Glebe 2 dayer!

Well the time has come for me to actually fish the Glebe again in a 2 day event. This would be run by MFS and have several teams, all mixed together from different parts of the country. If you want to know how this works then log on to http://www.matchfishing-scene.co.uk/ and check out the teams and how they were organised, turned around, bartered for and other doo dahs.

Day one,

I was to be drawn on pool 1, now I like this pool as it seems quite fair, although the wind can be a damned nuisance. This pool is approximately 35 yards wide, around 7ft deep and is lined with reeds and rushes either side, and the pegs are nicely spaced and very comfortable. The glebe itself as a fishery is very very nicely kept, no litter, all the grass is cut nicely and the fish in very good condition.
There are some weird rules however at this place, such as the maximum elastic that can be used is 14 solid or black hydro/15h hollo, and also 20 inch hooklengths on the feeder. These have to be adhered too, as this is what Roy Marlow has decided on for his fishery.

So to the draw, I was to be in a 6 man section pegs 10-15. I was one of the last to draw with just 2 pegs left, peg 11 and peg 10....I so wanted an end peg..please be an end peg.....alas not to be as I opened the little slip of paper and peg 11 had stuck to my hand. Oh well, better get on with it and try to catch as many fish as possible. This match was to be based on overall weight for the team to win, so anything that had fins would be aimed for.

I got to my peg and looked across the lake, the wind was howling into me and the weather was getting worse as the skies got blacker by the minute...nice.
I had an airator on the far bank which was to be my feeder marker. This I would tackle with a SPRO 40 3m picker rod alongside a Red Arc reel loaded with Ultima 0.20mm power match line. My hooklength , 20 inches of Ultima Power Silk was matched a Guru size 14 QM1 hook with a hair.
The groundbait I was going to put through it contained a lot of particles, something I wished I hadnt done on hindsight...(such a wonderful thing).

My pole rigs were all tied on 0.19mm Ultima Power Silk straight through to a size 5 Tubertini 175 hook and Cralusso Capri floats ranging from 0.75 gram to 0.30grm would complete the set ups. The Shotting patterns were all a bulk some 8 inches from the hook as I expected the fishing to be very good and the bites positive.....
The rigs were all matched to half length of black hydro elastic through the power kits of my trusted Garbolino G10 pole.

Now for bait I had just about everything under the sun to hand, hemp, corn, meat, worm, casters, groundbait, paste, hookpellets etc etc, I decided that my long line all 8m of it directly in front would be fed with a messy combination of pellet, worm, caster and corn, whilst the inside line to my left some 5 sections would be fed with just corn and hemp, whilst on the right I would feed slightly further down the shelf with corn, hemp and pellet some 6 sections away.

I was ready then for the all in, this match was going to be 6 hours long so could be a marathon match if the fish fed. Or very very slow match if the fish decided against feeding for whatever reason.

The hooter went to signal the start of the match, in went 2 large cups of mess on the 8m line and 1 each of corn and caster down the one side and again one each of pellets corn and caster down the other...plenty for the fish to go at....apparently you cannot overfeed the fish at the Glebe.

So I picked up the feeder rod and had my first couple of chucks (none went down the same hole thanks to the wind making life very very awkward) and after getting at least 3 in the same sort of area I baited my hooklength with a single grain of corn and cast back towards the far bank.
I let the feeder drop, hit the bottom, gave it 20 seconds and then pulled it back a little way to straighten the hooklength and leave the hookbait near to the feeder bait. 10 seconds later the tip went round and the first fish of the day was on its way to my waiting keepnet. A skimmer of 8oz was soon swimming on the inside of my silvers net.
I chucked out several times without a further indication apart from the odd liner somewhere in the middle of the pool.

So it was time to try the pole lines, I couldnt see anyone catching on the feeder to be honest with just the odd fish coming out. Nobody was running away with it just yet.

The heavier 0.75gram rig was to be used as the wind was blasting across the water making presentation more than difficult, so on went a single grain of corn and a full large cad pot of mess to go over the top. Out went the rig and the pot of mess.
I waited some 5 minutes for my first bite, which I struck at, connected and then pulled out...scale on the hook...hmmm foulhooker then.
Out went the rig again, and this time the bite was met and a skimmer of 8oz was to join its brother in the silvers net.
The going was quite tough with skimmers falling to segments of worm and the odd hooker pellet and piece of corn, but no carp were forthcoming to this approach. I was getting worried as the Darren to my left had now got 5-6 carp in the net and the guy to my right had also snared a few on the feeder too.
So the line was re-fed alongside the other inside lines and the feeder was called into action again.

Nothing......

I was getting frustrated, one of the best venues in the country and I could not catch a damned carp...whats going on, I had to have a serious word with myself.

After giving myself a berating it was time to look on the right hand inside line at 6 sections. This was fed with pellets, corn and hemp from the off. There should be a carp here now...surely.
The first put in with corn saw me miss a bite, so back out again and within seconds the float buried and the strike was met with resistance as the 2lb skimmer that took to the air and flapped about on the surface doing some interesting water acrobatics....crazy creatures.
I didnt mind if these fish were all the same size, easy to get out and goo weight builders.
The foat buried a few more times with some good skimmers coming to the net on a regular basis.

At last a bite was met with solid resistance as a carp took off towards the middle of the lake, the half length of black hydro stopped it very quickly and a 5lb carp was now to grace my carp net. HURRAY!!!!

In went some more bait as I decided to fish my other margin line to my left. A handful of hemp over the top of the float and another of corn, I settled down to wait...all of 5 seconds. The float was yanked under and elastic streamed out from my pole tip as angry carp number 2 was on its way into the net and at 6lb it was a welcome fish.
No more bites from this line so in went another handful of hemp and corn and it was back to hooking 8oz skimmers on the right hand line with the odd small carp of around a pound putting in an appearance too.

I just happened to look at the time and apart from getting a proper soaking it was now almost an hour to go...better pull my fingfer out as I was 30lb down to the guy on the end peg to my left.
So in went some more hemp on the left hand line and the rig was laid over the top...10 seconds later and the float vanished...missed it DOH!
Re-baited and the rig was laid in again and more feed over the top....float vanished and the elastic streamed out from the the pole as a 3lb carp was quickly netted and despatched into the waiting onion sack...get in there.

For the next hour I have had a carp evry 5 minutes with 3 lost fish, I was more than happy with this as it would have brought me back up in the section, personally I felt I had'nt fished a very good match and had fished past the carp for too much of the match at 8m, but you live and learn I suppose.
The weather had been awful during the match and had now cleared to leave blue skies and sunshine...typical.
The weigh in was on its way round and I was surprised to see that just 54lb was winning my section...I thought I had more than that. I pulled the silvers net from the water and 29lb of small skimmers and little carp was the result. Hmmm out came my carp net and put a futher 50lb of mudpigs on the scales for a total of 79lb odd to win the section....well chuffed.
I personally thought the venue fished hard, but there had been some tremedous weights on the other pools with Gary Thorpe weighing in over 200lb on Pool 5...awesome performance mate.

Day 2,

I was looking forward to today as I knew I was on Pool 4, peg 69. This had been drawn the previous evening so we all knew where we were and so that the banter could start back at the Longshoot.
This peg had weighed in 70lb the day before and peg 70 next to it had weighed in over 178lb!

The peg itself wasnt exactly what i would call a good looking peg, just very plain, no features at all, again lined banks with rushes that you couldnt see round, and the feeder chuck was some 30 yards. I made a big mistake today, I didnt take any groundbait, instead I took soaked pellets to put through the feeder. I was going to get a proper lesson on why not to use pellets and to use groundbait instead by Jamie (Dottedown) on peg 70.

So, the feeder was to be exactly the same set up as before with 0.20 Ultima power match line loaded onto my Spro Red Arc reel and 3m spro Picker rod. Teamed up with an Ultima Power Silk 0.19mm hooklength and a Guru QM1 size 14 hook with a long hair for doubled up sweetcorn (I was told there be monsters in here....)

The pole lines were to be a little different from the previous day, I was to just fish at my top 5 with a power kit and half length of 15h hollow elastic teamed up to 0.19mm Ultima Power Silk, to a size 6 tubertini 175 hook and a Cralusso 0.5grm Capri pole float. These are indestructable, perfect for the day ahead.

I had narrowed my bait selection down today, with just 3 baits on my side tray, pellets, hemp and of course corn. The previous days weight had been on corn and hemp fished at 5m, so this was to be my plan of attack with the feeder in the first hour. This match was only going to be 5 hours. So 4 top kits were rigged with identical rigs, and float patterns for the day ahead in case of breakages.

I was ready alongside 8 pints of hemp, 8 pints of corn and 3 pints of pellets. It was easier toset up today for some reason and i felt a lot more comfortable with the wind coming over my shoulder this time instead of straight at me, and the rain was to keep off for the day. Finally some better weather.

The hooter went and it was all in.

So on the pole line went 2 cups of hemp and one of corn alongisde a few handfulls over the thop to make the feed area larger with a concentrated centre where my hookbait would be. The feeder went out 4 times depositing bait before I attachemd my hooklength with 2 pieces of corn on the hair rig. Thie was launched to the far bank to start the waiting process for the carp to find the bait.
I had a few liners so the feeder was wound back in, refilled and launched back out, and no sooner had the feeder hit the water round the tip went...OMG could I stop it...no chance. The hook pinged out so I can only assume this was a foulhooked carp.
Out went the feeder again with me being a little disgruntled as Jamie on the next peg was now playing his first carp...alss foulhooked in the side....he managed to land his...doh!

I watched a motionless tip as jamie had another 3 fish, I was hoping my feeder line would work, but the carp just didnt want pellet, they wanted the groundbait without any feed content. I was trying to leave the pole line alone as long as possible to build up a few fish. As I was hoping to drop straight in and catch one.
In the feeder came without a sniff, it was time to look on the pole line with an hour gone and not one carp to show for my efforts, but Rick Baxter down on the end had a few carp, Jamie had 4 and the lads to my left had also had a few fish...this was again not looking good.

Out went my rig with a single grain of corn and the wait began, as 2 handfulls of bait went over the float, a minute later the float buried with ridiculous speed, I struck and 2 feet of blue hollow came streaming out as a near 1lb roach was lifted into orbit.....not quite what I was looking for. Carp number 5 had now graced Jamies net, and they were not small either.

I rebaited and refed, this time after 5 minutes the float buried and the blue hollow streamed out from the pole, HIT and HOLD time.....the half length of elastic soon had the fish under control and a near 9lb common carp lay in the net.
Next chuck saw the same thing happen and its brother went in the other net. Happy days two fish for 18lb, right time to play catch up with Jamie, I waited a further 10 minutres before carp number 3 graced the landing net and as Jamie would say HORSE this fish was nudging some 15lb...nice!
Now this is where it pete tong for the next half an hour or so as I lost 3 fish on the bounce, one foulhooked and 2 properly, as they wallowed out in front of me before the hook just pulled out for no reason I could work out.
This cost me time and weight, so I quick re-plumb of the swim and a shot taken off the rig alongside a number 6 section added to follow the fish out a little soon had me back on track as I caught Jamie up with 8 carp a piece, although my next 3 fish might only have weighed 10lb between them.
The skimmers then turned up, unlike pool 1 these fish averaged 2lb and were welcome when the carp didnt play ball. Some of these were just as acrobatic though. Great fun I have to say. I even had one which was as black as the ace of Spades.

Normality resumed as the carp returned in numbers for around an hour with me landing a further 12 fish, ranging from 3lb up to 12lb. I think I only lost 2 fish during this time and was quite please with the result as Jamie was still picking up the odd carp to the feeder but he wasnt catching on the pole for some reason.

Now for whatever reason my swim died for a while despite trying to feed and bring them fish back and adding sections to see if some had backed off past the feed, now jamie was on a bit of a roll landing 6 carp on the feeder in consecutive casts and 2 of these were Horses, well into double figures. now I was quite sure Jamie had caught me up weight wise as his fish although fewer in number were mahoosive.

I decided it was time to set up another line at 8 sections to my left in the same depth of water and fed with just a cup instead of loose feeding by hand...difficult to do at that range unless your Ultima's Andy May and can half moon bait like casters even at 13m.

This worked for me as I started to pick off the odd small carp and skimmer from this line as I rested the 5m line. Jamie had now managed to branch out as his feeder caught the overhanging foliage on the far bank and had to pull for a break and the he lost the whole lot feeder and all. So he needed to remake his feeder set up, this was both time consuming and can knock casting confidence, which indeed this had. (He even said so himself, for whatever reason his feeder line was now strangely very very quiet) Lo and behold my 5m swim came back to life and I started to increase my lead over Jamie's as I landed a further 7 fish to his 4.

I was very pleased with how the match had gone, although me not having groundbait had probably cost me the double ton, as it would have been nice to have cast over and grabbed the odd carp when my swims went quiet. But again hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I ended the match with 148lb, for a section and lake win.

Well I cant wait to go to this fantastic venue again, as i feel even through the winter the skimmer fishing would be very very good.

Tight lines all.

Packington Somers match for me sunday....im already looking forward to it.