all the hand sized skimmers in the lake .

Maggot rig i used a 4×12 Md maggie float which had a bulk plus two dropper shotting pattern spread along my 014 garbo main line which had a six-inch 010 garbo hook length attached to it , my hook was a size twenty guru maggot hook and elastic on both rigs was Preston size six hollo .

Dobbing rig which i would use along the edge of my ice channels and if it melted i would search all along the far bank , i set it at four-foot which was six-inch off the bottom and i used a 4×12 Md diamond float with all my bulk under the float then two size eleven stotz spread along my 014 garbo main line , attached to it was a six inch 012 garbo hook length with a size 16 guru lwg hook .

Bait for the day ;

1/2 pint of soaked micros

1 pint of red maggots with a handful of fluro pinkies mixed in

1 slice of bread

Small tub of 2+4mm expanders

When the all in sounded i began on my right hand swim and i tapped in half a dozen micros every couple of minutes but a bite less twenty minutes wasnt what i expected especially with the amount of small skimmers in here , i switched to my maggot line directly in front of me and bearing in mind what happened on my pellet swim i went even more negatively just trickling a couple of maggots in through a kinder pot , after ten minutes i had my first fish which was a small roach but at least it saved the blank because i had only seen one other fish get caught although that was a four pound carp so we was all playing catch up if we wanted good points today . I kept trickling in the maggots and i was slowly building up the swim putting some roach in the net with the occasional decent ide among them , after a while my bites stopped and i soon found out why when i hooked a carp which shot off under the ice towards my right , all i could do was put my pole under the water and pray that it stopped i did manage to get on to my top kit but it bolted again in the clear water resulting in the hook bending out slightly which meant it pinged off , so for the second round running i had lost what turned out to be at least second place on the lake fish .

Understandably the disturbance had disrupted the peg but slowly i got the fish back feeding putting some small silvers in the net , when the rain started it began melting the ice this had a disastrous impact on the fishing because everyone on the lake stopped getting any sort of indications for at least two hours , with all the ice now gone i picked up my dobbing rig to see if i could snare myself a carp but despite working my rig to the extremes of my peg both left and right i didn’t manage a single bite . With ninety minutes of the match remaining i was back plumbing up to see if i could find any sort of depth variation and i finally found an area about a meter square which was a couple of inch deeper at eleven meters towards my left so i put a swim in there with another at 11m to my right so i could rotate between them both , i started trickling in maggots on both but i only managed bites on my left hand swim and i was soon catching some small silvers with an occasional decent ide mixed in , when the all out sounded i was kicking myself for not finding the slightly deeper swim sooner and it goes to show how important it is to search all your swim but with the lake being frozen i was a bit limited on where i could go .

When the scales arrived at my peg i put my ten ide plus a smattering of silvers on the scales which went just short of six pounds this was enough for a comfortable third place but with only nine pounds + eleven pounds filling the places above me i just needed a bonus carp to challenge them , this result pushed me down to second in the league table just a point behind the leader but at least i know which anglers i need to beat on the last round although i will have to wait nearly a month to do it and it will take place at Bradshaw’s on lakes five+six somewhere i haven’t fished before so i will be up against it a bit .

 

 

lloyds meadow , heron pool

December 3rd

I have been to Lloyd’s meadow today to contest a team match with my mates from the Stockton heath angling group against fishing in the north-west and with it being the latter teams home water we was up against it some good local anglers , even though i had never been here before I was quite eager to fish this match as it was due to take place on heron pool which held some very big perch with the record on here being over 5lb and the perch is my favourite species , i can not remember the last time i caught a decent one because they don’t tend to be in many of the commercials that i fish .

On arriving at the fishery i met up with the rest of the lads and we was all looking forward to a light-hearted competition we decided to run it like the angling times supercup were you only had to beat the angler at the side of you to get a point for the team , after unpacking my gear i took it round to Heron pool and it was more like a natural lake than your standard commercial water it was tear drop in shape with an island about twenty meters away , personally i felt that it was a bit small too have a dozen anglers on it especially with them putting six of us on each bank with no empty pegs between and with it still being frozen a couple of days previous then things might be a bit tough , although we had decided that it would be a silver fish match with carp counting as a pound so we should be able to get a few bites .

At the draw I was going to be on peg five which didn’t mean a great deal to me because I was new to the water and i ended up halfway along the left hand side but i was up against it for the section because my opposing angler had the end peg , I set up three rigs to cover my options ;

Margin rig set at three-foot deep which was about a meter away from my right hand bank were there was a bit of reed cover , i used an 0.3 Md diamond float my shotting pattern was a tapered bulk starting above my six-inch 012 garbo and i was going to feed maggots quite heavily here then fish either a small worm or double maggot on the hook .

Top six rig where it was just over four-foot deep but it was six-inch deeper than my far swim and i hoped that i could catch skimmers here so i used a positive rig with a 4×14 Md maggot rig which had a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern , my main line was the usual 014 garbo which had a six-inch 010 garbo hook length attached and my hook was a size 18 guru maggot .

13m i was going to be loose feeding maggots with a catty here so i used a 0.2 Md maggot rig with size eleven stotz spread along my 014 garbo main line and hook length was size inch of 010 garbo which had a size 20 guru maggot hook attached .

Bait for the day was ;

2 pints of red and white maggots

1 pint of fishery micros

small tub of worms

small tub of white expanders

After plumbing up i found that it was deeper on my top six line so I started there first and after sprinkling in half a small cupping kit full of micros i hoped that a few skimmers might settle on it , i was picking up the odd small roach but didn’t feel they was coming quickly enough and i decided to leave it for a while to settle , so I switched to my 13m line and i had been loose feeding maggots on it for nearly an hour so i expected a good response but all this produced some hand sized roach but it was really hard work , other anglers around me was in a similar situation and it looked like the pressure on the water had caused the fish to back off into the space because the only people really catching was the end pegs to my right on both banks .

With two hours of the contest remaining i needed to have a review on my tactics because i wasnt catching a great deal and maybe i had over done it with the feed at the beginning of the match , so i decided to put in a new swim at 11m towards my right and I began kinder potting in conker sized balls of micros then fishing maggots over the top which was similar to how i had fished for f1s recently , by doing this simple change my catch rate and stamp of fish increased dramatically I even managed a couple of decent skimmers i found it best to fish out the ball of micros and when the bites tailed off put in another little ball , with the light beginning to fade i hooked something more substantial because when my float dipped under i lifted into the indication but even though a meter of elastic had come out of the pole tip it just stayed there before powering off towards my left before my hook pulled , it could have been one of the big perch but i will never know but i haven’t had a fish fight like that before and after my swim had settled down again i caught well up to the all out .

At the weigh in I had managed just over 10lb of silvers which was a good days fishing as i only managed a couple of fish over eight ounce but i need to stop giving people a head start because recently the early part of the contest had been a waste of time , although i got away with it a bit today as this got me 4th in the match although another pound would have put me second and more importantly the team won on the day by 3-2 with one section drawn so it was a very close run thing because they had a far superior weight difference.

Partridge lakes open match

2nd December

I have been back to partridge lakes today to contest the open match and as I hadn’t been here for over a month so i was looking forward to get back to grips with the place as I will be doing the individual here after Xmas , but looking at the recent results it looked like i was glutton for punishment because they hadn’t been great after the unexpected cold snap which had frozen the lakes and yet again the weather today was awful with cold drizzle melting the remaining ice on the lake’s so I expected things to be tough going and a decent draw would be an advantage .

On arrival to the fishery i met up with a few of my new Leigh tackle match team squad members and it was nice to put a face to the name , all the talk was of how difficult it could be and it soon came round to draw time so we all joined the queue when it came for my turn to dip in the bag of doom , I ended up on peg 40 covey two which was somewhere I hadn’t been before as i very rarely draw on this covey , on arriving at my home for the next few hours I was disappointed to find that it was only 11m wide and the aerator had been taken out but i did have a nice reed lined far bank + left hand margin .

I decided to set up a ;

channel rig six meters towards my left it was nearly 6ft deep so i used a 4×12 Md maggot float with a bulk plus two dropper shotting pattern and my main line was the usual 014 garbo which had a six-inch 010 garbo hook length attached .

4ft rig i found a couple of swims across at the same depth and i used a 0.2 Md maggot float which had a staggered bulk shotting pattern starting above the six-inch 010 garbo hook length my hook was a size 20 guru maggot hook .

3ft rig i didn’t really expect this to work today but set it up just in case , my float was a 4×10 Md maggot which had an on the drop shotting pattern and my hook length was six-inch of 010 garbo .

dobbin rig i used a 0.4 Md diamond float with all the shot under the float with two number eleven stotz spread along my 014 garbo main line which had a six-inch 010 garbo hook length attached to it .

Bait for the day was ;

2 pints of red maggots

1 pint of micros

1 pint of black swim stim ground-bait

small tub of 4mm expanders

When the all in sounded I began by dobbin bread towards the far bank reeds and I worked all along my left hand side without so much as a sign, i tried my right hand side but kept getting snagged up on sunken reeds which no doubt disturbed all the fish in the area and after an hour without a bite I switched to my 4ft maggot swim towards my left as i had earlier seen a fish top that way , after a couple of feeds I had my first indication which was a positive sign because nobody with eye shot had caught anything yet and not long after I had my first f1 which was nicely hooked in the tail then a further twenty minutes past before I had any more bites but I then had a run of three f1’s in a ten minute spell.

 

Another twenty minutes past with out an indication so i had a look on my track line which i had fed with a large kinder pot of maggots since the match started and after a missed bite straight away I then had another f1 in the net but that was the only fish I had from that swim, I added on a section to my pole and put in another line at 4ft across i started by tapping in a few maggots again this got me another couple of fish but it was very hard going , for the next couple of hours I set up multiple new swims just catching a couple from each but strangely never had an indication towards my right side and i think it was probably due to the earlier disturbance when i kept getting snagged up in the reeds .

In the last thirty minutes i had reached the extremes of my peg along the far bank so I went back in the track and i expected to have a little run of fish here but i never had a sign, at the all out I had managed a dozen f1’s which was better than those anglers around me but i did lose a couple as well, when the scales arrived I ended up with just short of 18lb and ended up missing out on the board by a few ounces so i probably came 7th out of the forty anglers fishing today but I’m happy with how my match went after not being here for a while.

Old Hough winter league , round six

November 26th

I was back at Old Hough today for the 6th round of my winter league which so far I was leading the way even though i had struggled on the last two matches with a 3rd+4th at Bradshaw’s fishery and i need a top two finish on any of the three remaining matches so that i could drop my worst result , but with conditions turning colder there was definitely areas on Boulders+Goose that you didn’t want to be in so a good draw would be an advantage .

The weather over the past few days had been awful with a big drop in temperatures plus a cold easterly wind with sleet so you could say winter has finally arrived this of course would have a big impact on the fishing because you are usually targeting carp+barbel among the silvers on these waters , when i arrived at the fishery i met up with the rest of the lads and we was all unsure on how it would fish today but most of us agreed that 20lb would be a good weight on the day .

It soon came round to the draw and with all the hands coming in from all angles as everyone rushed in to find their fate so for a change I left it till the end to have my pick in the bag of doom and I had a choice of two which was between the best peg on boulders or the worst on goose , surprisingly I ended up the latter of the two and it seemed like my drawing arm has deserted me for the time being but to be fair i have had my fair share of decent pegs so far this year .

On settling in at my home for the next few hours I had the wind smack in my face so it was going to be a cold one and with it only being just over eleven meters wide I didn’t have a lot of room to set up lots of different swims which i felt would be needed in the conditions picking up the odd fish from each so i decided to set up ;

a dobbin rig set up at two foot deep and i would poke my rig in between all the overhanging reeds , i used an Md 4×12 dobbin rig i had all my bulk under the float with a couple of number eleven stotz spread along the 014 garbo main line and hook length was six-inch of 012 garbo which had a size 16 guru pellet hook attached to it .

pellet channel rig positioned at eight meters to my left where i had a bit of open water to go at my float was a 4×16 Md pellet and my shotting pattern was an inch spread bulk starting above the four-inch 012 garbo hook length which had a size 16 guru pellet hook attached to it .

maggot rig which i put eight meters towards my right in the calmer water my float was a 4×12 Md maggot float which had a bulk plus two droppers shotting pattern and hook length was six-inch of 012 garbo my hook was a size 18 guru maggot .

long margin at four meters towards my left where i had a dead reed bed after dragging my plummet around a found a snag free area where it was nearly three-foot deep and my float was an Md diamond to help keep my rig still in the choppy conditions , the main line was 014 garbo and hook length was six-inch of 012 garbo which had a size 16 guru Lwg hook attached to it .

My bait for the day was a bit of everything ;

3 pints red and white maggots

1 pint of micros

1 pint of black swim stim

1 pint of corn

1 slice of bread

small tub of mixed size expanders

When the all in sounded i started my match by dobbin bread all along the far bank and had nothing to my right in the calm water which was a surprise as i expected a few carp to be sitting there out of the cold wind , a switch to the left hand side and I hooked a small carp which might have been foul hooked as it came of at the net i thought that it was a positive sign with maybe a little group of fish sat in that area but all that I could catch after that was small silvers even after working my rig right to the point of the island , i decided to change this swim to an on the deck corn rig and found a flat area at the side of some over hanging reeds where i had hooked the carp earlier so i tapped in a few grains of corn+micros then left it to settle for a while .

I went on to my maggot swim which i had fed with half a small cupping kit every twenty minutes since the match started i found that this worked remarkably well on my other rounds on here and i found that you needed to feed the small silvers off before the bigger fish moved in although on here the silvers wasnt as big a stamp as on Boulders pool , i managed to catch a few ide but the bites were really finicky  the shyest of bites often produced the bigger fish and they seemed to be just sat over the feed not moving picking off the maggots , so I decided to rest it for later in the match but i would still be feeding it like i had done at the start and i switched to my pellet swim that i had earlier put in a golf ball of ground-bait+micros , this just produced small hand sized skimmers which to be honest i expected they was coming quite frequently and maybe i could pick up a bonus fish or too but i was happy putting something in the net .

When I saw the odd carp coming out I gave my left hand margin a try with corn and after about five minutes my float flew under I was then playing a decent carp for the next few minutes , I was about to net it when the hook pulled out and for a split second it just sat there out of netting range before slipping back into the depths in the back of my mind i knew that in the conditions it was going to cost me dear , no more bite ensued in the next twenty minutes so i reefed it with some corn+ground-bait and while it settled I rotated all my swims for the next few hours adding next to nothing to my net . With ninety minutes remaining I finally managed a good run of big ide down the track but even after feeding it all match the bites was still very finicky which i did not expect and with the sun finally going behind the clouds it enabled me to fish my left hand margin again so i spent the remainder of the time there this got me three small carp and two missed bites before the all out sounded.

After packing up i caught up with the scales man and peg two had run away with the match pulling out thirty pounds of carp then there was a few people struggling to break five pounds , peg eleven had 12lb and I managed to finish 4th with 11lb but the lost carp cost me dear as 13lb had come second from flyer peg 18 , when the winter league is all over and I just hope that I won’t live to regret it but overall it fished really hard with most angler’s falling to catch 5lb on both lakes as the fish had decided to shut up shop in the cold weather.