Telling's Times: May 2016

Sunday, 29 May 2016

Alders Farm fishery

Peg 4

101lb 13oz

Won section

6th overall

21 fished

I do love fishing Alders Farm , just wish it was closer to my home, otherwise I would be there all the time.

Alders Farm has two match lakes, Ash Pool that we fished today and Pines Pool. I prefer Pines and have had some success there, whereas Ash Pool I tend to struggle to get my head completely around it.

How I would fish Ash pool would be:

Line 1

Dead red maggots and groudbait down the edge. Some very successful anglers fish slop and maggots or even paste. So its your call.

Line 2

Pellets long or at five meters depending on room and peg. I like fishing hard 4mm.

Line 3

Method feeder in shallow pegs or to island.

Oversize M top kits, they are great for bagging!! Oversize M are stronger and stiffer.

Colmic Speci Plus landing net is truly awesome. So strong and super stiff

Next Adventure 60's rod, a true through action.

A very close and fair match!!

Saturday, 28 May 2016

Ivy House Lakes

Peg 18

63lb

1st place

On silvers (47lb)

14 fished

The bream from Ivy House at stunning

Had good company today, Leon kept me entertained for the whole of the match, had some good laughs. Almost got a Ghost carp about 7lb ish on the blog, but unfortunately it ended back in the lake. Lucky enough it didn't cost him anything (framing), as I would of felt really bad.

The lake did fish hard today, like a lot of venues around the country, but as an whole I would say Ivy House Lakes Match Lake is a fair venue. I really did enjoy it, which is the most important aspect of fishing.

I started short, which resulted in a quick carp and bream, then lost a carp foul hooked. But Leon caught a few long, so decided to follow him out on my worm paste mix and this proved to be a good move. I had to wait for bites, so I will patiently wait up to ten minutes for a bite. I am confident that when I toss pot my mix on my float a fish will come my way...

I tried had to catch carp shallow, but this proved very difficult and only managed a couple.

I was lucky to win the silvers but the skin of my teeth and win the match overall. So happy days

Sunday, 22 May 2016

Ivy House Lakes

Peg 16
40lb 4oz
Joint third
16 fished

Tough day. Just that time of year when fish have other things on there mind!!!

HERONBROOK - Fish O Mania

Peg 13 Canal
42lb
No good
3rd in ten peg section

What a beautiful venue, would love to fish this venue with some room it, some massive weights do come out. Fair play, I try my hardest to go.there this summer, only issue it's 87 miles away!!

My match

The peg is beautiful looking and the reed bed is 5 foot deep!!! Which was going to a nightmare getting the fish out and locating fish. Not worried about breaking my pole, as it's so tough, so rigged up 0.22 to 0.18!!! Fish to win.

I ain't scared to blow out as long as I know I've give my peg a decent and realistic attack. No point fishing Fish O Mania qualifiers if you only fish for your section, I appreciate that not all pegs are capable of winning, BUT you never know as Manor Farm Leisure throw up 300lb for me on peg 4 Windmill a few days ago, and only 60lb was highest weight prior to mine all week.

However, aggressive feeding does blow pegs as I found out today. I was catching steady F1's, but felt I could have a chance, so rather than playing safe and trying to win a section, I'd sooner give it a go.... 60lb won section.

One Fish O Mania ticket left to get back into the final again. Last ticket, won't apply next year.

Thursday, 12 May 2016

Manor Farm Leisure - Spring Festival

The manor farm leisure May festival is great festival on a great venue. I sadly missed it last years, so was gagging to get there!

Manor Farm Leisure has been fishing a lot harder than normal. The weather and time of year, the fish was up and down. One minute 20oc, then raining and down to 12of. Not ideal.

Sundays open saw me draw peg 13 Ash and won section. Learnt a few things and caught 15let down the edge late!!

DAY ONE

Peg 14 Ash Pool

28lb

9 points

Awful.

I'm not one to moan and make accuses or wheel spin out of the car park..... I got beat by Steve Partington on worms. I couldn't make it work, and felt lost throughout most of the match, as I could only catch small skimmers. All the things I learnt yesterday back fired and got battered by Steve. Well done to him.

DAY TWO

Peg 15 Windmill pool

102lb

Won section

Won lake

1 point

Good draw for me, as I have a brilliant strong pole. The method for me was always going to be "tapping" or the "mong". A boring method if I'm honest, but it is devastating when it works, it works!! And today sure enough it worked, but to the extreme, as even Colmic's 2.5mm hollow wasn't powerful enough, so went to A solid 25 elastic. Hash gear, but I don't wanna get broke up all the time. So went for it, and still managed to get snagged and pulled a snag out with a 8lb ghost carp attached. 19 meters in the air pulling a carp out of a reed bed is extreme, wish I had my camera. Airon F44 pole all in one piece.

(highest weight off the peg all week, by a long way)

DAY THREE

Peg 16 Island pool

110lb

Won section

2nd on lake

2 points

Needed to win, but fordy had impressive 190lb next to me on peg 18. I couldn't catch. Maybe fed too much and spent to long on pellet feeder and method feeder..... Got battered again by Fordy on peg 18.

3 days of fishing and two batterings.

DAY FOUR

Peg 17 Windmill

60lb

2nd section

3rd on lake

3 point

After having a fourth job been a tree surgeon for 45 minutes. I got myself a margin to peg 16. Gout and a saw wasn't a good combo!!! I knew this match was going to be a real struggle. I caught down the edge, never had a bite anywhere else in the swim. Unreal. I was really pleased to catch this weight off this peg. However, was gutted to loose the 6 peg pay out by 6lb off peg 4. One thing for sure, carp follow this warm wind!!!

DAY FIVE

Peg 4 Windmill

313lb

Won section

Won lake

1 point

I was well chuffed to draw this peg, as this was my second choice of pegs on the whole of venue. I was going to hopefully win the section off this peg. Planned to fish shallow long, 5 meters on pellets and maggots down the edge.

Cut a long story very short, I caught down the edge after 20 mins and didn't really look back. Caught big fish half depth down the edge on maggots. My 31 carp and 3 F1's went 313lb!!! I chucked back about 5 to 7lb back of silvers and small F1's, as I only carried three nets.

It was unreal how big the fish were and they were all big Mirrors, that faught really hard, going crazy as they haven't been caught years..... I feel that hard fished waters like Island or Middle, them big carp know that they will be realised after been caught and only spend a couple of hours in a keepnet, but these fish are pole breakers, as a few poles were broken in the festival. I am lucky to have products that I have total confidence in and products that never break on me, despite extreme pressure.

Colmic Mikes are prefect baggin floats

Thanks to Dave, Arthur, Steve, Liam, Biffer, Chris, etc for weighing and running the matches.

Also like to thank Chris from Evesham Discount Tackle for sorting my bait. It was awesome.

Finally to Colmic, that Colmic Airon F44 is unreal!!! 19 meters and 0.25 to 0.22 hook lengths and catching a 20lb 8oz carp that went crazy and the peg is full of snags!!! So had to pull loads and I do mean pull!!! F1 spider line never let me down under extreme pressure. Without these products there is no way I could of managed day 2 and day 5.

#colmicpolesarethestrongestontheplanet

Sunday, 8 May 2016

Manor Farm

Peg 13 Ash

59lb

Section win

51 fished

Saturday, 7 May 2016

Tunnel Barn Farm. Fish O Mania

Peg 27 House

35lb ish... DNW

A STRUGGLE

No good

150 fished

Great looking peg, but unfortunately I couldn't make it work. I thought worms and caster and caster shallow was going to be a good bet and was partly wrong. Not sure of the weights around me, didn't stay, I would of thought 50 to 60lb and maybe 70lb won section??? My peg was worth that.

Tunnel Barn Farm is a great venue. I feel I do need to start going there more. I've had a tough day and had a few bites so can't complain. Did break my phone though... keys and phones in pockets don't mix!!