Well after qualifying for this event from the Team event I wasn’t going to turn down the chance of having a go at the individual stakes too. Now I must have spent some 3 days preparing for this event, rigs, top kits, elastics, pull bungs, bait and a general tidy up of all my gear. I’ve only seen the venue once before on an event organised by Colin Ormston which involved some of the very best anglers in the country.
After a lengthy drive to the venue, and a quick stop at Bag-up angling centre due to me forgetting both my casters and maggots we got to Lindholme fishery the night before the match, Neil Grantham was a great help with information on the all the pools and baits and I cannot thank him enough for that.
I watched a few of the pleasure anglers catching on just about everything on the infamous bonsai and oasis pools, which is where I was told the match would be won off, and I would need to draw one of these pools to stand a chance unless the bigger carp fed on a few other pools.
So me and Jenna (my future wife) set off to the travel lodge in Scunthorpe to get a good nights rest and act on some of Neil’s advice on rigs. Let me tell you, carrying all the kit to the room on the second floor was not the easiest task in the world, I mean how inconsiderate to have doors not wide enough to get a Rive seat box through…terrible.
An alarm at 6am woke me up from winning the nationals on bonsai and the day began. First the struggle with the Rive through the doors and then getting it the gear back into the car. Its an arduous job sometimes to get it all packed the same way and fitting in the car without things getting damaged. All this done we were on our way to the fishery after a breakfast and arrived at around 8.30am. The draw was to be made at 9am and the fishing to be from 11am to 4pm.
I stood inline and had the pleasure of a few anglers company that I had actually fished with at the Sensas Challenge Final. At last my peg was drawn….Peg 53 on laurels…dammit. Not where I wanted to be at all, as I was told that the Pegs on the spits would win this pool and there was little chance of actually winning the match from here either. So a section it is.
I walked to my Peg and it looked ok, although in the middle of a bay with an angler opposite me who had the margin to himself really. I would decide on what to do when setting up and having a careful think on my plan of attack. The weather was sunny with the odd cloud and a little wind had picked up blowing into me. This looked good for the short line and perhaps the margins?
I looked down the margins from my box and decided that I would fish to the next pallet on my right and at 13m to the left up against the margin in the gap between some sedges. A little bank clearing was needed on the right hand margin, so carefully clearing away some small branches and dead grass I managed to aggravate a wasp which stung my under arm…just where the pole rests…typical!
I decided to have two 6m lines, one at 2pm and one at 11am, both would be fed with pellets, one sparingly and the other heavily just to see which one would respond better. I had also decided on a 13m line that would both act as my long line and up in the water as I would feed it initially with the kinder pot and then see if the fish would come up in the water and I would then get the catapult out. I plumbed up carefully all over and spent some 20 minutes doing this from 6m to 16m all over my swim and found very little deviation.
My rigs were all tied on 0.14mm Ultima power silk line with hook lengths varying from 0.12mm line to 0.10mm if the F1s where going to be finicky and hook sizes from 16-20.
My 6m lines both consisted of a 4x14 KC Carpa Chimp shotted shirt button style with number 10 shot, and both matched with a 0.12mm hooklength and size 16 and 18 hooks, this was matched to a soft set Drennan yellow bungee through the new Match Lite kits for my Garbolino Super G10 pole.
My 13m line had 3 different rigs set up, one consisting of a 4 x 14 KC Carpa Chimp, 0.14mm mainline and 0.12mm hooklength and an 18 hook matched to 11h hollow, the second was a 4 x14 Preston Chianti matched to 0.14mm mainline and a 0.12mm hooklength and an 18 hook with a hair rigged pellet band, again this was used in conjunction with 11h hollow. The last featured a 4x16 Preston Chianti to 0.14mm mainline and a 0.12mm hooklength to a 16 hook, just in case the wind got up and if the bigger fish moved in. This was matched to 13h hollow elastic.
I also had 2 up in the water rigs both using 0.14mm line and 0.12mm hook lengths with a size 18 Middy KM1 eyed hook with pellet lassoes tied on each. The float was a little Milo inline float taking just 3 number 11 shot, one was set at 2ft and the other 4ft to cover my options. Both used in conjunction with yellow bungee elastic through a Match Lite kits.
My margin rigs featured rigs with 0.15mm mainline and 0.14mm hook lengths, both had size 16 hooks and featured a 4x10 KC Carpa Chimp on both lines, both were matched to Vespe green hollow elastic just in case the larger fish turned up, yet was soft enough not to pull the hooks out of soft F1 mouths.
Right that’s the rigs talked about, my bait was sorted next, seeing as I couldn’t through a small method my mix was left in the car. I had with me 2 bags of micro pellets and 2 of 4mm, 2 cubed tins of meat, 1 tin of corn, 1 tin of hemp, expanders, maggots for the hook and some casters just in case. I decided to dampen 1 bag of each micro and 4mm pellets so that they wouldn’t hold the surface tension of the water when fed and made making little balls of pellet to throw onto the 6m lines a little easier. Well if the carp don’t like it I’m sure the rats would…….
So the all in came all too quick, I was only just about ready although we had almost 2 hours to actually set up.
My 13m line was fed with a small amount of micro pellets and 4mm pellets, whilst the 6m lines got fed differently, one with half a cup of pellets the other just a kinder cup with a few maggots. Both margin lines where fed with hemp and meat and a few pellets to try and gain some of the bigger residents interest.
Time to try the 6m line fed sparingly and see if I can get a few mug fish or at least something in the net whilst the other lines rested. The hook was baited with 2 red maggots and the kinder cup received just 30 micro pellets and a couple of maggots. In went the rig and the bait was laid over the top. An immediate bite was met with fresh air. The next was met with the firm resistance of a 1 oz roach. At least I’m off the mark.
The next bite resulted in 8 yards of yellow elastic exiting my pole as carp number 1 made its bid for freedom, the elastic quickly subdued the fish and it was placed in the net and at 2-3lb it was a nice start, and far better than the 1oz roach in the silvers net that’s for sure.
So maybe a lightly fed line would produce for me? Not to be, I re-fed this again with the same amount and waited far too long for a non existent bite, so it was time to try the other 6m line, this was only good for 1 bite and a skimmer around a pound in weight and no more action after that…strange. This was also re-fed again with half a pot of pellets and the margin lines were both re-fed too.
So the 13m line was to receive its first look, I baited up with a small expander pellet on the lightest rig utilising the 4x14 Chianti. This was laid into the swim and I let the last foot of line get gently lowered before dropping the kinder pot of bait over the top. I had a bite around 2 minutes later that I missed and suspected it was a liner. So I put a few 4mm pellets into the kinder cup and went back out on this line. Again bait deposited I waited for perhaps a minute before the float registered a slight movement, now I’ve been trying very hard not to strike but rather lift into the bite, should it be a liner I wouldn’t foul hook the fish. The lift was met with resistance and 6ft of 11h hollow slowly left the pole tip and my first F1 was on its way to the net.
Things were looking good for me as it was slow all over the lake with very few fish being caught. So Laurels was going to live up to its reputation for being a little hard at the time. I went back out to 13m and again a few 4mm pellets and a 4mm expander (which is actually a 3mm) was again laid into the swim. A super quick bite resulted in a 1 oz roach getting launched into orbit….there goes all that hard work lifting into bites…..So again rig re-baited and line re-fed I waited for my next bite, again a super quick bite was met with a very small roach being the culprit. Time to give it a few more pellets via the pole cup and it was time to try the 6m lines again.
My first look over the heavily fed line resulted in a slow bite and a foul hooked fish which soon shed the small hook. This was re-fed with a small ball of pellets and the rig changed over for the other 6m line. This also proved almost as fruitless with only a roach and small barbel gracing the net.
The wind was getting up a little and made fishing the 13m line a little difficult as it whipped the pole tip round a little too much, even trying a longer line was not that helpful as the bites were hard to hit being F1s.
Time to try the margin lines now, so with a small cube of meat on the hook I decided to try the longer 13m line to my left up against the sedges. This resulted in a few missed bites and a little frustration until I finally caught one of the culprits…tiny little barbel. Little buggers!
This was the same for the left hand margin as well, so another large cup of bait on each line to try and feed these little blighters off should be enough I hope?
The wind had settle a little now, so time to go back out onto the 13m line with a banded 4mm pellet instead of the expander to try and keep the little roach at bay. The float had barely settled and the elastic was ripped out from the pole tip…perfect! This was a better F1 at around 2lb and was a welcome fish. Hopefully a banded 4mm pellet would fool a few more.
The next couple of put ins resulted in F1s gracing my landing net, most in the 1lb region. Welcome fish to say the least. Now I knew the pegs on the spits where catching fish and I was falling behind at least 2 anglers that I could see.Well the next few casts resulted in a few missed bites, which I’m sure were liners from fish now intercepting bait up in the water. Queue catapult! Out went some more bait on the 6m lines and margins, whilst just catapulting 5 pellets over the 13m line. I picked up the 4ft rig to start and banded a 6mm pellet and shipped out and slapped the pellet on the water. 3 seconds later a bite and yards and yards of 11h hollow was pulled from the end of the pole…ooops this is a bigger fish!
A foul hooked carp of around 4lb was the culprit and prompted me to pick up the 2ft deep rig instead. So still pinging a few pellets out the next bite was connected with after around 5 minutes of lifting and dropping, I expected this to be the case as a the carp charging around the peg probably didn’t help anything. The F1 was soon landed and at some 1lb again these would be good if I could keep them coming.
I spent the next hour or so looking for fish up in the water with mixed success, the fish would move in and out of the swim, there was no pattern to it at all, I tried feeding it a little heavier which only resulted in no bites at all, then going back to just 3 pellets every cast resulted in lightning bites from roach. I don’t think I could win.I went back onto the 6m line and had a few immediate small f1s and barbel, but really nothing to write home about and the bites were very slow in coming. Time to spend a little energy on the margins which I was really hoping would produce for me. But watching the angler opposite fish them for the last 30 minutes and just 1 F1 for his efforts didn’t fill me with confidence at all.
Well my thoughts were well founded with a small F1 and I mean small, plus a few small barbel. Bleeding things! If they were a couple of pound each they would be worth aiming for. Lovely to see and I’m sure will be a bonus for the fishery in the coming years and will be well worth aiming for.
So it was back onto the 13m line again up in the water, now I had made a big mistake here. The sun was now almost on top of my swim and I could barely see the float. Schoolboy error this one, should have watched what the sun was doing. So struggle on was the only way with lifting and dropping getting me a few more F1s to add to my net.
Well the match was coming to a close and I knew I was out of the running for my section as the pegs on the end of the spits had now all caught well in the last hour. So it was a race to get as many fish in the net from the up in the water swim as possible, and the last 10 minutes resulted in 2 F1s and 1 lost fish. That was that!
So I had worked as hard as I thought I could and alternated between my lines and kept feeding each one even if I didn’t catch. It’s a shame the bigger fish didn’t show as it could have been a little different perhaps. I really enjoyed the match and don’t think apart from the positioning of the up in the water swim I would have changed much, maybe chopped worm and caster might have scored a few more fish or perhaps a few trout that had been missed from last year?
Ah well my catch went some 13kg 870 grams, I had beaten everyone round me, just not the 3 point pegs on the other side. That’s fishing I suppose and hopefully I will get another shot next year!
Tight lines all!
11.30am, I’ve spent 15 minutes looking for a bite on this line, both on corn and an expander pellet with no luck, so I re-fed this line with another ¼ cup of pellets and 10 grains of corn, whilst also potting in a little bait on the 8m line.
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