Spring?

The Monday night match seems to have replaced the Wednesday match, now that I am an employee :-( 

So, for April 30th, we were to have our last match on the Top Pond. With the weather having taken a step back towards winter, I hoped to draw in the deeper water, but instead managed P4 - where I've not fished before, but I was told it was pretty shallow….

With only 3 hours from 18:00 -> 21:00 it's all about finding the fish - and I struggled and only managed 3lbs - 10oz - I did beat those either side of me but was 8th of 13 and not best pleased - but I fished as well as I could and you can only catch what's there.

But the good news was that I would be fishing the Wednesday match  - and my drawing luck had to change - or so I thought - again I drew the shallowest peg on the pond P14, which in the summer is one of my favourites. But not when it's been so cold overnight. To my right I had John Perrela, and Nigel Foulds with Andy Prentice and Jimmy Hillhouse to my left. All good anglers. On commercial fisheries like Magiscroft, carp dominate the matches due to their size (any where from a few ounces to 6lbs +) - between us we had 5 carp in 5 hours. Meanwhile, at the deeper end of the pond, folk are catching loads of carp - I managed 2lbs - 9oz of roach, which saw me 17th of 20 - a bad day.

Sunday 6th of May was my first time fishing in the "Barras League' - it's a team competition with 4 per team. It takes place over 4 matches with each team member fishing on one of the four Magiscroft ponds. I'll miss the 3rd match due to my annual trip to the St Lawrence during the first week of June.

This means I get to fish the Woodside, Main Loch and Top Ponds, and John Baird will sub for me for the Island match.

Our team is pretty strong with team captain Wullie MacAully joined by Dougie Craig, Davie Smith and me.

It was a close match on the Woodside, with lots of folk catching on a regular basis, and I was happy to finish 4th. My team mates did very well with Davie and Dougie winning their matches and Wullie managing a 3rd on the Top Pond, so after one match, we lead with 43 points :-)

Monday 7th was a wet and miserable day, but as it was the first of the Monday matches on the Island pond, we had 17 anglers. The pond had not fished well on the Sunday , apart from Dougie bagging 40lbs+ :-) so we expected a tough match. But trying to figure what influences the carp's feeding patterns is for the moment, beyond me. I managed 15lbs flat despite being unable to fish the far bank - P26 is around 16m wide, and I was still recovering from a heavy gym session and just couldn't control my pole at that distance. This put me 8th of 17  - I'm pretty sure if I had been able to fish as normal, that 20lbs plus was on the cards.

So a difficult couple of weeks, but when it counted, I caught....But the weather has turned pretty nasty with first some surprise overnight frosts and lately, wind and rain - Come on summer!

Catch Up

It's been a while, but not much to report :-(

On Sat April 14, I fished the final match in the B Division, which for us in the number  three section, was on the low number side of the Woodside pond.  I had drawn P3 twice previously, so had hoped for something near P10, but again I drew in the section I call Siberia, P5. :-(

I had Scott McAuley on P4 and Heather Lauriston on P3 to my right and no one on P6.

As I expected, because of the overnight frost, the carp were not feeding, so it was a catch of mostly Ide and Chub that gave me 4lbs - 15oz - enough to beat those to my right (just!) but was off what the guys were catching in on P9/P10 area.  Alan Welsh was pretty much fishing on his own on P1 with all of the top bend available to him and he easily won our section, with Scott Laird on P10 second. 

Full results can be found here.

On the next day, Sunday 15th, I had a 3 hour session n the Man Loch (P7) to try out a couple of things - Caught mostly skimmer bream with half a dozen carp to 2.5lbs.

Saturday April 21st was the B Division/Junior Winter League Pairs match to be fished on the Island and Woodside ponds. It's like a Secret Santa for fishing :-) After last weekend I was keen not to draw the Woodside, but when I drew P2 on the Island, I wasn't much happier - It had rained heavily most of Friday, and P2 is where the run off pipe feeds the fresh water into the pond - lots of cold water does not mean good fishing at this time of year. I really struggled for most of the 5 hours : with 30 minutes to go I reckoned on having around 3lbs of silvers - but as I had done every 30 minutes or so, I went back to the far bank with 15 mis left and bang - 2 carp in the last 10 mins to get me up to 8lbs - 12oz.  I managed to beat those to my left and right, but knew that the folk at the  other end were catching plenty. I ended up 11th of 19. Results

On Sunday 22nd I took part in an open match on the main loch where we had 28 competing. After weighing in 3lb - 2oz of mostly roach, I was surprised to find that for most, carp had been absent,  and this weight put me 11th (again)of 28! A really tough day - weather conditions were reasonable, but the fish just didn't want to play…..

It couldn't get any worse, so I booked in to fish the Monday night match on the Top Pond. Given my recent form, I expected to draw an unfancied peg and I didn't disappoint, pulling P10 (the deep end) from the bag. No matter, I had a plan, which I'm glad to say worked :-) I caught 13 carp for 17lbs - 10oz giving me second behind Tommy L with 21lb+ and in front of 3rd placed Scott McAuley with 15lb+.  Results.

After the match I gave my remaining bait to Alex Mason, who managed a creditable 3rd using it in the Wednesday match - which I missed due to having to work!

A Week of Fishing:-)

I finished my current contract on Friday which meant an enforced week away from work :-) So, I had it all mapped out.

Saturday - B Division Match - Woodside Pond

Sunday - A rest!

Monday - First session on the new Main Loch followed by Cray Gang Match on the Top Pond

Tuesday - Orchill - didn't happen due to snow!

Wednesday - Island Pond Match

Thursday - The Oaks in Yorkshire - went to Orchill instead as the snow moved south!

Friday - PM match on the Main Loch

Saturday - Guest at the final round of the Junior's Winter League on the Main Loch

B Division - Caught mostly Chub and Ide as the carp were absent probably due to the overnight drop in temp. Weighed in 8lbs flat - better weights came from the other end of our section :-( Full results Can be found here.

Monday - 37lb of carp from the Main Loch and 8lb - 8oz for 3rd in the Monday night match on P7 of the Top Pond - results

Wednesday - 1 bite and 1 fish for 1lb and last in the Wed match - Should have tried for Chub as there was an overnight frost.

Thursday - Orchill, even colder than yesterday - no bites for the first 3 hours, but then 6 Ide, 3 Roach, 2 Carp and a Chub.

Friday - Drew P21 on the Main Loch and didn't expect much as the area had tons of in-fill during the re-modelling over the winter. Was surprised to manage 34lbs - 14oz of carp to 3lbs for a win - results.

Saturday - This time at the other end on P1 of the Main Loch - 40+ 'stockies' and skimmer bream for 10lbs - 8oz - Won the guest match and next best weight from the juniors was 6lbs+ - results.

So, a busy week - The main loch is more like a traditional water where I learned to fish a a youngster in the '70s. So I always feel I can catch fish there - Confidence is a big part of fishing, but as the Wednesday match reminded me, any large scale change ( plus or minus) in temperature seems to affect the carp and their feeding patterns. So, just the Monday night match tomorrow before I start life as an employee for the fist time in 10 years!!!

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.