Two Part Report

[Banana Steve]

Part One:

On Friday the 7th of May, I met up with Simon at Crockerton for a spot of night fishing. My reason for going was to try new bait out, in preparation for the 24hr carp match being held on the 22nd of May. Simon was there to give night fishing ago as he had never been before. We both arrived at 6pm, after looking at the lake we choose peg 12 and 13, near the island.

I set myself up with a float rod and a carp rod, and once I set up the carp rod I realised that I didn’t really have the right kit to fish the rod properly, so after a few major adjustments to my tackle I managed to get the carp rod out. The float rod was set up with a simple float rig, with the float set to take a star light. My main line of attack on the float was corn, and on the carp rod I was using my new bait, for which I casted towards the Island.

It wasn’t long before Simon was into his first carp, for which he lost. It must have been no less than 5 minutes later that I also hooked into a Carp and as Simon I to lost the fish, my hooklength snapped I was using a pre tied purchased hooklength, so I re-setup, but this time I tied my own. This has given me doubts about the brand of pre-tied hooks that broke, so they have now gone into the bin.

Simon was catching well on the float and was starting to get a good head of fish feeding. However I was struggling, I couldn’t seem to get the fish going on the float. At around 9pm I had another run, this time I landed the fish, a nice Tench of around 2lb. Then at 9:30ish I had another take, this time I knew that it was no Tench and if it was it was going to be a club record. This was a Carp, and this fish was hard fighting. After swimming into two snags and even getting me caught in an overhanging branch I managed to land the fish. It only went to 9lb but it was 9lb of muscle.



As the evening progressed I continued to struggle on the float. However, Simon was still catching well. By 12:00am I was getting very tired and decided to call it a day and went to bed. At 1:30ish I was rudely awoken with a screaming run, after a mad rush to get to the rod and playing the fish I landed a nice 6lb common. (Sorry no photo) By this point I was so tired that I brought the rod in and called it a night and went to sleep. At 8:45 I woke, I had missed dawn (Bugger) it took about 10 minutes to sort myself out and start fishing again with both rods on the same set-up as the previous night. The float started to produce a few skimmers and I even had another run on the Carp rod which turned out to be around 4lb. I fished on to around 11am when I decided that I would call it a day and both Simon and I were gone by 12:00 midday. I enjoyed the session and I learnt a few things as well, tried the slack line approach of the Carp rod and it worked. Still not 100% convinced, need to try it a few more times.


Part Two:
Saturday 15th, Simon and I, headed to Todber Manor and we opted for Park Lake, I fancied the lake for the Crucians looking for some points and ever hope full for a still water Barbel. Simon was there to try out the pole again and to field test his new box he purchased from Ultimate Tackle. I will let Simon tell you all about that.

After sorting out the tickets we were told that there was to be a match on the lake but they would be on the other side. We headed for the top left hand side of the lake for a little bit of quiet. We choose pegs 6 and 7. My plan was to fish both the centre of the lake (Park lake is a canal style lake and around 15mtrs in width) and the margin.

Simon in Peg 6:


Me Fishing the Margin:


We started to fish around 9:00am ish, Simon started off well with a selection of good quality fish. My first fish came of the long pole in the centre of the lake, a small Rudd.


I was feeding 3 baits, Corn and Pellet in the centre and Meat in the margin. On going into the margin, my first fish was a small Roach, but the second fish was a cracking Perch.


It wasn’t long before I started to get the fish going with small Carp and then the one I was after a good stamp of Crucians.

1.5 points thank you very much:-) Crucian


Simon also was doing very well with some cracking Carp coming out of the margins, even to the point that the guy on the opposite bank seemed to be getting frustrated, he was one of the Anglers who were there for the Match.

This is slightly going of the report, over the years I have been fishing I have tried most styles of Angling including Match Fishing and I know the importance of trying to beat the Anglers around you. And I have done things as a match angler to get an edge over the other Anglers, but what I witnessed yesterday re-affirmed one of the main reasons I gave up match fishing. Apart from every other word being F**K this and F**K that. It was the way he treated the fish. He would hook into a smaller fish, i.e. a Roach of 10+ozs and just drag it through the air from where the fish was hooked and then what looked like to me ripping the hook out and then throwing the fish in the net and whilst doing this cursing that is another sh*ty Roach and where are all the F1’s. And even when he did catch a F1, the fish was just thrown in the net as it was a piece of rubbish, absolutely no care at all. I know things move on, but if that is what match fishing is about now, boy am I glad I have got out of the game. What I saw yesterday was a huge lack of respect for the fish. I think that people like that need to re-evaluate their reasons why they started fishing in the first place.


As the day wore on I caught a few more Fish including some nice Hybrids, and even a nice Tench.

Hybrid:


Tench:


By 3:30 both Simon and I, had over 25lb in weight and recon Simon had closer to 30lb
With 3 good sized carp that were all around 4lb mark, He a lot of F1’s as well and caught a fair few Golden Tench as well.

My last fish of the day was this nice Common caught in the Margin.

5lb+ Carp


We decided to knock it on the head at 3:30 as Simon needed to pop into the Tackle shop to look at an item of Tackle. Simon will explain! And there was no Barbel, ohh well there is always next time

On our way back we popped over to Tisbury to look at Wardour Castle Lake and the stretch of the River Nadder. I must give Wardour a go this year.

[Simon N]

Part One...
My First Night At Crockerton.

I Took The Same Approach As Steve, 1 Sleeper Rod For The Carp But My Main Aim Was Night Fishing The Float.

View From My Peg


The Float Was Much More Productive For Me. Very Regular Bites. I Had Some Nice Bream Over 2lb And A Nice Hybrid, Along With Many Roach.

Some Of My Fish.











Only The One Carp For Me, Weight 6lb



Part Two...
Park Lake Todber Manor...

Ive Never Fished Any Of The Todber Lakes So I Wasnt Sure What To Expect As There Website Doesnt Give Alot Of Info On Park Lake.

I Started Off Fishing About 8m Into The Middle Of The Lake And Straight Away Into A Tench.



The Next Fish Was One Ive Never Had Before Let Alone Seen, A Golden Tench. I Ended Up Catching Alot Of These During The Day, In The Region Of 20ish







The First Carp I Hooked Into Was Ghost Carp, Again One Which Ive Never Seen Or Caught Before.



I Also Had Plenty Of F1's During The Day.





Few Pics Of Steve.




I Also Managed A Fish Which Even Steve Didnt Know Was In Park Lake, A Small Chub.



I Also Manages A Rudd.



As Steve Mentioned I Purchased A New Seat Box From Ultimate Tackle The RS5 Model. All I Can Say Is AVOID AVOID AVOID. When I First Unpacked It, It Looked A Nice Peice Of Kit, Even Steve Agreed When I Took It Round His On Friday. But Once It Was On The Bank And I Sat On It All The Leg Supports Broke, They Had Overtightened It During Manufacturing. I Had The Most Uncomfortable Days Fishing Ive Ever Had, But Still Very Enjoyable At The Same Time. After We Packed Up Steve Suggested Going Into The Todber Shop To See What Boxes They Did. I Ended Up Finding A 5D Waterline Box System With Foot Plate. Todber Were Very Good And Did It For Me For Just £150. So Now Im Kitted With A New Box For Next Week And Now Having To Face Ultimate Angling Monday Over The Phone And Try And Get My Money Back.

On A Diffrent Note, The Way The Match Anglers Were Treating Fish On Saturday Was Absolutly Discusting. Yanking Fish Out The Water. Picking Them Out The Water At 16.5m Out And Pulling Them Though The Air. They Dropping Fish From A Height Tail First Into Keep Nets, Its Not Right. And The Language They Were Using. The F Word Was Used More Times Than They Caught Fish. And There Were Childrens On The Opposite Bank Of Just 10-12 Hearing The Language They Were Using.

Simon N

[pingu]

good couple of sessions there guys

looks like steves in a building site with all that scaffolding arround the seat box



dave

[Fishing Forum Admin]

great read lads

[BaggieRich]

Well done both. Some nice fish there.

[ben lee]

Well done guys nice mix bag of fish.
Wardour lake looks great and cant wait to give it ago.

[Greenheart]

Great read & pics guys. I totally agree with what Steve has to say about the match fishing scene these days. I'll have to have a trip to Todber to try for one of those golden Tench. Never caught one before...

[blackwater]

Well done guys, looks like you took advantage of the good weather! Cracking reports.

BW

[fishypaul]

enjoyable read steve,well done mate

[Ryan messen]

Nice sessions there guys love those golden tench and again what a great perch steve!!!! I would have gone and snapped the matchmens tackle if I saw them treating fish like that!!!!