27/06/13 - Leechpool

Weight - 57lb
Catch - 43 Carp, 6 Skimmers
Weather - Rain, rain, rain
Match - Wiltshire Angling Evening Float Only - 4th out of 5

After not being able to fish for nearly 2 weeks I was looking forward to this evenings sprint match at Leechpool. However the weather had other ideas, following a week or so of settled dry weather, it rained. In fact the rain front couldn’t have timed it better, starting an hour before the 5pm draw and finishing around the time the match finished at 9.15pm.

 

For various reasons there was only 5 of us tonight so plenty of room. I drew the cattle drink which is a peg I have never drawn and with the wind blowing into the bank I was hopefully of a few fish, although the rain didn’t make for a comfortable nights fishing. To my right was Tony Gilbert in his new Thatcher’s branded kit, but he was left regretting selling his Diawa Gore-Tex by the end of the night.

 

A text from Mark who was looking after the kids since his missus was enjoying herself at Glastonbury, confirmed what I needed to do. The peg itself is very shallow close in so the margins were out and I ended up setting up my box 3m out in the water. Even then you are set back, with the left bank running about 11m before the corner where there is a large tree. Under the tree the water depth is only 6-8in, but plumbing around I found where the bottom started to slope up at 11m and fished here – as instructed.

 

Initially I started on the paste, but it didn’t seem right, plus my paste was just getting wetter and wetter. So a quick change to 6mm expander (HB Chump > .14 > 16 B911) and I was soon catching, finding it best to catapult a pouch of 6s before shipping out. In the first 60mnins I had 18 carp and doing well, however Tony after a slow start was catching well short on small pieces of paste, a trick he picked up from fishing at White Acres.

 

The 2^nd hour slowed down and I was falling behind Tony. The issue I had was wasting time having to ship out to 11m, because the peg was so shallow close in. I had decided against setting up a back up swim, since  the intention was to stay focused on the 11m line and continue feed pellet, hoping for a good last hour or so when the bigger fish would turn up. Well that was the plan.

 

Half way though the match the skimmers started to show which is never a good thing, but I kept firing in the pellet and the carp did return.

 

Come the end of the match, it became obvious I was off the pace of those who fish here regularly. I think I did the right thing sticking to the one swim, however hindsight is a wonderful thing and I should have moved up the slope, because I was getting quite a few liners, so fishing in shallower water may have been a good idea. I did try to catch proper shallow, however without success.

 

Although I was off the pace, it was interesting watching those who do well here and the key seems to be fishing short to get the bait in the water as quickly as possible.

 

1^st 87lb – Tony Gilbert – p4

2^nd 82lb – Ian Willetts – p3

3^rd 75lb – Pete Neate – p2

4^th 57lb – Ken Rayner – p5

5^th 53lb – Darren – p1

30/05/13 - Leechpool

Weight - 31lb 8oz
Catch - 21 Carp, 6 Bream
Weather - Bright start, Northerly breeze, showers later
Match - Wiltshire Angling Evening Float Only - 6th out of 9

Back at Leech Pool for the next Thursday evening sprint and reports were the lake had been fishing hard with only 60lb winning at the weekend. The continually changing weather has got to be having a negative effect and tonight there was a northerly wind blowing into the house bank. Mark Poppleton was complaining about the lack of pick ups he hasn’t had recently, following another blow out at Viaduct. He didn’t get much sympathy!

At the draw I didn’t need to drive to my peg, because I was already there. A popular pleasure anglers peg, because its next to the car pack, but not the best match peg, usually because the prevailing westerlies blow into the opposite bank. Having said that, today with the northerly wind there was a nice ripple on the water and a few fish were showing themselves, so fingers crossed for a decent match.

I set up 3 rigs:-

- HB billybob 0.2g > .14 > 16 B911 – soft pellet on the deck

- HB redneck 0.2g > .17 > 12 carp feeder – paste

- HB ratcatcher 2 > .14 > 16 B911 – hair rigged pellet shallow

 

We should have started at 5.45, but Gary Etheridge took so long setting up on the peg next to the house, we were a few minutes late, although it was fun watching him set up his platform as it wobbled on the slippery stones.

 

Half a cup of 4s & 6s was deposited into each margin, with the intention of keeping them topped up ready for the last hour. I started at 11m on paste, catching 2 small carp and then a third on soft pellet. However it didn’t seem right, because there seemed to fish in the swim, but they were just messing about with the bait. Also Tony Gilbert was already 3 or 4 fish ahead fishing shallow. So after 15mins I was on the shallow rig and for the next 1hr was I catching consistently on 6mm pellet and probably had 20lb already, including some better carp up to 3lb.

 

Unfortunately this is where the catching stopped. The fish just disappeared. I added another section and caught a few more, but it had definitely slowed down. Tony was in the same boat, so at least I knew it wasn’t me. The carp had moved into the middle of the lake.

 

My margins produced a few small fish, but it was hard going and the skimmers also started to show themselves, which is always a worry. I persevered with the shallow rig, mainly because I couldnt catch anywhere else. A new swim lightly feed with 4s 11m to my left only produced skimmers and a single carp on expander, so a puzzling end to the day.

 

I also thought it was good to have a heavy rain shower 15mins before the end and the persistent rain whilst packing up. My kit needed a clean!

 

I don’t have the full results this time, 60lb won from the cattle drink swim and Mark in the next peg had 26lb – so another match and no pick up ;¬)

 

16/05/13 - Leechpool

Weight - 38lb 6oz
Catch - 35 Carp, 18 Skimmers
Weather - Bright & sunny, cold later
Match - Evening Float Only rd2 - 7th out of 9

At least we managed to avoid the showers, although we could see 1 or 2 coming quite close. On arrival the sun was out, which felt quite warm and there seemed to be plenty of fish moving around, so a good evening fishing was expected.

The lake was pegged with peg 1 in the cattle drink on the far bank, working anti clock wise round to peg 9 next to the farmhouse. There was a gentle breeze blowing into pegs 1 & 2, which I quite fancy, but ended up on the first peg on the long bank. Mark suggested that fishing down the right hand margin would be good, because last year he had a big weight doing that, but plumbing up revealed it was very shallow.

Since everyone arrived early we managed to get going at 5.45 instead of 6.00. My main rig was HB billybob 0.2g > .16 > 16 B911, which I would fish at 8m. After cupping in some 4s, I tried fishing paste next to the tree on my left where I had seen a few fish topping, but after 1 bumped fish in 3 put ins, I didn't waste too much time.

Back out to 8m and I was catching small carp, with 6mm expander, being better than 4mm. After an hour I was up to 22 fish, including 2 skimmers. Unfortunately the fishing just got slower as the evening went on and more skimmers started showing, which is always an indication there isn't many carp around.

I ended up having to chase the fish out to 11m and dropping down to a .14 hooklength to keep the fish coming. As for the margins I only had 1 carp. I think the problem was the evening turned quite chilly and my margin was shaded from the sun by a big tree.

I'm not sure what went wrong, but I think as it got cooler the fish simply moved out into a deeper/warmer area.

1st 104- 6 - Tony Gilbert - p1
2nd 80- 8 - Pete Neate - p2
3rd 67- 0 - Ian Willitts - p5
4th 62-14 - Mark Poppleton - p9

03/02/13 - Leech Pool

Weight - 17lb 2oz
Catch - 11 Carp, 10 Skimmers, 1 Tench
Weather - Cold start, increasingly strong westerly
Match - West Tackle Open - 7th out of 11

I was looking forward to visiting Leech Pool, because it normally produces plenty of bites, however with 11 booked in (it should of been a max of 10, but Mark forgot to include himself when taking names!) there was a couple of really poor draws, particularly in the winter.

As we were waiting for the draw it was noticeable the water was quite clear and you could see the bottom of the lake in the margins! The fancied draw was peg 1 by the farmhouse, which has won the last 2 matches. I drew 10 which is 1 away from cattle drink and normally a good draw. The westerly breeze was blowing into that bank and I was concerned that following 2 cold nights, the wind would be blowing the cold water into this end. Also the match 2 weeks ago Mark drew here and tipped back only 3 carp in similar weather conditions.

Today was a pole only match, mainly because during the last match some anglers were casting across others - sounds familiar! The lake is only about 3ft  deep so 1 rig (HB Chump 0.3g) will do, although I set up a 2nd (HB chump 0.4g) in case the wind increased in strength. Plumbing around revealed the depth gradually sloped away and I ended up fishing at 13m, toss potting micros. I also fed groundbait to my right, but never had a bite over it.

I eventually caught my first fish, a skimmer after 40mins, however it had already obvious where the money was going, because Steve Ince on p1 was already catching well, as was Tom on p2.

As for my end of the lake it was all a little desperate. After nearly 2hrs I only had 6 skimmers and seriously considering packing up. Andy Fox on p9 who had come 3rd in the last 2 matches was also struggling, whilst Nick Ince to  my left had 2 carp. I couldn't have drawn further away from the fish!

By continually toss potting a pinch of pellet I started to catch a few carp on maggot and when I had 4 on the bounce I thought they had turned up, but the wind dropped completely and my fish disappeared. When the wind reappeared it just got stronger & stronger making presentation very difficult (as you see from the photo). I'm convinced there were fish in my swim and had the wind been sensible I would have caught well.

In the end the better weights came from the other end of the lake.

1st 65- 0 - Steve Ince - p1
2nd 35- 0 - Tom Ince - p2
3rd 32- 4 - Mark Poppleton - p5
4th 21- 4 - Ryan - p7
5th 20- 0 - Steve M - p6
6th 17- 7 - Kev Abilgail - p3

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.