Partridge lakes

January 24th , peg 160 Covey six

After almost three weeks away from match fishing i was eager to get back on the banks of Partridge lakes even though my last visit was pretty disappointing where i struggled to catch any f1s from covey three but today the open was to take place on covey 5 and 6 which is usually a good place for a few bites especially after their recent stocking , although all the recent rain-melted ice plus strong wind would have a big bearing on how the fish would respond today .

W hen i got up in the morning i was glad that the heavy overnight rain had ceased but it was now a bit breezy and the dashboard on the way their showed a mighty two degrees and it wouldn’t rise above that all day , when i arrived at the fishery there didn’t seem that many people knocking about apart from those contesting the team event on covey 1-4 and as a result their was only thirty fishing the open .

As i queued for the draw i didn’t fancy being on covey six as it was fishing really hard so it would be 50/50 on which lake i would get , i tried a different tactic regarding the draw and had the last peg in the bag to see if this would get me a good peg at last because since christmas i have been on a poor run but i wasn’t best impressed when number 160 sticking to my hand . This was in the middle of the straight in not a great area but i did have a bit of room with two empty pegs on each side plus i saw a couple of fish top across so you just never know .

I set up four rigs to cover various depths of my swim ;

2ft

3ft

4ft

channel

My bait for the day was ;

1/2 pint micro

1/2 pint ground-bait

1/2 pint mixed maggots

small tub expanders normal and white

As the all in sounded i went across with my 3ft deep rig directly in front of me and i could then go shallower or deeper and left or right if i needed too , i didn’t put any feed in at first because i wanted to let the f1s guide me on how much to put in as at this time of year they can be really finicky . After twenty minutes i was still bite less so i risked putting in a couple of maggots in this didn’t work either although i had a feeling that their was fish in the area , i set up another swim a foot to my right because the left hand area of my peg was covered in the low winter sun shine and i started the process all over again but an hour in with still no bites also with the wind getting stronger i felt my rig wasn’t working properly by being dragged through the swim or getting blown about even when using a back shot .

I set up another swim eight meters to my left with my 4ft deep rig which was at the bottom of the far slope i hoped by using a slightly heavier float and being at an angle to the wind i might get better presentation so i could hopefully attract a few bites also i choose to feed pellets to see what response this would get , the answer was nothing and another bite less hour .Things were beginning to get a bit desperate but it was the same for all those around me in fact i had only seen a few people catch on the lake , with the wind increasing all the time i decided to cut down one of my channel rigs to 3ft hoping that this would get me better presentation which it did but unfortunately no bites .

We was now into the last two hours and about half a dozen anglers had decided to pack up including both my neighbours and the only reason i didn’t was the fact that i was only four f1s behind the leader in my section and if the fish did turn up you can soon get on a roll ,i tried in front of the empty peg to my left at the bottom of the slope this as you probably guess failed to produce a single sign in thirty minutes . Their was only one thing for it and out came my channel rig i choose to start yet again to my left and began dripping in some maggots after a couple of feeds my float dinked slightly a sharp lift resulted in six-inch of elastic coming out before it quickly came off but at least it was a sign of a fish .

A couple of more missed bites ensued but even after changing shotting patterns and depths i failed to connect with any which is usual for me when fishing in the channel , the indications soon stopped though so i started again directly in front of me still dripping in maggots this resulted in a bite out of the blue with a little chub making its way to the net and i had avoided the blank . No more bites came my way so i moved a meter to my right and started again this produced an f1 quickly followed by another , i was just beginning to get excited that i could put a run of fish together and claw my way back into the section but that’s all that i could manage before the all out .

Before i started packing up as their was only two of us left in the section i went round for a chat to the Maver north-west angler and he informed me that he had six f1s plus a couple of small chub which he had caught in the first hour across before the wind got to bad and he was fish less for the rest of the match , so for the second match running at Partridge lakes i had failed to get a descent net of fish i knew that it would fish hard today with all the ice water going in but not this hard and i hope the weather begins to improve soon so i can get back on the bank more because i feel that i am losing touch with the f1s by not getting out often enough .

I’m off to contest a match on the Cunneries S canal tomorrow so lets hope that i can catch a few fish at long last because i don’t think a have caught more than thirty since the end of November .

Partridge lakes

November 15th , Covey five peg 111

I really fancied getting on the bank this weekend and finally the recent heavy rains had stopped so off i headed to Partridge lakes to contest the very popular open match , i was unsure on what to expect though with the matches in the week being very hard with just 60lb being needed to frame and as their was nearly sixty anglers present today so a good draw would be even more important but my drawing hand let me down big time putting me on a bad peg on the worst lake and i also had a flyer peg to contend with too .

Covey five was to be my destination it was near the main car-park so at least i didn’t have to move the car but my peg was situated right down the bottom of the long straight with the little breeze blowing the other way every peg that i past meant my day would be even harder and when i finally reached peg 111 it was your predictable 13 meter wide with not much in the way of features although i did see a couple of fish top which gave me a bit of hope , the lake has mainly a smaller stamp of fish with little in the way of any bonus carp and my original plan for covey 1-4 went out of the window but at least i had prepared some pellets which was the main bait to use on here .

Rigs

2ft across , 4×10 malman roob float with 0.12 garbo main line to a 0.10 garbo hook length which had a size 20 matrix bagger hook attached and elastic was orange matrix .

3ft both shelves , 4×12 malman roob float with 0.12 garbo main line to a 0.10 garbo hook length which had a size 20 matrix bagger hook attached and elastic was orange matrix .

6ft channel , 4×14 malmans roob with 0.12 garbo main line to a 0.10 garbo hook length which had a size 18 matrix bagger hook attached and elastic was orange matrix .

My bait was the usual ,

2 pints red and white maggots

1 pint or micro and ground-bait

small tub mixed expanders

small tub white expanders

When the all in sounded i decided to start on my 3ft rig as it was still a bit cold , so i shipped out to 11 meters towards the left hand part of my peg because i don’t like fishing directly in front of me if i can help it .I planned on fishing two swims at this depth hoping to keep fish coming by alternating between them both and after tapping in some micro before lowering in my pellet hook bait amongst it , a couple of lift-drops and the tiniest of indication resulted in f1 number one making its way to the net quickly followed by another things were looking promising but with me being eager not to overfeed them i was rather surprised when they backed off and i decided to try my white expander this got me another fish plus a couple of missed bites which for some reason is usual when using this bait .

I decided to rest this swim and used the same rig towards the right of my peg but still using pellets , yet again i tapped in a nugget of micro plus ground-bait before lowering my expander in among it a couple of lift-drops resulted in a quick f1 and then followed by another but yet again i had to resort to my white expander to keep indications coming it seemed that a pattern was emerging , with nothing positive happening on either line coupled with the fact it was getting a little warmer plus they seemed to be catching at 2ft on the split bank i decided to follow suit but this time using maggots just to see if i could catch a few chub or ide among the f1s because it was fishing really hard down the long straight where i was , this failed to produce an indication which was surprising and it must have been the depth as i set up another line using pellets towards the left which also didn’t get me a bite .

With nearly half the match gone and just eight fish in the net you can safely say things wasn’t going well , i had fed maggots through a small cupping kit every thirty minutes on my six meter channel line since the match started so i decided to give this a try to with double maggot on the hook i lowered in my rig .After a long wait with not a lot happening yet again i was on the verge of trying another line when my float finally dipped and my first carp made an appearance although it was only just over a pound in weight it was double the size of my f1s , i refed with another large kinder pot of maggots and this got me another f1 but it was really hard going.

To be in with any chance at all of getting my section i needed a really good run of f1s or at least a line which would produce a bigger stamp of carp , i noticed that the guy on 107 was catching near the empty platform so i decided to set up a line on my near shelf at 3ft deep but only at six meters so i could rotate my channel lines as well because on the spur of the moment i decided to try a pellet line away to my right and feed a small cupping kit full of micro plus ground-bait then left it alone for about an hour for the fish to settle on it .

On my first try on the near slope i fed a big kinder pot full of maggots before laying my rig in up the shelf i had a really positive bite with a bigger than average f1 coming to the net ,i decided to try to force the swim by feeding the same amount every five minutes to see how i got on which wasn’t my best decision of the day although it did kind of work as you would get a couple of indications straight after feeding and then nothing but the fish on this line were worth waiting for averaging over a pound i even had a small ghostie , i got in a routine of get a couple of bites from my near slope before going on my maggot channel swim while i rested it .

With an hour remaining i noticed bubbles coming up from the channel where i potted in the pellets earlier , a quick look with a pellet on the hook and a little dink on the float resulted in a small f1 making its way to the bank . In the last hour i couldn’t get in quick enough and nearly doubled my catch in that time , although i did need to really try to sort the feeding out because they definitely seemed to back away from the pellets falling on their heads and white expander worked extremely well for me on this line .

When the all out sounded i wasnt that happy with the way things went but to be honest i think i had got the best from the peg and other than a few tweaks with the feeding i couldn’t do a great deal more with no lost fish and not many missed bites , i just think it was a poor area to be in and in the end my 22 fish went nearly 18lb which is a good stamp for in here , peg 103 won the lake and the section with over 50lb those anglers on the split all had around the 30lb mark .Hopefully i might get back to Partridge lakes next weekend I’m just hoping for a better draw

Partridge lakes

November 9th , peg 98 Covey four

Covey four

After last weekends eventful couple of matches were i really struggled with foul hooked fish i was eager to get back on the bank and to try to put a few things in practice that i hopped might solve it , so off i headed to Partridge lakes although it had fished hard in the days leading up to todays contest with the Saturday’s match being won with just 60lb and even lower weights in the midweek ones , but at least the weather today was forecast to be a lot better which could help make it more of a level playing field for the 75 anglers here and this also meant there would be 15 on each canal as covey six was taken up by a club match .

At the draw i pulled out ball 98 which was in the middle of the split on Covey four not really where i wanted to be as i had not done that well on these sorts of pegs in the past , when i arrived at my home for the day i was talking to a fellow angler he informed me that 18lb was the best weight from that area on Saturday not really what i wanted to hear though but nothing i could do about it now though .As i began setting up it looked like i might have a bit of room with the nearest person being on flyer peg hundred , i thought that i might have a chance of a few fish but all that changed when some one settled down on peg 97 and it looked like i would be a bit hemmed in but i did have an empty peg to compensate for it.

I decided to think positive as it was a good area for carp so i wouldn’t need that many fish for a good weight and i felt that just 50lb could be enough to be in with a chance of framing , i settled on four lines to use today ;

Top three-line 4ft , 4×14 malman roob with 0.12 garbo and a 0.10 garbo hook length , my hook was a size 18 guru LWG and elastic was size 12 red Matrix .

Six meter channel line 5ft , 4×16 malman roob with 0.12 garbo and a 0.10 garbo hook length , my hook was a size 20 bagger Matrix hook and elastic was size 10 orange Matrix .

Ten meter far bank line 3ft, 4×12 malman roob with 0.12 garbo and a 0.10 garbo hook length , my hook was a size 20 bagger Matrix hook and elastic was size 10 orange Matrix .

Eleven meter far bank line 2ft , 4×10 malman roob with 0.12 garbo and a 0.10 garbo hook length , my hook was a size 20 carp bagger Matrix hook and elastic was size 10 orange Matrix .

I was a bit confused on what bait to take today as i had heard conflicting stories about pellet and maggots working well so i decided to bring both ;

One pint red and white maggots

Small tub of mixed expanders

One pint micros

One pint ground-bait

Half pint 4mm pellets

As the all in sounded i shipped out to my ten meter 3ft deep line and tapped in some micros capped with ground-bait , i began lifting-dropping the expander hook bait and it didn’t take long before a little dink on the float produced  my first f1 of the day but i think that after feeding with the same amount as at the start it might have over fed the area because i couldn’t get another indication or maybe they just didn’t fancy pellet today , a change of hook bait to maggot produced another quick f1 so it looked like that was the bait to be on but yet again after refeeding i seemed to have killed the area again but i soon found out why the f1s had vanished when carp number one made its way to the net at around 5lb it was a nice bonus .

After the first hour i only had three fish in the net and it looked like it could be a long day but i have found it is usually slow in the first half of the match before improving as it goes on so no need to panic just yet , i had been loose feeding six maggots every five minutes on my top three-line so i decided to give that a whirl and i began getting the odd indication before my first proper bite resulted in carp number two hitting the net quickly followed by a decent sized f1 but after all the disturbance i decided to rest it for a while so went back across to the far bank where i had caught earlier , no bites came on my original swim so i set up another one a few feet to my right but just fed six maggots this produced another carp plus a couple of f1s and in the first couple of hours i had five carp , three f1s for about 24lb which is better than i usually do on here and if i can have my usual good run of fish near the end i would have a chance of hitting my target weight but this is where my match started to deteriorate as in the next ninety minutes i completely lost the fish with only ide coming to the net even though i set up multiple swims and the only carp i managed to hook bottomed my elastic out before making a beeline for my platform and trashed my rig underneath it but its been a while since i lost a fish that way so i will let it have that one .

With just an hour remaining i decided to set up a new swim in 2ft of water across where to be honest i didn’t expect to catch due to the cold conditions , at first i started picking up some nice size ide before the f1s moved in and i even had a carp which i landed after the whistle .Overall i had seven carp , five f1s and six ide for 38lb and second in the section only getting beat by peg one hundred which i expected to win or maybe even frame as every time i turned round he was playing a fish so i was quite surprised when he only put 50lb on the scales after speaking to him he said he lost more than he caught fishing bread to the point of the island he was understandably disappointed as you really need to take your chances when they present themselves on here.

Yet again it was another match where i should have done better and i was surprised that my usual mid match run of fish did not materialise on the plus side i caught on every line i fished but couldn’t get a run of f1s going which was probably down to my feeding or maybe i should have only had two lines at one depth trying to pick up a couple of fish from one swim before swapping to the other this might have kept them coming for longer , rather than keep setting up new swims as in the end i had five lines along the far-bank within four meters of each other which could have split up the shoal ,I also neglected my channel line which could have caught me some fish in the mid match quiet spell.

I will be back there on Saturday to give it another go because i am really enjoying the fishing on their but if i can keep the fish coming it will not be far away from framing more regularly , fingers crossed.