Moorland’s farm open match walkthrough.
Well the day was wet windy and cold…totally uncharacteristic for then British weather…yeah right.
So an open it was to be, Moorland’s farm fishery the venue of choice, this venue is great for the winter as certain pools will always throw up a few carp, even at the coldest times of the year. Now this isn’t an excuse as such…but then again maybe it is. There are several pools at the venue and I get on with all but one, and the one I don’t get on with is Island pool, the deepest and most unusual pool on the complex. The depth varies from 2-5 ft in the margins to over 14ft in the deepest places and several sunken islands. I have drawn on this pool 4 times so far and the same 2 pegs. Peg 5 just behind the café and peg 17 in the far corner which is a do or die peg. The latter I’ve drawn just once. Peg 5 might as well have my name on it really.
So the draw was to be made at 9.30 and when I arrived Mal Watson, the fishery manager was taking the temperature of the three pools that were to be in the open, Moors, Bank and Island. Most of the pools were averaging 10 degrees, so looking good for a few carp at least. So onto the draw, I really fancied peg 12 on Moors as this has an excellent margin and deep water with the wind blowing away from it. So I was very very disappointed to yet again drew peg 5 on Island, I’m going to just set my gear on here permanently I think. My winders might as well have Peg 5 Island written on them for when I go again, I can just set up and then go and have a cup of tea.
Anyway upon inspection of the peg it was windy and blowing slightly towards me, far from ideal. But hey ho that’s fishing, got to try and make the best of what I consider a poor draw. Well it’s bad by My drawing standards anyway.
I decided on 3 lines initially, 1 at 14.5m towards the aerator in approximately 9ft of water which only just fits on my new very long power kits of my Colmic X5000 Match pole armed with a 12 elastic. This featured a 4x18 KC Carpa Chimp tied to 0.14mm Ultima Power Silk rig line direct to a size 16 Milo T213 hook. In winter I tend not to use hook lengths when carp fishing, it also featured a strung out shotting pattern with a bulk 2 ft from the hook. My second line was at 8m directly in front and in again around 8ft of water a 4x16 KC Carpa Chimp tied with 0.14mm Ultima power silk and a 0.12mm hooklength to a size 18 Milo T213 hook and a soft 10-12 hollow elastic and pull bung. This was for the skimmers and the odd carp.
My last line featured a 14 latex elastic armed with 0.15mm Ultima power silk tied direct to a size 3 Tubertini 175 hook and Cralusso float. This had a simple bulk and 2 droppers set 6ft from the margins 7 sections to my right in around 5ft of water.
My bait table was as follows, 1 ½ pints of casters, 2 pints of 4mm pellets and a tin of corn with a few expanders for the hook. This is nice and simple, but give it another month it will change to 1 pint of micro pellets and a small tin of corn. I’ve had nets of fish approaching 120lb in the winter on this.
The last line would be a bomb rod towards the right of the aerator at around 19m away, the Spro Picker 40 rod was my choice matched to a Red Arc reel and 4lb Ultima power steel mainline, alongside a 0.14mm hooklength and size 16 Middy KM1 hook with a hair rig, corn or expander pellets where to be the hook bait of choice.
10.45am, All in.
On the all in I put half a pot of pellets and 30 grains of corn at 14.5m, a ¼ pot of pellets and casters at 8m and a half pot of pellets on the margin line, I would leave all these lines for the first 15 minutes whilst I looked for a carp on the pellet cone.
11.00am, No movement on the pellet cone, no liners either. Angler opposite me has had 2 carp in 2 chucks on a small pellet feeder. I change my cone for a small feeder.
11.10am, Still nothing…..time to worry, Angler opposite has now had his third carp and the guy to my right has had one on the waggler idly chucked towards the middle. Something I can’t do due to where my peg is situated.
11.15am, Time to look on the pole line at 14.5m with a single grain of corn and see if anything has found my bait yet.
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.
11.35am, The 8m line is now calling, so baiting up with a 4mm expander I waited for a bite for 10 minutes, working the bait, adding a tosspot and even trying a caster…nothing. I’m struggling now and the angler opposite has started to catch skimmers on his long pole line and a few carp have come out in a few other pegs now. I’m falling behind, so I needed to make something happen and fast.
11.45am time to re-feed the margin line and have another look on the 14.5m line…I looked like a gnome for the next 20 minutes waiting for a positive take after suffering a liner and a fruitless strike.
12.00pm Still not a positive bite or a fish despite looking on the 8m line again for 5 minutes……I’m getting desperate.
At this point I have to say I was almost tempted to pack up and go home as it had started to rain and the wind was blowing into my face, this makes fishing very difficult if you wear glasses as the rain gives you several hundred different pole floats to look at.
12.30pm I’m sitting on the pellet cone drinking a cup of tea when finally out of the blue my tip has gone round and this roach/skimmer hybrid has taken my hook bait……Hooray!!! at least I have not blanked, although well behind the field now, but with the average sized carp in this pool I’m sure I could still pull it back if the margin line goes…………my fingers were crossed.
13.00pm No further action on the 8m pole line or the pellet cone, I have now re-fed all the lines except the margin line…time to go kerb crawling.
13.07pm, My float has shot under and I’m into my first carp from the edge, at last could this be the start of things to come? At a healthy 7lb it was a very welcome carp.
13.31pm, I’ve had a few more liners and have put a little more feed into the margin swim with the hope of getting a few more carp to feed. Time to go back onto the pellet cone.
14.01pm, weather is still rubbish, but my tip has gone round and I’m playing my second carp, and again at a good 8lb this common carp was a welcome moral boost if nothing else.
Now I wont go through too much more as I only managed 1 more carp from the margin at around 3pm and lost a foulhooker some 15 minutes later. This was a very poor match for me with very few bites and probably not enough thinking to be honest. The other pools fished very hard with just 40lb winning Bank and even less on Moors. My lake was won with over 50lb of pellet feeder caught carp. All in all a disappointing match for me, off a peg which I really don’t rate in the winter. Would I have done anything different…sure! Dynamite?
Perhaps I should have stayed on the pellet feeder from the start, but with such a small space to chuck into I don’t think I would have ended up with too many more carp, the lack of liners told me that. Maybe I should have fished maggot over the pellet at 8m and looked for anything that swam or even 14.5m, although that’s a long way for you to bring back 1 oz fish. Oh well winter is now upon us and hopefully this is the last time this peg has my name on it.
See you all on the bank!
Well the day was wet windy and cold…totally uncharacteristic for then British weather…yeah right.
So an open it was to be, Moorland’s farm fishery the venue of choice, this venue is great for the winter as certain pools will always throw up a few carp, even at the coldest times of the year. Now this isn’t an excuse as such…but then again maybe it is. There are several pools at the venue and I get on with all but one, and the one I don’t get on with is Island pool, the deepest and most unusual pool on the complex. The depth varies from 2-5 ft in the margins to over 14ft in the deepest places and several sunken islands. I have drawn on this pool 4 times so far and the same 2 pegs. Peg 5 just behind the café and peg 17 in the far corner which is a do or die peg. The latter I’ve drawn just once. Peg 5 might as well have my name on it really.
So the draw was to be made at 9.30 and when I arrived Mal Watson, the fishery manager was taking the temperature of the three pools that were to be in the open, Moors, Bank and Island. Most of the pools were averaging 10 degrees, so looking good for a few carp at least. So onto the draw, I really fancied peg 12 on Moors as this has an excellent margin and deep water with the wind blowing away from it. So I was very very disappointed to yet again drew peg 5 on Island, I’m going to just set my gear on here permanently I think. My winders might as well have Peg 5 Island written on them for when I go again, I can just set up and then go and have a cup of tea.
Anyway upon inspection of the peg it was windy and blowing slightly towards me, far from ideal. But hey ho that’s fishing, got to try and make the best of what I consider a poor draw. Well it’s bad by My drawing standards anyway.
I decided on 3 lines initially, 1 at 14.5m towards the aerator in approximately 9ft of water which only just fits on my new very long power kits of my Colmic X5000 Match pole armed with a 12 elastic. This featured a 4x18 KC Carpa Chimp tied to 0.14mm Ultima Power Silk rig line direct to a size 16 Milo T213 hook. In winter I tend not to use hook lengths when carp fishing, it also featured a strung out shotting pattern with a bulk 2 ft from the hook. My second line was at 8m directly in front and in again around 8ft of water a 4x16 KC Carpa Chimp tied with 0.14mm Ultima power silk and a 0.12mm hooklength to a size 18 Milo T213 hook and a soft 10-12 hollow elastic and pull bung. This was for the skimmers and the odd carp.
My last line featured a 14 latex elastic armed with 0.15mm Ultima power silk tied direct to a size 3 Tubertini 175 hook and Cralusso float. This had a simple bulk and 2 droppers set 6ft from the margins 7 sections to my right in around 5ft of water.
My bait table was as follows, 1 ½ pints of casters, 2 pints of 4mm pellets and a tin of corn with a few expanders for the hook. This is nice and simple, but give it another month it will change to 1 pint of micro pellets and a small tin of corn. I’ve had nets of fish approaching 120lb in the winter on this.
The last line would be a bomb rod towards the right of the aerator at around 19m away, the Spro Picker 40 rod was my choice matched to a Red Arc reel and 4lb Ultima power steel mainline, alongside a 0.14mm hooklength and size 16 Middy KM1 hook with a hair rig, corn or expander pellets where to be the hook bait of choice.
10.45am, All in.
On the all in I put half a pot of pellets and 30 grains of corn at 14.5m, a ¼ pot of pellets and casters at 8m and a half pot of pellets on the margin line, I would leave all these lines for the first 15 minutes whilst I looked for a carp on the pellet cone.
11.00am, No movement on the pellet cone, no liners either. Angler opposite me has had 2 carp in 2 chucks on a small pellet feeder. I change my cone for a small feeder.
11.10am, Still nothing…..time to worry, Angler opposite has now had his third carp and the guy to my right has had one on the waggler idly chucked towards the middle. Something I can’t do due to where my peg is situated.
11.15am, Time to look on the pole line at 14.5m with a single grain of corn and see if anything has found my bait yet.
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.11.35am, The 8m line is now calling, so baiting up with a 4mm expander I waited for a bite for 10 minutes, working the bait, adding a tosspot and even trying a caster…nothing. I’m struggling now and the angler opposite has started to catch skimmers on his long pole line and a few carp have come out in a few other pegs now. I’m falling behind, so I needed to make something happen and fast.
11.45am time to re-feed the margin line and have another look on the 14.5m line…I looked like a gnome for the next 20 minutes waiting for a positive take after suffering a liner and a fruitless strike.
12.00pm Still not a positive bite or a fish despite looking on the 8m line again for 5 minutes……I’m getting desperate.
At this point I have to say I was almost tempted to pack up and go home as it had started to rain and the wind was blowing into my face, this makes fishing very difficult if you wear glasses as the rain gives you several hundred different pole floats to look at.
12.30pm I’m sitting on the pellet cone drinking a cup of tea when finally out of the blue my tip has gone round and this roach/skimmer hybrid has taken my hook bait……Hooray!!! at least I have not blanked, although well behind the field now, but with the average sized carp in this pool I’m sure I could still pull it back if the margin line goes…………my fingers were crossed.
13.00pm No further action on the 8m pole line or the pellet cone, I have now re-fed all the lines except the margin line…time to go kerb crawling.
13.07pm, My float has shot under and I’m into my first carp from the edge, at last could this be the start of things to come? At a healthy 7lb it was a very welcome carp.
13.31pm, I’ve had a few more liners and have put a little more feed into the margin swim with the hope of getting a few more carp to feed. Time to go back onto the pellet cone.
14.01pm, weather is still rubbish, but my tip has gone round and I’m playing my second carp, and again at a good 8lb this common carp was a welcome moral boost if nothing else.
Now I wont go through too much more as I only managed 1 more carp from the margin at around 3pm and lost a foulhooker some 15 minutes later. This was a very poor match for me with very few bites and probably not enough thinking to be honest. The other pools fished very hard with just 40lb winning Bank and even less on Moors. My lake was won with over 50lb of pellet feeder caught carp. All in all a disappointing match for me, off a peg which I really don’t rate in the winter. Would I have done anything different…sure! Dynamite?
Perhaps I should have stayed on the pellet feeder from the start, but with such a small space to chuck into I don’t think I would have ended up with too many more carp, the lack of liners told me that. Maybe I should have fished maggot over the pellet at 8m and looked for anything that swam or even 14.5m, although that’s a long way for you to bring back 1 oz fish. Oh well winter is now upon us and hopefully this is the last time this peg has my name on it.
See you all on the bank!
.jpg)
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment