The Winter Double Is One Step Closer!

Today saw the second to last winter league match take place at Kings Mill on the River Stour. The river had dropped overnight and had a the perfect colour to it as well as some pace running through and down towards the bridge where pegs 1 and 2 are located. Everything was right for a good days fishing, slight breeze, overcast, and temperature reading 8C, the warmest it's been for a while. 

08:00am and time to draw from the roadside. As nobody wanted to draw first, in fear of getting the scales on Peg 1, I put my hand in the bowl and stirred the cards around and pulled out Peg 4. I was happy with that as it's just off the main flow and right on the edge of the bream bowl where there was Bream caught around 3lb's on Wednesday. It's a peg I know reasonably well as I fished it back on Monday and I knew at 13m there was a snag/weed.

Again, from fishing the peg on the Monday, I knew I was faced with no more the 6' of water so the rig was a Drennan Tipo in 1.5g with an Olivette and 2 droppers, main line of 0.10 Matrix Power Micron (2.16lb) to a Matrix Power Micron 0.09 hook length. Hook choice was a size 20 Matrix Super Match all of which was connected to a Matrix Solid 6 Elastic. I decided to fish as light as I could get away with to try and get more bites. Once I plumbed up I tried the rig and it sat perfectly and the added water from all the rain wasn't pushing it all around the mill pool so I was happy and confident that presentation would be spot on.

Bait on the day, I had a pint of Bronze, half a pint of Mixed and Pinkie in the same tub, worm and some Castor. I also had half a kilo of Sonubaits Supercrumb River to kick it all off with which I would feed with no particles.

With a few minutes left I made up 3 golf ball sized balls of ground bait ready for the all in. My plan was to fish single pinkie to start and if the fish were feeding confidently switch to normal maggot, Castor or worm. The "All In" was called and I cupped in the 3 balls of ground bait and went straight over with Pinkie. Within a few minute's the float was pulled under and a Roach was netted.

I then started being pestered by minnows so I switched to normal maggot. Single white on the hook and the float kept burying. I had noticed by the time I'd had 6 fish in the net none of the others had hooked anything. I also noticed that they all balled in at least 4 big balls of ground bait too. I didn't let that bother me and I kept my head down and focused on getting bites of my own. After an hour I had roughly a dozen fish.

I potted in another 2 balls of ground bait of the same size, golf ball sized, and returned with single white. I had a half hour spell of Roach around 3-4ozs and then 2 Roach around 12oz's+ came to the net to boost the weight.

I was slightly holding back by this point as float was moving a little bit more than I liked. But the bites kept coming and it was one a chuck. By this point I was flying and coming back every time with a fish, OK they were not massive but at the pace they were coming I was bagging up. The rest of the match flew by and I had 3 more nice fish around half a pound go in the keep net before the "All Out" was called.

I could see the league leader the whole match and I only saw him land a few small fish so I knew I had beaten him which I needed to do to pip him to top spot and frame to take 1st place in the league standings. The scales soon reached me and I was told I had 1lb 15oz to beat to take the lead which I did. I came in with 4lb 10oz's of mostly Roach along with 2 Minnows! I packed up the rest of my gear and headed back to the road.

I loaded up the car and poured a cup of Coffee, which was needed as I was very thirsty, and headed to the front car for the results. Again, I knew I had beaten Rich who was leading the league but I really needed to frame. I knew my weight and the 1lb 15oz weight so I was slightly nervous as I really would love to win this Winter League. 3rd was Steve with 2 or 3lb something (sorry I genuinely can't remember his weight), Chris was 2nd with 4lbs 5oz's which meant I had won the match by 5oz's and taken the lead in the league standings.

I couldn't be happier with how I fished today. I fed no loose feed (this shocked everyone when they asked what I fed!), kept everything lite, fed ground bait little but often and made sure I didn't rush things. The result meant a lot to me for 2 reasons, obviously I took the lead in the League and because it's fast approaching the anniversary of my best friends death. I really wanted to win for her and win the league for her so I dedicated the win to her :)

So the final round of the Winter league is a week today and I am so close to winning it. It would be 2 trophies this Winter campaign and my 3rd overall in 2 winter league's. I've loved fishing the rivers be it the Dorset Shield or Stalbridge Angling Winter League as it's nice to get away from the commercials and scale down for some Silvers.

Next up: Stalbridge Angling Association Winter League Final Round at Kings Mill on 22.02.15

My Home For The Day, Peg 4

Not The Biggest Of Catches But A Win And 1 Step Closer To The League Title

Dorset Shield Final Round & Relaxing Day Session

Sunday 08.02.15 was the date of the last round of the North Dorset Shield hosted by Sturminster Newton Angling. Durweston were leading the way before the all in and needed at least 3 points from each section to secure the Shield. No pressure then, or was there? Stalbridge sat bottom of the leader board and needed all 4 section wins and hope that Sturminster and Dorchester could help them out in order to win the Shield.

I drew peg 2 right down the far end with a walk that looked like I would need twice the amount of time to set up as I would spend most of it walking there. It had form the weekend before hand winning the league match with 18lb+ including 2 Bream to 4lb. Upon arriving at my peg, and trying not to fall over, I unloaded and went straight to work on the ground bait. I mixed up 1kg of Sonubait Supercrumb River and left it to rest while I set up my box and rollers.

Knowing I would be faced with some depth I made up plenty of rigs 3g in weight of both Drennan Trio and Tipo. The river wasn't pushing through, in fact there was very little flow at all, so I set up the Trio rigs and plumbed up to 12' of water. I set one rig up Matrix Number 4 solid elastic to start off with so I would know that anything up to 8oz won't be lost. I had the same rigs set up but this time to a Matrix Solid 8 set softly so if any Bream or bigger fish moved in I was prepped.

I had a nice overhanging tree to my left  so I set up an edge line to try catching some Perch late on. Elastic was Matrix Number 8 hollow which is soft which reassured me I won't bump smaller perch. I had that in a power kit with side puller so should anything big come along I knew I was safe.

Bait on the day was Chopped Worm and Castor but I had Pinkie and Maggot as back up hook baits if required. I chopped up a good handful of worm fairly fine along with Castor and made up 4 tennis ball sized ball of ground bait ready for the all in. 

With 10 minutes to go I had a cup of coffee and went through my match in my head. Before I knew it the whistle went and I was soon cupping in the 4 balls of ground bait. I knew I had to beat the Durweston angler on peg 4 so I just made sure I done everything smoothly and carefully. Hook bait was a segment of worm on a size 20 Matrix Super Match Hook. Perfect hook for the bait and conditions, wide gape and a dark colour so it wouldn't shimmer in the clear water. After 5 minutes I had hooked into my first fish, a Roach around 6oz.

I went 15 minutes without a touch and then I had 2 Perch in quick succession around 6oz then it all died. I started to loose feed a few Castor's to try and bring some fish in but still no bites. Changed on to a single maggot and the float slowly pulled under. A Roach around 4oz perfectly hooked in the top lip in the net. Straight back out with the same bait produced a couple more fish around the same size.

It went quiet for 45 minute's so I cupped in 2 more balls of ground bait and fished over the top with single red maggot. 10 minutes later the float went under and I lifted into something and it felt I foul hooked it in the tail as I was going from side to side, that or I hooked into a decent Eel which counted! Then there was movement and elastic poured from the pole and thought to myself Chub or Pike. I stripped away at the side puller and sure enough, it was a darn Pike. I said to myself "Don't you dare tail walk!" and sure enough, famous last words, off it went right across the river. I knew this had killed my swim and someone crept up behind me and asked if I had one the good Bream on. At that moment the Pike was on its way to the net.

I fed the swim and had a coffee as I knew the swim was dead. We had roughly 3 hours left so I chopped up more worms and dumped a pot full by the tree to me left and left it be. Back on the main line and I snuck a few more small Roach in the next hour before I moved down to my left but not a touch for 10 minutes. I stuck on the mainline still feeding Castor over the top but nothing happened. Half an hour to go and a pinched another small Perch and 2 more Roach. After that I had one more bite which I missed. I shipped in to re-bait and as I lowered my rig in and the "all out" was called.

I prayed I had done enough. Very shortly the scales arrived. I weighed in with 2lb 14oz. I followed the scales to peg 5 and not knowing peg 1's weight I was sat 2nd in my section and I beat the Durweston angler which was my main objective. I caught up to peg 1 and he revealed he had 6lb+ and I felt like I let the side down slightly. 

After the hideous walk back I found out that the other 2 out 3 members of my club had framed and the 4th person also finished 3rd. So we hadn't won the shield but we did finish joint 1st on the day with Blandford who overtook Durweston to win the Shield. Congratulations to Blandford!

This trouble maker decided to kill my swim! Though credit where due it was a great scrap!

Not my greatest weight on the River on such a nice day it was nice to have a catch shot.

Today (09.02.15) I went to the Stour again to use up some bait from the shield match. Same ground bait, maggot, pinkie and worms. River was the same as Sunday, clear and not much pace. Exactly the same rigs as my main lines from Sunday only in 1.0g as I was faced with 7' of water. I fed Ground bait with chopped worm and quickly hooked in to some Perch around 6oz. Fishing got harder after a quick run of fish. I went down to single pinkie to a 20 hook to buy bites but nothing. I fished just beyond the feed, before the feed, but not much happening. An hour and a half went by without a touch then elastic poured out from nowhere. Hello Mr Pike! Fortunately my hook length went. Nothing to report after that to be honest. An hour without a touch. I did end up with around 2lb which included 3 3 Perch and a few little Roach. Better than sitting at home doing sod all though.

No one around to take the picture so it was this or nothing

Fin Perfect! Beautiful colours

Great to see such immaculate fish in the rivers

Next up for me is Winter League Round 5. Same Venue as today, Kingsmill (River Stour), and if I frame this one and the last one I take the league title. That is providing I frame against the league leader.

Until next time!