Sunday 11^th August, The Clamp, Near Westerleigh – Another P*ss Poor, Pea Souper Performance!

It’s another double-whammy match report this week. I fished the Costcutter at Windmill Fisheries on Thursday 8^th and I’m finally beginning to understand how the carp are reacting to my paste presentation. All will be revealed right here and right now…

But first! I don’t know why some people think that I will only have something to write about if I win something. That’s not what a blog is about. According to the Oxford Dictionary a blog is “a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group that is written in an informal or conversational style”. Regular readers of my blog know that I write an account of my fishing experiences every week regardless of whether I win anything or come last in a match.

Everyone has good days and bad days in this business no matter who they are. It’s the nature of the beast. So come on you glory boys, there’s no need to be ashamed to write about the bad times, the unlucky times and dead boring times… as long as it’s all about fishing, most anglers can relate to it one way or another.    

Right, so where was I?… Oh yes, Windmill…

There were 18 anglers on this one and I fancied any peg from 12 to 25. I’ve been on the left-hand bank for an age so a change of scenery would be very welcome. So, in goes the sticky fingers and out comes peg… 9. Well, I didn’t know what to think about that except I drew peg 10 on the previous match and I struggled a bit apart from the last hour. However, the angler on peg 9 last time, did okay fishing hard pellet at 11 metres… and there is a tree opposite so I had a few options I guess. The last time I drew this peg was back in April or May and I had quite a few early carp on the maggle feeder right under the tree. So, that would be my first sortie.

My regular readers will know that I have been working on perfecting my paste fishing here at Windmill and I’ve tried all kinds of pastes and all kinds of consistencies. I’ve discovered that the feeding pattern is just as important in drawing fish in and keeping them there. Okay, I’ll get down and dirty with the facts in just a minute. So, I set up my paste rig, which consisted of a 4×14 (0.4-gram) slimline pencil float. I don’t use a paste float as I don’t see the need with the way I present my bait. At 6 metres, it was 7 feet deep. I set the rig to around 3 inches over depth with a no.8 lying on the deck. The remainder of shot was placed directly below the float. My rig mainline was 0.22 (9lb BS) Guru N-Guage and the hook was a size 14 Guru Kaizan to 0.19 (7lb BS) Guru N-Guage hooklength. This is what you need to get these carp out!

I also set up a rig for fishing hard 6mm and 8mm pellets at 11 metres, just as the guy who was on this peg did last time. My only other rig was for fishing down my left-hand margin, although I didn’t expect it to come into play as I haven’t had much luck in the margins just lately. So, on the all-in shout, I lobbed out the maggle feeder towards the tree opposite. After 40 minutes I only had 2 small skimmers, a small roach and 2 small perch. There were no liners and no other signs of carp from here. I didn’t try this line again throughout the rest of the match. I began loose feeding some 6mm pellets at 11 metres and I cupped out a large ball of Scopex groundbait laced with 2mm Swim Stim F1 micros over my 6-metre line. I also put some corn down on my left-hand edge.

This lake is notorious for a slow start but I’m working on that one. It’s the same for everyone… 3-4 hours with nothing and then 2 hours of absolute mayhem. If you could catch 50lb of fish in the first 2 hours then you’re halfway to a lake win I reckon. So, I’m now feeding 3-4 pellets every couple of minutes to my 11-metre line and a small portion of groundbait at every put-in on my 6-metre line, where I’m presenting my paste on the hook. So, it’s now a case of which swim switches on first. As it happened it was the pellet line but the first fish was a foul hooker and soon lost. The next fish also came from this line and was also lost… FFS! I’m thinking it’s going to be another one of those days!

Well, after losing those 2 in quick succession I decided to focus entirely on my short paste line. The wind had picked up anyway making presentation difficult at 11 metres. A quick look down the edge produced nothing as expected. I noticed Ray Bazeley on peg 12 catch a couple of carp and then Paul Haines on peg 11 had a couple. Next to me on peg 10 was Liam Reynolds who had a couple of carp out in front. I could hear John Smith on peg 7 catching too… so everyone around me was catching, which was beginning to give me a bit of an inferiority complex. Then finally, I had my first carp on paste at 6 metres and it was a good 10-pounder! I was off the mark!

So, as I mentioned earlier, I have tried all types of pastes and consistencies but this is what began working for me. I make my paste from Dynamite Swim Stim F1 Sweet. I make it so that it’s quite stiff and it stays on the hook, even if I swing out the rig. I just roll it into a small ball about 10mm in diameter and push the hook into it. It’s quite heavy too so it will stay put on the bottom. I prefer to use a cadpot for delivering the bait but before I do, I roll the paste in the Scopex groundbait, which has been laced with 2mm micros.

The reason I do this is because I have noticed many times when I drop in some Scopex groundbait, the swim begins fizzing like crazy but I’m not getting any bites on whatever bait I’m using. That’s because the fish have become completely preoccupied with feeding on the groundbait and micros. So, if I roll my paste-baited hook in it, they just suck it in as if it was a lump of groundbait.

Well, it worked for me. Once the carp began arriving I fed small amounts of groundbait at every put-in and I was rewarded with a bite every time. I didn’t land every carp I hooked, which is to be expected but I did manage to net 78lb of them and finish up in second place. All I need to do now is come up with a plan to snare a few carp early or even build a silvers weight early using a similar method. Stay tuned on that one…

Sunday 11^th – The Clamp

I like the Clamp, even if it does look like pea soup at this time of year. (I didn’t like the photo I took so here’s an older one without the green scum on the surface). This is a great little venue and I was looking forward to this match. Only, I forgot that it doesn’t produce anywhere near as well as it does when pleasure fishing. I’ve had a couple of 25lb nets of silvers in the past but then there were only 2 or 3 others on the lake at the time. Well, there were 10 anglers here today, 5 on either side of the lake. My favourite peg is peg 12, where I’ve had some amazing weights just fishing down the left-hand edge by some reeds. I drew Peg 5 today, which is in a good area on the other side of the lake, so I was happy with that. On this peg, you can reach the island at 14 metres and fish down the left-hand edge under a big old ash tree.

The better skimbos can be caught anywhere from 5-11 metres and so I set up 2 lines, one at 6 metres and one at 10 metres. Some detective work revealed that the better quality fish were being caught on corn over casters and so I had these baits in my armoury today. I also had maggles, worms and expander pellets. On the all-in, I cupped out a small ball of Sonubaits Pro Thatchers Dark with a few dead reds to both lines. While I waited for this to settle I had a look around the island at 13 and 14 metres with a single maggle on the hook.

Jason on peg 6 was catching close to the island and had a few skimbos and tench but I couldn’t get a sniff. So, after 20 minutes I dropped my single maggle baited rig onto the 6-metre line and I had a skimbo of around 8 ounces. I had a long wait for the next bite, which produced a smaller skimbo of around 6 ounces. I tried using an expander pellet but got no interest in that. Then I tried corn and then caster but nothing on those baits either. A look on the longer line was completely fruitless. The writing was on the wall and a struggle was definitely on the cards.

I decided to focus entirely on my short line, feeding little and often. This brought a string of small roach but I was still going nowhere fast. Jason had a few more net fish and Julie on peg 7 had quite a few F1s by this time. Then with about an hour to go, Tony on peg 10 landed a small carp. It was all over for me at that point as it didn’t look like anything spectacular was about to happen for me anytime soon. In the dying embers of the last hour, I did manage to find 2 more skimbos but it was all too little too late. I finished up with just 2-11-0 for nowhere (I think that’s what I had as the weigh sheet is not available). Well done to Tony for winning with 9-13-0 and well done to all the other framers.

Well, I’m booked in on the Thursday Costcutter again for Thursday and it looks like there will be 22 fishing. That’s about 6 too many in my book so it’s going to be tougher than usual I would say. Then on Sunday 28^th, I’ll be on West Sedgemoor Drain (Stathe Drain), near Bridgwater, with the Kingswood RBL club. I love this place… Keep you posted!

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