Got Baits ISK League Round 5

With this being the second to last match of the league I know I had to still get a good result in order to maintain my mid table standing and avoid the drop zone like Newcastle this season.

At the draw I pulled out B13 which resolved to Bramley peg 13, I do enjoy the long walks to these pegs.

When I arrived at the peg I had a clear path to the island and 2 margin swims, however the biggest obsticalewas the wind blowing across the peg from right to left at around 15mph and gusting upto 25mph. With the wind this made it more difficult to get the method feeder over to the island and impossible to get the pellet waggler in the right position.

I choose 2 margim swims one to the left around 7 meters and the other to the right. At the whistle I fed both margin swims and cast the method feeder out to the island. Within a few seconds I was noticing a few liners then the tip swung round and I soon had the first carp in the net of the day. Back out to the island and the tip swung round again this resulted in a missed fish, the wind seemed to pick up and this didn't help as I seemed to be loosing around 50% of the fish on the way in. I should have used the longer 12' feeder rod which may have given myself a bit more of the edge.

I changed to the margin line however with the wind being so bad and having changed direction also this made my margin swims very difficult to fish, I managed to get 3 small carp out of these before I had to try the method feeder again.

At the end of the day I managed just over 31 lb at the scales and managed 3rd in the section which was a fair result for the day. This has left me 13th overall, not bad seen as I had settled for 20th this year.

League Placing

1 Ian Carley, 5-4-4-5-4, 385-14 22
2 Nick Gilbert, 5-3-5-3-5, 362-9 21
3 Paul Kell, 0-5-5-5-5, 379-1 20
4 Russ Evans, 4-3-4-3-5, 303-13 19
5 Collin Wood, 3-5-5-5-0, 307-10 18
6 Russell Graves, 0-5-4-5-4 286-7 18
7 Dennis Price, 4-4-5-3-2, 269-8 18
8 Jeff Driscoll, 4-3-3-4-4, 249-2 18
9 Jonny Watt, 5-3-3-0-5, 250-11 16
10 Matt Love, 5-4-4-0-3, 219-0 16
11 Mark Hathway 4-4-4-0-3, 211-1 15
12 Nick Allen, 3-5-3-2-1, 218-15
13 John Haige 2-2-2-3-4, 204-6 13
14 Paul Slater 3-0-2-4-3, 184-11 12
15 Trevor Little 2-1-3-4-0, 217-9 10
16 Pete Allen 2-2-1-3-2, 217-6 10
17 Chris Jones 3-1-2-2-2, 124-10 10
18 Al Loader 0-2-3-0-3, 127-4 8
19 Brian Pink 2-2-1-2-0, 52-3 7

Got Baits ISK League Round 4

With the match on Nick's Lake at Hartleylands, again a venue I'd never fished , I decided to do a bit of reading of other people's blogs. After a bit of investigation it looks to be a carp mainly lake.

Having met up with Trevor (M.T.Net) in Hastings for breakfast we then set off to the lake, at the draw I managed to pull out peg 33, which was a nicely sheltered part of the lake which was good as the wind was blowing at around 20mph.

At the swim I decided on 2 swims one the left hand margin and the the other was the island straight out in front. I set up 2 feeder rods and a short pole for the marging swim. The first feeder rod was setup with a flat method feeder and a 4" hook length with a korum quick stop attached, the other feeder rod and 1/2oz boom and a 8" hook length and a korum quick stop.

The margin swim was only around 2 - 3 feet deep and this was a 4x12 float.

As 10.30am arrived the whisle went I started to feed the margin swim and then cast the method feeder out to the island. Within a few seconds the tip went round and I soon had the first carp of the day in the net. I rebaited and cast back to the island and a few minutes later another carp around 3lb. I continued to catch over the next few hours however I noticed my catch rate was not as quick as Colin Wood's who was on peg 32. I had a few more carp, then next cast the tip bounced round and I hit into it this felt like a better fish, I managed to get this towards the net, and finally saw it, it looked like a fish of around 10-12lb then disaster the hook length snapped. I quickly added another hook length and was back over to the island.

Then things started to go wrong the old Map reel seemed to be having problems twisting the line and tangling up, I change to the other rod the 10' Map STi Bomb rod and was soon back out to the island and catching fish. I started to loose a few fish, and managed to snap another couple of hook lengths.

With an hour to go in the match the tip titched round and I hit it this was a bigger fish after a few minutes fight it was in the net and was around 8lb. I lost around 40'b of fish during the day which would have bumped up my placing however that's fishing.

At the weigh in I managed to put together 80lb 5oz and finished second in the section and was fourth overall on the day, picking up a £20 note for my troubles, but also more important £1 from Trevor on a side bet.

1st Ian Carley 117-1
2nd Paul Kell 110-12
3rd Collin Wood 107-11
4th Paul Slater 80-5
5th Alan Joplin(guest) 67-0
6th Jeff Driscoll 59-8

League Placing
1 Ian Carley, 5-4-4-5, 322-0 18
2 Collin Wood, 3-5-5-5, 307-10 18
3 Nick Gilbert, 5-3-5-3, 288-9 16
4 Dennis Price, 4-4-5-3, 243-6 16
5 Paul Kell, 0-5-5-5, 298-10 15
6 Russ Evans, 4-3-4-3, 254-8 14
7 Russell Graves, 0-5-4-5, 205-12 14
8 Jeff Driscoll, 4-3-3-4, 190-14 14
9 Nick Allen, 3-5-3-2, 205-7 13
10 Matt Love, 5-4-4, 156-5 13
11 Mark Hathway 4-4-4-0, 144-11 12
12 Jonny Watt, 5-3-3-0, 166-13 11
13 Trevor Little 2-1-3-4, 217-9 10
14 John Haige 2-2-2-3, 158-15 9
15 Paul Slater 3-0-2-4, 152-5 9
16 Pete Allen 2-2-1-3, 185-10 8
17 Chris Jones 3-1-2-2, 92-6 8
18 Brian Pink 2-2-1-2, 52-3
19 Al Loader 0-2-3-0 103-4 5

Fish O Mainia - Monks Lake

I was lucky enoughg to get a ticket for the Fish O Mainia quailifer at Monk Lakes in Kent. I seen from the list theere was so good anglers down.

I somehow knew that I would end up near Darren Cox, after being in the car park 10 minutes I noticed he'd parked behind me , that's a bit spooky to say the least. Well at draw time my hand went into the box and I pulled out peg 68 on match lake 2, this is not the best half of the lake. I humped all the gear round and over the bridge to the peg.

As I started to setup I looked up only to see Darren Cox setting up on peg 69. Jay came round and we had a chat about how he'd attack the peg , with his ideas in mind I setup a few rigs 2 margin swims and a 6-7m swim straight out in front. I'd really wanted to setup a feeder rig just in case.

At all in I fed all three swims and started to fish the 7m line I had immediate results and by the first hour managed to get a few carp in the net, however I managed to loose as many as I have landed. Over the next couple of hours the swims just seemed to die on me.

This resulted in me moving out on the pole to 9-10 meters, I managed a few more small carp, then time came to go out to 14.5 meters this resulted in a few more bites and only another 2 carp in the net.

I'd not come anywhere close to winning the section however I'd totally enjoyed the day, I'll be applying again next year.

Got Baits ISK League Round 3

Back to Monk's lake for another day, the weather never seems to be great down there, however with a cross wind blowing, at the draw I got peg 62 on the island in the middle. I'd never fished this lake however I decided on the 2 margin swims and setup the feeder rod incase things didn't work out.

At the all in I fed both margin swims and started to fish the left hand swim, the float bobbed under and a small bram was soon in the net. Next cast under again this was certainly bigger this thing was like a torpedothe elastic came out the pole to around 25 feet, I finally managed to net the fish it's was a barbel of around 2lb, this was a first for me as I'd never caught one before. I managed to catch a few more fish down that margin, I decided to give it a rest and and try the other side, this resulted in a few small carp of around a pound mark, then a run of small skimmer bream to 4oz.

I swaped back onto the other margin and continued to caught barbel and the odd small carp, I noticed that Jeff D was catching some better carp on the feeder, with only an hour to got I swapped on this , I managed a run of around 10 carp in the hour however I should have changed to this alot sooner and would have had a bigger weight.

I also managed to catch a golden tench which was another first for me.


60 B Pink 20-0
62 P Slater 32-9
63 J Driscoll 48-8
65 M Hathway 74-12
66 C Wood 89-6 68


League Placing
1 Nick Gilbert, 5-3-5, 241-1 13
2 Dennis Price, 4-4-5, 216-10 13
3 Ian Carley, 5-4-4, 204-15 13
4 Collin Wood, 3-5-5, 199-15 13
5 Mark Hathway 4-4-4, 144-11 12
6 Russ Evans, 4-3-4, 227-8 11
7 Nick Allen, 3-5-3, 169-4 11
8 Jonny Watt, 5-3-3 166-13 11
9 Paul Kell, 0-5-5, 187-14 10
10 Jeff Driscoll, 4-3-3 131-6 10
11 Russell Graves, 0-5-4, 153-10 9
12 Matt Love, 5-4-0, 107-1 9
13 Trevor Little 2-1-3, 171-1 6
14 John Haige 2-2-2, 106-15 6
15 Chris Jones 3-1-2, 70-14 6
16 Pete Allen 2-2-1, 133-10 5
17 Al Loader 0-2-3 103-4 5
18 Paul Slater 3-0-2 72-0 5
19 Brian Pink 2-2-1 39-15 5

Town Parks Lakes - Catfish - 24th April 09

Had a day on Town Park with Peter, Shelia, Sarah and myself. Got there around 9.30am aranged for some coffee and breakfast rolls, we decided to fish on pegs 1 and 2.

This was the specimin lake which holds carp to over 40lb and cat fish to over 60lb, and a large head of good quality roach and rudd to nearly 2lb.

I setup a short pole for Sarah to fish the margins and the feeder rod for myself along with the pellet waggler.

I cast the feeder over to the island withand 11mm hard pellet and packed with 2mm feed pellets. The food arrived and I had a quick go on the pole and managed to get a couple of good quality roach with a few minutes the largest being 12oz.
We all sat down had the bacon roll and the coffee, it was back to the peg to enjoy some real lesure fishing, Sarah started well catching some small roach and rudd, the more she fed then the larger fish started to show, and she had her first roach over a pound.

At around 11.00am Pete shouted that he'd hooked something nice and he thought it was a carp, after a 15 minute battle we still hadn't seen it then finally to Pete's amazement it wasn't a carp it was a catfish, this was a first for him. I finally managed to net the catfish, Paul from Town Parks Lakes arranged the Carp mat and some scales after a few minutes we had it in the sling and it weighed in at 20lb 8oz. We all started fishing again and Sarah was soon catching the odd fine rudd and roach, over the day she must have had 20 of them over a pound, however the best weighed in at 1lb 5oz.

Pete later on in the afternoon managed to fit into a nice mirror carp, after a 5 minute scrap they manage to part company after the carp roled when it was on the surface this was estimated at over 20lb.

We all had a great a day fishing for things I never normally do.

Another thanks to the guys at Town Parks Fishing http://www.townparks.net for a great day once again.

Got Baits ISK League Round 2

Due to being on holiday in devon I've missed this round, so for the next 4 rounds it's 100% flat out.

With the next round being at Monk Lakes in Kent and never fished Match Lake 2 before it'll be another hard match but a good learning curve.

I'm currently 18th overall dropping 7 places for not fishing

1 Collin Wood 60-12 Peg 23
2 Nick Allen 59-7 Peg 36
3 Dennis Price 57-14 Peg 22
4 Rusty 57-00 peg 16
5 Russ Evans 53-10 peg 24
6 Squeaky (guest) 51-0 peg 31

League Placing

1 Ian Carley, 5-4, 124-8 9
2 Matt Love, 5-4, 107-1 9
3 Nick Gilbert, 5-3, 133-13 8
4 Collin Wood, 3-5, 110-9 8
5 Dennis Price, 4-4, 105-1 8
6 Nick Allen, 3-5, 103-1 8
7 Jonny Watt, 5-3, 95-5 8
8 Mark Hathway 4-4, 69-15 8
9 Russ Evans, 4-3, 104-3 7
10 Jeff Driscoll, 4-3, 82-14 7
11 Russell Graves, 0-5, 57-0 5
12 Paul Kell, 0-5, 44-4 5
13 Pete Allen 2-2 63-11 4
14 John Haige 2-2 33-1 4
15 Chris Jones 3-1 27-6 4
16 Brian Pink 2-2 19-15 4
17 Trevor Little 2-1 81-6 3
18 Paul Slater 3-0 39-7 3
19 Al Loader 0- 11-10 2


Weight League

1 Nick Gilbert 133-13
2 Ian Carley 124-8
3 Collin Wood 110-9
4 Matt Love 107-1
5 Dennis Price 105-1
6 Russ Evans 104-3
7 Nick Allen 103-1
8 Jonny Watt 95-5
9 Jeff Driscoll 82-14
10 Trevor Little 81-6
11 Mark Hathway 69-15
12 Pete Allen 63-11
13 Russell Graves 57-0
14 Paul Kell 44-4
15 Paul Slater 39-7
16 John Haige 33-1
17 Chris Jones 27-6
18 Brian Pink 19-15
19 Al Loader 11-10

Town Park Lakes Torquay - 23rd April

Were on our yearly trip to Devon, staying over in Brixham this year, as always I manage to get a few days fishing in while were here. I went on monday and had a nice 40lb bag of skimmer bream and roach, with a couple of common carp to 3lb each.

However today was different Sarah the other half had decided to give fishing a go.......shock horror!

We arrived at Town Park Lakes at around 9.00am some 2.5hours since me and the dog was ready to go. Anyway We decided to fish peg 10 which is at the far side of the lake away from anyone as we had the mutt with us. I still had some bait from the other day. I set-up a feeder rod with a pellet feeder rig and a pellet waggler rod for sarah. while I was setting up she went off to get breakfast for us and she soon returned with a bacon butty and a can of pepsi for myself and she had the sausage butty. However I'd had a quick couple of casts and managed to get a nice 3lb common carp and a small skimmer in the net.

On the third cast with the feeder rod the tip whizzed round again and another 3lb common was soon in the net. I continued casting the feeder to the island and over the course of the day I managed another 4 smaller carp and 21 skimmer bream upto 1lb being the largest of them.

I'd set Sarah up the pellet waggler, however due to her first time fishing this was a bit much with the wind being in our faces, I decided to geta top kit out so she could have a go for the roach and rudd in the lake.

After showing her a couple of times she was soon into the roach and rudd with no problem swinging them over for me to unhook and add the maggots back on the hook, this soon changed as I started to make myself busy when she needed somethings doing, which started to to do things for herself this included unhooking the fish first then soon I had her putting magggots on the hook and throwing in a few maggots. Before long she was catching roach or a rudd a cast and starting to enjoy herself (That's a first never thought I see her fish..!)as the dog was starting to get restless and I was running out of spam to throw to her to keep her quite it was time to go I started to pack up only to hear Sarah say do we have to go yet.

At the end of the day the tally was:

Myself:

6 carp to 3lb
21 skimmer Bream

Sarah:

50 plus roach and rudd
Best fish 10-12oz

Tomorrow were going to try the specimun lake which holds large carp and catfish.