Partridge lakes open match

April 15th

I was back at Partridge lakes today to contest the open match and as i was attending the Preston pairs contest here on bank holiday monday , i wanted to get a heads up on how it was fishing because i had not ventured here since the winter leagues stopped about six weeks ago and it was nearly six months since i sat on covey 1-4 so i expected to be a bit off the pace today .

After getting a nice sun tan last weekend at cunneries fishery and widdows flash we was back to normal now as we had a dramatic drop in temps plus a strong easterly wind to contend with so it was back out with the thermals again , the conditions had a bearing on how i was going to tackle my match today because i had just been getting my head around worm+caster but looking at the reports on Facebook those anglers that had used it was struggling for fish so i decided on a pellet approach with maggots as a backup if i drew on a noted ide peg .

On arrival at the complex all the usual regulars were present so i had a quick chat with them while i waited for a couple of my Daiwa adlington squad members to turn up because they fancied a change of scenery from Bradshaw’s fishery all the talk was of what pegs you wanted because the wind was blowing really strong along the car park side which meant that down the splits plus a couple of other areas were relatively flat calm, before i knew it the draw had begun so i settled in the queue towards the rear and when it came round to my turn i pulled out peg twenty on covey one which was a good area plus the peg to its right had finished in the top six the previous day usually i see this is a bad sign because i have noticed on here that they don’t like getting caught from the same place two days running but fingers crossed they had not moved too far .

 

On arriving at my home for the next few hours i had a lot of room towards the left of my peg with the point of the island to fish too as well there was also a few fish topping long down my edge towards peg one so things looked promising , i decided to keep things a bit simple today just setting up ;

Three foot pellet swim for fishing against the far bank rushes and also half way up my near side slope , i used a 4×14 roob float with an inch spread bulk starting above my four-inch 012 garbo hook length and my main line was the usual 014 garbo .

Two foot pellet or corn rig for fishing tight to the near side vegetation in case the wind changed direction and i used a 0.4 joof float  with an inch spread bulk starting above my four inch 012 garbo hook length and my main line was the usual 014 garbo .

Channel line which i plumbed up to find just over five foot and i positioned this at seven meters towards the bowl too my left because i had not got a great deal of room to my right , i used a 4×14 maggie float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern my main line was the usual 014 garbo and hook length was a six 010 garbo .

My bait for the day was ;

Two pints red and white maggots

One pint of soaked micros

One pint of ground-bait

Small tub of 4+2mm expanders

When the all in sounded i began by fishing across to the far bank in front of the over hanging reeds and after tapping in a few micros i held my rig still over the top of it , it took a couple more feeds before i had any sort of indication and not long after my first f1 was in the net but over the next twenty minutes the wind switched direction slightly meaning i was struggling to control my pole , i did manage a couple more f1s in that time but it was hard work keeping my rig still and i felt it wasnt worth staying on this line any longer .

I went onto my three-foot rig and plumbed up a new line at eleven meters along the left hand margin and i started by tapping in micros again as i expected to be targeting f1s , after a few feeds i began getting indications on the float which looked like line bites so i changed to clumping in the pellets to try to get them back on the deck and this worked remarkably well because no sooner had my hook bait hit the deck then i had a proper sail away , which was no stockie f1 as yards of red elastic streamed out of my pole tip after a spirited fight a 4lb carp ended up in the net over the next hour i added a further four similar sized carp but strangely no f1s and i found it best to flick my rig out into open water then drag it up the slope which resulted in proper gazunder bites .

After a while the bites started to fade and i also noticed the fish had started topping further along my margin so i made the decision to add-on a section then plumbed up a new swim , while the disturbance of doing this died down i had a quick look on my top kit between my nets which i had thrown half a dozen maggots since the match started but i never had an indication in fifteen minutes , so i had a look on my channel swim but yet again i didn’t have any indications which i felt was a bit strange because it’s normally a viable option on here .

Thirty minutes of inactivity on my other swims had me going on to the new line along my left hand margin yet again i began by trickling in some micros which turned out to be a good move as i caught mostly f1s here but they was a very big stamp and i only had a couple of stockies all match , when bites began to tail off i fed a nugget of ground-bait which seemed to draw them back into the peg and by doing this i also picked up a couple of carp including one around 7lb , in the last forty minutes i missed quite a few bites and the f1s that i did catch were a bit deep hooked it was a sure sign that i was fishing a bit over depth which was a bit strange because i hadn’t really changed anything when fishing this swim .

As the all out sounded it called time on a rather confusing match because although i had caught a few fish i never really had them lined up at any point and had a lot of carp in my net than the usual f1s ,i was the last to weigh in on covey one with 83lb winning the lake when they arrived to me and my two nets went 77lb so only a few pounds short , i felt that i could have caught it as i lost a couple of carp by being lazy and not changing hook lengths when they had got damaged , which wouldn’t have been that big an issue if i was just catching f1s but the fish i did get were a big stamp because i only caught thirty of them during the match .

As it turned out i had managed to finish sixth in the match which was better than i had hoped for before the match started and i learned a great deal before the Preston pairs match on bank holiday Monday so lets hope i can pull out a couple of pegs which would give us a chance of catching a few fish .

Partridge lakes

October 22nd , peg two covey one

I was back at Partridge lakes today for another try at the open and after my last match here when i did reasonably well i was understandably feeling quite positive about how things would pan out , but with it turning colder during the week and we was also faced with bright + still conditions not exactly your ideal f1 catching weather so i expected it to be hard work with low weights needed to get your section . As always when i attend matches here there was no need for an early start because its only a short journey from my house and i arrived there with plenty time to book on before getting a couple of pints of maggots , there was nearly seventy anglers contesting the event today a good draw was always going to be an advantage so i decided to have an early dip in the bag and my golden arm had returned at last as peg two on covey one stuck to my mitt , probably one of the best on the complex although it wouldn’t surprise you to hear i had been on it before and struggled to do it justice because it is a weird one as you have hardly any margin usually my main area that i like to target but has plenty of open water which is good for shallow but not in today’s conditions plus my far bank was covered in shade not ideal , baring all this in mind i decided to set up ;

Four foot rig this would be used for the bottom of both slopes, as i would be mainly using maggots today i used a 4×12 float with a bulk+two droppers shotting pattern my main line was the usual 014 garbo and my hook length was 010 garbo .

Three foot rig i would use this for higher up the far bank slope and also my right hand margin , i used a 4×12 float with a bulk+two droppers shotting pattern my main line was the usual 014 garbo and my hook length was 010 garbo .

Two foot rig this was for tight against the far bank reeds but i didn’t really expect to catch in this depth with the water being cold although it wasnt showing signs of going clear so maybe the f1s might just sit in them for some protection from the bright conditions , i used a 4×10 float with a bulk+two droppers shotting pattern my main line was the usual 014 garbo and my hook length was 010 garbo .

Channel rig after plumbing up i found just over five foot at eleven meters to my right which was in the open water , i used a 4×14 float with a bulk+two droppers shotting pattern my main line was the usual 014 garbo and my hook length was 010 garbo .

My bait for the day was ;

1 pint micros

1 pint crushed expander

2 pint of red and white maggots

small tub of 4mm expanders

When the all in sounded i decided to begin by fishing in four-foot across with pellets i changed my shotting for an inch spread bulk above the hook length and i then kinder potted in a thumbnail sized piece of crushed expander then held my rig still over the top of it , nothing happened for a few minutes so i began lifting+dropping my float a few inch to try to grab the attention of a passing fish and after five minutes of inactivity i was shipping back in to put a dozen micros in the cad pot , because my peg wasnt that wide and with the conditions being as they were i didn’t want to begin putting lots of bait in i shipped back out to my marker then sprinkled in a few micros , it took about twenty minutes and four feeds before i had my first indication which i missed but at least it gave me something to work with but another five minutes passed before i had a little tremor on the float , a sharp lift of the pole resulted in my first fish of the day hitting the net at nearly 2lb it was a good start and i had a slightly smaller one about five minutes later , i was thinking that i might have a few fish in front of me but i then had a twenty-minute spell where i just couldn’t hit a bite and i decided to change to my three-foot rig which was a bit further up the slope to see if they might have been liners , i had another quick f1 before everything just died on me a drop back down the slope didn’t produce a bite either and i set up multiple new swims towards my left in various depths but just couldn’t attract another indication , i even tried maggots but it seemed the fish had deserted me and with half the match gone i still only had the three fish in the net .

I had seen a few bubbles coming up from down the channel but didn’t want to go on my main swim so early into the match so i decided to put in a line at top five to my left and began kinder potting in maggots , after a couple of feeds i began getting indications which were very hard to hit so i moved my bulk a bit further up the line which allowed for a slower fall of the hook bait and by keeping a tight line as my rig fell i would get a bite just as my float settled , i finally started catching a couple of fish although it wasnt hectic and i added five more big f1s in the next hour but i also began foul hooking a few it seemed that they wanted to be just off bottom , i did try my four-foot rig over the top but strangely this failed to get a response and i made the decision to put in a pot of bait hoping that this would get them back on the deck while it settled i rotated my far bank swims with out success although i did manage a 4lb carp from my right hand margin but it was a loner .

The big pot of maggots didn’t really solve the issue on my top five swim and as there was only ninety minutes of the match remaining i decided to try my 11m line as i had fed it for the past two hours so it was time to give that a go , there was a few bubbles coming up from under the feed so i expected some fish to be present and thankfully there was as i finally began to put some f1s in the net , i went on a little run before the foul hookers became a problem again and i put this down to the fact that i was kinder potting in maggots after every fish so i returned to big potting and this seemed to settle them back down , the bites were also very delicate i was missing a lot more than i caught and changing shotting patterns didn’t really solve the problem so i just had to keep plodding along , with twenty minutes remaining i suffered a really frustrating spell were my elastic started sticking in the top kit causing me to bump a couple of f1s off then as a consequence of me taking it easy when playing them i lost a couple more under my platform .

All out signalled the end of a rather frustrating match as apart from my channel swims i struggled to put a run of fish together , my peg is one of the last to get weighed in at Partridge and i wasnt really going to bother because i knew that peg one had beaten me for the section but i wanted to see how they had got on down the split because peg twenty had caught all day by dobbing along the margin towards peg one , when they finally arrived all the anglers to my left had failed to break twenty pounds and my two nets went ounces short of 50lb which was more than i thought but i could have probably added another 20lb if i had fished a bit better , the lad to my right weighed in 74lb with peg twenty having over a ton so it seemed that it had fished better than i expected and after getting back home i found out that i had actually won my section by default as peg one had managed second , i also found out 63lb had come third which i was more than capable of getting with all those missed bites and is something i need to get to grips with before the teams of four in a fortnight but before then I’m back to Old Hough  for the winter league so let’s hope i can give my good run going

 

Partridge lakes

September 11th , peg 18 covey one

A return to Partridge lakes today for another try at the open because i was trying to get back into the swing of things before the team of four winter league starts in November which i was really looking forward to as i hadn’t fished it before ,i had not been here for quite some time up until the previous few weeks so i was learning new things all the time and hopefully improving , there was 94 anglers contesting the match it just goes to show the popularity of the fishery and with so many here the pegging will be extremely tight which meant a good draw would be an advantage . After grabbing some maggots from the on site tackle shop i joined the queue for the draw and all the talk was of how well covey one had fished recently , when it came for my turn to pick i pulled out peg 18 i was rather surprised especially when i got to my peg and found the wind blowing that way as well so it looked like i might be able to catch a few fish today , i had a few options on this peg and decided to set up ;

Shallow this is normally a good ide peg and with the ripple i felt that it could be good for a bit of up in the water fishing so i set up two rigs one at 1ft the other at 2ft , i used an 0.1 matrix series three float with 014 garbo main line and an 012 garbo hook length that had a size 18 guru lwg hook attached .

As usual i set up a deck rig for fishing under my shallow swim and used a 4×12 maggie float as it was only just over 5ft deep my shotting pattern was a bulk plu dropper , main line was 014 garbo and an 012 garbo hook length that had a size 18 guru lwg hook attached .

Top three-line i had struggled to make this work on recent trips so decided that i would have a try with paste to see if this would solve the problem and i used a 0.4 jadz float with the shotting to the base of the bristle because i was only using pea sized pieces of paste , main line was the usual 014 garbo and hook length was 012 garbo which had a size 14 guru lwg hook attached .

Across swim i had a nice weed bed to target but when plumbing up it was nearly 4ft which i felt might be a touch deep and with that in mind i decided to use maggots because i could alter my shotting for an on the drop pattern if the fish came up in the water , i used a 4×12 maggie float with 014 garbo main line and a six-inch 012 garbo hook length which had a size 18 guru lwg attached .

I had a really nice looking margin towards my left because there was never anybody on peg 19 so i had lots of space up to the bridge and after plumbing up i found 3ft at the side of the reeds which wasnt perfect but with all the recent rain plus drop in temperature i felt that i might get away with it , i was going to use pellets on this swim so i set up a 4×12 roob float which had an inch spread bulk above the four-inch 012 garbo hook length and hook was a size 18 guru lwg .

Bait for the day was ;

2 pints red maggots

1 pint soaked micros

1 pint 4mm pellets

1 pint of paste

2 pints crushed expander

Small tub of 4mm expanders

When the all in sounded i had a quick look on my top three swim with paste so i could try to get the right depth with my rig because it is sometimes  hard getting the plumbing right when fishing this bait and i would keep throwing in little pea sized pieces every couple of minutes to try to build this swim up for later in the match. With the wind pushing into the bay towards my left my main line was always going to be along my margin and that was my next rig that i set up , i picked a nice marker at the side of the reed bed then tapped in a nugget of crushed expander ground-bait to kick-start the swim and after lowering in my rig i kept it really still to try to attract a bite because loose fed pellets don’t move about so you need to mimic that to foul a fish into taking the hook bait , but i didn’t have too long to wait before i had my first f1 in the net and i went on a little run of fish i had a few stockies mixed in between so nice f1s but as i was feeding micros after every fish it brought them up in the water , as a consequence i started getting lots of line bites i was struggling to get my rig to settle properly and i solved this problem by feeding tightly squeezed balls of micros doing this seemed to concentrate the fish back on the deck .Before i knew it nearly ninety minutes of the match had passed but with 16 f1s in the net i felt that i was doing ok but when i hooked a bigger stamp fish which ploughed straight into the reeds and although i did manage to get it out of them it still gave me a proper run around before darting under my platform causing my hook length to snap , unsurprisingly when i went back onto my margin swim bites were now hard to come by and i wasted about twenty minutes before deciding to add-on a section to my pole before replumbing up a new line .

Yet again i kicked off this line by feeding a nugget of ground-bait it didn’t take too long before the fish found the feed i soon had them lined up again catching a dozen fish in a thirty minute spell and i found it best to cut out the micros concentrating on putting in a conker sized ball of crushed expander every couple of fish this kept them on the deck making them easier to catch , after a while the bites started to tail off so i decided to risk putting in balls of micros as this seemed to be a good way of attracting fish into my peg and it did work for me because i had another run of f1s but it also brought them back up off the bottom so yet again i had to suffer with fish darting into the reeds causing disruption to the swim .

This time i didn’t hesitate before adding on a couple of sections and replumbed up a new swim at the other side of the cut out , yet again i didn’t have to wait long before the indications started and i went on another run of fish but i had to be a bit more careful when shipping them back as i had to guide the fish round in front of me , strangely the bigger f1s came in easily until i got them on the top kit it was the smaller stockies which were the problem darting into the reedbed making me drag it out before pulling them round in front of me . With ninety minutes of the match remaining my bites began to tail off and i soon found out why as i hooked something a bit weighty that i just couldn’t get up off the bottom , after finally getting it onto my top kit i made the disastrous error of bottoming the elastic out as i tried to get it under control and one lunge from the fish left me with a snapped hook length .

When i went back out the fish had disappeared and i didn’t fancy adding on any more pole sections because i would need to be fishing at 14m to get into the same depth of water , so i decided to go back on my original top three swim and although it did not produce any f1s i did catch three mirror carp before the all out which boasted my weight . It was a strange old day it isn’t very often that i sit on a lot of f1s at Partridge and to be honest  i do not feel like i made the most of it even though i caught 50 fish for 76lb which was good enough for second in section ( third match running ) only eight pound from getting on the leaderboard which i had on the hook during the match and if i had fished a bit better i could have challenged for the win but thats just me being pessimistic .

Next weekend im off to Tunnel barn for the North vs South two hundred peg match which I’m really looking forward to although looking at the results it didn’t fish to well this weekend but that might suit my fishing and i hope i can do as well as last year when i managed second in my ten peg section on high pool behind Des Shipp , so don’t forget to come back to see how i get on Thanks for reading .

 

 

Partridge lakes open match

April 30th , peg 16 covey one

After having taken a few weeks off from match fishing so i could recharge my batteries and even catch some fish , i thought that it was about time i got back in the swing of things as i have some big matches coming up in the next few months and i decided to jump in the deep end booking on Partridge lakes where they usually get over seventy anglers in attendance ,the weather during the week was doing its best to dampen my enthusiasm for the contest because we had to contend with heavy rain , strong winds and even on the Friday we had two inches of snow ! !

Worm+caster had been working well at Partridge lakes in the weeks leading up to todays match but after the recent cold spell i wasnt convinced that it was right for today and i decided to target it more like you would in winter going down the maggot+pellet route , so after sorting a plan in my head on how to attack the match and getting my rigs correct i was quite confident of having a good day’s fishing but as you all know things don’t usually go to plan and it can all go pear shaped at the draw bag .

On the morning of the match i was faced with an easterly wind which was forecast to increase during the day but at least it wasnt raining just yet , i had agreed to meet up with a few mates at the cafe and as i arrived they were already in attendance so after grabbing some maggots , then booking on to the match i went for a chat and it soon came round to draw time so we joined the queue towards the back , when it was my turn i pulled out peg 16 on covey one which was an area that i had fished before winning my section from it on a couple of occasions although after speaking to a lad in the car-park who had fished it in the week it had not been producing but today was a different day so you just never know .

On settling in at my peg i was greeted with the wind blowing strongly from left to right which could be a problem if it got any stronger , i decided to set up three rigs which would cover a few options ;

Three foot rig for pellet and i used a 4×14 malman roob with an inch spread bulk above the four inch 0.10 garbo hook length .

Three foot rig for maggot and i used a 4×12 maggie float with a staggered shotting pattern with just two number eleven stotz in the bottom third of the rig , my hook length was six inch of 010 garbo that had a size 20 matrix silver fish hook attached .

Channel swim and i used a 4×14 maggie float with a bulk plus two dropper shooting pattern , hook length was six inch of 010 garbo that had a size 18 matrix silver hook attached .

My bait for the day was ;

Two pints of red maggots

Two pints of soaked micros

Small tub of 4mm expanders

Small tub of white hooker pellets

When the all in sounded i shipped out to my far-bank marker with my pellet rig , i sprinkled in some micros then lowered my rig in among it being very careful to keep it still , it took a couple of feeds before i had my first indication which i missed but not long after i had my first f1 although it seemed to be a loner as ten minutes past without another sign so i moved further towards my right and started again but still nothing , i went right to the edge of my peg but couldn’t attract an indication from any line a switch to maggots over the same far-bank swims did not produce any more f1s although i did manage to lose a carp which snagged me up on the far side vegetation .

Things weren’t going well and worse was to follow when we had the first of many hail storms which were the size of garden peas not good but at least it was hitting my back, after it surpassed i gave my margin a try with my three foot maggot rig this had worked well in previous weeks when it was windy but i just couldn’t get a bite and all i was left with was my channel swim i decided to put in two lines one i would feed with a small cupping kit every twenty minutes the other i would kinder pot in a dozen maggots . After suffering another hail storm i finally began getting a few bites not from the required f1s but ide although they was of a nice stamp and i was at least putting some fish in the net , by rotating between the two lines i had a good ninety minute spell but the longer i fished it the worse it got and i had nowhere else to go that was producing bites so that i could rest them my last hour was a complete write off putting next to nothing in the net .

The all out sounded calling time on another frustrating match at Partridge lakes and i wasnt going to bother weighing in other than we had agreed to have a pound with the other lads , as it turned out my net went 16lb which was good enough for second in the section behind the lad on peg 18 who had 24lb but he had managed to sneak out a few f1s early and late in the match which made all the difference but thats all part+parcel of match fishing ,i’m going to Herronbrook on bank holiday Monday for a try at the open its only my second visit there so im quite looking forward to it although six hour matches can take some getting used too and it will be a long day if you are not putting anything in the net .

 

Partridge lakes open match

Peg 17 covey one , October 11th

After my recent trips to other venues in the past few weeks and with the temperatures dropping meaning lower winning weights a return to Partridge lakes was in order but as i had not been there for nearly three months i felt that it could take me a few matches to get back into the swing of things although it was at this time of year that i tend to do well because the conditions always favour the angler who is willing to work his peg , after getting as much information as i could through social media and contacting a few venue regulars i felt that i had a plan in mind on how to target the coveys at this time of year but i did make a conscious effort not to over complicate things which is my usual downfall in these matches . The weather leading up to the match was pretty good for the time of year with light winds blue skies although this meant the overnight temperatures had dropped considerably and this would have a big bearing on your target weights and after speaking to the balief he felt that most sections would be won with less than forty pounds with around eighty pounds getting you in the frame , after having had a look round the lakes in the draw bag trying to spot the most likely areas the f1s would be i managed to have a quick catch up with a few mates before joining the queue for the draw and when it came for my turn i pulled out peg seventeen on covey one not exactly the place i wanted to be but i can not be expected to sit on a flyer every match .

After unpacking my gear at my home for the next few hours i decided on a nice simple match targeting just ;

Across and margin at three-foot deep , i used a 4×12 malman roob float with 014 garbo main line which had a short three-inch hook length of 012 garbo and my hook was a size 16 matrix bagger hook elastic was size ten orange matrix .

Channel swim where i plumbed up to find a touch over six-foot and i used a 4×14 malman roob float with a carbon stem the shotting pattern was a bulk at two foot then two droppers  my main line was 014 garbo which had a six-inch 012 garbo hook length the hook was a size 16 matrix bagger hook elastic was size ten orange matrix .

On my bait table i had ;

Three pints of red and white maggots

One pint of micro

One pint of 4mm pellets

Small tub of 4mm expanders .

As the all in sounded i shipped out to the area i had earlier plumbed up and i tapped in a kinder pot full of micros before lowering my rig over the top of it i purposely held my hook bait over the top of my feed area trying to set a kind of trap for the f1s , i kept on dropping in a few pellets every five minutes to try to attract some fish into my swim and it took a couple of feeds before i got my first fish another quickly followed but after a while i began getting strange indications on my float it was even pushed out of my swim a few times this must have been caused by the fish being too eager eating the micros , i reduced the amount that i was putting in but couldn’t cut it out completely as it is what was keeping the fish in the area this kind of worked for me as i picked up a couple more f1s but i needed to spread my bulk to keep the indications coming . In the first hour i had managed to put six f1s in the net which was better than those anglers around me but my section was in with the split and i couldn’t see how they was getting on , my far-bank line had stopped producing indications so i re plumbed a new area further to my right then started again just like before it took a couple of feeds before i began seeing signs of fish and having had an almighty line bite when my float was almost lying vertically on the surface it didn’t take me long to find out the culprit as i landed a bonus five-pound carp which was worth its weight in gold in these hard conditions i persevered on this line for thirty minutes without anymore indications i even retried my original swim but this also failed to produce a bite .

I had fed my channel line twice every five minutes since the match started but i was reluctant to go on it so early in the match as the longer you can leave it the better it gets and i decided to see what my margins would produce first after twenty minutes of fishing both sides with not even an indication so i had no option but to go on to my five meter line , by keeping my feeding tight and frequant i managed to pick up some ide quite regularly although they was only between 8+12oz i was slowly building up my weight which was better than those anglers around me . I was a bit surprised on how difficult it was too pick up the f1s on the deck but i finally found the best way to lay my rig through the water which was suitable for them and managed a run of six f1s before the ide returned , with an hour of the match remaining my channel line was slowing down but i could see a few ide flashing under the surface and i was in a bit of a quandary on what to do and after thinking long and hard i decided to not fish shallow choosing to concentrate on the deck as this gave me the best chance of picking up a better stamp of fish or even another bonus carp . With only a few minutes of the match remaining i latched into a carp which gave me a bit of a run around before the hook pulled out at the net which was my fault as i had noticed that my hook had gone blunt when hooking the maggots but never changed it i just hopped that it wouldn’t cost me  a chance for the section .

 

As the all out sounded in the distance i was unsure on how i had got on the lad to my right had packed up early and the lad on peg 18 had managed a few nice carp so i would just have to wait and see , unusually for on here i didn’t have to wait long for the scales woman when she arrived at my peg i had 43lb to beat and to be honest i wasn’t sure that i had caught that weight , when the scales went round to 50lb to be honest i was a bit surprised as i had only 19 f1s on my clicker plus a carp and some ide this gave me the section win and also second on the lake which i was happy with after my long break from the venue . It turned out that the best weights came from covey three with 120lb winning by fishing worm in the margin and a mid sixty pound was required for a top six finish which without that hour quiet spell i could have probably managed , overall i was happy with how my match went i have a few things to work on before my return match next sunday and i might try to get a few hours after work on covey five to try to sort them out .

Partridge lakes open match

22nd February , Covey one peg 15

After yesterdays good match on the Cunneries open match where i managed third with 42lb , i decided to give the Partridge open a go although the weather was forecast to be a bit dodgy with rain around dinner time plus a lightish breeze which would be increasing during the day . On arrival at the venue there was a few people knocking about because the Partridge lakes individual was taking place at the same time and a couple of my super cup team where present too so i went over for a chat , when it came round to draw time it was a bit confusing with two queues but it all got sorted out and my home for the day would be peg 15 on Covey one which was an area i hadn’t fished before .

When i arrived at my peg i had an aerator to my right , two empty pegs to my left , your standard far-bank reeds and mud bank plus i was on the cusp of the wind which would allow me to fish across but would be hard work if it got any stronger during the day , i decided on three rigs to use today ;

4ft deep rig when calm 4×10 malman roob with 012 garbo main line which had a 010 garbo hook length and a size twenty gamma pellet hook .

4ft deep rig when windy 4×16 malman roob with 012 garbo main line which had a 010 garbo hook length and a size twenty gamma pellet hook .

My reason for having two rigs at the same depth was the fact it would give me differing falls of the hook bait hopefully getting me more bites in the process .

Channel rig 4×14 malman roob with 012 garbo main line which had a 010 garbo hook length and a size twenty gamma pellet hook .

Bait wise i kept it just as simple as yesterdays match at the Cunneries fishery taking only a pint of red and white maggots , when the all in sounded i went across to eleven meters towards the aerator rop which was acting as a bit of a wind break and when i had plumbed up earlier i found a nice flat spot at a depth of 4ft . I choose to start with my 4×10 rig which would give me a more natural fall of the hook bait , i had a single red maggot on the hook with a few samples in the cad pot and i tapped in a couple at a time before lowering my rig in amongst it after about five minutes my float dipped and i was briefly attached to an f1 which i bumped off not surprisingly this disrupted my peg and after ten minutes i got my next bite which was an ide quickly followed by another .

With the f1s seemingly having backed out of my peg i decided to increase the feed to try to draw them back into my swim , this worked well because i had a run of f1s all over a pound and a couple approaching the 3lb mark . With the wind increasing all the time i changed to my more positive 4×16 rig this allowed me to keep my float still enough to get a bite but for some reason the fish i caught where slightly deep hooked and i could have done with another shot on the rig but my hands were too cold and beginning to cramp up , to make matters worse we now had to endure a snowstorm as well as a strong wind which made fishing across almost impossible . I didn’t have no other option but to go onto my channel swim which i had fed with a dozen maggots every twenty minutes but not surprisingly i couldn’t get a bite and i must be doing something wrong as others do really well using it on here including the guy on peg ten who was getting a fish every ten minutes and had now pulled ahead of me for the section .

I tried putting up a new swim at 4ft but this time on my near slope to my left which could hopefully offer me a bit of protection from the elements for a while anyway as the wind would be hitting my back although this was probably my most comfortable fishing position i just couldn’t get a bite so i risked putting in a swim across directly in front of me and i managed one more f1 and a missed bite but i was just unable hold my pole still long enough to present a bait properly.

The last straw was when i bumped off two fish in a five-minute spell because my hands were that cramped up that i couldn’t control the pole so after three hours i decided to call a premature end to my match which is the first time i had done it in a couple of years but it was just impossible for mt to fish across and that is where the f1s wanted to be , when i pulled my net out i was surprised how heavy it was and must have approached twenty pounds but i have no doubt that it was capable of much more and i heard the other day that peg ten had won the match with 50lb so i had tipped back another section win on here thinking about it i should have left my net in and gone for a warm in the cabin like everyone else but your mind doesn’t work properly when your freezing .

I have a weekend off next week which will give me time to get my kit sorted and dried out , i just hope the weather will have improved a bit my then too .

Partridge lakes

Covey one peg 4 , September 6th

Covey one

After having had a hectic week at work plus various family problems to deal with i was eager to get back on to the bank and forget everything , hopefully i could catch some fish as well . I had decided on a trip to Partridge lakes as i hadn’t been here on a weekend match for quite some time and i was really looking forward to it although the fishing everywhere had taken a turn for the worse , maybe it was the change in the weather recently because it had been a bit inconsistent to say the least and today we was faced with a drop in temperature , grey skies with rain forecast and a light breeze blowing towards the direction of Holbar lake .

When i arrived at the venue there didn’t seem to be many people knocking about which was strange as the open matches are usually really well attended but I’m sure there will be a few on it and as it turned out we had nearly sixty fishing with plenty of anglers turning up late , coveys 1-5 will be in the draw bag and as it turned out my home for the day would be peg four on covey one somewhere i haven’t been on that much but i knew how best to fish it because i had seen some one catch really well on it from the edge but as usual i had my own idea on how to get the best from my peg although it didn’t really work out that way , well a third of my plan didn’t as you will find out later .

Peg four reed bed and margin swim

After having watched the recent Winning Pegs dvd which was filmed on covey four i had decided on a pellet attack across in 3 ft of water where i had heard was the best depth to start at and it was also doing really well last weekend on here , my other tactics were ground-bait in the margin , also flicking maggots towards the left hand reeds which were 11 m away , there was a bit of breeze blowing in to it and when i had walked round before the match there was plenty of fish in front of the platforms on all coveys so it looked promising .

My rigs for the day where ;

3 ft pellet across and was also used for fishing maggots towards the reeds as it was only three-inch deeper , my float was a 0.2 scone float with 0.12 garbo line and 0.10 hook length which had a size 20 gamma pellet hook the shotting pattern was a spread bulk of size ten stotz spread an inch apart , elastic was size 12 red matrix .

Margin rig was the one i had used at Sycamore fishery and it turned out to be a big mistake because it wasn’t strong enough for the big carp in covey one , my main line was 0.14 garbo with a 0.12 hook length which had a size 18 guru lwg the float was a malmams diamond 0.3 and elastic was Preston 12 duro .

Bait table

My bait revolved mostly around pellets today ;

2 pints mixed maggots

1/2 pint soaked micros

1/2 pint soaked 4mm pellets

1/2 pint crushed expander dark ground-bait

2 pint margin mix ground-bait

small tub expanders

When the all in sounded i went across to my far bank pellet line , tapped in a pinch of micros and slowly lowered my 4mm expander in amongst it , a couple of lift drops resulted in only minimal indications and nothing worth lifting into and i always tend to struggle at the start of a match getting the fish feeding in my peg this is something i need to work at in the coming weeks . After five minutes i shipped back in re-filled the kinder pot with micros , after tapping this out on my 3ft line resulted in a little dink on the float which i connected with and the first f1 of hopefully many made its way to the net although it was hooked in the fin .

I was getting indications all the time on the float but they didn’t seem to be happy there and this was proved to me when i foul hooked another only this time it came off at the net , i decided to set up another pellet line further to the right but yet again i was getting indications on the float but nothing positive and after the first hour i only had the solitary f1 in the net not the start i was looking for but the other anglers in my section seemed to be in the same boat .

I had been continually flicking maggots towards the reeds to my left since the match started and i felt the time was right to give it a try , i finally managed to get a run of f1s from here but i needed to change my elastic to orange 10 matrix as i bumped a couple off on the way in , i began kinder potting the maggots in as i wanted to concentrate them on the bottom where they would be easier to catch but because my bait was beginning to caster it was bringing them up on to all levels and a change of shotting pattern to on the drop was in order which brought a couple of extra fish . My run off f1s coincided with the heavens opening and lasted about ninety minutes , when the rain stopped so did the bites so maybe they had backed off into the reed bed for cover from the elements ?

We was now approaching the final two hours of the match so i decided to start feeding my left hand margin swim with ground-bait so i put in three pot fulls in and while i waited for it to settle so i tried my right hand margin but decided to take it easy with the feed , i began kinder potting in a few micros before dropping my 4mm expander in among it but yet again i was getting all sorts of indications on the float but no real bites , it seemed that the fish were getting attracted to the feed but didn’t want to eat the pellets this was proved when i decided on the spur of the moment to try maggots on the hook and the float buried instantly with a big f1 on the end it was the biggest that i had caught from Partridge lakes with it being well over the 4lb mark .

Big f1

With no more fish coming from this line i decided to go onto my ground-bait line and i had indications from the start , but i had made the mistake of putting my feed in to far away from the grass bank in the slightly deeper water because i felt that with it being a touch colder plus the recent rain the fish wouldn’t come in so close to the bank . I Was wrong though as i started losing big carp after big carp which were obviously foul hooked , i did get the odd one in but they was taking an age to play on 12 duro and when i pulled a bit too hard on my side pulla it broke my 0.12 hook length . I should have changed my rig + elastic then to a heavier grade but instead i just put on a 0.14 hook length with a size 16 guru lwg hook , this didn’t solve the playing fish problems but by altering the depth of my rig and bringing it right up to the bank this stopped the foul hooking.

I began catching some big carp along with some nice ide and just when i started getting among the fish when the whistle went , i couldn’t believe that i had known how to get the best out of my peg but decided to do my thing and i had blown another chance of at least winning my section . Stupid decisions had cost me again but you live and learn i will just have to put it down to experience , in the end my 16 fish went 36lb with only 62lb winning the section and i lost enough big carp to get that easily and that man Andy Bennett won yet again catching 99lb from covey five with the second coming off covey three with 96lb so not the best of weights for on here but i think it’s just the time of year , i will be looking forward to fishing this peg again to hopefully right a few wrongs and will be back at Partridge lakes for another go next weekend .

 

Partridge lakes

3rd July , peg 1 Covey 1

After my disappointing last trip to Partridge lakes in the Maver Match This i decided to try to right a few wrongs , so i went to contest the open match but on the slightly easier Thursday although their was still 48 fishing which only goes to show how popular the venue is . The weather today was forecast to be blustery with scattered showers just your typical July weather then , when i arrived at the complex i found out that the draw was at 930 so i grabbed some breakfast and went for a walk around the lakes to re aquaint myself with them because it must be nearly two months since i had been on covey 1-4 .

As it got closer to draw time i joined the queue and when it finally came for my turn out i pulled peg 1 which was on covey 1 some were that i hadn’t fished for nearly two years , i had come with a game plan in mind which was to start off against the far bank while building up my shallow line and then spend the last hour in the margin for some carp but all that went out of the window when i arrived to it because it was probably the only one on the venue which had no island to fish towards , although it did have a nice reed lined margin to the left and a bridge to my right so that is where i intended to target plus fishing shallow but with the peg being in a bottle neck i wasnt sure that it would be successful although the wind is blowing into it which is of course a bonus .

I had come with an all out pellet attack but with no real target bait for the margin so i decided to mix up some paste ;

3 pints of 4 mm pellets

1 pint f1 paste

tub 4 mm expanders

tub hard 4+6 mm pellets

My rigs today where;

The 1ft + 2ft deep for fishing up in the water i used a Matrix series 3 float with 0.12 garbo line direct to a size 18 f1 hook which had a micro bait band attached , my elastic was orange Matrix because this was soft enough to allow the fish to swim out of the peg while fishing shallow .

After plumbing up against the left hand margin i found a relatively flat spot where it was 4ft deep and here i choose to fish paste , i used a 0.4 jadz scone float with 0.14 garbo line direct to a size 14 turbertini 808 hook and size 12 duro hollo elastic which i have just started using , so far so good .

My other rig was for against the bridge where i found the top of the slope which was 2.5ft deep , i planned to use expanders and feed hard 4mm pellets . i had a 4×12 speedy float with a spread bulk above the short six-inch hook length of 0.12 garbo my hook was size 18 gamma pellet hook and the same size 12 duro hollo elastic .

When the all in sounded i went onto my paste line and cupped in a pot of 4mm pellets , it took a couple of drops to get my float settled correctly which is normal when paste fishing and it all goes towards feeding the peg . It wasn’t long before my float was dancing about all over the place and baring in mind it had been a while since i last did any paste fishing it took me a couple of goes before i hit any bites ,but the first i did connect with was a 4lb mirror and then a couple of big f1s .

My paste swim started going a bit iffy with very little in the way of indications which showed there was few fish present in this area , so after an hour of preparing my shallow line and with fish in the area i decided to give it a go , first on my 2ft rig with no success and then 1ft rig but still nothing it seemed that the fish on the coveys didn’t like pellet up in the water. I decided not to waste anymore time fishing shallow and to give my expander line a go , i had fed a pot of 4mm pellets every thirty minutes since the start of the match so hopefully a few fish would have settled their and first put in my float dipped and f1 number one came to the net . I then had a run off fish before i lost a carp which took me under the bridge and this seemed to unsettle the swim because the bites suddenly became hard to hit .

Maybe i had over fed the swim as i was feeding a large kinder pot after every fish because i wanted to keep them on the deck but my float wasn’t settling properly maybe hitting fish on the way down and when it did i couldn’t connect with the indications , so i decided to give that line a rest and went back on to my paste line this produced a few nice carp and some big f1s but i was missing a lot of bites here too so maybe a bit more practice is needed using it or maybe it just isn’t right for f1 fishing .

By chopping and changing between these two lines i kept the fish coming till the end including a carp right on the whistle , but yet again i had not managed to keep a steady run of fish especially the smaller stamp f1s which the better anglers on here do and its strange that i can catch the older wiser f1s but not the little ones which you would think should be easier to put in the net .Maybe its the area or depth that i am targeting in my peg or my feeding but its something i need to think about because that is costing me in these sort of matches .

Covey 1 was won by fishing maggot shallow from a peg on the split with 120lb , second on the lake was 100lb on peg 4 by just fishing on the top kit in the margins and third was near the bridge with 90lb all caught on paste on his top 4 in the channel . So lots of different methods to go at but one thing they had in common was they all stayed on one method all match and could keep the fish coming regularly , my 37 fish went 68lb which averages out at nearly 2lb a fish which just goes to show what i said earlier that i struggled to get the smaller stamp fish and an extra 30lb of them would give me nearly a ton in weight pushing me towards challenging for a section win.

So yet again a match on Partridge lakes gives me more questions than answers which keeps you going back but i think that i might stick to Sycamore fisheries for a while until i can get my head around why i can not keep a run of fish going , starting with the open at the weekend .

Partridge lakes FISHERY

PARTRIDGE LAKES OPEN MATCH COVEY 17TH FEB 2013

After having had a pretty hectic week i was looking forward to a nice relaxing day catching a few f1s but how wrong was I .

When packing my gear into the car I noticed a thick frost on it and with clear sky’s and a strong wind forecast , presumed the fishing would be hard especially when driving past the canal I noticed it was frozen for the first time in weeks .

On arrival at partridge at 815 the car park was busy as usual so I signed up and went for a buttie , still haven’t got the hang of the draw yet because both weeks have been in the bottom six to pick .

My home for the day was peg twenty on covey lake one and upon finding my way to it found it was exactly opposite from last weeks peg and the one were he had caught on sweetcorn .

My peg looked nice with it being 11m wide with some rushes to aim at and a long straight margin to my left at least 16m long , the guy to my right had come all the way from Bradford and fishes it every week he informed me that my peg was a good summer peg which throws up some big carp in the margins , but im not sure it would be affective today .

Decided to set up the same rigs as last week ; 3ft , 4ft and 5ft my 4ft rig would also work for the margin to .

My bait table had all the usual ;
pint maggots
soaked micros
crushed expander sloppy
sweetcorn
4mm expander
red jpzs

After plumbing up to find the correct areas to fish , I checked to see how my float settled and it flied under and I was latched into a foul hooked 1lb f1 , most people see this as a good sign of the peg being black with fish but in my limited experience I have found it to be the opposite .

My section didn’t look that hard but you can never be sure with the calibre of angler on here , on peg seven next door to the one I had fished last week was an angler I had seen a lot of in the fishing magazines so took a keen interest to see how he got on .

The all in today was at 1015 I cupped in a half cup of maggots micros and sweetcorn 11m down my left margin and another of maggots on my 5ft channel swim and these would be left alone for at least an hour , I went straight out to my 3ft deep rig concentrating mainly on maggots this week because I had the most success using them the week before , noticed that the wind was getting increasingly stronger from right to left and it could turn problematic later on in the session .

I worked all along the far bank at this depth without any sort of indication so I tried my 4ft rig and hour two went past and still nothing , resorted to my 5ft channel rig and had a small ide which took my bait on the drop to avoid the blank .

The angler on peg seven was catching constantly and the angler on peg four was putting a run of fish together from the wind ward margin but apart from that no one was catching much .

In the fourth hour the wind was far to strong to present a good bait along the far bank so gave that line up as a bad job and concentrated on my near slope and mid channel with out any success .

At the all out I had the solitary ide and the guy to my right had only three carp so not a good day and not really sure why !! it could have been because I over fed thinking I was targeting 25lb+ of f1s which weren’t present in my peg and I couldn’t present a bait along the far bank were it has become apparent that’s the place to fish .

The guy on peg seven had 34lb for the section and my section was won from peg twelve with 13lb but he had the wind off his back . I will put up the results later but think 50lb won and 40lb second from covey three .

What i learned today;
far bank is the place to be on here and maybe over fed in the conditions because found out after the match it was froze over on the sat .

Cant wait for next week and hopefully get on covey three in better weather conditions .

Partridge lakes FISHERY

PARTRIDGE LAKES OPEN MATCH COVEY 10TH FEB 2013

After being lucky enough to get the two fisho tickets I applied for and one being at partridge lakes I decided to up my game and try the open matches on covey against the big names .

Went down on the Friday to see how it had been fishing and to put my name down on the match list , when I got there I had a word with the balife who was very helpful and he let me know the best bait to use (maggots )and best area to fish (3-4 ft deep ) their wasn’t a match on so I went for a stroll around it to give me an idea were the best pegs are and best place to park .

When I woke on the day of the match I was glad that the forecast snow hadn’t turned up but it looked like it would be a cold and wet day although not to windy and after packing the car it was a mighty two degrees .

On arrival at the venue I was a bit apprehensive on what on what to expect because I was on my own and a few big name anglers from the north west were already in attendance but anyway I paid my money and went for a bacon buttie .
Hadn’t really had that much luck fishing the opens at Sycamore but I always put that down to it being extremely peggy and I was confident in my approach to my f1 fishing but needed the fish in front off me to prove it.

My peg for the day was number six not sure if it is a good peg or not but did know it was on the worst off the four lakes , at least it wasn’t a long walk from the car park and they were paying six peg sections so that was my aim for the day .

Was a bit unsure whether to fish how i would normally do at Sycamore but decided to concentrate in the areas i had been told were working on here by the balife .

my three lines off attack are ;
mid channel – five foot deep , .10 garbo line to a size 20 gamma pellet hook , preston chianti 4×14 float , spread inch bulk starting above the hook length .

bottom slope – four foot deep ,.10 garbo line to a size 20 gamma pellet hook , preston chianti 4×12 float , spread inch bulk starting above the hook length .

mid slope -three foot deep , .10 garbo line to a size 20 gamma pellet hook , preston chianti 4×12 float , spread inch bulk starting above the hook length .

Decided on a 0.10 hook length and stronger gamma pellet hook because I was unsure on the size of f1 I was targeting and with a few proper carp up to ten pound in here as well .

After not being happy with my float I decided to change to a preston chianti to see if that gave me a better bite registration , I made my rigs the day before and was very deliberate in getting the exact depth and even marked it on my top kit .

On my bait tray was ;
half pint of red and white maggots
quarter pint of crushed expanders
quarter pint of micro pellets
small tub of expanders

My three top kits were with solid eight elastic and small cad pot was used to introduce the feed .

At the all in I started straight in front of me at eleven meter were it was four foot deep , I feed a small cad pot of micros and crushed expanders with a pellet on the hook , began lift and dropping every thirty seconds and re fed every five minutes but didn’t have a sign of a bite and no one in my section had caught either it wasn’t looking good , just started thinking about were to target next when my float twitched and a slow lift resulted in a five minute fight with a three pound carp in the net .

But another bite less ten minutes saw me move just two foot to my left using the same rig because it was the same depth but on this line I started feeding maggot and a little crushed expander I was still lifting and dropping every thirty seconds and re feeding every five minutes .

On this line I started picking up the odd f1 up to two pound but it was slow going , the two anglers to my right hadn’t caught and were soon off to the burger van and the others in my eye line were also struggling apart from the guy directly opposite who wasn’t in my section but was picking up the odd f1 he had caught more than me but were of a smaller stamp and the big carp I had meant I was still in front .

After three hours I had five f1s and a carp for about ten pound but in the fourth hour I went on a good run and put another ten f1s in the net for another ten pound, but maybe I began to over feed and noticed that the fish were not being lip hooked any more and had to use my disgorger on most so my rig wasn’t working how I wanted it to either .

In the last hour the f1s vanished and after trying all along the far bank at four foot and even three foot to see if they had backed off a bit but I couldn’t find any feeding fish , I did hook and land a bonus five pound mirror which took my maggots on the drop , it fought really hard on my light elastic and it was lucky I hadn’t gone for the 0.07 hook length or I wouldnt have landed the bigger carp .

The all out soon came and from what I could see lots of people in my section had struggled apart from me but I wasn’t counting my chickens just yet , for some reason they started the weigh in on the high numbers but with only me to weigh in I had nineteen pound to beat and I put twenty five pound on the scales ,for a section and lake win which was my best open match result so far from my first attempt on covey but there is still a few things to sort out before the next match and with a good last hour I could have been on for a forty pound net .

Before I went to the cabin to pick up my money I started talking to the guy who was catching opposite and he had all his on sweetcorn not my favourite bait but I will take it next week and apparently the two guys to my right both fished in the UK champs last year .

1st 72lb peg 92
2nd 42lb peg 64
3rd 30lb peg 97
4th 25lb peg 88

and to my surprise I got 5th with 25lb from peg 6 even though they got my name wrong im well happy with that result and was the best weight from 2 lakes .