Hillview Lakes
Saturday 17th April 2010
29 Anglers
Hillview has been lacking a good turnout on a Saturday of late if im honest, but now the good results have recently been coming more anglers wanted a go today. Gareth (Welshmagic) from Total Fishing and Match Fishing Scene had informed me he would be coming for a bash due to the volcanic ash, also 27 other anglers, including Garbolino’s Ian Didcote and good old Neville, so there would be some tough competition.
After taking all the money and having a nice breakfast I was in for the draw, hoping for peg 9 or 27... Ian went in at the front of the queue and pulled 9, and then I went in and pulled out 23. Not what I wanted. This peg is at the bottom end of heron and very rarely throws up any big weights so I already knew that it would be hard to frame, but I still set up and hoped that some fish would be in front of me. Neville had drawn 29! Gareth had pulled out 35, my dad was on the canal 47, my mate Ben was also on the canal and Lee had drawn 37 on the causeway.
I decided on fishing my normal approach. Shallow long, 1 line short and 2 margin swims. I plumbed up my short line at 5 metres, slightly to the right ( I went a bit further than normal because this is the shallowest part of the lake). My rig consisted of a 4 x 10 KC Chimp in 3 feet of water, 0.14 main line to an 0.12 hooklength and a Gamma pellet size 16. I had grey hydro as my elastic choice. My margin line to the right was 6 metre and then to the left at throwing distance by the bale. This rig was a 0.1 grizzly, 0.16 to an 0.14 hooklength finished with a size 14 gamma pellet, black hydro finished the set up. As for my long line, I did actually plumb up a bottom rig with a 0.3 Garbolino pellet pencil on 0.14 main line with 0.12 hooklength then a 18 gamma pellet with number 12 sensas latex. My shallow rigs were the norm – Malman thicko’s on 0.16 main line with 0.14 hooklengths all with bait bands and 18 b911’s all finished with 12 latex again.
At the all in I cupped in half a pot of pellet on my short line and a quarter of a pot at 14,5 metres then went straight onto my short line with a 4mm pellet and started pinging my shallow line hoping to line a few fish up. After a succession of missed bites in the first 10 minutes I finally connected with a roach that flew through the air, then a skimmer next drop, then finally a small carp about 2lb. After the carp I couldn’t buy a bite. After another 30 minutes I picked up my shallow rig and banded a 4mm pellet. No bites were forthcoming even though the surface was black with fish swimming around. I then foul hooked a carp out of the blue on my shallow rig that hooked itself but I really wasn’t having any indications on the float at all. I tried my bottom rig long continuing to feed a few pellets via catapult but I only managed a couple of skimmers and a small tench.
Hour 3 and the surface was alive with carp just cruising about so I picked up my balaclava rig (a shallow rig as above but no shot down the line as a large 6mm cocks the small float perfectly). First drop I slapped the pellet in front of a cruising fish and it was on... this was the trend for the next hour and a half as I steadily mugged fish on the pellet. Some snatched it, others just swam on. I did manage some really nice fish and thought id pulled myself back, but then come 2.30 the fish had vanished and I was back to square one.
I had been feeding my edge religiously since 12 and I was banking on having some fish there by now. I laid in my rig with a 4mm pellet and waited. Just as I was about to come off the line the float dinked and as I lifted the biggest ghost carp I had seen popped to the surface – clearly foul hooked. It didn’t fight and I just tried to guide it round, it was too big for my net as I tried to scoop it I slightly tapped it, leaving me without the fish! Gutted was an understatement.
In the last hour I managed a few more mugged fish but was now well behind. Neville had bagged, Diddy had managed a good 2 hours down the edge, and Gareth had caught a few shallow and some monsters down the side. Finally weighing in, Nev had clearly won with 127lb 74 was second so I knew I was out of the top 3 and all I could hope for was a section, I tipped 68lb on the scales and hoped for the best as I didn’t know how Keith had worked the sections. Diddy took second spot with 106lb and I pipped Gareth by 2lb. All in all I had more than I imagined I was going to catch and picked up some section money and 4th overall. I am now looking forward to the bank holiday Monday match which will be a double header!
Monday 19 April 2010
Monday 12 April 2010
Saturday 10th April 2010
Hillview Lakes
After arriving at the fishery, the sun was blaring and I imagined we would be in for a good day after the good weights on Wednesday (143lb won, 2 more tons and various 80s and 90s). After a nice big fry up I had a walk around the pools by myself to try and work out what exactly was going on. I was intending to fish shallow, but I actually saw no fish top when I was walking around. Not good. What I did notice was that there was a lot more colour in Moorhen than heron… I had to fancy any peg along the causeway after Wednesdays weights (pegs 5-10) but I would turn my nose up at 19, 17 or 16 either. I have never really got on with peg 12 so didn’t really want to draw that and peg 2 would be the one no one wanted… My dad unfortunately drew this. So in I went and pulled out 15. Not a peg I wanted but it did win last Sunday so I was hoping there were some still there.
Arriving at my peg I saw Terry King setting up on peg 8 and I thought it would be game over, Josh on peg 10 which he skipped to. I had my work cut out. I had a good sit down for 5 minutes and had a think about my plan. I finally decided to keep it simple by fishing shallow at 13m pushing out to 14.5 or 16 if they backed off, a 4 metre line (where all the weights were caught Wednesday) and 2 margin swims, one to the left at 13m up the corner and 1 to my right throwing distance. First of all I plumbed up my 4 metre swim with a 4 x 12 KC Chimp in 4.5 foot of water, there was no breeze at all so I could get away with a lighter float, plus I was fishing pellet so I wanted it to be as natural as possible. This rig was 0.14 main line to a 0.12 hooklength, all Silstar, 16 Gamma Pellet hook. Shotting pattern was simple; number 10’s spread 3 inches apart. Elastic was Grey Hydro. My margin rig was next plumed up, right tight to some reeds up the corner in 2.5 foot of water. This was a 0.2 Grizzly (seems heavy but want to anchor the rig dead still). 0.16 main line to a 0.14 hooklength (again Silstar) to a 14 Gamma Pellet hook. A simple bulk was all that is needed down the edge, 10 inches from the hook. Elastic was black hydro. Finally I set up 2 shallow rigs, both Malman Thickos in 4 x 10. Both rigs were 0.14 main line to 0.12 hooklength. Hooks were 18 b911 eyed as I was fishing a hair rigged micro band on both. The reason I set up 2; one was an ‘ideal’ rig, if the fish were having it shallow I could fish it 1 foot deep or shallower and have a short line to hit fast bites, the other rig was a ‘wary’ rig. If the fish were going to feed iffy and wary, they wouldn’t want a pole over there hair so I could fish this rig a foot deep and swing it past my pole tip – that’s the theory anyway! Elastic wise was number 12 slip. Bait wise, I had a bag of 4mm pellet (feed), 1 pint was soaked for feeding edges and 4 metres and the other pint was left dry for fishing shallow, 1 tin of meat, some 4mm RS Expanders and some 6mm hard pellets for banding.
At the all in I fed my 4 metre line first, just covering the bottom of my big Preston ‘kup’. Next I fed half a pot of pellet at 13m (I wasn’t fishing on the deck but wanted to draw fish in the area then bring them up) and I never feed the edges until about 12 o clock. I picked up my 4 metre rig, hooked a 4mm pellet and lowered it in. At this point there was a lot of debris in my peg so I had to keep tweaking where my rig was. I picked up my catty and started to feed shallow. Terry had already had one big carp and I thought he was going to empty it. I then had a dink on the float which I missed, so I lowered it back in and it went again. First fish of the day on, now all the debris was right under my feet and the fish had gone through the lot of it! I tried my best to manoeuvre the fish around it actually trying to hard and managing to lose the bugger! I didn’t feed and just went back in with another pellet. Minutes later I was into another which I got in about 3lb. I then clipped on a toss pot and fed 20 pellets which seemed to kill the swim.
After 10 more biteless minutes, I had to try shallow. I banded a 6mm on the ‘wary rig’ and swung it out. I was feeding about 4-5 pellets every 20 seconds or so. At this point Josh hooked his first fish shallow so I thought I could have a few. Right at that, my float flew under and I hooked one as well. About 4 pounder in the pan. I had 3 more in the next hour but was really slow and hard going. Slapping the rig just wasn’t right today they were spooking ever so easy.. I had now also started to feed my right hand edge with 4-6 cubes of meat every 10 minutes and I was itching to have a go.. So I left the shallow line, still feeding it, and had a look on the inside.. I had one liner and that was it. I now started to feed my long margin line. I cupped in a handful of pellet and planned on topping it up every 30 minutes to give the fish some confidence.
Back shallow and all I could do was miss bites, so I changed to meat on the ‘ideal’ rig, still missing them.. I then banded a 4mm hard pellet and had 4 fish in 4 drops! Sussed! I continued to put a few more fish in the net but again they had gone a bit iffy again… So I tried my long edge, stocky first bung then a skimmer, then nothing. I fed it and tried the other side, stocky, stocky nothing! So I continued to feed that. At this point robin on 19 had filled his one net and went trundling off to get another! I thought I had about 30lb and needed these last 2 hours to be good. I managed one more fish shallow before just concentrating on my inside lines.
As soon as I dropped in on my short meat edge my pole was yanked out of my hand and a 3 pounder was in the net, so I fed it and laid another cube back in, the float dinked slightly and a sharp lift resulted in another chubby carp. Again just flicking cubes in I changed to my long line down the edge not wanting to exhaust them so early on. As I laid the rig in it didn’t even settle before it flew away. I lifted and it was just heavy, it was harder work just trying to pull a heavy weight to the side to get my pole on my rollers. 30 seconds later a big 10 pounder lay in my net flapping its head off. I then fed that line and changed to my short one… This was the trend for the rest of the match as I managed a few from each line, but any feed over there head when you were fishing it, I wouldn’t get a bite.
At the all out, I had a foul hooked carp on which I got out 5 minutes later about 5 pound. Alan had bagged the last 30 minutes on 6 and Robin hadn’t had another fish since he dropped another net in. Robin weighed in first with 58lb, I thought I had about 60lb but not much more, 2 weighs later and I had 73lb, the stockies really have piled on the weight. Bob on 12 had a few the last hour but Alan managed 3rd with 47lb from 6. It fished tough but I had managed a win never the less. Hopefully they’ll switch on properly soon.
Hillview Lakes
After arriving at the fishery, the sun was blaring and I imagined we would be in for a good day after the good weights on Wednesday (143lb won, 2 more tons and various 80s and 90s). After a nice big fry up I had a walk around the pools by myself to try and work out what exactly was going on. I was intending to fish shallow, but I actually saw no fish top when I was walking around. Not good. What I did notice was that there was a lot more colour in Moorhen than heron… I had to fancy any peg along the causeway after Wednesdays weights (pegs 5-10) but I would turn my nose up at 19, 17 or 16 either. I have never really got on with peg 12 so didn’t really want to draw that and peg 2 would be the one no one wanted… My dad unfortunately drew this. So in I went and pulled out 15. Not a peg I wanted but it did win last Sunday so I was hoping there were some still there.
Arriving at my peg I saw Terry King setting up on peg 8 and I thought it would be game over, Josh on peg 10 which he skipped to. I had my work cut out. I had a good sit down for 5 minutes and had a think about my plan. I finally decided to keep it simple by fishing shallow at 13m pushing out to 14.5 or 16 if they backed off, a 4 metre line (where all the weights were caught Wednesday) and 2 margin swims, one to the left at 13m up the corner and 1 to my right throwing distance. First of all I plumbed up my 4 metre swim with a 4 x 12 KC Chimp in 4.5 foot of water, there was no breeze at all so I could get away with a lighter float, plus I was fishing pellet so I wanted it to be as natural as possible. This rig was 0.14 main line to a 0.12 hooklength, all Silstar, 16 Gamma Pellet hook. Shotting pattern was simple; number 10’s spread 3 inches apart. Elastic was Grey Hydro. My margin rig was next plumed up, right tight to some reeds up the corner in 2.5 foot of water. This was a 0.2 Grizzly (seems heavy but want to anchor the rig dead still). 0.16 main line to a 0.14 hooklength (again Silstar) to a 14 Gamma Pellet hook. A simple bulk was all that is needed down the edge, 10 inches from the hook. Elastic was black hydro. Finally I set up 2 shallow rigs, both Malman Thickos in 4 x 10. Both rigs were 0.14 main line to 0.12 hooklength. Hooks were 18 b911 eyed as I was fishing a hair rigged micro band on both. The reason I set up 2; one was an ‘ideal’ rig, if the fish were having it shallow I could fish it 1 foot deep or shallower and have a short line to hit fast bites, the other rig was a ‘wary’ rig. If the fish were going to feed iffy and wary, they wouldn’t want a pole over there hair so I could fish this rig a foot deep and swing it past my pole tip – that’s the theory anyway! Elastic wise was number 12 slip. Bait wise, I had a bag of 4mm pellet (feed), 1 pint was soaked for feeding edges and 4 metres and the other pint was left dry for fishing shallow, 1 tin of meat, some 4mm RS Expanders and some 6mm hard pellets for banding.
At the all in I fed my 4 metre line first, just covering the bottom of my big Preston ‘kup’. Next I fed half a pot of pellet at 13m (I wasn’t fishing on the deck but wanted to draw fish in the area then bring them up) and I never feed the edges until about 12 o clock. I picked up my 4 metre rig, hooked a 4mm pellet and lowered it in. At this point there was a lot of debris in my peg so I had to keep tweaking where my rig was. I picked up my catty and started to feed shallow. Terry had already had one big carp and I thought he was going to empty it. I then had a dink on the float which I missed, so I lowered it back in and it went again. First fish of the day on, now all the debris was right under my feet and the fish had gone through the lot of it! I tried my best to manoeuvre the fish around it actually trying to hard and managing to lose the bugger! I didn’t feed and just went back in with another pellet. Minutes later I was into another which I got in about 3lb. I then clipped on a toss pot and fed 20 pellets which seemed to kill the swim.
After 10 more biteless minutes, I had to try shallow. I banded a 6mm on the ‘wary rig’ and swung it out. I was feeding about 4-5 pellets every 20 seconds or so. At this point Josh hooked his first fish shallow so I thought I could have a few. Right at that, my float flew under and I hooked one as well. About 4 pounder in the pan. I had 3 more in the next hour but was really slow and hard going. Slapping the rig just wasn’t right today they were spooking ever so easy.. I had now also started to feed my right hand edge with 4-6 cubes of meat every 10 minutes and I was itching to have a go.. So I left the shallow line, still feeding it, and had a look on the inside.. I had one liner and that was it. I now started to feed my long margin line. I cupped in a handful of pellet and planned on topping it up every 30 minutes to give the fish some confidence.
Back shallow and all I could do was miss bites, so I changed to meat on the ‘ideal’ rig, still missing them.. I then banded a 4mm hard pellet and had 4 fish in 4 drops! Sussed! I continued to put a few more fish in the net but again they had gone a bit iffy again… So I tried my long edge, stocky first bung then a skimmer, then nothing. I fed it and tried the other side, stocky, stocky nothing! So I continued to feed that. At this point robin on 19 had filled his one net and went trundling off to get another! I thought I had about 30lb and needed these last 2 hours to be good. I managed one more fish shallow before just concentrating on my inside lines.
As soon as I dropped in on my short meat edge my pole was yanked out of my hand and a 3 pounder was in the net, so I fed it and laid another cube back in, the float dinked slightly and a sharp lift resulted in another chubby carp. Again just flicking cubes in I changed to my long line down the edge not wanting to exhaust them so early on. As I laid the rig in it didn’t even settle before it flew away. I lifted and it was just heavy, it was harder work just trying to pull a heavy weight to the side to get my pole on my rollers. 30 seconds later a big 10 pounder lay in my net flapping its head off. I then fed that line and changed to my short one… This was the trend for the rest of the match as I managed a few from each line, but any feed over there head when you were fishing it, I wouldn’t get a bite.
At the all out, I had a foul hooked carp on which I got out 5 minutes later about 5 pound. Alan had bagged the last 30 minutes on 6 and Robin hadn’t had another fish since he dropped another net in. Robin weighed in first with 58lb, I thought I had about 60lb but not much more, 2 weighs later and I had 73lb, the stockies really have piled on the weight. Bob on 12 had a few the last hour but Alan managed 3rd with 47lb from 6. It fished tough but I had managed a win never the less. Hopefully they’ll switch on properly soon.
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