Sunday 23 February 2014

Alders Farm Specimen Lake Open 22/2/14

With a rare weekend off from work I decided to book into the Open at Alders Farm. The match was restricted to 15 anglers as it was planned to be on the Specimen Lake. This lake is a strange one, full of small pastie sized carp and a good head of carp to high 30s although they rarely show in matches. Plenty of bream and proper skimmers means plenty of bites throughout.

We were greeted by another frost free morning with a slight breeze and a temperature of 2 degrees. It would get warmer as the day wore on but so would the wind speed increase.

I was looking for a peg on the house side. Anything from 1-5 with 1 and 2 being the better pegs. However with monies paid, I dipped my hand in and out came peg 14. This was not where I wanted to be. This end of the lake narrows to a point, Peg 15 is a good peg where a gentle lob to the far bank trees gets a few fish as well as fishing down the bank. My peg has a hole in the trees opposite and would need to be fish with a method or bomb. You have a steep bank behind you making shipping the pole back harder. I opted for a line at 11m due to this bank and although I felt this was too short a line was hopeful of catching a few fish if I could keep things tidy.I also set up a margin line at 11m to my left to have an odd look at throughout the day, although really did not expect to catch from it due to it being very shallow.

I started off potting in a large pot of 4mm fishery pellets topped off with around 20 grains of corn and about the same of 6mm expanders at 11m with another pot at 11m to my left. My rigs were a MW .4g diamond on .15 Colmic stream to a size 16 PR36. A NG Ghandi for down the edge dotted right down to .17 Colmic Stream to a size 14 PR36.

I started off on the bomb not wanting to spook any fish already in the vicinity, but with no bites or liners after half an hour I switched to a tiny method feeder with soaked pellets around the feeder. Still no bites or liners. A look on the pole line brought no fish and the sun's reflection on the water was starting to play havoc. I had a quick look down the edge with no bites. Back to the method and nothing so switched back to the bomb and nothing again. Back to the pole and after 2 hours I had my first bite, a skimmer around the 1lb mark on a 6mm expander. Then nothing, I tried toss-potting feed in regularly to try to induce bites, lifting and dropping, I had another 1lb + skimmer on stinky corn but I was not getting bites regularly. I had had two bites and two skimmers.

Elsewhere, it was strange, Andy on 15 was getting odd fish, not regularly but odd fish on the method into the trees. Charlie Lancaster seemed to be getting a few fish on 12 fishing the method to the island, John Beesley was getting odd small carp again to the island whereas Colin Fosdyke and Martin Greene were struggling for bites on both method and pole lines, Vic Nugent was getting a few small carp across to the small island but was a long chuck from peg 6, the pegs on the house bank were all catching small carp regularly.

It seemed that the fish had turned off, I could only get a bite whilst there was a ripple on the water and was having to wait for that bite. By 1400 I had 4 skimmers for around 5lb and needed a few carp. Andy was catching small carp but his fish were bigger than my skimmers. I kept plugging away on the pole line and this single minded approach started to pay off. I managed a carp around 2lb on my next put in and this was followed 15mins later by another around 6lb. I was only getting bites on 6mm expanders but could not get a bite on stinky corn. I had 6 bites and 6 fish so was happy with my hook to bite ratio. By the end of the match I still maintained this 100% record with 9 from 9. Andy had sneaked a carp with 5 minutes to go and I thought he would just pip me, but I was still happy with how I fished, could I have done anything different? perhaps I went a bit too gung ho at the start and killed the swim before I could gauge a response. Lesson learned.

Overall the house bank fished better.

1st Andy W                          39-08 peg 1
2nd Trevor Price                  39-03 peg 2
3rd Richard Brain                36-03 peg 4
4th Charlie Lancaster          24-12 peg 7
5th Andy T                          24-10 peg 5
6th Andy Blackwell            23-13 peg 15

My weight of 22-05 placed me in 7th place, for which I was happy. I learnt a lesson from a difficult peg. 

Wednesday 5 February 2014

Alders Farm Affordable Open 05/02/14

Today's match should have been on Tuesday, however with a low turnout expected it was switched to the Wednesday to allow both Mick Wright (who suggested it) and myself the chance to fish.

Tuesday was a glorious winter's day, the sun was in the sky and although it was patchy you could see it. Temperatures were around 6 degrees and everything was rosy. What a difference 24 hours makes. Rain, rain and even more rain getting progressively heavier. Temperatures had plummeted to around 3 degrees although the combination of wind and rain meant it felt like -1.

I do not know whether the day change affected the turnout but we had a healthy 12 anglers turn up today and I hope this continues. This meant that giving people an option to fish an island was important, so with this in mind it was pegged giving most the choice. However the draw gods were not kind to me and peg 16 stuck to my mitt. The corner of death. Mick had drawn peg 3 and would be hard to beat from there. Nick Wooding had for the third match on the trot drawn 32 and won each time, so was on a hat-trick. Terry Lancaster on 28 where he had a ton from a couple of weeks ago. However with Charlie Lancaster on 5, Pete  Archer on 6, Steve Wroe on 7, Trevor Price on 21 and Steve Potter on 23 he would not have it all his own way.

I decided to keep it simple today, one line at 11m and another towards 15 but about a metre from the bank. Bait would be Stinky Corn and 6mm GOT expanders over fishery 4mm sinkers. I was fortunate that I had the wind and rain off my back so could fish comfortably. I opted for  a .4g MW Diamond at 11m in case the wind picked up and to combat any tow. Down the side I fished a NG Edger float in .2g as it was well sheltered.

I started off potting in half a cup of 4mm sinkers with around a dozen grains of standard corn and half a dozen expanders onto both lines and started at 11m with a grain of stinky corn on the hook. After around 10 minutes I had my first bite which was promptly missed, another go and another 10 minutes and a small common around 2lb was in the net. I was having to wait for bites and even lifting and dropping made little difference. A change to expander saw a couple of 1lb and after an hour I had around 5lb. A look down to the side produced nothing after 5 minutes so I was back fishing 11m. I re-fed the line and had a couple of decent 3lb fish on stinky corn before again the line went quiet. It was now decision time and after toss potting the 11m line every put in with no difference to the catch/bite rate I decided to re-feed again this time leaving out the corn. Another look down the side produced no indications so back out. It was now 3 hours in and I was starting to get a few fish, 2lb to 3lb fish but during this spell put another 8 fish in the net before again going quiet. I had another look down the side, as margin fish are normally a better stamp, this time it bobbed and a healthy 5lb fish was in the net. Another look and again I was into another fish, only to lose it at the net. I persevered on this line until the last half hour and managed 4 from this line, losing 3 more. A final look at 11m got me another 2 fish around 2lb each before the all out was called.

It had fished well considering the conditions. I could see people catching well in bursts and thought 130lb would be required to win. The cafĂ© bank had suffered the worst of the weather with no respite from the wind and rain.

Mick was first to weigh in, 23-3 to start the ball rolling. A MK Nugget was on its way to me, as I knew I had that beat. And to make matters worse he managed to break his no4 section when his brolly went for a walk. Keith R had 50-10, only to be beaten by Charlie Lancaster's 87-0 who in turn got done by Pete Archer on 6 with 92-14. Steve Wroe had 80-3 from 7 before I had 54-0.
Trevor Price on 21 did not weigh in, but estimated he tipped back 40lb. Steve Potter took the overall lead with 125-9 from in form peg 23, whilst Lee Cox (27) had 78-0 fishing long towards 26. Terry Lancaster had 58-11 of tip caught fish before Nick Wooding on 32 placed 154-5 to secure the win. His third win on the trot from 32, however this time he had 60lb from his left hand edge and the rest on the tip.

1st Nick Wooding             154-5
2nd Steve Potter                125-9
3rd Pete Archer                  92-14
4th Charlie Lancaster         87-0
5th Steve Wroe                  80-3
6th Lee Cox                       78-0