Give Yourself Options

MAP consultant Tony Curd reports back from a recent winter match where it proved that covering all the options can pay off in Winter...

Winter is well and truly with us now, and as I drove to Kent’s Monk Lakes Fishery with the frost warning light beaming at me from the dashboard, it confirmed what I was already thinking; “this is going to be a tough day”! Monk Lakes will always throw up some bites, even on the coldest winter days but naturally though, good form at the draw bag becomes even more imperative to success. That’s obviously the same wherever you go – to me a good winter venue is one that provides bites even on very mediocre draws to keep you interested. 

End pegs are always favoured here, particularly pegs 112 and 113 on Lake 3, and that day there would be no exception to the rule. So when I drew Peg 67 at the end of the spit on Lake 2 I was more than happy to take a risk on it being half-decent, although historically speaking, the right hand arm of Lake 2 (it is shallower) is generally poorer in the winter months so in terms of winning the match I would be most up against it such is the power of the Lake 3 flyers.

Arriving at my peg it was a typical wet and windy day at Monks – I don’t think I’ve ever been there when it’s flat calm! My match would be very simple, basing around one short line but with a couple of back- ups just in case the fishing proved harder than I expected.

Six metres is where I chose to fish pellets. It’s possible to catch on this line right through the winter and can be a real winner but as with all winter fishing you really do need to give yourself options just in case a line dies. The rig for this line was as simple as it gets; 0.15mm Mainline to a 0.11mm hook length and a size 18 B911. Float choice was the ever-faithful MAP WD1 in a 4x14 size, shotted with a strung bulk of No9s starting from the hook length connection loop. The depth was around 4ft here, which in winter is plenty enough to hold the fish should they want to be there.  

Not a one of the nailed-on favourite, but a peg with plenty of room would do nicely.

The second line of attack would be approached exactly the same as the short line rig, but this time at 16 metres. The water at this distance is only marginally shallower than it is on the short line but it’s a must-have line when the fish can stay planted in one area. They also may not like it close to the bank where the anglers are; it’s all about covering likely looking water I feel.

Elastic on both my pellet rigs was the new MAP White 6-10 Twin Core, which is superb for both dealing with fish on light(ish) gear and also catering for larger fish if they make an appearance; it’s what I use for nearly all my winter commercial fishing.  

As I mentioned previously, being an end peg, fishing to the adjacent bank is always an advantage and if it works you’re able to put together a weight of the lake’s bigger mirrors in no time at all. My kit for fishing this line was a 4x12 SD2 float, 0.15mm mainline to 0.13mm hooklength with a bulk of No10s and one dropper. Here it’s about two and a half foot deep, 13-metres down the bank. Again it would be a pellet attack here, but I wouldn’t be planning on feeding anything there until half way through the match, as its very uncommon to catch any earlier and I feel feeding any earlier kills the swims before you’ve even started!  

The back- up in case Pellets failed me was to totally start again find a new line of the same depth and feed and fish maggots on the long line. I also set a rig up on a top 4 to my right where I’d loose feed maggots on to hopefully nick the odd fish here and there while I re-fed/rested lines. 

The final ‘get out of jail’ attempt would be a small maggot feeder cast up the bank around 30 metres away to some reeds – there are a lot of big F1s in this venue and once it gets cold, a maggot feeder out-fishes anything else. This feeder was set up as a standard running rig with a 15-inch hook length of 0.13mm and a size 16 B911, all attached to a 10ft Parabolix Bomb rod.

At the start I potted in roughly 10 Bait-Tech 4mm Carp & Coarse pellets on the short line, and about 20, along with a few micros, on the long line, shipping out to six-metres with a 4mm Xpand pellet on the hook. If I’m honest I did expect a short burst of bites from this line being an end peg, but 20 minutes in and nothing to show for my efforts prompted me to leave it until later; I just loose fed three 4mm pellets here every couple of minutes to hopefully build it for later in the day.

Moving onto my long pellet line, I fed a few 4mm pellets through a small pole-mounted pot and slowly lowered the rig in. I waited for a few minutes then a lovely, fast dig on a dotted-down float was met with a lift and plenty of white elastic streamed out. A short scrap saw a nice mirror of about 4lb slip over rim of the net – a good start considering no one else had caught on my lake yet. Going out again I waited a further five minutes and hooked another carp; now I was beginning to get excited, especially when a slightly smaller fish (a three-pounder) made an appearance.

"...After a 20-minute biteless spell on the 
feeder the pellet line was as dead as it could possibly get…"

While I didn’t feel there was a load of fish there, I thought if I kept the feeding light and fed for one at a time I should be able to put a decent weight together. I had a 10-minute wait before another bite came – this one was a bit bigger and charged off as only carp in shallow water do. The beauty of soft elastics in this instance is you can let fish run with very little disturbance to the other fish in the swim. Soon enough, with the use of the side puller the fish was netted, a real bonus carp of about 7lb. The very next put-in produced an F1 of about a pound giving me around 15lb at the end of the first hour; if I could keep that up I’d find myself in a very good position. 

To my dismay the next hour produced absolutely nothing, despite resting the line and trying my short line once again – not good at all! After a 20-minute biteless spell on the feeder I was beginning to think about changing things, as the pellet line was dead as it could possibly get. Despite plumbing a new line and starting over I just couldn’t get anything going. In a bid to provoke a response I started loose feeding maggots at 16-metres on another new line and shipped out with a full Kinder pot of maggots with double red maggot on the hook. Lowering the rig in it went straight under and a 2lb skimmer was most welcome. Several more followed and I was getting in to some sort of routine once again. I then managed an F1 of around 3lb and a four-pound carp – “this is much more like it”, is said to myself. Re-feeding a full kinder pot of maggots roughly every three minutes seemed to be the best way to go about it.

Catching a bit of everything I managed to stay steady until the end of the match. Nothing massive showed up and wasn’t exactly bagging but it turned out that a ‘just catch a fish’ approach was a far better option on the day.  Come the last hour, I wanted to try my short lines and down the edge again in a bid to catch some bigger fish, and both failed; if I’m honest, once I didn’t catch on the short line that should have been enough of a hint to say I wasn’t going to catch in the edge, but the lure proved too much and I had to try – live and learn as they say!

At the weigh-in my net went 49lb 8oz, enough to win my half of the lake but as predicted the usual pegs took the money, with peg 112 on lake 3 winning the match with a 100lb+ weight. That’s winter fishing for you!

Winter League Fishing: How the mighty fall...

Match: TBF Winter League (Round 3)

Venue: Tunnel Barn Farm, Shrewley, Warks

Date: Saturday, 16th November

Angler: Shaun Little (MAP Designer and Consultant)

Morale was high going into the third round. The weather was mild and the team was sitting in second position. The team vibe was one of laughter and general banter. What could possibly go wrong?…

Well, I’m going to keep this one short and sweet because pretty much everything went tits up. For those of you who have been reading my blog might of realized its been few weeks since I last posted one (four weeks to be precise), as I didn’t want to re-live the memories.

Anyway enough of my moaning; considering the mild weather for the time of year, the fishing was hard over the whole complex in the week leading up to the round. The team plan was simple; start by dobbing bread towards any features, as the colour had dropped out, then switch to pellets short and if this didn’t produce bites we would loose feed maggots over it for the last hour and rotate maggots further out. 

At the draw Kurtis was once again required to work his magic and he didn’t let two of the team down. Would you believe it Mark Malin was on Extension 21… again! I honestly don’t know if this has ever happened in this league before, bearing in mind that there are 76 anglers fishing and it’s completely random where you draw each week. To draw the same lake 3 weeks in a row is good but the same peg is insane. As for the rest of the draw Aiden was on Club 11 this is a peg you would always fancy. Kurtis was on House 1 the most unpredictable of pegs it could be rigid or void of fish. Then I was on New Pool 4, which always seems devoid of fish. 

I’m not going to waffle on about how crap my peg or day was; the peg is about eight metres wide (seven if you take into account the reeds) and about 4ft deep. I caught pretty much nothing until the last hour fishing maggots at 13-metres into peg 3 and peg 5 for a total weight of 28lb. Weights around the lake were very tight – another 4lb would of propelled me into the top half – but I didn’t have 4lb more so only beat four others on my lake. Disappointing is a word that comes to mind.  As for the rest of the team, Mark once again won the lake; actually he destroyed the lake with 30lb to spare. He pretty much knows each fish by name on that peg now! Well done again mate.  Kurtis and Aiden both had days similar to mine; so on the team front things weren’t looking to rosy.

With a team score of 32 points we were next-but-last on the day, dropping down to seventh in the overall table. What a rollercoaster – hours before it was all smiles and banter, now the atmosphere was slightly less buoyant.

I suppose this is the addiction of match fishing, the extreme highs and lows of winning and losing. It will be case of trying to hit the ground running for the next round. But there’s still a long way to go with seven rounds left....  

Winter League Fishing: Keep calm and carry on fishing...

Match: TBF Winter League (Round 2)

Venue: Tunnel Barn Farm, Shrewley, Warks

Date: Saturday, 2^nd November

Angler: Shaun Little (MAP Designer and Consultant)

After avoiding the possibility of a catastrophe in the first round, the team morale was high going into Round 2. The weather had been more consistent leading up to this round so the expectations of catching some fish were at the forefront of the team conversations. All we needed now was a decent team draw…

As I left the house on the morning of the second match it became obvious that we were going to get a battering off the wind; constant gusts emptied the tree outside my house of acorns right on top of my car. To give you an idea of what this is like imagine someone dropping a quarter ounce lead from 30ft onto the roof of your car – it makes quite a donk! Anyway, car loaded, maggots cleaned (all 10 pints – thanks lads, you owe me) and I was off. I've got to give a quick mention to Duncan at Solihull Angling Centre for those cracking maggots; great shop and top bloke.

Pulling up at the usual time (7:45am) it was apparent that everyone was eager to get into the draw bag. Just so you’re aware, the draw for this league is rolling from 8am.  Kurtis once again volunteered to draw for the team and this time we weren’t disappointed; Aiden was on New Pool 3, which has had some form of late. Kurtis drew himself the winning peg from last round, Club 23, but with the wind blowing to the opposite end of the lake, the fish might have moved. Would you believe it, Mark was on Extension 21… again, so we all expected a great result from him. My destination was 29 on Top Pool, my favourite peg on the pool but with having a split section with the dreaded Club Pool you’re always really up against it. 

If you haven’t seen peg 29 on Top pool it has pretty much everything, you are situated looking up along the lake on your own little point. With the end of the island at 14.5m, plenty of open water to fish either side of the island and a load of room down to your right hand edge.

Onto the plan of attack; Top Pool is full of F1s but they tend to be smaller than on the other lakes. It is rammed full of slivers and for this reason I planned to fish a pellet-based match to target the F1s, with the possibility of feeding maggot by hand later to try and catch anything and everything shallow.

Lines for the day were simple; I plumbed up at four metres then added a section and then another – perfect, pretty much flat. This allows me to start at four meters then add sections as each swim dies using the same rig.  The next two lines either side of island were set at around two feet deep. The third and final line was plumbed to the spare pallet to my right. Offering 3ft of water and with the wind blowing into it, I fancied it to hold some fish later in the match.

At the whistle I decided to start the match on a similar principle to the previous round, feeding negatively to gauge the response, so I trickled in 20 micro pellets through a bottle top pot, fishing a 4mm expander on the hook and shipped out to four metres. The first bite took around five minutes and as expected the culprit was a ten-ounce F1. The second bite took around the same time, which for this lake was a lot slower than I expected. 

"The island swim felt as if it was getting stronger until the sun came out and I couldn’t see a thing; to say I was fuming was an understatement."

After around 45 minutes I had seven small F1s but bites were very tricky. I’d started on a strung-out bulk but decided to tighten it up, pulling it around six inches from my hook. This seemed to do the trick resulting in more positive bites. By two-hour mark I had pretty much exhausted my deeper lines with around 20 small F1s and a few slivers. I decided to venture to my island line (right side), again fishing pellets but this didn’t really produce, so a switch to left side was called for. This side had a much gentler slope and it didn’t take long for the float to dip and my double No5 elastic to slide out with a much better F1 around 1lb 8oz. This line felt as if it was getting stronger until the sun came out and I couldn’t see a thing; to say I was fuming was an understatement. So it was down the edge then. An attempt to feed maggots shallow resulted in my face been covered in maize and the maggots pretty much landing in my nets. I caught steady for the last hour and half switching between my edge and across (when I could see). With two minutes left I hooked another small F1 until my hook pulled sending my rig round my pole tip and bottle top – damn!!! But would it cost me?

As the scales came round, word had it that there were two 100lb-plus weights and a 90lb from Club Pool (in my split section). I knew I had nowhere near that so I was playing for fourth. I placed 65lb 3oz on scales and ended up third on my lake. The mighty Stu Pulsar won the lake with 86lb, which was a serious performance. More sickening was the fact that in my section there was a 65lb 6oz and 65lb 10oz, so that lost fish cost me points putting me seventh in my overall section. Mark put in a sterling performance to win his section and finish third overall with 100lb, well done master!! Kurtis had a solid performance with a sixth in section. Aiden will be cringing that I’m going speak of this again; he fished an awesome match, finishing fourth in his section…. sorry my mistake… he finished fifth because he tipped his second net into his first, going over 50lb per net limit, which cost him a place…. enough said!

Back at the café we all took great pleasure in mocking Aiden, but word had it we would be well up there in terms of team points. Once again the teams were read out from last to first. As it got to the top three we still hadn’t been called out… third was called, not us. Then would you believe it, we were named joint first-place, knocked back to second on weight count back, which meant we were sitting second overall in the league.

A combination of silly mistakes from myself included, cost the team on the day and with things like that lost fish at the end, it just goes to show how fine the margins are when you’re up against a quality field of angler.  Just goes to show the quality of this league and how fine the margins really are.

Shaun Little

MAP Designer and consultant

Winter League fishing: The campaign starts here...

Match: TBF Winter League (round1 )

Venue: Tunnel Barn Farm, Shrewley, Warks

Date: Saturday, 19^th October

Angler: Shaun Little (MAP Designer and Consultant)

After months of anticipation the start of my winter league fishing had finally arrived, the first of these being the Tunnel Barn Winter League that is widely regarded as one of the toughest commercial leagues in the country. This year would be no different, with 19 teams of four entered and with the likes of Steve Ringer, Des Shipp and Jamie Hughes fishing it (to name just a few) it would obviously be a very difficult league indeed.

I’m a massive fan of winter fishing, hence most of my fishing is participated during this time. I know many people associate this time of year with the drawbag playing more of a part than any actual angling skill – I don’t believe that by the way – but I find that if you are prepared to work that little bit harder and think that little bit longer than the anglers around you, the rewards will speak for themselves.

Anyway, that’s my philosophy; onto the winter league.

I had been fishing the odd match to get a feel for the venue again in between working tradeshows and getting an earful off the missus for never being around. As a team we felt we were on track, until the usual British weather turned that upside down; the temperature dropped and it lashed it down. So a mid-week trip was called for and the team player that I am, I offered to go at sit in the rain all day working things out.  I drew 31 on House pool and for those of you who know Tunnel Barn, this is a decent peg and with 30 not in it’s even better.  The aim of the day was to establish if maggots or pellets would be the preferred bait. As a brief overview, it fished incredibly hard with maggots outperforming pellets by far… 58lb won the match and as some people I know would say, I was the first ‘loser’ with 55lb. More importantly though, I had gained important knowledge and confidence for the forthcoming winter league round.

Or had I….

That night the team calls were made to teammates Mark Malin, Aiden Mansfield and Kurtis Trantor, and the knowledge spread around. That was Wednesday; air temperature 12 degrees. Thursday, Friday and Saturday air temperatures were between 15-17 degrees – bollocks! But more of the effects of that later…

The night before the match anticipation was running through my mind as I was putting the finishing touches to my gear. This is what’s great about this time of year, you just can’t predict what will happen. Will I be fishing for 100lb or 40lb? What bait, depth, shotting pattern or feeding pattern will work best? These are all questions that are hardest to answer at this time of year.

Tunnel Barn Farm is one of the most popular venues in the UK and its winter league attracts some of the best anglers there are.

The morning of the first round arrived. I woke up to my alarm and it was still dark, the first sign that the winter league season is here. As I left the house I was greeted by a typical autumn morning; overcast, damp yet surprisingly warm.  As a team we opted to get there as early as possible to get in the draw bag before all the flyers were gone (Match Fishing magazine’s Joe Carass usually grabs one of those!). With the team draw made we had two great pegs in the shape of New Pool 25, occupied by yours truly, and Extension 21 to which the smile on Mark Malin’s face said it all. The other two pegs were below average in my opinion; Top Pool 8 and House 1. Both these sections are split with Club Pool and at this time of year it’s almost impossible to compete against the other lakes that stand alone. But that was the draw, no point in crying over spilt milk as they say. A positive attitude is a must regardless of the draw and in team matches, damage limitation is imperative off the bad pegs because every team will have one or two duff pegs.

Moving on to my peg, New Pool is an oddly-shaped snake lake that meanders its way around itself. Peg 25 is on the ‘road bank’, which is a long straight and also one of the widest parts of the lake at 15-metres. At this time of year I think this is always an advantage, as it offers a lot more water to target and brings options to explore.

Upon arriving at my peg I had a scout around to see who was in my section; Jamie Hughes and Mark Pollard were two I had to deal with. It’s never easy in this league with the caliber of anglers that enter. 

The plan of attack was pretty simple and although I had caught well on maggots in the week with the weather warming up, I opted to start on pellets. My opening line was plumbed up at five sections straight in front of me, which is about six inches deeper than the rest of the peg. It’s so important to spend that little extra time plumbing around the whole peg to get a feel for the features and contours before making a decision on where to fish. The next line was at 3.5ft deep and I just plumbed around on the far bank until I found that depth. After a lot of rain sometimes the fish like to sit off the bottom and working a rig up and down the far slope can really be the difference. The third line was set at two feet deep, tight to the far bank, which also doubled-up perfectly with my inside to the next pallet. 

At the whistle I compressed 30 micro pellets into my bottle top pot and slipped a 4mm expander on the hook then shipped out to my five-section line. My thinking was to start off negative in terms of feed and judge it from there. After five minutes of regular lifting and dropping, the floats dipped and the first F1 was hooked and safely netted. The swim looked like it was going to improve but after three fish, the activity tailed off. Confident that the fish were there but requiring more feed I started to introduce a full pot; this resulted in a few fish but again it just died. I reverted back to feeding 30 pellets and it did the trick; 10 fish came to the net, all near the 1lb 8oz mark and giving me a good enough weight to keep up with the other anglers in the section. By feeding like this I was able to keep my short line fishing longer than everyone around me.

As always though there comes a point where you are having to work harder and harder for a bite and its vital to know when it’s time to move on. I’d had 15 fish and felt reassured I would catch on my other lines. The original plan was to feed maggot by hand over my five-section line once I came off it, but it seemed too much of a risk given how the first hour had fished and if the other lines didn’t fish then I’d be screwed… and how right I was; after 45 minutes of trying my other lines I just couldn’t string any fish together.

This was the pattern for the rest of the match; I had to keep reverting back to my five-section line, have four or five fish then rotate around my other lines picking odd fish up. By ‘big potting’ maggots tight across I managed to snare a 8lb ghostie, although I wouldn’t normally do that at this time of year but sometimes when a swim isn’t working a calculated risk can pay off. As the all-out whistle sounded I had around 38 fish, which I felt would maybe push 70lb. At the start I would have taken 60lb so I felt reasonably content. When the scales arrived Jamie Hughes was winning the lake with a fantastic 87lb off an unfancied peg – what a performance! I placed 77lb on the scales, which was good enough for second on the lake and in the section. The warmer, more consistent weather of the previous few days had clearly made a big difference to the fish. If I had been on the same peg on Wednesday I feel I would struggled for 60lb. 

It was now a case of anxiously ringing around the lads to see they had got on. Mark had done the job finishing fourth on his lake, Aiden & Kurtis were a little more downbeat, both coming mid-way in their sections. Come the all-important final placing the general consensus was that we would be about halfway out of the 19 teams. As the teams were read out from last to first our smiles gradually grow as more and more teams were read out. Eventually it came to us – MAP/Bait Tech was shouted out in fourth place overall, just two points behind the third-placed team. This just goes to reiterate my earlier point that it’s all about damage limitation from those bad draws and that’s exactly what the lads had done.

That match was only the first round – there are nine more to go in the league – and there’s no guarantee that we’ll get those all-important better draws over the forthcoming rounds, we can only hope.

Just before I sign off I have to say a massive well done to Joe Carass and his team; not only did he win the match outright but also his team wiped the floor with a massive 70 point score… well done guys.

Here’s to the next round and I’ll definitely keep you posted…

Shaun Little

MAP Designer and consultant

               

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