David's end peg

2011 has been good to me in several respects but also on the Match Fishing front. I put a bit of effort into my match fishing and fished matches most weekends throughout the year.

I fished my first ‘Big’ Festival early on in the year which was the IADA Spring Festival on Lough Muckno. It didn’t go quite to plan for me but it was an eye opener to see what way these festivals run and I also learnt a few things along the way.

I also rejoined Lurgan Dynamite Fox Match this year and fished most of their Summer League back on a few venues I used to fish regularly years ago. The top 10 in the league qualified for a 1 Day Final which I managed to secure 2nd overall on the day.

I entered the All Ireland again this year after winning section money in 2009 and getting a section win and 2nd overall in 2010, 2011 didn’t see everything go to plan with not a great section draw and fishing it to positively on a tough day which saw alot of low weights.

I registered for the Irish Team Selection Process and fished several qualifiers over the country and managed to end up joint 2nd overall to secure a place on the World Championship Team for 2012 in the Czech Republic in September.

I also started to fish this years Erne Anglers Float Only Winter League having fished it 2 years previous and missed it last year. I’m ending 2011 in the overall top 3 and it’s a great league to be fishing.

With exception to being selected to fish for Tubertini Ireland at the 2012 World Championships, the highlight of the year has to be the trip over to Scotland to fish the Home International Annual Match known as the ‘Celtic Cup’. The team fishing was an experience on it’s own but I also managed to secure an individual section win and overall win on day 2 of the competition which I won’t forget in a hurry.

Tackle wise, I upgraded my old Browning CC-44 & 66’s to a Drennan Zircon. It has been a great investment and is winning me a few quid since I purchased it which can’t be a bad thing and it was tested to it’s limits over in Scotland which it comfortably handled.

Hopefully 2012 has a few surprises in store…

Round 6 was again back on the Rosslea Lakes. 1-2 degrees was showing up on the way down the road this morning and the back roads to the Rosslea Lakes were very dangerous with ice. Lyon’s lake was frozen over with about 10mm of ice.

17 anglers turned up and ony 3 sections were in today:

6 pegs on Inver High

6 Pegs on Drumacritten

5 pegs on Gavins

Today turned into a bit of a disaster for me. I drew peg ‘I18’ which I was on 4 weeks ago and won the section, but today it was alot colder and frozen over. Pegs 17 and 18 are shallower than pegs 13-16 which meant that it was always going to be a bit of a struggle. 4 Weeks ago it took an hour for the the fish to move into these 2 pegs even with the mild weather, today I didn’t know what was going to happen.

I broke the ice up to 13m with my cupping kit. The slider rod went up in the hope that the thin ice would melt or move during the day. 2 rigs, 3” on deck and 2” on deck, 1g Colmic Cosmo’s, 0.08mm to size 20 B511’s.

Groundbait:

Half bag of VDE Secret, Quarter Bag of Sensas Gross Gardons, Quarter bag of Black Crumb, Quarter Bag of Damp Leem.

All in:

I cupped in 2 small balls and a pinch of hemp at the start. I cupped in a small ball every 45min after.

Long story short:

It took me 1 hour to get my first bite and a small 20g Roach.

2 Hours later I got my 2nd bite from a 50g Roach. Brenton Sweeny on peg 17 was still biteless after 2 hours and packed up shortly after and went home early. Jordan Hall on peg 16 was also Biteless but was still perserveering. Tony Kersley, Nick Howel and maybe Paul Eyers had caught a few roach from the start in the deeper pegs.

3 Hours in and with Tony Kersley on 17 small Roach, Nick Howell leading the section with 20-30 Roach and then when Tony said Paul Eyers was starting to put a couple of fish in the net I called it a day. I put my 2 Roach back and packed up in the Rain. Jordan had now caught 3 roach at this stage.

I was destined for 2 points which would be a dropper so I decided to settle for 0 points and get home to the heat.

Looking at the results that evening, the big surprise was Jordan finishing 2nd in the section. Paul Eyees only had 200g for 4th and Nick won the section as expected and Tony in 3rd. The fish must have eventually moved towards the shallower pegs in the last hour which left myself thinking that I should have stayed on and maybe caught a late run of roach for a few more points than I expected.

With today’s Nill points, i’ve sliped back down to 3rd overall but only 3 points behind the leader after both Neil and Paul having bad days also. Round 7 again on 8th January.

Following the completion of the six NCFFI Float Team Qualifiers and the announcement of the CIPS Float venues for 2012, Ireland Team manager Mark Theedom has selected his teams for the 2012 Float Fishing Internationals.

The Team selected to fish the World Championships on the River Morava, Uherske Hradiste (08-17 Sept 2012) in the Czech Republic;

Bob Hulme

Vincent Walsh

David Herron

Rory Dunne

David Burleigh

Tommy Dowd

The Team selected to fish the European Championships on the River Guadiana, Merida (16-25 Jun 2012) in Spain;

Damien Maddock

Nick Howell

Jason Ward

David Slater

Nick Harrison

Tony Kersley

The Team selected to fish the Celtic Cup on Inniscara Lake, Macroom, Co Cork (1 to 5 Aug) in Ireland is as follows;

Danny Quinn

Finton Brennan

Brian Bohan

Francis McGoldrick

Phillip Walton

Gary Radcliffe

John Heys

Richie Keegan

Mark would like to thank all the anglers for taking part in the series, which were well supported by the 28 anglers that registered.

It is hoped that the Qualifiers for 2013 teams will continue to attract widespread support from all of Ireland’s anglers.

The NCFFI would also like to thank Tubertini UK & Ireland for its very generous sponsorship in 2011, which totalled over 12,000 Euro. It is hoped that in 2012 this sponsorship will include all three Float Teams listed above.

Any angler interested in fishing the 2012 qualifiers please contact the manager;

Mark Theedom (0044) 02866347891 or E Mail sales@tubertini.co.uk;

No fishing again for me last weekend left me looking forward to Round 5 of the Float only Winter league. Back again to the Rosslea Lakes and another new section was introduced this week for Round 5 to replace the section on Killyfole. It was Quigley’s lake which is in beind Drumacritten. I’ve never fished it before but there was a chance that it could throw up a decent weight to get you in the overall.

5 Sections in for today:

Quigley’s Lake

Gavin’s Lake

Lyon’s Lake

Inver Lough (High)

Drumacritten Lake

I was in the shop picking up bait yesterday and was asked where I wanted to draw today and I said Gavins lake peg 3. So when I went up to draw this morning and pulled out ‘G8’, I was more than happy.

Another tough section today:

3.  A. McAleer

4.  Simon Huthwaite

5.  Tommy Dowd

6.  Neal Masurek

7.  Dave Slator

8.  Myself

I knew from the off that the Slider was going to play a part for me today, so for a change that was the first thing I set up before I took the pole out of the holdall. Plumbing about with the slider I settled at 38 turns in 15ft of water starting off at dead depth or close to it.

My slider for today was a 12+2g Sensas Pro Slider, bulk weight with a 5ft hooklength with No. 8 Stotz spread out every 300mm and a micro swivel for my last dropper. Size 16 B511 for double red maggot hookbait. My rod was a Shakespeare Mach 3 Power 13’6” teamed up with a Daiwa TDR 3012D with 4lb Trilene.

It was then time to get the pole out and I settled just over a sharp 6” drop off at 13.5m and fished at 14.5m in 12ft of water. Just 2 rigs went up today, 1.5g Colmic Cosmo for laying 3” overdepth and a 1.5g Sensas Auchy for fishing 2” off bottom.

I was going to take a gamble with the pole line. I know there’s a good stamp of Roach up to 1lb in Gavin’s Lake and you will catch them on the Pole in the deeper pegs. I was going with the same plan as I went with at Round 3 & 4, a bed of hemp with loosfeed caster over the top. I’ve never fished this method on this lake before but I was willing to take a gamble because I had confidence in my slider line.

Groundbait:

1Kg VDE Secret, 1Kg Black Crumb, 0.5Kg Sensas Black Gross Gardons and 1/3 bag of Damp Leem to add a bit more weight and to create a bit of a cloud in the bottom 4ft of my slider swim. I was going to use this same mix on the pole line but I only needed 1 ball to cup in at the start.

All in:

I went out to 14.5m with 2 full 250ml cups of hemp and then went back over it with 1 ball of groundbait. I then picked up the slider and catapulted out 6 small balls containing caster & hemp, hard enough to go straight to the bottom without breaking up.

I started off on the slider at dead depth. Dave Slator had a bite and a Roach straight away on the slider so I started to look for my first fish. Nothing was happening on the slider line so I started to change depths and came 6” off bottom. Still nothing so I decided to have a quick look on my Pole line. A few minutes passed on the 2” off bottom rig with no indications and things started to look like everything wasn’t going to plan. Neal was catching a few fish on the pole and had some netters already. Dave Slator was on the Slider and putting a few fish in the net. The other anglers I could see catching the odd small roach around 2oz.

I changed to the 3” on deck rig and it wasn’t long before I put my first fish in the net which was a 1oz perch. I started to get a few indications on the deck rig and put a few more small Perch until a Pike grabbed a Perch on me but let go after about 1 minute. A 4oz Roach turned up and I thought it was going to switch on. Dave Slator beside me was still on the Slider and catching the odd roach between 2-4oz. The bigger stamp of Roach never materialised for me on the pole line and I knew the small Perch I was catching would put me nowhere in the section. A big Pike had a go at my keepnet, around 12-15lb which I scared off with my landing net. 5 Minutes later it was back and was just sitting there at the end of my keepnet staring into it. I got the landing net and slowly moved it towards it’s head before it knew what was happening and swam off.

The first hour passed quickly and I was well behind so I picked up the Slider and played about with the depth until I found the fish 6” on deck running the slider rig through at the pace of the tow. I started to catch a few small Perch initially and then a few small Roach but then the stamp started to get bigger around 4oz. I was catapulting a small ball out on average every 15 minutes.

The Pike was back again, all I could see was this huge head at the bottom of my keepnet so I had another go at it with my mono mesh landing net. I lined it up with the pike’s head and it was obviously more interested in the Roach in my keepnet and then I scooped at it and unbelievably I got it in the landing net, or at least half of it. All hell broke loose and it nearly took the whole landing net out of my hands with the sheer power. Then the mono mesh give way and the Pike ripped a big hole in my landing net and escaped. It was around 15lb but hopefully it wouldn’t be back after it’s experience with my landing net.

I stayed on the slider for the last 4 hours of the match while still loosfeeding the pole line with caster incase the slider line died. It was steady for me for the rest of the match and my average fish on the slider line was about 3-4oz with the biggest around 9oz. Mainly Roach and Roach/Rudd hybrids and the odd small perch turned up every now and again. Double red maggot was doing the damage and I never changed much during the last 3 hours of the match. The other anglers I could see were catching the smaller 1-2oz Roach and Neal’s stamp on the pole disappeared and his pole line slowed throughout the day. Dave Slator fished the Slider all day and caught steady for most of the day. I lost count of my fish but I had less than 15 after the first hour and I ended up with 80-90, maybe more come the end of the match. I never lifted the pole line again cause I was happy with the rate I was catching on the slider.

Weigh in:

The scales came to me first and I put more than my target 5Kilo on them and it settled at 6Kilo 400g. Dave Slator was next up with 4Kilo 560g. It was tight between Dave and Neal with 300g being the difference and Neal weighing in 4Kilo 210g. Tommy weighed in 2.5Kilo, Simon wighed in 2.2Kilo and peg 3 which won the overall match at Round 4 weighed in 1.5Kilo.

I really enjoyed todays fishing, it’s not often that the Waggler rods see that much action.

That was the 3rd section win for me on the trot and it was a bonus to win the overall today also. Todays result also sees me move up one more place in the league to 1st overall.

A new landing net head is needed for Round 6 in 2 weeks time.

My fishing has been cut down to once a fortnight now, no more 2 day weekends which the wife is glad to hear and that’s probably the reason why i’ve cut back a little to stop her nagging! :)

With no fishing for a change last weekend, it was time for Round 4 of the Float Only Winter League. Back again to the Rosslea lakes before they get the chance to freeze over or flood. One new section was put in this week - Gavins Lake - a few members of Erne Anglers went down and cut out pegs and erected pallet platforms during midweek. Gavins lake was now the favoured secion for a few anglers including myself after it’s form 2 years ago on during the winter league.

31 anglers turned up today and the sections in today were:

Gavins lake

Lyons Lake

Inver Lough (High Pegs)

Drumacritten Lake

Killyfole

At the draw I was hoping for an early peg on Gavins lake in the hope of getting into the overall but with the temperature 10 degrees this morning, most sections should fish reasonably well hopefully. I put my hand in and ‘I18’ came out. I was off to Inver for the first time in one of these winter league matches.

My section was proving to be a tough one today:

13.  Robert Buick

14.  Dave Slator

15.  John Taggart

16.  Jack Tisdall

17.  Tommy Dowd

18.  Myself

Last weekend during the erne anglers any method winter league, peg 16 won the overall with over 8Kilo, and with the weather not changing much during the course of the week, hopefully the big weights would continue.

Tactics:

Today I was going to opt for one pole line and that was it. I was advised to leave the slider rod in the holdall so I did. I plumbed up and had 12-13ft at 13m, at 14.5m it was 5” deeper and just gradually sloped off between 13m & 14.5m. It got slightly shallower the further I went left and slightly deeper by only 2” the further I went right. I stuck with 13m.

I was going to use the same plan of attack as I did on Drumacritten 2 weeks previous. There are supposibly a good stamp of bigger roach 4-6oz in Inver also so I decided to target them. I was going to fish over a bed of hemp again with little groundbait so I didn’t attract too many smaller 1oz Roach.

Bait:

0.5pt Pinkie, 0.5pt Red maggot, 0.5pt Caster, Large tin of dynamite hemp. I favour the smaller grained dynamite hemp over the larger superseed hemp for this particular tactic.

Groundbait:

I mixed up half a bag of VDE Secret and Superblack and added hald a bag of VDE Black Leem.

Rigs:

The usual rigs applied today: two 1.25g Sensas auchys set 2” & 4” off bottom with size 20 B511 on 0.08mm Diamond. My 3rd rig was a 1.5g Colmic Cosmo set 3” on deck with size 18 B511 to 0.10mm. All with olivette bulks set 400mm & 600mm away from the hook.

All In:

I went out with the cupping kit and deposited 2 full 250ml cups of hemp at 13m, I then went out with 2 balls of groundbait with no feed added just to attract a few initial fish. I started to flick out half a dozen casters with the catapult from the start and I kept this up for the duration of the match.

After 5 minutes fishing I had an early bite and connected with a nearly 2oz Roach. 20 minutes passed and I was still on 1 Roach. Tommy beside me was yet to get a bite while Jack & John were catching steady and on 10+ fish each. Robert & Dave were catching even quicker.

I went throughout the motions changing rigs and baits and eventually caught my 2nd 2oz Roach on the 3” overdepth rig. I got another indication so I thought there were a few roach there and switched back to my 2” off bottom rig. Nothing happened and then I switched to 4” off bottom. Still nothing so it was back to the 3” overdepth rig. Another bite resulted in a 1oz Roach but I started to put a few fish in the net. I knew if I keep flicking caster the fish would eventually move into my swim and settle over the hemp.

After 1 hour I was starting to catch but I still hadn’t 10 fish in the net whilst Jack was on 20 odd and John was on near 30. Robert & Dave were still catching faster and John admitted that Dave had twice as many as him. I was having doubts as where i’d finish in the section if this kept this up but I still had hope that the caster I was flicking in would attract a few more Roach and get them competing and draw their attention away from the Pike.

As I went to swing fish number 8 a double figure Pike had a lunge at it but missed thankfully. After the 1 hour mark I was starting to play catchup. I had figured out that the fish didn’t want the bait off bottom at all and I was getting a steady run of bites while Tommy was still struggling to catch.

After 2 hours I had managed to get my total up into the high 20’s low 30’s but I was starting to get a few netter roach up to 6oz. A 8-9oz roach even made an appearance. Things were starting to go well until it started to slow slightly after 2.5hrs. I hadn’t cupped in anything since the all in so I took a gamble to cup in half a cup of hemp in the hope that it didn’t kill the swim. There was a small 1oz Roach there straight away but it was a wait for 5-10 minutes before bites came back. Small roach 1-2oz started to come to the net and I began to think that I shouldn’t have cupped in but then a 5oz Roach made an appearance 20 minutes after i’d cupped in and then the odd bigger Roach started to settle over my swim.

The 3rd and 4th hour were steady again and I was happy with the stamp of fish I was catching compared to the 1-2oz I could see being caught further down. Jack then managed to catch a few big netter roach in quick sucession.

During the last hour the Pike were back, taking my netter roach on me which usually resulted in me playing the Pike for a minute or 2 before the hooklength giving way. Going into the last 15 minutes I was playing a good 8oz roach when it made an attempt to fight even harder and then it went solid. Another Pike which I played for 2 minutes in an attempt to get my big roach back but the hooklength give way. Next put in I had another roach around 6oz and the same thing happened. This time it was a smaller Pike and I played it for 2 minutes to try and get it’s head up. Once it neared the surface it let go of the roach. I went to net the Roach and the Pike had another go at it and swam straight into my landing net before it even had a chance to open it’s mouth. It was around 3lb 8oz and was quickly returned to the margins to my right. That was roach number 100 and I had time to catch 2 more roach before the final whistle to end up on 102 fish.

Jack admitted to 107 Roach, John had around 110 I think, Robert had 112 Roach and Dave Slator had 170 Roach. Tommy next to me never counted but caught steady enough during the last 3 hours and I guessed he had around 60-70.

Robert came down to me first with the scales. My 102 fish put 5Kilo 940g on the scales which I was happy enough with but knew i’d be well behind Dave Slator by the sound of things with 170 fish. Tommy was next and put 3.5Kilo on the scales. Jack was up next and his 107 Roach put 4Kilo 950g on the scales, that was a whole extra 1Kg behind me so my stamp of roach over the hemp must have worked. John Was next and put a high 3Kilo odd on the scales. Then it was Dave’s turn. His 170 fish were all small, around 1-2oz with no real bonus fish and the scales settled around 4.5kg. Robert was last up and his 112 Roach which put 3Kilo 700g odd on the scales. That was a section win for me which I didn’t see coming after the bad first hour I had but if you’ve confidence in a method and know that the fish will turn up sooner or later then it’s always worth keeping at it knowing that you can soon catch up with a better stamp of fish.

My 5Kilo 940g also managed me 2nd overall on the day with David Burleigh winning Gavins lake section with over 8 kilo.

Todays result see’s me move up one more place into 2nd in the league.

That’s it for another 2 weeks until Round 5.