Hooked for heroes match at Wrightington fishery

July 29th

wrightington canals

Today i was attending the hooked for heroes match at Wrightington fishery which was due to take place all over the complex and as i hadn’t been on a match here in quite some time i was really looking forward to it , i fancied a try on rivi view as it is full of big carp and you can fish the straight lead or pinging pellets which is a tactic that i don’t really do a great deal of . The weather yet again had taken a turn for the worse with a drop in temperature plus some heavy overnight rain which i felt might have a big impact on the fishing with carp being the main target species , after my short drive to the venue i was surprised to find that i was one of the first to arrive and after having a chat with the organiser it seemed that he had been let down by a few anglers so the contest was just going to take place on the two canals which was a bit disappointing , as i had not been on them before and would have to alter my approach a bit if i was going to do any good today .

At the draw my bad run in the draw bag continued as i pulled out peg 34 which was in the middle of the straight on canal two , when i got to my home for the next few hours ;

i had an island at 16m with a few over hanging reeds and a bit of a mud bank.

i was on a bit of a platform which enabled you to fish behind you .

I decided to set up a couple of rigs which i felt would give me the best chance of catching a few fish ;

Far bank rig i plumbed up in front of the reeds where it was 2.5ft deep as i felt that with all the cold water going in they wouldn’t want to be tight to the bank and i used a 4×12 MD diamond float with 014 garbo main line which had a four-inch 012 garbo hook length attached to it .

Top four rig for fishing at an angle left+right where it was over 7ft deep at the bottom of the near slope , it was a bit deeper than i would have liked but i did have the option of higher up the shelf in shallower water , i used a 0.6 MD maggot float with a bulk + 2 dropper shotting pattern my main line was the usual 014 garbo with a six-inch 012 garbo hook length .

Margin rig which was positioned towards my right hand platform in 1.5ft which was the shallowest water that i could find and i used a MD 3×12 mini diamond float which had a bulk of shot above the four-inch 014 garbo hook length .

Bait for the day was pretty simple as i only took ;

3 pints of 4mm pellets

3 pints of 6mm pellets

small tub of mixed hard pellets for the hook

3 pints groundbait

When the all in sounded i fed half a cup of 4mm pellets onto my left hand top four line and would continue to loose feed a couple of hard 6mm pellets over the top every five minutes , i then went across to the far bank found my marker then tapped in a couple of 4mm pellets before lowering my rig in over the top of it and it took nearly twenty minutes before i had my first fish which was a stockie carp about a pound , over the next forty minutes i added another four similar sized fish it was noticeable that i was missing a lot of indications and at first i thought that they might have been smaller fish but after a while it suddenly clicked that they were probably line bites , so i made the decision to plumb up tighter to the bank but the shallowest water i could find was 1.5ft and i hoped this wouldn’t be too deep . I started taping in pellets again and i didn’t have to wait long before i was back catching again but as i feared in the depth of water i began suffering with line bites , i changed my feeding to dump potting in the pellets which would hopefully get them back on the deck and this worked really well as i managed another run of fish , but just as i felt that i was getting into a good rhythm the wind started blowing stronger and i began feeling a bit rough with hot+cold sweats i was also struggling to control my rig as it kept hooking the far bank reeds so i fed a cup of ground-bait which would keep the fish in the area before going onto my top four rig .

I had fed this line since the match started so i expected a few fish to be in the vicinity and on my first drop i had the slightest dink on the float which resulted in a nice sized skimmer hitting the net , for the next hour i kept catching the odd fish it was hectic by any means just nice and steady plus i didn’t know what species i was going to catch next which made a nice change . After a while i began struggling to hit the bites and with the waves worsening i couldn’t see the little dinks on the float , so i made the decision to set up a new swim towards my right in the same depth which would give me a better option of controlling my rig and i began by putting in half a pot of 4mm pellets while it settled i had another look across to the far bank , after struggling with the wind i only added a couple of stockies but there was definitely a few fish present i just couldn’t keep my hook bait still long enough to get a proper bite . Back on to my right hand top four swim and i was back catching again but it was a bit slow at first , i stopped loose feeding the 6mm pellets due to the size of fish i was catching and began dump potting in the 4mm pellets through a kinder pot after every fish or missed bite so i could build the swim up , i also changed my shotting pattern to a staggered bulk as i wanted catch everything on the deck and by making this change i managed another good run of fish .

With ninety minutes of the match remaining i began potting in some ground-bait on my margin swim and while it settled i went back across to the far bank for another couple of stockies before the wind got to strong to present my rig properly , i dropped onto my right hand margin with a 6mm pellet on the hook and i started getting liners straight away which was a good sign , not long after my elastic shot out of my pole as something bolted out of the peg taking me under the empty platform , luckily i managed to get it back and after a spirited fight up popped a 2lb barbel which turned out to be my biggest fish of the day . With barbel being a shoal fish i hoped that i could have a good run of them but apart from a couple of tiny carp that’s the only indications i had and i would probably have been better feeding maggots rather than pellets but i didn’t have that option today , i spent the remainder of the match rotating my two top four swims picking up fish from each right to the all out sounded .

As the stamp of fish was on the small side i decided against using my clicker today so i did not have a clue on what weight i had today and when the scales arrived i was quite surprised when they went 47lb this was good enough to finish third on the day missing out on second by a few ounces and getting beat by both end pegs , lack of bonus fish and venue knowledge cost me today but it was a busy days fishing because i only managed one fish over 10oz although i would have enjoyed it more if i had felt better as i had to stop the car a few times on the way home as i felt a bit sick .

 

Wrightington rivi view

Wrightington fishery , rivi view

August 2nd , peg 48 rivi view

After a hectic weekend i managed to book a few days from work so i decided to spend a couple of hours on Wrightington fishery to help recharge the batteries , it is a venue that i don’t get to visit that often because it is usually clubbed out at the weekends and even though the weather was forecast to be pretty miserable with strong winds plus heavy down pours i was really looking forward to getting among the resident carp , on arriving at the fishery i wasnt surprised to see quite a few cars knocking about because it is a very popular place and after parking up i had a quick look to check on which pegs were free , as i expected all the better pegs facing the islands had been taken but with the wind blowing towards the car park i chose to sit on 48 which gave me a bit of open water .

After setting up my gear i decided to start on the pellet feeder but with the lad opposite throwing a straight lead well past half way i could only chuck about 25m so i decided to aim for the aerator towards my left and as i had not even picked a rod up for over a year it was probably a good thing that i had a bit of space for my wayward casting , rivi view has a lot of hand sized skimmers which can become a nuisance when you are feeding ground-bait of micros so i planned on using 4mm pellets in the feeder and an 8mm on the hook , i began by casting every few minutes to get a bit of bait into the swim this also helped get rid of the rustiness and after about twenty minutes i started getting a few liners , not long after i had my first fish which was a mirror carp about 5lb then a couple of skimmers got in on the act but by casting every five minutes plus ringing the changes with the hard pellet on the band i began catching mainly carp , although it was noticeable that you would get a couple of fish quite quickly before a bit of a wait but as long as i kept the bait going in regularly they did return and i was doing a lot better than those anglers within eye shot .

After nearly two hours the lure of going on the pole was too much and i had earlier plumbed up a line at four meters which i had fed with a small cupping kit of 4mm pellets every twenty minutes and first drop on this line my float had only just settled when it shot under after a spirited fight up popped a carp which wasnt far away from being double figures , another of similar size followed before i began missing the odd bite but by changing pellet size+colour i soon had them lined up again it wasnt hectic by any means but the carp were all of a decent size so well worth waiting for .

On my last club match here i caught really well using paste in the margins this is something that i don’t do a great deal of and as i had a bag of tiger fish in my carryall i decided to give it a whirl because it was a day for enjoying myself trying a few different things out , in the cold weather conditions which more resembled autumn than summer i didn’t plumb up tight to the reeds but in the slightly deeper water at the bottom of the first shelf , it took a couple of goes to get my rig set correctly but it all went towards feeding my paste line and it took nearly twenty minutes before i had any signs on the float , i was just about to give up on it when my elastic was pulled out of my pole with another near double figure carp hitting the net and it took me awhile to start hitting the correct type of indication.

For the next couple of hours i rotated between my two pole swims picking a couple of carp from each and by doing this it prolonged the life of both of them it also stopped the skimmers getting in on the action as well , before i knew it was time to go and with the black clouds starting to roll in i decided to have one more fish on my paste line which turned out to be an immaculate near double figure common carp , i ended up catching twenty-five carp between 4+10lb plus a few skimmers and a really enjoyable days fishing trying out a few tactics that i don’t tend to fish that often .

Wrightington fishery

Peg seven Rivi – view , August 18th

After booking a few days off work and with the weather still being nice i decided on a day’s fishing i didn’t fancy doing a match because i don’t tend to do that well mid-week so choose to have a few hours at Wrightington fisheries with Rivi-view my first choice if there was any half decent pegs left as it is a popular venue for pleasure anglers , yet again i had a crap nights sleep and woke up at the crack of sparrows so i decided to head off a bit earlier than i had originally planned wishing the fresh air might help clear my head the weather was forecast to be warm with blue skies but it didn’t look like that when i began packing my gear into the car as it was overcast+misty i just hoped that it would get better as the day wore on .

As i expected on arriving at the venue there was plenty cars knocking about even at 9 o’clock on a Tuesday and after looking at Rivi – view i could see eight other anglers scattered about but there was a bit of room along the narrower island side so i settled on peg seven and my plan was to have a nice easy day setting up just three rigs to cover my options ;

Margin which was 2ft deep at the side of both sets of reeds i used an 0.4 Jeff’s Ruddy float with 0.16 garbo main line and 0.14 garbo hook length which had a size 14 LWG hook my elastic was Matrix 14 yellow elastic .

Shallow which was 2ft deep i used an 0.2 scone zone pea float with 0.12 garbo direct to a size 18 Matrix rigger hook which had a micro bait band attached to it , my elastic was red size 12 Matrix .

Six meter line which was 5ft deep i used a 4×14 Malman Roob with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern my main line was 0.14 garbo and 0.12 garbo hook length which had a size 18 matrix rigger hook that had a micro bait band attached elastic was red size 12 matrix .

My bait today was ;

tub of mixed hard pellets for the hook

2 tins of corn

2 pints 4mm pellets

1 pint 6mm pellets

1 pint micros

3 pints of margin ground-bait

I mixed and riddled the ground-bait before adding the micros plus one tin of corn and a handful of 4mm pellets . all in all it cost less than a fiver which wasn’t too bad , i decided to start my session at six meters where i had earlier plumbed up to find a flattish area and it got gradually deeper the further out you went , i purposely left a longish lash with a couple of back shots to help counteract the strong cross wind it would also give me the option of putting in a new swim at 13m underneath my shallow line if required . I put in a cupping kit full of 4mm pellets then a ball of my ground-bait mix and i then lowered my rig in down the same hole with a hard 6mm pellet on the hook it didn’t take to long before my float dipped a firm strike resulted in the elastic streaming out of the pole tip after a spirited fight i had a 5lb carp in the net , i then started getting the dreaded fizzing as a shoal of skimmers settled on my feed and i began missing lots of bites it just wasn’t working for me upon looking around everyone seemed to be fishing the same way as me they were also struggling to get a steady run of fish so i decided to try something a bit different by going out to 13m and began pinging 6mm pellets at the float so i wouldn’t overfeed my peg thus hopefully stopping the fizzing .

 

I began firing half a dozen pellets at my float every five minutes if i started getting liners i would obviously pick up my shallow rig but i hoped to keep them on the deck , it didn’t take too long before i began getting indications and i was soon into a stream of barbel averaging 2lb but strangely no carp or f1s  , i was really enjoying catching them as they are a very hard fighting fish although it was noticeable that i did get the odd indication on the float a few seconds after i pinged the pellets in so i picked up my shallow rig and i began getting bites straight away although i missed more than i hit but as they were only from silvers so i decided to go back on to the deck altering my feeding to keep them there , but it seemed that all the disturbance of slapping+tapping had disrupted the barbel shoal although a few carp up to 5lb had taken their place and i decided to begin feeding both my margin swims for later in the session with the ground-bait mix .I started picking up the odd skimmer among the carp which wasn’t a good sign i occasionally tried my margin swims but only for a couple of minutes at a time because if there was any fish in the vicinity i would get some sort of indication straight away , i had nothing on my left hand side but on my other side i began missing lots of bites so i tried using the smallest piece of corn i could find which resulted in me getting a big fan tail carp then a few of the recently stocked hand sized carp .

 

By keeping feeding and rotating my lines i kept fish coming but it was only when i saw a swirl on my left hand margin that it really kicked off as my first drop saw me catch a bream around 4lb which did its best dolphin impression before the carp moved in and although i was waiting longer for a bite every fish was over 5lb some approaching double figures and even when a guy came talking too me standing just 2ft from where i was fishing i was still getting bites , i was enjoying myself that much i decided on an extra thirty minutes while i used up my remaining bait but when i hit something a bit bigger which bottomed my elastic out before snapping my hook length trashing my rig in the process so i reluctantly called it a day and i had nearly 150lb on my clicker plus a sore shoulder but more importantly i had really enjoyed my day’s fishing i am having a weekend away from match fishing but hope to get out for a pleasure session some were before the bank holiday open at Weston pools plus my ticket for the subscriber classic at Tunnel barn farm has turned up so it looks like i have a busy September planned .