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Diary Of A
Matchman Part 7
by
Giles Cochrane
Wednesday open
Seven Oaks
After winning the last match at Seven Oaks with 79lb, the word had got around and the attendances were even better for this match. Its is not a very big venue but as the fishing is very good it means that people have to turned away if they do not book in. With every peg taken the pegging was going to be difficult but as long as everyone has some room and all the pegs are fishable then there is no problem. I know that people are going to moan but they always do and I think that as long as you are prepared to fish every peg you put in then that is all you can do.
When I got there some of the anglers were concerned that the pegs in the front of the lake were to be put in as nobody fancied them much but due to the numbers of anglers that had booked in we had no choice but to put them in. I never had a problem with putting them in last week as I really fancied drawing one of them but to cut a long story short I drew the first peg in the corner where nobody fancied.
The peg was about three feet deep running up to about ten inches in the margin with a drop of about three-foot over the first shelf and although I didn't think I would catch down the edge I did fancy the peg. Doug Hornblow drew the next peg to me and complained about it from the start but I told him that I fancied it and he didn't seem too disappointed after that. Anglers were losing carp all around me but I think that most of the fish were foul-hooked because of where they were fishing. People in this area have always shunned the commercial type fisheries and carp fishing but when they are faced with the job of fishing one, they realise that its not as easy as they think. I wont go into details but one guy was fishing at the full length of his pole and then swinging the rig out further still to gain distance. Every carp he hooked swam straight out into open water and either broke him off or pulled out. He landed two but lost nine, which he maintains, were all double figure fish. I think they were all foul-hooked and that's why he never got any out because he potted in too much bait and then fished over depth on top of it.
I set the waggler up at the start as I had a little open water in front of me but I struggled to get many fish on it. There were plenty of fish in the peg so I fed it short and caught some carp late on the pole and I think I landed about twelve small carp in the last thirty minutes for 66lb. That was enough to win the match and Phil Weaver was second with 55lb.
I caught shallow with caster on the hook and feeding caster and it is really enjoyable to catch fish this way. Doug had two carp for about 10lb next to me and Matt Jackson weighed 35lb the other side of me. I was almost falling off my box at one stage in the match watching Matt fishing down the edge. He was fishing about three metres out when he hooked the first carp but he didn't have any sections made up behind him. He was trying to get the sections on to the pole at such a rate I thought he was going to break one in half. These carp tend to bolt out from the bank at a fair rate of knots but unless you know a way to stop this happening it is funny to watch.
I was going to tell him how to stop it from happening but it could wait till the next match as I was really enjoying this performance of high-speed lego assembly.
Seven Oaks has traditionally been a trout fishery but the emphasis these days tends to be going away from that type of fishing, certainly in Wales. I think it must be more expensive to run it as a trout water and there is talk of turning the existing trout pond into a coarse fishery. They still fish for trout there and in addition there is an any-method trout pond directly behind the carp-lake. However, as you could probably guess many anglers go there to learn fly-casting with hilarious results. I was watching this guy whipping the water to a foam with his casting. It looked like someone had tipped bubble bath into the water. He could only be likened to an apprentice lion tamer as the end of the line made a loud crack every time he cast. I am looking forward to the next match there which is next Wednesday evening. I am told that there are matches at a place called Drummonds near Ross-on-Wye so I think I will be going there next Sunday.
Drummonds Dub
Sunday open
I heard good things about this place but I have never fished it before because most of the matches there tended to be small club matches in the winter. Nevertheless I decided to give it a go and phoned the match organiser for a ticket. Andy Wilks runs the matches and by all accounts are well pegged with no absolute 'no-hopers' being put in. When I arrived at the draw it was like a 'who's who' of 'has beens' which I have not seen for some years. There were a lot of Welsh anglers there too and a few of the Hereford boys so at least it was going to be a laugh. The first person I spoke to was Hadrian Whittle, who put me right on the pegging and how to fish certain areas, which is always a help on a new venue. I had fished the bottom pond a few years ago when it was supposedly skimmers and roach fishing and won the match with 35lb of carp which were not supposed to be in there, but to date I had never fished this new lake above it.
I drew peg two and I had to ask where it was and was told that it was behind the island at the far end of the pond. One of the Welsh lads asked me where I had drawn and when I told him he said it was absolutely solid there. I asked him what had come off it in the past but he said it had never been pegged before so I wondered how he knew it was solid but anyway I wasn't going to argue with him. You can drive to every peg on that side of the lake, which is a great advantage these days and when I arrived it looked like a nice bit of water with a good colour to it.
I tackled up a waggler rod and a pole and I decided that it was going to be a good idea to fish maggot today as these fish had never seen bait before, however I did fancy putting some chopped worm in the pole because I was told that there were so big roach in the water. I walked down the bank to the guy on the next peg when I was ready and noticed that he had fish fizzing on his pole line, so did the chap below him but I had seen nothing in front of me which didn't look too promising at all.
When the whistle went I potted out some worm and caster and after about ten minutes I had a roach, followed by a skimmer. This continued for a while but then the peg started to dry up a little so I had a look on the waggler line. The peg was about two feet deep on the pole line and about two and a half feet deep on the waggler line and I managed to catch a few roach and rudd by alternating between the pole and the waggler.
The guy below me was catching a few roach on the pole and so was the guy next to him but nothing really special was being caught as yet. With about two hours gone I noticed a patch of bubbles in front of me on the waggler line and then some more a little further out. Whatever was fizzing there looked like big fish and plenty of them too. I decided to spray about half a pint of maggot on the waggler line and then leave it for twenty minutes for the fish to find it and hopefully settle there.
I went back on the pole and caught two or three big roach around the 10oz mark but I was wanting to have a chuck with the waggler all the time I was on the pole, so up the bank it went and out went the waggler. The first bite was on the drop and turned out to be a roach then a small skimmer after that. I put double maggot on and cast past some of the bubbles and dragged it back over the top of them and the float buried. Whatever it was felt solid and then it rolled over on the surface and it turned out to be a bream. I netted it and it must have weighed 5lb. The next chuck I had another and then I landed about six in six chucks, all around 4lb a piece. Good here innnit? I lost one but ended up with nine for 36lb odd. Hadrian Whittle was four pegs away and chucked a small feeder to land six for 22lb. The two anglers in between us fished the pole all day and never weighed but there were a lot of bream in the area, it was just a case of getting them to stay in the peg long enough to catch a few. Another match record for me and £80 in the arse pocket, what more can you ask for? I don't imagine the record will stay at that for long though because the bream are big and there are quite a few of them. It is only a matter of time before someone lands on them proper and breaks the record again. I think I will return to this venue again.. It's really good fishing!
Seven Oaks
Wednesday evening
I was looking forward to this match all week as I had won the last two and was feeling confident because each time I had won from different areas of the pond. I went around with Lee to peg it and we left out the pegs that nobody wanted, even though I had won off one of them last week. I drew down the far end of the pool and although I had never seen a weight from it, I still fancied it because I had some room to my left as I was an end peg. I started off fishing shallow because I had caught some on it last week but I didn't really fancy it because the weather had changed and there was a low pressure which usually means it is difficult to catch up in the water. I potted some caster and worm in on the 7 metre line where there was a slight ledge about 4 feet deep and I thought that if I waited long enough, the carp would eventually turn up. I managed one about 8lb straight away but then I had to wait for bites for tool long so I tried the inside line.
I had put a few pots of feed there at the start but I thought it was probably a little too soon to try it so I wasn't expecting too much just yet. I had a few liners from the off and then had a carp about 2lb on the worm. At least there was some activity there so I potted in some more bait and then the ducks arrived. I kept feeding them with caster and after and about a minute I had a carp around 10lb. There was only an hour of the match gone but these matches are only three hours so I was hoping there were more there as I didn't fancy fishing the 7 metre line all night. Next drop I had another carp, again about 10lb and after that I was getting one every time I went in. I spent most of the match playing carp on the pole because they were all big fish and it is difficult to scoop them when they are that size, so it is better to be able to see the fish to make sure that it goes in the landing net everytime.
I caught for the last two hours and I did lose two fish but I weighed 100lb 6oz and broke the fishery record so I was well pleased with that as it was now two match records in three days. Second was Allan Davies with 51lb and I think there was another 50lb at the other end of the lake too. It had fished really well but the reason I caught all match was because the ducks stayed in the peg. I don't think I fed more than about two pints of caster and the ducks ate most of them. This method really works and as long as you don't go too close to the ducks, there is no danger of hooking one. I did notice that the carp backed off the worm when I potted some more in but I think that is because they are not used to eating the stuff. Won't be long before they get a taste for it though, and then there will be some lost fish.
Seven Oaks
Wednesday open
Having won three matches on the trot I didn't expect the turn out to be very good this week but there were quite a few anglers booked in for the event. I decided to take my son Sam with me for a practice session at the venue in the morning prior to the match and then stay on to fish the match in the evening. We started off at one end of the lake fishing different methods to see which one was going to be worth using but for Sam it was a case of getting to grips with landing these carp. Like so many others who fish there, he is losing a lot of fish so I thought that if I went there for a pleasure session I could see what he was doing wrong and hopefully put him right. We managed to sort it out and then we went to the other end of the lake where the wind had been blowing to fish shallow. I think he only lost one carp once he got it sorted out and I had about 90lb in two hours fishing caster a foot deep. Sam ended up with 40lb, which he was well pleased with.
When anglers started to arrive for the match it was time to pack up so we went to the draw and Sam said he was going to fish the match and 'kick some arse'. He is only 12 but you have to admire his attitude. He drew the top end and hooked a load of carp shallow, some of which managed to elude capture and he weighed 31lb and finished fifth in the match. I managed to draw the same peg I practised on and hooked 16 carp shallow, two of which I lost for 85lb and won the match. Lee was second with 41lb and I think there were two 35lb weights.
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