Another winter storm.

Again this weekend is blighted by a storm, Dennis. I was booked on the Partridge Lakes Sunday Open, but there is no way I going to jeopardise my safety or my fishing tackle. There is always next week!

Partridge Lakes Open. Covey 1 – 4 Sunday 2/2/2020.

What a great day to go fishing, rain forecast for 15:30 ish, calm and fairly warm. Rocked up at Partridge, cup of tea, sausage and egg barm, book in and get some maggot from the on site tackle shop. At the draw; Covey 3 Peg 73, an island peg.

Set up my peg and plumbed 3 lines plus a mud line;
(1) 3 o’clock, 13m, 10 elastic, GORTINI 4×12 red tip margin float, 0.13 main line to 0.11 hook length, 16 banded forged hook. 40cm, BURT BAITS 4mm expander soaked in BURT BAITS F1 sweet Carp additive/maggot.
(2) 9 o’clock, 13m, 8 elastic, GORTINI 4×12 round body yellow tip float, 0.13 main line to 0.11 hook length, 16 forged hook, 35cm, maggot and BURT BAITS 4mm expander soaked in BURT BAITS F1 sweet Carp additive/maggot
(3) 12 o’clock, 8m, 8 elastic, GORTINI 4×12 round body red tip float, 0.13 main line to 0.11 hook length, 16 forged hook, 1.5m, maggot and BURT BAITS 4mm expander soaked in BURT BAITS F1 sweet Carp additive.
Mud Line, 12 o’clock 14m, 10 elastic, GORTINI 4×14 margin float, 0.13 main line to 0.11 hook length, 16 forget hook, 20cm, Warburtons mighty white 8mm disks, soaked in BURT BAITS F1 sweet Carp additive.

I had made up all these rigs from scratch just for this match, I used Guru N gauge for the main line @ 0.13 and Preston Innovations pre tied GPM-B spade end hook to line. This was the first time I had used the PI hook to line and to be honest I am not impressed. I had 3 hook lengths snap at the knot on the shank of the hook when in on some double figure carp, the rigs fully under tension and then having a birds nest on my tip when the knot let go, this cost a lot of time as well as the opportunity of landing some stunning fish. I also had a lot of hook pulls from these hooks and lost a good 8-10 stockies just from hook pulls. I am going to go back to my Guru N gauge hook to line from now on, Guru F1 Pellet, LWGS.

I also had new floats to play with today, a 4×12 and a 4×14 wire stem pellet float. I had asked Bri @ GORTINI to produce some of these for me as his stock is carbon and glass stem floats. These were the prototypes and I had great results from them, especially the 4×12 as I had a brace of Chub off these on my (3) line with BURT BAITS 4mm Winter White on the band with a single big red on the hook.

My (2) line was the most productive during the match and most of my fish came off this line. A good bag of stockie F1’s, small mirror and some nice common, including the one’s with the line snaps.
At the all out I weighed 30lb 7oz so wasn’t too dissapointed. 8th on the lake but 5 of us were all within 3-4 lbs of each other. 61lb 4oz taking the spoils.
The only real disappointment today was shipping back 13m of pole, the butt end caught the roller and stopped suddenly, I was holding No4 section and this snapped! I will repair this in the week with a wrap of carbon. I have 3 spares though.
Next weekend is a club match on Havannah Flash.

Partridge Lakes Open 26/1/2020

What a horrible day with the weather. Calm and dry when I set off from home, but once at Partridge the wind had got up and was blowing good and proper, traces of rain in the air and ominous dark clouds blowing our way. Cup of tea, bacon and egg barm for starters ☕🍔. At the draw, Peg 1. Fished Covey 1 Peg 6 last outing and Peg 1 took the lake, so not dissapointed, that day it was dead calm. Got to my Peg, started to set up and the heavens opened that with the wind blowing directly in my face just wasn’t pleasant. No way I could put my brolly up or I would have broke it or ended up arse over tit on the platform. Plumbed at 14.5 meters to the bank on my right front, just could not hold the pole still against the wind, so it was going to be close in. Plumbed 3 lines along the bridge to my right:

(1) 1 o’clock, 10m, 10 elastic, GORTINI 4×14 red tip margin float, 0.13 main line to 0.11 hook length, 16 banded forged hook. 40cm, BURT BAITS Winter White 6mm pellet and bread disks.
(2) 3 o’clock, 8m, 8 elastic, GORTINI 4×12 round body orange tip float, 0.13 main line to 0.11 hook length, 16 forged hook, 1.2m, maggot and BURT BAITS 4mm expander soaked in BURT BAITS F1 sweet Carp additive.
(3) 5 o’clock, 8m, 8 elastic, GORTINI 4×12 round body red tip float, 0.13 main line to 0.11 hook length, 16 forged hook, 35cm, maggot and BURT BAITS 4mm expander soaked in BURT BAITS F1 sweet Carp additive.

At the all in I started dobbing bread disks on my 10m mud line without success. Fed my (3) line with BURT BAITS Xpander/black betain 80/20 ground bait as well as my (2) line.
Got my first fish, a little ~7oz stockie F1 in about 20 mins, was hopeful there were loads of his mates in the same place, but no. Switching around my lines and within 2 hours I had a half dozen small stockie F1’s, wasn’t too bothered as it looked like no one else around me was pulling any lumps out.
The wind and rain in my face was relentless and I was dripping wet and of the realisation that my salopettes are not 100% water proof, my jacket is and the water was just running off this onto my legs 🤿. Stopped and poured a cup of coffee. Switched to my (1) line with a BURT BAITS winter white and my float buried, the fish tried to get under the bridge but with the 10 elastic I managed to bully it out into open water, took my time playing it, 10 mins later I was netting a nice ~7lb common 😊. Again my thoughts of him having mates about was unfounded. Spent the rest of the match switching lines, depths and bait choice for a dozen F1 stockies, the common and a single gudgeon.
At the weigh in, 16lb dead. Not good but not last, I think I was 5th on my lake.

Cheshire Oaks Fishery, Sunday 19/1/2020

I was again invited to fish this open by Ian Hayes (BURT BAITS) and I was again looking forward to fishing this new build venue. Woke up to -3C and heavy fog, I could just about see the houses opposite! Got to the Fishery and the temp had risen to -1C and the fog was still lingering. There was cat ice up the top end of the lake so it was decided to fish 4 and 4 on both sides of the horseshoe. I drew Peg 5, which was permanent Peg 27 on this elongated horseshoe lake. An end peg so was really happy. Set up my station and plumbed 3 lines:
(1) Mud line,#10 solid elastic, GORTINI mini margin, 0.13 main line to 0.11 hook length 16 forged hook, 18cm, bread line.
(2) 15m, #8 solid elastic, GORTINI 4×12 round body orange tip, 0.13 main line to 0.11 hook length 16 forged hook, 1.6m, hook bait maggot.
(3) 9m, #8 solid elastic, GORTINI 4×12 round body orange tip, 0.13 main line to 0.11 hook length 18 forged hook, 1.2m, hook bait maggot.
These lines were getting chopped and changed throughout the day as I had a miserable 5 hours without a bite, absolutely nothing, I had to keep checking to see if I still had bait on my hook!!
I tried every combination of hook bait, moving up in the water, fishing over depth, at my feet and every meter out to the mud line but there were just no bites. That was it for 5 hours, keeping busy every 10 mins or so trying something new without success.
It was even more disheartening seeing peg 8 (24) putting in a second net at 3 1/2 hour mark, he had been pulling out stockies almost one a chuck all day, he ended up with the win with 54lb 5oz, well done Simon.

Havannah Flash, Club Sweepstake 12/1/2020

erm! After the torrential rain overnight I wasn’t expecting much and I wasn’t dissapointed with that thought. 11 brave men turned out in the rain to see the Flash was well up and it was a dark chocolate colour with visibility less than a foot. Plan was to keep it dead simple, so plumbed 2 lines;
( 1) 13.5m, 12 O’clock . No 3 solid elastic, GORTINI 4X12 yellow tip round body float, 0.13 mainline to 0.08 hook length 20 wire hook. Flouro pinky line, 1.9m dead bottom.
(2) 9m, 12 O’clock to 2 O’clock. No 3 solid elastic, GORTINI 4X12 black tip round body float, 0.13 mainline to 0.06 hook length 22 wire hook. Flouro pinky line, 2m dead bottom.
I also chucked out and clipped up a bomb line to the stickups @ 20m, 20mm teabags with BURT BAITS 2mm F1 Sweet Carp, 4mm Winter White and 4mm Polony Pellet mix, hook bait was bread/maggot/worm/4mm hard pellet.
That in a nutshell was the most action I seen all day. Non of my lines produced so much as a liner. It was cold, wet, windy and I was consoled in that no one else was having much luck either. Ian Alexander (Burt Baits) to my right had 5-6 macro roach in the first hour and then just the odd roach over the next 3 hours. It really was a dismal days fishing.
1lb 14oz took the spoils, 1lb 0oz took second and 10oz took the final coin. 5 of the 11 attending, including me, didn’t weigh.
In celebration of a lousy day my wife washed my salopettes for the first time in 4 years!

Partridge Lakes Open, Sunday 5/1/2020

Full English washed down with a nice cup of tea, booked on and sat around for the draw. The team of 4 winter league also started today and Partridge was rammed. Covey 1 through 4 for the Open, plucked out Peg 6, Covey 1. Never fished Covey 1 but was told that 6 was a so-so type of peg. My Peg was pretty sheltered and it was mirror smooth with a few ripples caused by the duck. Set up and plumbed 3 lines:

(1) 6m, 10 O’clock to 2 O’clock. No 8 solid elastic, GORTINI 4X12 yellow tip round body float, 0.13 mainline to 0.11 hook length 20 wire hook. Maggot line, 1.9m dead bottom.

(2) 9m to 11m, straight out. No 8 solid elastic, GORTINI 4×14 red tip round body float, 0.13 mainline to 0.11 hook length 16 forged hook. 4mm BURT BAITS expander soaked in BURT BAITS F1 sweet Carp additive. Feed; BURT BAITS 2mm F1 sweet Carp soaked pellet. 1.5m dead bottom.

(3) 13.5m, mud line. N0 10 solid elastic, GORTINI Mini Margin float, 0.13 mainline to 0.11 hook length 16 forged hook. 6mm BURT BAITS expander soaked in BURT BAITS F1 sweet Carp additive. Feed; BURT BAITS 2mm F1 sweet Carp. 50cm

At the all in I started dobbing warBURTons mighty white bread disks on my 13.5m line all along the mud line. Kept seeing my float go under but didn’t strike into anything so I think the Gudgeon were just being a pest and ruining my presentation. Switched to my 9/11m line and again just flashes of my float going under but nothing getting hooked. Fed my 6m line constantly with 5-6 maggots every few minutes and fed the 9/11m line with 2mm BURT BAITS 2mm F1 sweet Carp pellet. Took an hour but I finally had a fish, pesky gudgeon! The wind started to get round my side of the lake and put some ripples across the surface. First decent fish was a nice little stocky F1 at 11m on expander, had 3 more then it went dead again. Re-plumbed my mini margin for the near bank @12m, fed some 2mm pellet and within a few minutes hit into a 3-4lb common, then a few stockies. Switched to my 6m line and fed a few maggots, dropped my rig in and it took off as soon as the float had settled, played it for a good few minutes and when I got it’s head up I could see it was a good 8-9lb common, got it to the keep net safely. Had a mirror and a few more stockies and at the all out weighed in 22lb 1oz and 3rd on the lake, well chuffed with that result.