15/05/11-Leech Pool

Weight – 80lb 6oz
Catch – 67 Carp, 10 Bream
Weather – Strong westerly wind. Cloudy & cool
Match – Open – 3rd (out of 8)

Today was originally scheduled to be a regional knock out round for the MFS site. The southern semi-final would be at venue near London and the final at Tunnel Barn Farm. However since its inception it’s been dogged by problems. The problem being that for many anglers the cost involved in getting to the final would require several hundred miles travelling. As such the proposed regional semi’s has been cancelled with the qualifiers now going straight to the final.

Mark had organised this areas knock out round, but had dropped out himself, which left only 3 people to fish, so it was decided to cancel and since the venue was already booked arranged a knock up with the locals.

Before today I had never seen the venue, let alone fished it. According to Mark it would be a fish race of mainly small carp at 5m on pellet. The pool is situated in the back garden of the farmhouse, just outside Melksham and at a squeeze could fit 14 anglers, so the 8 of us had plenty of space. The best pegs are down the right hand bank behind the barn and the top bank.

Again the wind was going to be an issue and it was blowing straight into the top bank and seemed like the favourite place to be so I was hardly surprised when Mark drew here. I found myself on the left hand bank with the wind cutting across right to left. Fortunately I was largely sheltered from the wind by a big tree, but felt I was at the wrong end of the lake, particularly the way the wind was blowing. Hippy who has fished the venue on and off for 25 years, drew peg 1 behind the barn and next to the farmhouse garden so he had plenty of space to his right and Mark had him as favourite to win.

Today was an opportunity to try some new Scone Zone floats. Most shop brought commercial floats aren’t that well made and there is a trend towards handmade floats, because the build quality tends to be better. I set up a 0.2g and 0.4g Ninjaz in the 3ft swim, with a .14 hooklength and 18 B911 with a hair rig for either 4 & 6mm pellet.

I settled on a swim at 9m at the bottom of the shelf, where I fed 4mm and by the tree to my right with 6mm. I did bring a waggler rod, but was told it won’t be needed, beside the wind was likely to be too strong.

Since this was going to be a fish race, 100-120 fish would be needed. I was also told soft pellet was the bait, but I forgot to bring any and although Mark did offer me some I decided to stick with hard pellet.

30 minutes into the match I only had 2 fish and was considering a change to soft pellet, but by the end of the hour I was up to 17. The following 2 hours however proved extremely frustrating, because I couldn’t get a run of fish. I was feeding a pouch of 4mms, I tried feeding a big toss pot of pellet, every put in, but that didn’t work and I went back to feeding by catapult. A switch from the 0.2g rig to the heavier 0.4g didn’t work. I tried coming up in the water and I even tried corn, but I couldn’t get a decent run of fish together and the wind was getting stronger.

Hippy opposite who was nicely sheltered from the wind was flying catching mostly to his right, he even had time to give me a wave – cheeky bugger. I could see Bryan Jackson on the top bank catching some above average stamp fish and I guessed Mark would also be catching, although I couldn’t see him, I could certainly hear him! I was ahead of the lads to my left and the 2 other anglers opposite, but now I was unsure what to do next.

3hrs and half way I was up 36 fish, so a long way behind my target. I was still picking up the odd fish, with most fish coming at 9m, plus a few fish by the tree.

Time to try something different. I had set a paste rig to fish by the tree and I had some paste from yesterday’s match. I hadn’t considered paste, because I thought the fish would be too small to make it viable, however looking more closely with how Hippy was catching it looked like he was using paste.

With just over 2hrs to go, I now had my best period of the match and the average stamp of fish was better than on pellet. The fish had really moved in and I had to stop feeding pellet, because there was too many fish in the swim, taking paste on the drop. Firming up the paste helped produce better bites, but towards the end I had to switch to the pellet rig, which produced, but it was noticeable the average stamp wasn’t as big as the paste fish.

Those last couple of hours I reckon I put 40-50lb in the net.

Hippy did indeed win with 141lb, which included a 12lber and according to Mark was the best weight he had seen from the venue and he had caught mostly on the paste.

Mark swore his way to 2nd with 114lb on soft pellet and Bryan next to him tied for 3rd again on paste.

A lovely little venue, with plenty of bites. Having never fished the pool before counted against me today, because I had put off switching to paste because I thought the fish would be too small, but I was wrong. At least I know for next time.

As for the floats, I was really impressed, even in the gale force winds the floats where very stable. I’ll be buying a few more.