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.

Got Baits ISK League Round 1

This is my first year back match fishing after nearly 20 years, things have changed somewhat, well over the past few months I've been on a rapid learning curve.

However the day was here for the first match at Bramley / Peartree Lakes at Hartleylands in Kent. At the draw I picked Peg P20 which was peg 20 on Peartree Lake. I've never fished any of these lakes so it was do my best regardless.

When I walked round to the peg I had an island straight out in front of me and some margins to both sides. The plan of attack was feed 2 margins swims one to the left and the other to the right. A third line would be over to the island with either a pellet feeder or pellet waggler.

Upon opening the rod bag I noticed that I had left my feeder rod at home, a quick phone call and my trusted 10' MAP Parabolix Feeder rod was on it's way by Robbie Express.

I opted for the feeder rod over the pellet waggler as I have more confidence on this method, as I've only ever used the pellet waggler once before.

I mixed up around 3 pints of 2mm pellets for the feeder and had a few pre drilled hard pellets, with my main line of attack being a method feeder to the island a cast of around 25 meters.

The whistle went for all in I cast out to the island within seconds the tip was showing signs of life then it went round and soon the first carp was coming to the net, in the next hour I managed to catch another 15 carp, with the bites not showing any signs of giving up.

In the meantime I continued to feed the margins with the plan in the last hour to fish there. However I was catching small carp every few minutes and was starting to build a decent weight.

I hooked a few bigger fish which I failed in getting to the net, and managed to snag up on the bottom and loose a couple of hook lengths on.

I started on the margin swim with an hour to go, after 15 minutes I'd not even had a take, I decided to use the feeder rig and go back over to the island and was soon rewarded with another carp.

I'm quite pleased with the result and currently finished 11th overall at a water I've never fished before, I know these placing will fall as I'm missing the next round due to going on holiday.

Results:

1 Nick Gilbert 103-13 peg 4 pear tree
2 Matt Love 5 79-9 peg 8 pear tree
3 Ian Carley 5 78-14 peg 9 bramley
4 Jonny Watt 5 73-14 peg 20 bramley
5 Jeff Driscoll 4 63-6 peg 6 pear tree
6 Russ Evans 4 50-9 peg 8 bramley

League Placing

1 Nick Gilbert 5 103-13
2 Matt Love 5 79-9
3 Ian Carley 5 78-14
4 Jonny Watt 5 73-14
5 Jeff Driscoll 4 63-6
6 Russ Evans 4 50-9
7 Dennis Price 4 47-3
8 Mark Hathway 4 44-8
9 Collin Wood 3 49-13
10 Nick Allen 3 43-10
11 Paul Slater 3 39-7
12 Chris Jones 3 16-14
13 Trevor Little 2 48-8
14 Pete Allen 2 23-3
15 John Haige 2 19-5
16 Brian Pink 2 9-11
17 Rusty (on Holiday) 0
18 Alan Loader (forgot about the match!) 0

Hawkhurst Fish Farm Good Friday 09

I'd arranged another match this time at Hawkhurst Fish Farm, near Hawkhurst in Kent. As the fish farm has a half decent cafe on everyone fishing the match had said we were going to have breakfast before the start of the match, which was a full english all round.

I got the draw sorted and Ted the bailiff picked my peg which was peg 13 on a friday.

I walked down to my peg started to setup the pole which was 2 margin rigs and a 5 meter line straight out in front.

The main line I setup two rigs one shallow and one hard on the bottom. After setting up we
went over to the cafe to have full english breckfast before the match, this was follwoed by
the usual banter.

At 10.00 I shouted all in and then for the next 5 hours I didn't move off the peg. I went long
for the first hour feeding a few pellets every 30 seconds, soon I was getting bites on the
bottom, with the first carp soon in the net. I started to catch through out the day rotating
round to the margins and then back out long however my catch rate was no where near what
I needed to do.

At the end of the match I finished a lonely 15th.

 
Position        Peg             Angler                               Weight

1st               Peg 7     Paul(nomorelongwalks)East   125lbs 00ozs
2nd              Peg 15   Keith(Disco)Driscoll              112lbs 00ozs
3rd              Peg 16   Nick(pastie)Allen                   101lbs 00ozs
4th              Peg 4     Graham(franklin)Fanklin          94lbs 12ozs
5th              Peg 3    Jay Lay                                   92lbs 12ozs
6th              Peg 5    Tony(spamwham)Roberts         88lbs 00ozs
7th              Peg 19  Derek(derekl)Lockwood            86lbs 12ozs
8th              Peg 1    Peter(Mugger)Morton               86lbs 08ozs
9th              Peg 8    Clive(Black Hydro)Pritchard      85lbs 04ozs
10th            Peg 18   Pete(btpt)Allen                         83lbs 00ozs
11th=          Peg 9    Greg(splitshot1)Andrews            81lbs 00ozs
11th=          Peg 6    Dave(The Fish)Collier               81lbs 00ozs
13th            Peg 12  Trevor(M.T.Net)Little               70lbs 00ozs
14th            Peg 20   Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff           67lbs 00ozs
15th     Peg 13 paulvis69              40lbs 00ozs
16th            Peg 2    Vince(Vince G)Gould                32lbs 08ozs
17th            Peg 11   Chris(nagap)Pagan                   31lbs 00ozs
18th            Peg 17   Chris Withall                            23lbs 08ozs
19th            Peg 14   Ben Franklin                                DNW