David's end peg

After a good nights sleep, myself and James were up early in the morning for a big fry up and then it was a short drive into Coachford for the draw. The same sections as yesterday were used again today and I found myself drawing nearly last again today with only a couple of pegs left. I had favoured pegs 14-16 on the Graveyard Section but these 3 pegs were already gone and I ended up on Rooves Bay peg 23. I immediately knew I was at the wrong end of this section after Nick Howell caught 17 Kilo off peg 19 yesterday and Tommy Dowd had 11 Kilo for 2nd off peg 18. The weights got worse the further up the section but I was optimistic as usual.

In my section today I had:

18.  James O’Dogherty

19.  Tommy Lawton

20.  Francis McGoldrick

21.  Mark Theedom

22.  Tadas

23.  David Herron

24.  Brian Bohan

I set up 2 feeder rods today, a Drennan Medium combo at 11’6” with a 0.75oz Fast Taper tip. The 2nd was a Drennan Super Feeder Combo set at 11’6” with a 1oz Slow Taper tip. Both rods coupled with Daiwa TDR 3012D with 0.06mm PowerPro Moss Green Braid to a 15ft 0.20mm 7.2lb Berkley XL shock leader. Hooklengths were 60cm 0.10mm Diamond with Size 18 Tubertini Series 26.

I started to plumb about with a 1oz Bomb and depths ranged from 11 seconds at 55 turns back to 6 seconds around 25 turns. I found a ledge around 28 turns that dropped quickly from 6 seconds to 8 seconds and at 34-35 turns it was still between 8 - 8.5 seconds before it gradually sloped off to 10 seconds past 40 turns. I opted to clip up the Medium Feeder at 30 turns and the Super feeder at 33 turns.

Groundbait: (CIPs 17ltr allowance)

1Kg of VDE Gold Pro Bream

1Kg of VDE Kasstar

1pint of Black Crumb

Bait: (CIPs 4 Pint limit)

3 Pints of Caster

0.5 Pint of Red maggot

0.5 Pint of Worm

2 pints of Hemp (included in groundbait allowance)

I knew from last September that the Skimmers down here need the Caster piled in so I allowed for as much Caster as my limit would allow.

All in:

I started off on a 28g Fox Free Flow Large feeder and put 3 feeder fulls of chop worm in before I filled it with caster and started off on triple red maggot. I had indications straight away and it wasn’t long before I hooked my first fish which was a 6oz hybrid. Shortly after that the Skimmers arrived and my first one was around 10-12oz. Bites were by no means positive but the tip was constantly moveing and I was just waiting for an more positive indication before I hit bites. After 1 hour I had 13 Skimmers in the net averaging around 1lb each. At this point I was still on my Large Fox feeder and had fed 1 pint of Caster, so it was time to scale down to make my remaining 2 pints of caster last the next 4 hours.

I changed to a 30g Tony Burke Feeder and after 3-4 chucks and 2-3 more skimmers it was noticeable that the activity was becoming less active in my swim. I was still catching but I knew the Skimmers wanter the Caster coming thick and fast. I started to put in a feeder full of chop worm every 4-5 chucks to keep the skimmers interested and this seemed to work.

During the 2nd hour I started to snag up on a Rock very close to my swim, which was probably around the ledge at 28 turns. Every 3-4 fish would just go solid after 1 turn and i’d either loose the fish or have to try and dislodge my feeder from whatever rock it was jammed between. Going into the 3rd hour I scaled down to a 20g Tony Burke feeder in an attempt to make my feeder lift off the bottom quicker on the strike. It worked to an extent but I was still getting stuck on something solid after every 3-4 fish and I lost several hooklengths in the process. I overcome the problem in the later stages of the match striking into the skimmers and lifting the rod high and reeling the fish in for the first 5-7 turns before lowering the rod.

Brian beside me started to net a run of bigger skimmers around 2lb caught on redworm and putting chop worm in every chuck. I put on half a dendrobena to tempt a bigger stamp of skimmer but I found myself waiting longer for bites and the Skimmers were no bigger. Back to tripple red maggot and I was catching 1lb Skimmers again. The middle stint of the match was probably my slowest but I was still catching but watching Brian net 2lb Skimmers inbetween my fish made me feel like I was slipping behind.

I started to put the odd feeder full of hemp in to save on caster and to see what response I would get. I caught introducing hemp but I was straight back to fulling the feeder with caster the next chuck to keep the skimmers in my swim. I still wasn’t getting positive bites but the bites I was hitting was when the tip just started to go round slowly. If I didn’t hit these on time the tip would just drop back into it’s normal position.

Brian bumped a Bream in his swim and it went quiet for him for a while which was a relief for me as i’d went 10-15 minutes without a skimmer but with 1.5 hours to go I was catching again with Skimmers coming regularly to the net still introducing chop worm every 5-6 chucks. During the later stages of the match I netted a 2lb Skimmer which was my biggest fish of the day.

With 15 minutes to go I ran out of caster so made do with a little chop worm and mixed the few remaining caster into my feeder bowl. I put another 2 Skimmers in the net and hooked another skimmer with 4 minutes to go. I got back out again but with 25-30 seconds to go I had to strike at an early indication if I wanted to net another fish before the all out but I never connected with the fish. 

I ended the match on 60+ Skimmers, 4 smaller Hybrids and a Roach around 4oz.

I never even lifted my 2nd feeder rod, I had all my fish at 30 turns and never felt like the fish backed off to my further line.

Brian and myself were fish for fish for the last 4 hours of the match but I think I had put 5Kilo in the net during the first hour while Brian was only catching the odd smaller Hybrid and skimmers. Brian thought it was going to be very close between myself and him but it was his bigger stamp of Skimmers during the middle stint of the match that was throwing me off. Word came up that Tommy Lawton had caught well and his last fish was a 4lb bream and he also had one close on 6lb.

Brian was first to weigh in and he put a mid 19 Kilo on the scales. I thought I should have over 20 Kilo so I felt safe enough. My turn and the scales went round to 22 Kilo 700g which was enough to beat Brian. Tadas was next up and put 7 odd Kilo on the scales. Mark Theedom was next up with 12 Kilo odd I think and then Francis lifted his net out to reveal another big weight that he’d kept quiet. It was going to be close again, and the scales went round to 21 Kilo to take 2nd so far in the section. It was Tommy’s turn next and he was on Nicks peg from yesterday and Francis suggested Tommy might have 30 kilo which started to worry me. Tommy’s net of 55 Skimmers/Bream went onto the scale and it went round to 22 Kilo 600 odd grammes on the bounce. The needle didn’t stay still for long enough but it was too close to call so 22 Kilo 700g was the final verdict which I was happy enough with to take a joint lead in the section with Tommy. Junior angler James was last to weigh in and put 4 Kilo odd on the scales after loosing a couple of bigger bream.

There was a slight difference in myself and Tommy’s hook choice. I was using a size 18 Series 26 while Tommy was on a size 12 something or other which was more like a size 10! But both hook choices worked for both of our styles of fishing.

That was a joint section win for me which meant 1pt for the Feeder League which I was more than happy with. On hearing the other section results I found out that my 22 Kilo 700g was top weight on the day with 11 Kilo winning the Garden Centre Section and 14 Kilo winning the 2nd Graveyard section.

Myself and James hit the road at 5.30pm and after dropping James home in Enniskillen it was after 11.30pm before I was arriving home in Aughnacloy. It was a long drive home but the fishing was worth it! 

With 4 good results from the first 4 Team qualifiers I think I am going to give the 3rd round of qualifiers a miss in favour of the Rosslea 2 Day Festival. That will be in 3 weeks time on the 9th/10th June. The 3rd round of Qualifiers will take place in 2 weeks time on 2nd and 3rd June but due to my limited fishing at present it’s either one weekend or the other and Rosslea is only 25 minutes away from wife and baby as opposed to O’Brian’s Bridge on the Shannon which is probably 4.5 hours away. Next update in 3 weeks time… Tightlines all!

With my fishing limited these days to only the Team Qualifier matches, I was looking forward to getting out again for the first time since the 1st round of qualifiers 4 weeks ago on the River Barrow, Carlow. If I was to get another good set of results this weekend then I will probably give the 3rd qualifier a miss in favour of the Lisnaskea Water Festival on the Rosslea Lakes for 2 days. My fishing really is limited at the minute and I would only be fishing one or the other so this weekend would dictate where I would be fishing in 2-3 weeks time.

For company this weekend I had junior angler James O’Dogherty, he stayed over at my house on the Friday evening, packed the car and set the alarm for 3.30am. We set off at 4.00am and had a clear run of 95% dual carridgeway down to cork so I tramped on and it took 4 hours before we eventually arrived in Coachford for breakfast and a fry.

The usual welcome speach was made by the manager Mark Theedom before the draw was open for 4 sections:

Graveyard (8 pegs, 1-8)

Graveyard (8 pegs, 9-16)

Rooves Bay (9 pegs)

Garden Centre (8 pegs)

I’d only every fished the Graveyard section on 2 occasions at the Interprovincials last September so I wasn’t too fussed where I drew as long as I wasn’t too far away from James. I left my draw till late and with only 3 pegs remaining I drew Graveyard 14. As it happens James got the end peg in the same section (peg 9) but it was stuck bang in the middle between the 2 sections.

In my section today I had:

9. James O’Dogherty

10. Gary Doyle

11. Tommy Lawton

12. Leigh Maitland

13. Mark Leonard

14. David Herron

15. P. Turner

16.  P. Swiston

Down to peg 14 and it turned out to be the same peg I fished on the 2nd day of the Interprovincials last September, the only difference was that the water level was up nearly 1m.

There were tactics doing the rounds during the week and basically I was told to fish 10-12m in top 4 deep water as the fish wanted to be at a certain level and constant nuggets of groundbait containing lots of caster was the way to feed, expecting to cach 200-300 Roach.

I decided not to take any heed to this advice and do things my way as per usual. Everyone had 11.5m set up and I found myself one of the few if not the only angler fishing 13m. 4 top 4’s went up in 16ft of water which still wasn’t at the bottom of the near ledge but the slope wasn’t as sever at 13m as it was at 12m.

Rigs:

2g Colmic Cosmo for fishing 8” off bottom. Size 20 Series 26 to 0.10mm diamond. Olivette bulk 600mm away from hook with 3#10 Stotz droppers.

2# 2g Colmic Bingo for fishing dead depth on the ledge. Size 20 Series 26 to 0.10mm diamond. Olivette bulk 450mm away with 2#10 stotz droppers.

3g Sensas Windbeater for laying on deck 8”. Size 18 Series 26 to 0.10mm diamond. Olivette Bulk 450mm away from hook with 2#8 stotz droppers.

Groundbait: (20 Litre limit)

1.5 Kilo of VDE Black Secret

1.5 Kilo of VDE World Champion

Usual aniseed additive.

Bait: (CIPs 4 pint limit)

2 pints of Caster

1 Pint of Red Maggot

1 Pint of Worm

2 pints of hemp (included in groundbait allowance)

I was also going to set up the slider as I knew I could catch a few fish on it if not a few Skimmers but the trees above me meant that it would have been impossible to chuck out using a 14’ rod and a 4ft hooklength, so the slider rod stayed in the holdall but I had confidence in my long pole short line approach. I also set up a 5m whip just incase as I watched a few other anglers opting for a whip line. I took a walk up the section before the prebait to see what everyone had set up and it was clear that noone was fishing out the full 13m which was starting to worry me a little but I had a plan and I was sticking to it.

10 Minute Prebait:

I added 3/4 pint of caster, same quantity of hemp and a handfull of chop worm to half of my groundbait mix and balled in 13 balls whilst the pole was on the bump bar. I then added more chop worm to a smaller quantity of groundbait and cupped in another 3 balls containing chop worm.

All in:

I went straight out with the 8” off bottom rig and first put in I caught straight away on double red maggot. Everything was going to plan for the first hour and I managed 30 fish in the first hour catching steady enough. Just before the hour mark it was time for a look on the 3g 8” on deck rig for a few bigger fish. First put in resulted in a 4oz Roach, slightly bigger than my average off bottom. Then a chunky hybrid before an 8oz Skimmer put in an appearance. Shortly after I was connected to a lump. I played it out at 13m for around a minute before the hook pulled after it started to move off and I couldn’t stop it. After loosing that bream I caught a couple more smaller fish before this rig slowed up. I went back to the 8” off bottom rig and started to catch again after my slowest spell after loosing that bream. I stayed off bottom until the 2 hour mark when I went 2 put in’s having to wait a bit longer for bites. At this point I decided it was time to start throwing in one handed balls containing caster after every 3-4 fish. I continued feeding like this for the last 2 hours, upping the balls to every 5 minutes or every 2 fish during the last hour. I caught Roach slow and steady all day but the last hour was the fastest for myself and most of the other anglers in my section. I ended up on 105 fish come the all out.

The angler on end peg 16 had caught 160 fish, 60 of the in the last hour. From what i’d seen around me I thought I would have done alright so it was time for the scales to do the talking. When the scales arrived to me, 5 Kilo was the best weight so far, I knew I had more than that but I was more concerned about what the angler on the end peg would weigh in. The scales settled at 8 Kilo 100g for my 105 fish to take the lead in the section. The next peg weighed in a high 6 Kilo before the end peg weighed 11 kilo to take the section and heaviest weight on the 2 Graveyard sections. The other Graveyard section was also won on the opposite end peg with Junior angler Jordan Hall catching 8 Kilo of Roach.

So that was my 3rd Section 2nd in a row during the first 3 Float & Feeder Qualifiers. I was happy enough with that result knowing that I couldn’t have beat the end peg.

Myself and James spent some time at the B&B setting up feeder rods and sorting rigs and groundbait before catching up on some sleep before the Feeder Qualifier tomorrow…

After a section 2nd yesterday in the 1st Float Team Qualifier, it was time for the 1st Feeder Team Qualifier. I stayed down in Carlow in the 7 Oaks Hotel along with few who were also fishing both qualifiers. After yesterdays match, I had learn’t a few things about feeding and what stamp of fish to expect and a target weight. I had a think about my options but straight after the match yesterday I knew exactly what I was going to do to entice a few fish on the feeder.

At the draw I ended up on peg 32, which was possibly the better section to be in with slightly better weights predicted. In my section today I had:

27.  Paul Hutchman

28.  Nick Howell

29.  Roger Baker

30.  Gerry McStraw

31.  Brian Bohan

32.  David Herron

33.  Vincy Walsh

My plan of attack for today was simple - the fish wanted the bait moving yesterday so a static feeder would be no good. Choosing the correct gram feeder would be essential so that the feeder would slowly move downstream. There were Dace expected and in theory, hitting Dace bites on the feeder could prove a nightmare so I wanted the fish to feed confidently and attract as many fish into my peg as I could. This I was going to do with a cloudy groundbait mix and pinkie.

Groundbait

2Kg of VDE Special with 200g of Sensas Surface Leem added and also a little Aniseed powder. This was a light coloured mix which when plugged hard into the feeder created an expanding cloud going downstream in my feeder swim. I was going to plug half the feeder full of fluro Pinkies to get the smaller fish competing for food and the cloud would make them feed confidently.

Feeder Rig

As with all the Feeder Qualifiers, a free running rig is essential as it’s CIPs Rules. My feeder rigs are simple, not what i’d normally use but after a bit of research I found a tangle free option which I preferred. 50cm 0.10mm hooklength to a Korum Quick Change Bead and a Korum Feedabeed above that which a Tony Burke feeder will be attached. Today a small 20g feeder was just holding bottom and pulling the mainline with my fingers 1-2” was enough to dislodge it if it wasn’t moving downstream.

Feeder swims

I plumbed about with a 1oz Bomb until I got a picture of the river contours. I opted for a swim 1/3 of the way across in the deepest part of the River where it was around 9ft. I also opted for a far bank line tight up against a Chessnut Tree on the far bank. Here I had around 4ft of water but it was a similar depth coming back to 2/3rd’s the way across the river.

That was it, I was confident in my plan of attack and settled with 2 different feeder lines.

All in

I started on my near line using single red maggot and starting to plug the feeder with pinkie. I started to fish from first chuck instead of recasting in order to put a bed of feed down. After about 15 minutes I had my first indication and 5 minutes later I was connected to my first fish. At this stage Vincy was yet to get a bite and Brian beside me had had one bite. Over the first hour I put 6 fish in the net all on my close line. Come the end of my first hour my near line was starting to dry and I wasn’t getting any more indications.

After 1 hour it was time to have a look on my far bank line. Brian beside me was fishing his far line and had 2 missed bites and then connected with a small Dace as I had my first cast on my far line. There were fish there immediately and I started to put a few more fish in the net.

I had a look back on my near line for 2-3 chucks at a time but it was nowhere near as good as the far line. For the 2nd and 3rd hour I caught slow and steady on my far line until Brian beside me started chucking closer and closer to me. With 2 hours to go Brian was starting to chuck his big feeder right on top of my swim and as a result killed my swim. The last 2 hours were slow for me and it took until the last 30 minutes to get bites coming again once brian had resorted back to his nearer line. I ended up on 33 fish again - the same as yesterday. I ended up putting in 2pts of Pinkie through a small feeder.

My 33 fish went 3Kilo 750g (50g more than yesterday) and earned me another 2pts and 2nd in section which I was more than happy with again. Vincy caught well during the 2nd half of the match cramming in maggot, something similar to what I was doing with my pinkie.

My 33 fish were also enough to get me 3rd overall on the day.

2nd weekend of qualifiers on Inniscarra, Cork in 4 weeks time.

With the Winter Leagues finished up my attention has now turned to the Ireland Team Qualifiers which will be the only fishing that i’ll be doing for the rest of the year with exception to the World Championships over in the Czech Republic and a few practises.

Friday practise on the River Barrow supposibly went well for all anglers who made the trip down but unfortunately for me I was stuck in work. Roach/Dace/Hybrid bags up to 30lb were coming out which was a change from previous week knock-ups where alot of anglers blanked.

26 Anglers turned up on the morning for the Float Team Qualifier. I left my draw to somewhere near the end and with both end peg 1 and 26 left along with half a dozen others I held my breath and pulled out peg 1, happy days! Dave Burleigh ended up with the other peg. Peg 1 was a 2 mile drive up the river from the draw so I was leading the convoy of single file traffic.

This was to be my 2nd encounter with the River Barrow, having fished it in Athy pretty much exactly a year ago where it was a bit of a struggle but I managed to catch my first of 3 Dace along with a Roach & Perch on the waggler fished towards the far bank. Today I had a similar waggler rig set up in the holdall along with the poles and whips.

Plumbing up I found around 9ft at 13m. The pace of the River had picked up a bit from yesterday and idealy a 3g float was going to be perfect for running through and holding back. I set up 4 top 3’s with an aray of Trabucco R1’s in 1.5g, 2g, 2.5g and 3g. I also set up a 5g Cralusso Torpedo for holding back hard but reports from last week and Fridays practise were that the fish wanted the bait running at them.

I opted for a 2.2g Drennan stick float with a bulk of No.4 Stotz half way down and No. 8 Stotz droppers making up the rest of the rig for fishing just past my pole line.

I also set up a 4m Whip with a 0.3 Colmic Cosmo for fishing from 1-3ft deep in a cloud if I had to target small fish and minnows.

Groundbait:

For my main line at 13m I opted for 3/4Kilo of VDE Black Turbo, 1Kg of VDE Secret, 1Kg of Sensas River Leem and 3 table spoons of Salt.

For my 4m Whip line I opted for 1Kg of VDE Special, 200g of Sensas Surface Leem and Aniseed powder.

With a 5 minute pre-bait period it was now time to decide how much I was going to put in. With the river fishing reasonably well yesterday I was still cautious and knew that putting 26 anglers on the bank would split the fish up. I cupped in 5 balls of my Secret/Turbo mix containing a handfull of freshly cooked hemp and a pinch of caster. I started to throw in small nuggets of my cloud mix onto my 4m line and would continue to do so for the remainder of the match incase I needed this line.

All in:

I picked up my 2.5g rig and started on single red maggot running through at the rivers pace. I can’t remember what happened each hour but to sumarise I loosfeed hemp and caught a few fish slowly during the first hour. I cupped in 2 balls after the hour mark. After around 2 hours I went 30 minutes without a bite, at this stage I had a total of 12 Fish which was more than the anglers that I could see to my left. I hit into another 5 Roach around 4oz on the trot after cupping in 2 balls and then I went another 45 minutes without another bite. I changed my feeding and started to loosfeed caster further upstream and started to catch on the 3g rig. With 1.5 hours to go I started to catch again after changing my feeding and I ended up on 33 fish come the end of the 4 hours.

I never caught on the stick float, Flat Float rig or the 4m whip line. Most fish came to the 3g R1 rig running through and holding back slowing the pace of the float down to half the pace of the river laying 3” overdepth but rising off bottom when holding back.

My 33 fish, mostly Roach and a new PB Dace for me around 5oz! weighed 3Kilo 700g and was enough for 2nd in my 7 peg section behind Glen Lawlor who had 6Kilo along with Vincy Walsh at the next peg in the 2nd section (Pegs 7 & 8). The fish seemed to have had shoaled up between these pegs which was evident again the next day at the Feeder Qualifiers with anglers either side of these couple of pegs struggling.

So that’s my Float Team Qualifiers off to a good start with 2pts and currently 5th overall in the League. Feeder Team Qualifier next up tomorrow…