Moorlands open, Sunday 29/01/17

Sundays choice of open was at Moorlands Farm, a venue I don't tend to frequent in the winter as its so hit and miss.

The weather has been wet all day, so no photos this time.

However myself, Scott Poynton and Darren Fisher all made the decision to have a go at the open which was to held on Meadow the largest lake on the complex. This lake can normally be counted on to produce a few fish, if the carp don't feed then the F1's that can go over 3lb do as can the silvers.

I've drawn peg 15, right in the middle of the lake opposite an aerator, I considered this a good draw and one I thought I could pinch a few carp from. Looking at the peg the decison was to have 4 seperate lines of attack.

1) - Aerator, this was the obvious feature so needed some attention, the first was to fish a waggler at either 3/4 depth or on the deck. This I've tackled with a 12ft waggler rod, a handmade waggler by Scott Poynton (these are great wagglers, pre-loaded and fly like darts) This was set up on 3lb mainline and an 0.14mm hooklength and 18 T213 hook.

2) Aerator, a bomb or pellet cone line, the wind was meant to get up today according to the forecast (it couldn't have been more wrong) This was tackled with my Colmic 10ft Next Adventure feeder rod, a fantastic bit of kit this, very forgiving and has the power lower in the blank to cope with anything bigger. 6lb mainline and an 0.20mm Stream hooklength to a size 16 Guru MWG hook and bait band. This covers a wide variety of baits, sweetcorn, pellets etc.

3) 16m line, this was to be my big fish pole line, fed with 4mm fishery pellets. The rig was a 4x14 handmade float, 0.145mm Stream rig line, a spread bulk of number 10s above a 6 inch 0.125mm hooklength and a size 16 T213 hook set 2 inches overdepth. This was to suit either a double maggot, corn or 4mm expander hookbait. Elastic choice was an orange 10 hollow. This swim received 30 4mm pellets and 10 grains of corn initally.

4) 13m line, this was my main pole line, primarily aimed at Skimmers, F1s and if the odd carp turned up. Rig was again a 4x14 handmade slim float set 1 inch overdepth, a bulk of number 10s with 2 no10 droppers above a 6 inch hooklength of 0.11mm and a size 18 T213 hook. This was matched to a 8-10 hollow. Ive also set up a duplicate rig but used a 0.10mm hooklength and a size 20 Guru F1 pellet hook and matched to Colmics 1.5mm Blue hollow just in case the skimmers turned up in numbers and have a bit more fun if the F1s were there in numbers.
This swim would receive 20 micro pellets and 5-6 maggots initially and try to catch anything that swims,

5) Deep margin, This line was either side of me to the next pallets but looking for 4ft of water down the shelf, this was around  4m from the bank. Ive used a 4x12 RW dink float for this mounted on 0.145mm Stream line with a spread bulk of no11 shot above a 6 inch 0.12mm hooklength and a size 16 T213. This would receive a quarter cup of micros and 30 maggots and left alone until later in the match.

The all in being called at 10.45 as the draw was late and there were other matches on the complex, I've catapulted a few grains of corn towards the aerator and then fed all my pole lines with a view to leave them for a little while and trying my luck with a bonus resident carp...hopefully.

Alas after 15 minutes of casting the waggler around the aerator at full depth I've not had a sign or liner to give me an indication that there were fish at home. looking around the pool no-one has yet had a fish and those chucking bombs out have not had a fish either. So I've made the decision to come off the waggler and go onto the 13m pole line. Ive part filled a tosspot with another 20 micros and 5 maggots to top up the swim and see how things went,

Its taken another 10 minutes of gentle lifting and dropping to induce a bite which resulted in an 8oz skimmer, at least it was a bite and from what I could see was the first to catch anything on the lake. Anohter 30 minutes passed with a couple of roach and another small skimmer coming to the net, the angler to my right has had a carp on his pole line fishing pellet. This prompted me to try my 16m line, but after 10 minutes without a sign I've re-fed this and come back to the 13m line and was into a 3lb F1 immediately on a double maggot hookbait.

An hour in and a not a lot to show for my efforts, Scott next to me was also having a tough time and from what I could see around me and opposite we were all struggling to put anything together. However word was further to my left