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!