Meat match practise.

So as the title suggests I went out this weekend on another practise match session, once again I was with my long time match fishing partner Mark Tiller. For Mark last weeks session couldn't have gone much worse, but to be fair to him it was both of our first times on the venue, neither of us knew what to expect and when the water is full of bionic 1lb fish that pull like doubles and our rigs weren't up to the job we were both in trouble from the off! On a plus note though at least it was a practise and not a match, what are practise sessions for if not to make mistakes and learn from them. One thing that is for sure is that once home from last trip we both set about sorting rigs and things for this weekend, you guys that follow me on twitter might have seen some pictures of what to me seemed ridiculous rigs using 0.22 Guru N-Gauge mainline and 0.8g Dino Merus floats for three foot of water!

What I had planned to achieve by going in what anyone who hasn't fished this water before would call over gunned, was purely to make sure this was strong enough 0.22 mainline and 0.19 hook lengths and it was. Mark and I have decided to keep up the practise until the end of the year and then when January comes around join the R&DAA club league, the main reason for doing all this practise is because the club generally runs matches on six lakes and rotates between them over the year, we as a pair being relatively new to the club having only joined at the end of last year have only fished one of the six, even that was before joining the club! Mark and I plan to fish all of these lakes in six week rotations ourselves until the end of the year this should give us plenty of time to not only learn a bit about these lakes but also to get back in the swing of things after spending quite a while out of match fishing. After deciding this on Saturday we have planned to make Whitherington Farm our next port of call for the practise and what a awesome looking venue it is as well, The complex consists of three lakes I believe but the one for us is a enormous snake lake, I am getting very excited about what these sessions will have me writing about when I'm home as after doing some research they all fish very different to each other! Whitemoor is a Place that any of you who have read my old Carp fishing blog will know I have fished before however this time not the main lake but the canal lake will be my office, this one I have fished before and you guys may have seen it before from one episode of the popular challenge Andy May videos by MAP! `The Wash Pit is another lake you will have seen or read about me fishing before this one though is something I have only specimen fished and am very much looking forward to seeing how it match fishes, Hightown again somewhere I have not fished before I have had the pleasure of a nice walk around the venue but this one however is known more for it big Carp and is normally packed with Carp anglers because of this, again Hightown is a lake I am excited about fishing as for what I have read it is pretty much a Roach match, this excites me for two reasons, one because it is something I have never done before and two because I cant wait to write about it! Franks Lake this lake is somewhere I have not been able to find much information on other than it fishes very hard most of the year so again looking forward to giving it a go. Last but not least Cranbourne which is where I have spent my last two sessions and where I'm about to talk about now.

Lets get into it then, this week for me was all about bettering last weeks weight, one thing I had trouble with last week was rotating my lines as most of the time I found my rigs were not strong enough. This week that was not even in my mind as I knew I had done the best I could in my preparation time at home to rid myself of that problem, one other thing I had planned was to go straight in with a feeder this time as it took a long time to feed of the tiny Roach on the previous trip, my plan was to fish two plus two line, I could not go much further out than that as the wind was dreadful, also I was going to drop in on a line at just a top kit out as last time I caught a lot of fish right under my feet. So with the plan laid out it was time to get set up this time we set up on a bank pretty much opposite where we fished before mainly because it was a bit more out the wind than other swims but also because going on the same peg again would be pointless when it comes to the practise side of things. After getting all the gear round to the pegs we drew straws and I won so chose to fish the peg you can see above, so off I went to get my box and other gear set up, after doing so and snapping a quick picture and posting compulsory 'my office for the day' tweet I started to get my bait sorted this time with  a few differences. As you can probably tell from the title of this post I planned on using meat this week but not just any meat. First things first I grabbed a bag of Bait-Tech sticky method pellets in 2mm and soaked them in a bait tub, I then grabbed some 4mm Carp and Coarse pellets and poured out two pints of those, I then opened up my last tin of Bait-Tech scopex corn and grabbed out a hand full of 6mm Carp and Course pellets to, after doing this the two minutes it takes for the sticky method pellets to be perfect was up so I drained them off and shook them into a different tub ready for them to go round my feeder. With that done all I had to do now was to grab out some tins of meat and put them through the cutter and open some super seed hemp, the meat I chose today was to feed some Bait-Tech boosted mighty meat and then use the N-Tice poloni on the hook, with knowing there was a lot of small fish around I decided to use a 8mm blade in my cutter today to try bring in bigger fish. I then poured two tins of super seed hemp into bait tubs and went off to get some groundbait from my bag which to my horror I discovered I had left it on the side at home!! After realising my school boy error I had nothing left to do but plumb up my two lines for the day and tie on my Guru Hybrid feeder. My plan was to feed hemp and meat together on my two plus two line and leaving it while I went in with the feeder so once Mark had called the all in I went in with two pots full of hemp and one with hemp and a dozen cubes of meat, I them banded a 6mm Carp and course pellet put in on the hybrid feeder and filled in around it with the micro sticky method pellets and made my first cast, I had clipped up at about sixteen meters as I was only looking to pick off some early fish before going in on the pole. After about four cast and having only handed a single fish I had spotted a lot of vortex patterns and fizzing on my pole line so decided to go on that, with in seconds of putting in I was into a fish once again though it was a Roach but this time going by last weeks standards this one was huge, after five or six more put in I had four more Roach of the same stamp all fish pushing a lb.

After these fish though the bites dried up so I decided to feed again this time a half pot of hemp and twenty or so cubes of meat, I also fed half a pot of hard pellets on my top kit line getting ready to start rotating between them. I decided to go in on this line and see if anything had followed the pellets down so got my 'margin' rig out and banded a 6mm pellet, because I was fishing a lot closer to the bank and in slightly shallower water I used a Dino Trux float both mainline and hook length were same breaking strain as before and a 18 Drennen match hook. First put in I had a small Roach on the drop and the same again on the second that was enough information for me and decided to have a quick look on the two plus two again, the plan was if I didn't get a carp this put in to go back out on the feeder and wait for them to arrive. This was not the case though as I don't believe my hook bait could have settled on the bottom before my elastic got ripped out the end of my top kit and was heading towards Mark at a serious speed, this though after what I seen before could have just as easily been a 1lb fish as it could be a big one, it wasn't until I started trying to pull it back I started to realise it was a bit bigger than the average stamp. After a few minutes of getting tension on the elastic through my puller bung and having to let go again I caught the first glimpse of a massive tail trying hard to get down low in front of me, at this point my heart was in my mouth as this is the kind of fish you dream about getting in the first half an hour of your match, all focus was now on landing it, another few minutes had past before I managed to pull it head up over my net a lovely orangey Carp showing some characteristics of a ghosty that was a comfortable 8lb. whilst all this was going on and one thing a lot of people over look was that I was constantly throwing in a few cubes of meat to try settle some fish down again for the next put in. I decided to try again on the top kit line first as the fish had torn through the longer line a few times so thought I would have more chance on the short one. I went in on this line three times and had three Carp all around 12oz before feeding the line again and heading out on the longer one, the next two fish from this line were of a better stamp one being 5lb and another around 3lb, once again though the line slowed down so time to feed and try the other, this time though I fed the same as the first feed only a dozen or so pieces of meat. Dropping in on the top kit line again only produced some small Roach and a single Carp again under a lb, I decided to feed both lines and go in with the feeder again. Once again though for me this was not overly productive as I think I had landed four fish in around twenty minutes so now having rested both lines I went back in two plus two this time feeding a kinder pot of hemp and three cubes of meat and dropping my N-Tice hook bait in the middle. I had a good spell for a round  hour catching a small Carp a chuck on both lines with the odd one being just over a lb, one thing I could not help but notice though was that every single one was simply stunning!

Half way through the session once again Mark and I got off our boxes had a bite to eat and a chat about how things were going, from what Mark had told me he had gotten off to the same start as last time and was not having many bites, the match man in me however wouldn't allow me to take his word for it so I told him I had only caught about 10lb myself. With lunch out the way and the correct amount of banter shared it was time to get back on the box and proceed to empty the lake of its stock, or that was the plan anyway. The only problem with that was that If Mark was telling me the truth before our fortunes had switched during the break as he was getting a 2 to 3lb fish a chuck out on his feeder line and I was struggling to pick off fish on anything I was doing. I decided to basically start again how I did at the beginning a few pots of hemp and one with some meat on my longer line and half a pot of pellet on my top kit line and then went back out on the feeder after about ten minute of no bites on the feeder I went in two plus two and started picking up fish of around 12oz again and continued doing so on both lines once again for about a hour, this helped settle my nerves slightly but I could hear from the way Marks fish were fighting he was into much bigger fish than I was and I was having to catch five fish to his one to stay in front. I fed both lines again and though to myself to give the feeder one last go before fully ruling it out, I am very glad I did so as four casts seen me land three fish of around 4lb another two casts though and no more fish it was time to go back on the pole until the end. Now with only a hour to go and with Mark bagging up I was certain he had beaten me by a huge weight so was just content with catching the small fish and trying to beat my weight from the previous trip. So the five hours were up and happy that I had somewhere close to last sessions weight I got myself ready to help Mark weigh his nets in, in all the time I had been fishing with him I have never seen him looking so happy with a session and could not help but feel very happy for him as I read of the scales and totalled up his weight. 83lb 8oz was his total and at that point I knew he had completely dominated me and thought it was going to be 30lb difference at least. I could not be more wrong though as he totalled up mine to being only 3lb 8oz less than his and it just goes to show that no matter how big the fish if you keep them landing in the keepnets you wont be far away at the end! Needless to say I was over the moon with my weight I was not happy to lost to Mr Tiller but suffice to say it wont being happening again! 

My 80lb net after the five hours

Marks winning net of 83lb 8oz

Once again guys thanks very much for reading and support on this blog, I realise I said in the last post I was going to be putting one up outline where the blog is going next and I will do so tomorrow!