Wednesday 28th March - Island Pond@Magiscroft

After two disappointing matches, I approached the Wednesday event, which also happened to be my birthday, with a sense of optimism, which was quickly replaced with ' not again'.

With the warm weather this week, the shallow end of the Island pond was packed with cruising carp and I managed to draw P24, which is towards the deeper end:-(

I had decided to try fishing with hard pellet in this match to avoid the small roach that had been pestering me for the last few matches. I did give it a try on Sunday, but reckoned it deserved another chance.

The match wasn't a total disaster, with 12lb - 6oz, but John P and Derek, who drew the 2 shallowest pegs, had 52lb and 48lb respectively. I took solace from the fact that on our side , the weights were way below those on the other side and the afore mentioned shallow end.

Full results can be found here.

Once again I decided to fish on and finally at around 19:00, managed to find the fish, and landed 8 F1's between 3 and 4lbs - which was great fun, but at the same time frustrating.

So for the first time in ages, 3 poor results in a row - let's hope the B division match on Saturday is better.

Monday 26th March - Top Pond @ Magiscroft

After having a disappointing match on Sunday, circumstances conspired to offer me that chance of fish with those known as "The Crazy gang" on the Top Pond@ Magiscroft on Monday night. This pond has flood lights installed to allow fishing in the dark…….

I arrived in glorious sunshine and a lovely 22 degrees to find there were 17 of us signed up to fish from 18:00 'till 21:00. Unlucky for some, I drew P13, which is at the deep end - same as yesterday then:-(

This match was bit different with only one hour from the draw to the all-in, but it was easily enough. The sun was still shining and I managed to catch a small F1 on my first put. But then nothing… And Derek Brady to my left and Colin Kerr to my right were still blanking at this point.

As with yesterday, I wanted to try fishing the margins for roach, but even they were scarce. Around 20:00 when the sun went down, the temp dropped rapidly to around 10 degrees, and poor Derek was suffering as he turned up in shorts. There was a good bit of good natured banter which he took in the way intended……Even when he managed (don't ask me how) to hook a branch 20 feet in the air.

I was glad of the all out when it came; the guys either side of me managed 9oz more than I did - I only had 2lb - another poor match :-( But the guys at the shallow end did much better as did Colin Hart who was t the right of Derek but had an empty peg to his right and caught a good few fish in the margins at the spare peg.

As the water gets warmer, I'm going to have to learn how to feed - in the winter, the answer is "not much" but I'm going to have to figure it out for the warmer months.

They really are a bit mad.......

Sunday March 25th - Magiscroft Winter League Match 4

Sunday was another day of unbroken sunshine, no wind, and 20+ degrees - in March!

This was the final round of the Magiscroft Winter series, and as I'd only fished the last one and wan't in contention, I had already decided to try a new bait.

With the warmer weather of the last week, I had hoped to draw at the shallow end of the Island pond, but it wasn't to be - P26, which is a great cold weather peg, was drawn:-( Davie Smith had over 57lbs from it on Wednesday, but normally the fish will have moved…….

I was drawn with Tommy Lauriston and John Perrela to my left and Dave Minard to my right. Of these only Mr Minard was in the running for the winter championship so I made a mental note not to fish anywhere to the right of the centre of my peg - normally you can go half way, but as he was in the running, and I wasn't, I didn't see any point in being silly.

Today's bait was to be hard pellet - over the last few weeks small roach have become a real problem, attacking 2, 4 and even 8MM soft pellets.

But I did start with soft pellet and snared a couple of small carp in the first 30/40 minutes. Next door, Dave Minard was catching steadily underneath the tree directly opposite hi - to the left, John and Tommy were much the same as me.

I then switched to hard pellet, but I doubt soft would have helped - the fish just were't there - from me and to the left, folk were struggling to get a bite.

Normally I would sit it out on the far bank/slope to pick up a carp or 2, but I decided to spend the middle 3 hours targeting roach, hoping I might pick up bonus carp or chub. I managed 30/40 small roach, but nothing bigger, so for the last hour I went back to the far side with hard pellet and managed another four smallish carp.

Meanwhile, Dave M had continued to catch regularly, which won him the match with 27lb+ - Tommy and John had stuck it out for carp and both had managed more than my paltry 4lb - 12oz.

Full results can be found here.

I wasn't happy with how the day had gone, so I fished on for another 2.5 hours, which did get me another 4 carp, but it was hard work - not a good day.

Wednesday 21st March - Island Pond @ Magiscroft

It looks like the last of winter *may* be over - but don't' say it too loudly :-)

Wednesday was a beautiful day to be outside, with the temp hitting around 13 degrees and a gentle breeze, ( at least where I was fishing!) and the sun on my back.

I'd got to Magiscroft just in time for the 9:30 draw, to find the expected 6 competitors had grown to 11 with some good opposition. I drew P20 on the island, which I was quite happy with and headed off to setup.

I hadn't prepared any bait for today's match, so just decided to use the pellets that I had left over from Sunday's event.

Normally go for a far shelf rig and another for the bottom of the shelf, but thought I'd see if I could fish at various points down the slope.

I spent Monday night fitting grey hydolastic to one of my top kits, so I set this one up for fishing about a foot down the slope with the white hydro setup for fishing tight to the reeds on the far bank. I first used 'hydro' as it's known, last weekend when I used the white variety. The colour relates to the strength with white being in 6-10 and grey in the 10-14 range. Balance is important so I was using a 0.08mm hooklink with the white and 0.12mm with the grey. I have to say it was very good - nice and soft for the first couple of meters and getting progressively stiffer as more is taken.

Fishing with one of John Perrela's diamond floats tight to the the far bank reeds, I caught a nice 2lb F1 on my first put which was quickly followed by a mix of stockies, mirrors and smaller F1's for the fist hour - around 12 fish. As ever the bites dried up, so I then moved 3 feet off the bank with my 'on the slope' rig and picked up another 3 decent sized fish - bites were not prolific, but the fish were around. Then the small roach moved in and I got loads of ultra fast bites that I couldn't connect with.

So I fished for roach on the short line about 3M out for the next 2 hours with the occasional foray with ether the far bank or slope rigs, this time with an 8mm pellet to discourage any roach from having a go - but nothing doing.

When the roach stop bitting it can mean that larger fish have moved in, so just after 15:00, it was back to the slope rig and I was glad I had a strong setup - I hooked into a fish that shot to the right taking most of the grey hydro and pulling like a train - even with the stronger tackle, it took a good ten minutes to subdue and net a lovely F1 of over 4lbs.

In the next 40 mins, I managed another 3/4 carp and I was quite happy that I had done as well as I could when the all out was called at 16:00.

My slope rig used one of Davy Smith's .1g floats, so as we waited for the scales to come round, I walked up to Davy's setup on P24 to see how he'd faired - "I've had a ?*&($ of a day - lost 14 fish" says Davy when I enquired. "No idea what weight I've got" - Then we spotted the scales coming round, so back to my keepnet where I weighed in with 33lbs - 4oz, which put me in the lead. Not for long - Mr Smith, who had "a ?*&($ of a day" had 53lb - 8oz -let's hope he doesn't ever have a good day:-)

Full results can be found here.

Magiscroft AC Vs Orchill AC - Second Leg - Sunday 18th@Orchill

After picking Scott Laird (one of the juniors) at Magsicroft, it was on to Orchill fishery for the return leg of our inter club match.

The grass was still white with frost where the sun hadn't yet reached and it was only 2 degrees at 09:00, so another tough day was expected.

The match was split into 3 distinct sections, and after last Wednesdays sweep, I could only say that as long as I didn't get 26-30 I'd be happy - so typically, I drew P28 which had really struggled last week when the weather was good :-(

Still, I decided to focus on competing with the guy I was paired against, Colin Skeel, and forget about drawing a poor peg. The first thing I noticed was that the 4 rigs that I had setup last week for P20 were all 2 feet over depth on P28 - the pond was much shallower here, although still deeper than the carp ponds at Magiscroft.

Whilst plumbing up on far shelf I could feel a few fish moving so when the all in was called at 11:00, I went straight to the other side and had a nice 8oz Chub almost immediately. And on the next put I got a small mirror carp, and then another. I continued to catch smallish fish for the next 2 hours, but nothing over 8oz. The bites then died up on the far shelf so I tried a line down the middle in the deeper water, for roach, but didn't get a bite. So after 30 minutes, I went back to the far side with a roach rig (size 22 hook with a single maggot) and promptly hooked my largest carp of the day at 2.5lbs. I did manage to get the roach feeding but they were 3 to the ounce, so I went back to targeting carp and the only place I could get bite was tight against the bullrushes on the far side. I picked up a few more small carp, but I was glad to hear the all out called at 16:00 - it had been a cold and breezy day with difficult fishing and not too much fun. I weighed in 9lb-10oz against Colin's 2lbs - 4oz, so at least I beat my opponent.

However, I'd have been happy to blank, as long as the team won, which we did - a resounding victory in both legs. Results can be found here.

B Division Match - Island Pond - Sat 17th March

Saturday dawned bright and cold - The Island pond produced 50lb+ weights twice in the last week, but with Friday being very wet, and the overnight temps being close to freezing, I expected a tough day.

The number 3's were on the high numbers of the Island, and I drew P23 - which is known for having a tree overhanging the far shelf line directly in front of the peg. It was evident that this has caught out previous anglers as there were 2 rigs hanging from one of the low branches just where I'd like to have fished!

I could reach the far bank with the 14.5M section, but given the 2 tree rigs, I setup to fish on the slope about 2 feet from the far bank.

It was a pleasant change to be setting up with the sun on your back, but the water was still pretty cold - so I also setup a short rig for slivers, in case the cold water stopped the carp feeding.

The all-in was called at 11:00 and after 10 mins I hooked a fish which I lost after 15 seconds. But within another 5 mins I got my first carp in the net and another 2 followed within the hour.

I could see that Curtis Craig who was on P21 (the end peg) was catching fairly regularly, but no-one else was.

I kind of expected it to be this hard, and I'd been feeding 5-10 maggots on the short line, so I switched to this line and started catching small roach. And I mean small, maybe 1oz max. Every 30 mins or so I went back out to the far side and managed to pick up another 3 carp by 15:00. I'd also started feeding sweetcorn on the short line and this resulted in a few roach of 4-6oz and a couple of perch up to 3/4 of a pound.

As ever in a match, I was keeping an eye on what was happening around me, and only Curtis was catching much - But at about 15:30 Alan Welsh (P22) went out to the far shelf and got a carp within seconds. So I followed and finally the carp were over the area I'd been feeding. In the last 30 mins I landed 6 carp with a couple of 2lb+ and Curtis and I knew that it'd would be a close call between us. Closer than we thought as it turned out - The small roach had made the difference, and I weighed in 2oz more than Curtis - and even better for me, the match had been tough for everyone and I took the section and overall win with 15lb - 6oz.

Full results can be found here.

Now I'm looking forward to the club match at Orchill tomorrow.

Wednesday 14th March - Orchill Snake Lake

With the return leg of the Magiscroft AC v Orchill AC match due to take place on Sunday 18th, a few of us decided that instead of fishing the Wednesday Open at the 'Croft, we'd head up to Aucterarder to fish a sweep with some of the guys from the Orchill team.

I've fished the Snake 3 times before, once in the Scottish Seniors last September, and a couple of times last summer - but never with a pole, so I figured it would be a useful learning experience.

Alan Hird, John Perella, Heather Lauriston, Scott McAuly joined me from the 'Croft team, with four Orchill guys there to show us how it should be done.

I drew P20 which I was told was a good one, and I started setting up. The Snake is around 15M wide at P20, and much deeper than the ponds at the 'Croft, so I spent some extra time setting up a couple of longer rigs to cope with the 9 feet of water that was in front of me. I also set up 2 rigs for the far side, where there were a few features, mostly bullrushes. The far shelf was just under three feet deep, and it wasn't very wide. So one for on the shelf and a second one set for about a foot deeper which would put my bait on the slope of the shelf.

The all in was called and I shipped out the shallowest rig to the far shelf where almost right away I hooked into a carp of about a pound. I continued to catch on the far shelf for about an hour, but the carp were replaced by a shoal of tench, all of about 8oz - very nice fish, but not very big! So I changed rigs to the 'down the shelf' rig and started catching some larger carp. The bites continued to come, but the wind picked up enough to blow over my pole roller twice and presentation was becoming increasingly difficult. But any time there was a lull, I caught.

The all-out was called at 16:00 and I weighed in my best match catch to date at 41lbs - 6oz. But young Scott at the other end, had managed 51lbs, which was fantastic bag! John Perella was next up with 30lbs and then Heather with around 25lbs, so the Orchill folk were a tad upset that we had hammered them -:)

But it was just a fun match, Sunday is the real deal!

Magiscroft AC Vs Orchill AC - FIrst Leg - Sunday 11th@Magiscroft

This was my first club match since 1975!, and I was really 'up for it'

I wasn't that bothered about which pond I would draw, but if pushed, I'd have preferred the Island, and that's what I got - although P28 is considered by many to be the worst peg on the pond :-(

The pond on P28 is a full 16M wide, and with the seemingly obligatory gusty wind, it was going to be a tough day.

I spent the first 15 minutes on the far shelf looking for fish, and managed to hook into what I think was a foul hooked F1, which got off when still 7M out.

I then managed 2 F1's in quick succession at around the hour mark, but after another 30 bite-less minutes, I decided to try my favourite bottom of the shelf line. Almost immediately, I get a positive bite, which gets me a 6oz 'stockie' carp, but then nothing - for 30 mins. I spent the next hour alternating between the far side and the bottom of the shelf, but nothing....

So, as this is a team even, I decided to target roach, and start feeding a swim at 2M with loose maggots. This got me another 2-3lbs of small-ish roach which means I end up with 6lbs - 4oz and 18 points for the team.

Not a great weight, but on a day that was hard for some and easy for others, a reasonable result.

Sat 10th March - Junior Winter League - Top Pond@Magiscroft

I was supposed to be working on Saturday, so Mrs J, had booked herself a day in Edinburgh. As seems to be the norm these days, the work was cancelled on Friday PM, so I just went fishing instead, as a guest in the Junior Winter Match.

The guests were assigned pegs 16, 18, 1 and 3, and I draw 18 (which I fished a week ago).

My thoughts were firmly on Sunday's match against Orchill, so I tried some new pellet flavours, which seemed to work, getting me plenty of fish for 11lbs - 3oz on a day when only Peter Dick weighed in more.

A one point, I thought I'd snagged a tree root (or similar) but as I applied some pressure, the 'tree' suddenly woke up and shot off to my left - I spent 20 minutes trying to get the fish under control, but whatever it was, the hook pulled free and I didn't even get to see what it was :-(

Full Results can be found here.

Wednesday Open 7th March - Woodside Pond - Magiscroft

As we are now into March, I hadn't even considered that the weather could still cause problems - how wrong was I!

With Sunday 11th bringing Magiscroft AC Vs Orchill Central AC(teams of 21 anglers), I was keen to draw a decent peg on the Woodside Pond, but once again I managed to draw Peg 3, in my opinion, the worst Peg on the pond.

Still, given that Sunday's match would have 18 anglers on the Woodside and 24 on the Island, it was a good chance to see if the Woodside was fishing well.

The match had barely started when it started to hail, which quickly turned to snow. Prior to and during the snow I landed 4 small carp, but with the sudden arrival of a load of ice cold water, the carp disappeared. Over the next 4.5 hours, I only managed 4 more bites which all resulted in a small carp, giving me 3lbs - 8oz - A poor day, but another lesson learned.

I've been a bit lax in posting, as I'm currently on a job hunt........

B Division Match - Island Pond - Sat 3rd March

For today's match the '3s' would be on the low numbers of the Island pond - and I drew P3, which is another i've not fished before. The pond is a full 16M wide on this peg, so I hoped to be able to find some fish at the bottom of the shelf at some point as my pole is quite difficult at full length.

But with all the bankside noise of a group of anglers setting up their gear, I decided to start by fishing at full distance on the far shelf.

After being pestered by small roach in last Sunday's match, I opted not to use micro pellets as an attractor, and instead had prepared enough 4mm pellets.

The all-in was called at 11 sharp and I shipped out with a 6mm pellet on a size 16 under one of John Perella's diamond floats, with 4 feed pellets in the pot, to a spot around a foot from the far bank.

Almost immediately, I got a typical F1 bite and landed a fish of just under pound, and on my second ship, I got an instant bite but didn't connect. And that sets a pattern for the next 2 hours - I managed to hit every 5/6th bite and land 8 carp, but had to re-bait frequently as the pellets were being eaten by, I suspected, small roach. Weather wise, it's wasn't cold, but somehow the wind blew from the left, and then from the right making presentation really tough. At around 13:00 the carp disappeared, not just for me, but the un-hitable bites continue and I eventually land a 1 oz roach using a 6MM pellet on a size 14 (which I changed to to help keep the pellet on the hook).

Over the next 2 hours, I tried, pellet, maggot and corn at various points from the near margin trough the middle and back to the far side, but like those around me, I struggled.

But as is often the case, after 15:00 the positive bites once again return and I managed another 4 carp to finish up with 10lbs - 11oz, which put me 4th in the section.

My biggest issue today was that I lost 3 good fish due to getting my main line entangled with my feed pot thus stopping the elastic from deploying, so I've decided to convert all of my top kits to use a dacron connector, which should stop this happening.

Next weekend is the first of a double header between Magiscroft AC and Orchill AC, with the first leg taking place at the 'Croft. I hope to get picked for the match!

But I'll be back out on Wednesday, when i will try something a bit different.

Full results from the B Deivision Match can be found here.