Sunday 10th Sept - Bough Beech
Here's somewhere I hadnt been before. I'd heard about this place from match reports & stuff, a big open reservoir in Kent, mainly bream fishing, not particularly big fish, but lots of bites on the feeder, with the chance of catching some decent roach on the pole or waggler. Its quite exposed, and I'd heard blokes talking about their nets been blown back up the bank when the wind gets up, and big waves etc. The match record had recently gone, 70 odd pound, from the bank we were on, lots of 50 & 60b weights in that too, so it had been fishing really well. I'm partial to a bit of "old school" feeder fishing, so off i went from West London into darkest Kent.
It was a lovely day - 25 degrees and flat calm, however not ideal bream weather by any stretch. There was a match in progress on one section, but not many were catching at all. The water had a thick film of green algae round the margin too. I'd forgotten me waders, so i had to kind of plot up in the slime. I'd drawn onthe right hand side of a point, facing diagonally across the water - I had a feeling that you needed to be on the 3 pegs or so facing straight out on the tip of the point, but unperturbed, I set up sorting myself out. I knew it was a big cast in here to get over the long shelf to the flat bed, so I'd rigged up a MAP 13" power feeder with a soft 1.75oz glass tip in it - strong enough to punch a feeder a distance, but soft enough to spot any bites. I used Drennan feeder braid for this - i knew the fish averaged 8oz, and in 30' of water 55 yds out, I wanted to see every movement. A size 16 Mustad Bream Feeder to a 0.14 hooklength finished it off. After a few casts with a big bomb to set the clip and establish the reel turns I was ready, and put 8 big feeder loads of chopped worm & casters on the deck. First cast with a smaller feeder and a worm on the hook and it wanged round - however instead of the hoped for skimmer it was a 1oz perch. This carried until i started getting really fast quick bites; i finally hit one and a 6oz roach came in. Hmmm.
This proved to be the pattern - roach had obviously moved onto the feed, not the skimmers i wanted and that the pegs to my left had started catching. The roach were just hitting the hookbait too quickly that far out in that depth of water, and were impossible to connect with. I decided to switch to hair rigged corn with a size 18 hook on a really short hair, reckoning that if they took the corn in they wouldnt be able to eject the hook. The skimmers would still take this if they turned up. It worked - I started to hit the bites, and landed a string of 6oz roach.
Eventually as the sun got hotter they disappeared, and i struggled for bites, until about 3pm when I finally had 2 skimmers in 2 casts, expected a great last hour and then never had anoother bite. I weighed in 10lb 15oz for 5th, Mark Hathway easily won with 26lb of skimmers caught steadily through the match from the point to my left, Jim Heasman one to his left was third and Irvine was 4th only interupted by Mark Smith who'd drawn in the further bay - he caught 16lb of roach on the waggler for second, all in the last hour.
Sunday 17th September -Framfield Brookhouse.
Framfield is a pig of a drive for me, but i came 2nd there last year and the competitive streak in me meant I had to see if i could go one better. I knew a low draw would be needed, we turned up late, there were 3 numbers left, including 5 & 7, i duly picked 5 out, a good start ! My mate Matt joined me on his second outing in 2 years -he pulled out 20, which looked very fishy.
So after fishing there last year for the first time, i knew they way to do a proper weight would be to fish floaters all match really. Not my favourite thing but atthe end of the day, thats the winning method. The fish on the deck, or shallow on pellet were just smaller. I set up a biscuit rig and a paste rig to try and catch any edge lumps and that was it, both rigs 0.18 to Drennan red bungee, which I've used a lot this season and i really rate it, softer than red hydro but just as strong. For fish this size black hydro would be more than ample, but i wanted to get them in as fast as possible.
A slowish start ended with 7 fish in the first hour, by the time of the first weigh in at mid way, i had about 23, 34 fish for 57lb, which was 2nd, Ross to my right, a biscuit king had over 80. It would be hard to catch him, and i was only about 7lb ahead of Nick Kenward on the other side, another floater man. For the second year running Hathers has drawn peg 7, this year I was to his right, would I be able to beat him again, this time a round pound was riding on it.
The fish were still there, but I had a spell of fish swirling and not taking, so i tweaked the rig so it was just dapping onto the surface,c ame in shorter and started feeding by hand and never looked back, at some points they were coming within seconds of it hitting the top, proper bagging. I had 30lb to make up on Ross from the morning, despite banter claiming he hadnt caught all afternoon, i knew he had at least 120lb. I wasnt sure if i'd do a 100, so it was 2nd at best.
The scales finally came down, I had 114lb in the afternoon (and took some grief for claiming way less, honest i thought it was) - 171 in total for second and a quid of my neighbour. Ross plopped 140 on from the afternoon, a total of 228, he's done me both halves !! Nick weighed in 150 for 3rd.
And over on peg 20, Matt has not only weighed in his first ever ton, but he's snuck into the frame in 4th, I'm dead chuffed for him cos he is unable to make it out very often, and he's grinning ear to ear (at least until i took a quid off him as well)
Tight lines
Here's somewhere I hadnt been before. I'd heard about this place from match reports & stuff, a big open reservoir in Kent, mainly bream fishing, not particularly big fish, but lots of bites on the feeder, with the chance of catching some decent roach on the pole or waggler. Its quite exposed, and I'd heard blokes talking about their nets been blown back up the bank when the wind gets up, and big waves etc. The match record had recently gone, 70 odd pound, from the bank we were on, lots of 50 & 60b weights in that too, so it had been fishing really well. I'm partial to a bit of "old school" feeder fishing, so off i went from West London into darkest Kent.
It was a lovely day - 25 degrees and flat calm, however not ideal bream weather by any stretch. There was a match in progress on one section, but not many were catching at all. The water had a thick film of green algae round the margin too. I'd forgotten me waders, so i had to kind of plot up in the slime. I'd drawn onthe right hand side of a point, facing diagonally across the water - I had a feeling that you needed to be on the 3 pegs or so facing straight out on the tip of the point, but unperturbed, I set up sorting myself out. I knew it was a big cast in here to get over the long shelf to the flat bed, so I'd rigged up a MAP 13" power feeder with a soft 1.75oz glass tip in it - strong enough to punch a feeder a distance, but soft enough to spot any bites. I used Drennan feeder braid for this - i knew the fish averaged 8oz, and in 30' of water 55 yds out, I wanted to see every movement. A size 16 Mustad Bream Feeder to a 0.14 hooklength finished it off. After a few casts with a big bomb to set the clip and establish the reel turns I was ready, and put 8 big feeder loads of chopped worm & casters on the deck. First cast with a smaller feeder and a worm on the hook and it wanged round - however instead of the hoped for skimmer it was a 1oz perch. This carried until i started getting really fast quick bites; i finally hit one and a 6oz roach came in. Hmmm.
This proved to be the pattern - roach had obviously moved onto the feed, not the skimmers i wanted and that the pegs to my left had started catching. The roach were just hitting the hookbait too quickly that far out in that depth of water, and were impossible to connect with. I decided to switch to hair rigged corn with a size 18 hook on a really short hair, reckoning that if they took the corn in they wouldnt be able to eject the hook. The skimmers would still take this if they turned up. It worked - I started to hit the bites, and landed a string of 6oz roach.
Eventually as the sun got hotter they disappeared, and i struggled for bites, until about 3pm when I finally had 2 skimmers in 2 casts, expected a great last hour and then never had anoother bite. I weighed in 10lb 15oz for 5th, Mark Hathway easily won with 26lb of skimmers caught steadily through the match from the point to my left, Jim Heasman one to his left was third and Irvine was 4th only interupted by Mark Smith who'd drawn in the further bay - he caught 16lb of roach on the waggler for second, all in the last hour.
Sunday 17th September -Framfield Brookhouse.
Framfield is a pig of a drive for me, but i came 2nd there last year and the competitive streak in me meant I had to see if i could go one better. I knew a low draw would be needed, we turned up late, there were 3 numbers left, including 5 & 7, i duly picked 5 out, a good start ! My mate Matt joined me on his second outing in 2 years -he pulled out 20, which looked very fishy.
So after fishing there last year for the first time, i knew they way to do a proper weight would be to fish floaters all match really. Not my favourite thing but atthe end of the day, thats the winning method. The fish on the deck, or shallow on pellet were just smaller. I set up a biscuit rig and a paste rig to try and catch any edge lumps and that was it, both rigs 0.18 to Drennan red bungee, which I've used a lot this season and i really rate it, softer than red hydro but just as strong. For fish this size black hydro would be more than ample, but i wanted to get them in as fast as possible.
A slowish start ended with 7 fish in the first hour, by the time of the first weigh in at mid way, i had about 23, 34 fish for 57lb, which was 2nd, Ross to my right, a biscuit king had over 80. It would be hard to catch him, and i was only about 7lb ahead of Nick Kenward on the other side, another floater man. For the second year running Hathers has drawn peg 7, this year I was to his right, would I be able to beat him again, this time a round pound was riding on it.
The fish were still there, but I had a spell of fish swirling and not taking, so i tweaked the rig so it was just dapping onto the surface,c ame in shorter and started feeding by hand and never looked back, at some points they were coming within seconds of it hitting the top, proper bagging. I had 30lb to make up on Ross from the morning, despite banter claiming he hadnt caught all afternoon, i knew he had at least 120lb. I wasnt sure if i'd do a 100, so it was 2nd at best.
The scales finally came down, I had 114lb in the afternoon (and took some grief for claiming way less, honest i thought it was) - 171 in total for second and a quid of my neighbour. Ross plopped 140 on from the afternoon, a total of 228, he's done me both halves !! Nick weighed in 150 for 3rd.
And over on peg 20, Matt has not only weighed in his first ever ton, but he's snuck into the frame in 4th, I'm dead chuffed for him cos he is unable to make it out very often, and he's grinning ear to ear (at least until i took a quid off him as well)
Tight lines
posted by The Northerner at
Friday, September 22, 2006
|
0 comments
