Going Red In The Sun At Greenridge.

Peg 17 on Lake 2 at Greenridge.

lake 2.

A blistering hot day was in order for the final round of the Challis Tackle spring series at Greenridge farm, Lakes 1 & 2. At the draw I didn't really want the middle numbers on lake 1, and after the rush I pulled out 17, middle of lake 2, not to bad. With Paul and Keith leading the series both on an end peg, ( they don't draw to bad do they! ) it looked like they were fighting it out for the spoils. Three lines of attack was the plan for today, one tight across at 14.5m next to the small gorse shrub, one slightly staggered at 7m, and the two margins either side. Across I set up carpa cubes on 0.16 straight through to 911-16, one shallow ( about a foot deep ) and one at dead depth, both were attached to Green Garbo hollow. A garbo dc 4 at 7m 0.16 straight through to 911-14 attached to green garbo, I also set up a paste rig to cover the same line, 0.18 straight through to 911-12 to orange garbo, and finally a durafloat on 0.18 straight through to 911-14 attached to orange garbo for the two margins. I had luncheon meat, paste, corn and some 6mm pellet as well as 4 pints of maggot. I had clean forgot about the caster and how well it avoided those troublesome minute gudgeon and minnows, ( another lesson learned ! ) having not fished the venue since last year.

At the all in I fed a medium cup of corn on the 7m line, and started to feed the margins by hand with maggots, and went across on the meat, feeding meat through the toss pot. The heat was building and you could see carp swimming about following each other, and it looked like they were getting ready for spawning. The float was dipping and dancing all the time ( pesky minnows!) as they wouldn't leave the hook bait alone, but after 15 minutes and a few toss pots later I managed to hook a nice 3lb carp. A few more minnow bites followed before another carp on the meat. Then nothing for an hour, except for the pesky minnows! It was slow around me with just a few fish being caught, but Jocky to my left was beginning to catch shallow on the caster, so I decided to leave it for a bit and to start pinging maggot across whilst fishing another line. I went onto the 7m lime with the paste, after a couple of minutes I striked the paste off and re baited, half an hour had past and still no indications, so I had a quick look in the margins. No indications there except minnows and gudgeon so out with the shallow rig across. Half way through the match and not a lot to show except sun burn! Out with maggot on the shallow rig, after a few minutes of minnow bothering, the elastic streamed out of the pole and a nice fat common was in the net. This continued for a bit, with the maggot being pulled around by the gudgeon and minnows, before the carp would nearly pull the pole in! Jocky was catching well to my left, and James catching a few two pegs down, the lake seemed to be switching on a bit. I then had a large 8lb fish that was trying to make it into Dave's peg on my right, it did give me a bit of hassle but eventually I beat it. Into the last 45 minutes and the carp bites had stopped across, so it was time to have a look on the other lines. By now Dave to my right was beginning to catch in mid water on the corn ( surprise, surprise ! ) so I followed suit, and had a couple as well as foul hooking a few. The last few minutes I had a look in the margins which can be so productive at Greenridge, but no big fish had moved in on the feed. The all out sounded and I followed the scales on lake 1 first. Mike was 1st with 72lb, 2nd was Paul with 67lb odd, and third was Mayo with 47lb odd. On to lake 2 my lake, 1st was Keith with 93lb, second was Jocky with 85lb odd and third was James with 55lb odd, I weighed 46lb for 4th on the lake. Keith took the series by weight, over Paul second and Mike third. Overall a very enjoyable series for me, with some good results, but the blow out at the beginning, and a match missed due to holiday had cost me dear. With the Andover match calender starting in a couple of weeks, I think I need to tie some rigs!

My catch for 4th on Lake 2.

All is dandy at Dandy's Ford

Peg 10 At Calvert's lake looking at the island.

Peg 10 from another angle, the reed mace in the bottom right of picture, main catching zone.

Part of my 70 lb 09oz. catch.

Round 5 of the Challis Tackle spring series was on Calvert's Lake at Dandy's Ford Fishery. A new venue for me although I have had a pleasure day on there a couple of years ago, I had not fished a match on it and was looking forward to it, as I have heard good reports about it's fishing. I missed the earlier round which was won with 80lb, so I was hoping it would fish well. Calvert's lake is an odd shaped lake with lots of bays and islands, with plenty of features to fish to in most pegs, it is also a very pretty lake, and it is always nice to fish some where in such pleasant surroundings. As I knew so little about it I had no pre-conceptions as to good pegs or areas. At the draw I picked peg 10 off the floor, ( all the pegs were on the floor where Mike had chucked them! It was beginning to spit with rain and he probably wanted his hat back on his head! ) After finding where it was on the lake, I made my way round to peg 10 and was quite pleased with my draw, an end of an island to chuck to, and a nice margin to my left, with no peg 11 in I was hoping that the fish would be in there. ( Twice in two weeks curb crawling, I'll be getting a reputation! ) I set up a bomb rod for the island, I had left the waggler rods at home so a bomb rod would have to suffice, two rigs for down the edge at 7m to my left next to some reed mace, the first a paste rig on 0.16 straight through to a 911-12, to Orange Garbolino hollow, no shot on the float just using the weight of the paste to cock the float. It was a bit tricky plumbing up as it slopes away from the edge quite a bit. The second margin rig was 0.3 gram durafloat 0.16 straight through to 911-16 married to green Garbo. This was for fishing standard baits over the same line. I also set up a paste line at 6m, and two lines at 13m, these were quite deep at 6-7 feet, so a DC 11 0.5 gram on 0.16 to a 911-16 was set up to cover these 2 lines. The final rig was a shallow rig, a large dibber float on 0.16 line, 911-16, set about two feet deep for fishing up in the water at 14.5m. For bait I had a soft paste, soaked micros, 6mm pellets, two different sizes of luncheon meat 4mm and 6mm, (one for feeding and one for hooking ) and some soft pellets for hookers.

The weather was a bit damp with some heavier rain now and again so I set my brolly up, something I don't like doing, but as there wasn't much wind it kept the worst off, and hopefully it would clear away later in the day. At the all in I cupped in half a pot of meat and micros in the margin swim, half a pot of corn and micros on the 13m lines, and a full pot of micros and 6mm pellets at 6m. I decided to let that settle and go on the tip, I hair rigged an 8mm soft pellet and chucked it out. I fed a few pellets with the catapult by the island, After five minutes I had a couple of knocks before the tip went round, and a small carp was on, unfortunately I pulled out at the net, not a good start! Next cast I fed a few more pellets and waited again about 5 minutes again before the tip flew round and a nice fat carp of 1lb went into the net. A couple more casts and two more small carp, the trouble was I was having to wait for bites and Stu Dabbs to my left on peg 12 was catching a few on the waggler to the island, and was getting a lot more bites than I was, time to have a look in the margin swim. First put out with the paste on, the float shot under shortly after settling and I hooked into a small carp, which I pulled out of, I got the impression the orange garbo. was a bit heavy, so I had a look on my other margin rig with meat on the hook. The float settled and almost instantly the float buried and I hooked into a carp which took me straight into the reeds and snapped me! First two put in's and both fished lost and a busted rig, things weren't going quite to plan! After setting up another rig, I moulded a piece of paste on my paste rig and lowered it in, within seconds the float sailed away and orange garbo steamed out of the pole, this time it didn't get away and it went into the net. A few more followed and I was off and running. After a bit the bites slowed, so I switched to the meat rig, this resulted in good bites but the fish were either silvers or smaller carp. I switched back to the paste rig and had few more better carp, again the bites slowed, but swapping between the meat and the paste kept me catching steadily. After 3 hours all bites had tailed off, so I fed it with two pots of meat and micros and decided to have a go shallow at 14.5 m, as Stu was getting a few shallow on the waggler. Out with a 8mm soft pellet and I started pinging pellet around the float and lifting and dropping the rig. It took about five minutes before a carp hooked it self, a nice one of 2lb, in the next half hour I had another six, there were a few there but I felt that I wasn't catching quick enough, so I went back to the margin swim for the rest of the match. First put in after the rest and probably the biggest fish of the day for me swallowed my paste bait a good fish of 4lb, the rest had done the swim some good and I was getting good bites and things were going well until the last twenty minutes, when the bites became very twitchy, even on the meat, I couldn't hit anything, and on hind sight it was probably small fish. The match ended and I felt I had done ok, following the scales round, Paul Barnard was setting the target weight of 78lb 1oz, Keith Theobold was taking second with 70lb 9oz, round to me and my weight went the same as Keith's, 70lb 9oz! Joint second in the match, and overall a good day. There were a few other sixty pound weights, including Stu to my left, and afterwards I asked him why he didn't fish his right hand margin, the reeds were being knocked about to his right all day, and he explained that he couldn't fish there due to the shrubbery, this probably helped me out and improved my margin swim. One round of the spring series left to go at Greenridge farm, and it looks like Paul and Keith have got it sewn up, but you never know!

Edging It In The Park.

Part of my 118lb catch.

Looking down to the little Willow where I caught.

The view of Park lake from my peg.

Todber Manor's Park Lake was the venue for round 4 of the Challis Tackle spring series. I missed the third match due to holiday, so a good result was needed. I always look forward to Todber as it has been kind to me in the past, and a good day can be had by most anglers, the only problem I had was whilst cleaning my pole the night before I found a bit of a ding mark in my number 5 section, probably from the match at orchard, so I taped it up and hoped it would last the match. Talk at the draw was that you would need the end pegs, as the whole of the lake wasn't in, pegs 14, 25 & 38 were the favoured pegs. As usual I waited for the mad rush to ease, before going to the draw bag. Paul Barnard was just before me, and as he drew, he dropped one on the floor, so I claimed it! Knowing the way Paul draws it was bound to be good, and as it turned it was peg 38! Mind you he pulled out peg 25, boy he can draw! Once I arrived at my peg the happier I was with my draw, as the nasty cold wind that was blowing down the lake was relatively calm in my peg, and I had a lovely quiet margin swim, which turned out to be the focus of my attack. I decided on a three prong attack, a far swim tight to the island at 14.5m, a down the track line at 7m, and a edge swim at 7m to my right, just in front of a small willow tree. I had a couple of pleasure anglers opposite me in the part of the lake that wasn't in the match, but as they were fishing in mid water they would not influence me at all, in fact they would benefit me as they were not fishing there far bank, which was to the right of my edge swim, due to the shape of the lake. I set up a Karpa cube on 0.16 to 0.14 hook length 911-16 on green Garbolino on the far line, A Garbolino DC11 on 0.16 straight through to a 911-16 again on green Garbo. I also set up a paste rig to cover the same line, 0.16 straight through to a size 12 911. For the margin swim I set up a 0.3 durafloat 0.16 straight through to 911-16 attached to Green Garbolino hollow. I also set up a heavier rig on 0.18 and orange garbolino, in case my first rig wasn't strong enough. On the bait table I had corn, paste, luncheon meat, soft pellet and 6mm hard pellet for feeding. At the all in I fed a medium pot of pellet and meat on the track line, and decided to have a look straight away on the edge line. Out with corn on the hook and a toss pot full of pellet to my edge swim just in front of the little willow, the float settled and ten seconds later the float buried and a carp of 2lb was in the net! A good start, in again and the float buried again this time with a better carp, things were looking good. A few roach followed, before more carp, some of them were lumps which tested the gear out, but things were working well. I swapped the baits about, but the roach were ragging the meat to much so I concentrated on the corn whilst feeding pellet. I felt I was doing well and was catching steadily, with some big fish thrown in, which was helping me build a nice weight. I could here Dave to my left catching a few, but as I had my back to the rest of the field, I had know idea how every one else was doing. Going into the last 2 hours things were slowing down on the edge swim, still getting some but by now the bites were getting a bit twitchy. I Hadn't touched any of my other swims so far, and was tempted to leave the edge swim alone for a bit, but switching to an 8mm soft pellet on the hook improved the bites, but I was having to wait a bit longer for the bite, but when it came it was usually a good fish, so I persevered. Into the last hour and I was still catching, although I did have little run of bumping and loosing a few fish, and one which took me into the tree, but I did manage to extract the rig. I was still catching right up to the whistle, and my perseverance down the edge hopefully would of paid of. The weighing in started at the other end of the lake with me last to weigh, Mayo on peg 14 weighed 96lb, Paul on peg 25 weighed 109lb, and I knew it would be close, the favoured pegs were putting up the leading weights, with a few good back up weights in the mid eighties it was time for my weigh. The first net went just under 60lb, which was pleasing as I knew I had a similar weight in the second, after the second net I had a total weight of 118lb, more than enough to win the match, and more than I thought I had. I had a good match fishing down the edge, and my pole managed to hold together despite being held together with tape! I think a repair is in order!