I was suposed to have been on the Gloucester Canal this weekend for the first round of the South West Super League with my team (Sensas Cardiff Nomads). However as we were over subscribed with 10 anglers looking to fill 8 spots, I withdrew as it meant I could travel to West Wales with the family and have a weekend in the Caravan.
Despite the weather forecast to be far from seasonal, it means I can spend time with the children and still go fishing!
This then meant that another match at Ian Heaps's Holgan Farm was in store for Sunday.
The conditions leading up to the match were far from superb with Saturday presenting us with thunderstorms, a deluge of rain and a very strong easterly wind to boot.
The match was on the Carp lake which I hadn't fished before, but reading reports before hand, there has been a few big weights off there with Carp around 6-10lb the norm.
I drew peg 21 which I was told was a pretty consistent peg, I had an island opposite with a small bay that cried out fish so I was quite pleased with that.
I set up three pole rigs, one at 13m on the deck, one for the margins and one at 5m straight in front.
The Pellet waggler and pellet feeder were also set up to cast to the Island in front of me.
On the whistle I potted in a decent cup full of 8mm pellets and a few grains of Corn on the long line, and fed the margin and 5m line by hand to give a wider scatter of the bait.
Most people went straight onto the pole line on the whistle, but i decided to have a few casts to the island on the pellet feeder if nothing else to get some food over there.
It was a slow start however and after an hour, only one fish had been caught in the match, i'd had one liner on the tip and nothing on all three pole lines.
For some strange reason the lake had totally switched off, no one was catching, no one was getting bites. There were a few Fish cruising on the top so the next method to try was the pellet waggler.
I set the depth to as shallow as I could and gave it a few casts to see what was going on.
About 5th cast in a big Carp rolled next to my float and the float buried, thank fully I was into a fish! After a good scrap (and these Holgan Carp really pull back!) up popped a beautiful common about 8lb. Disaster struck however and just as I was about to scoop it the hook pulled, it turned out to be foul hooked on the side.
For some reason these fish were not feeding so instead the normal pellet waggler tactics of regular casting and feeding I did something more un conventional as cast it out and left it there just putting the odd pouch of pellets in over the top.
This method did eventually mug me two Carp, I lost another two foul hookers but it was a weird day.
Having a break now and again from the pellet wag I tried the margin and pole lines after continually feeding them but with out any bites.
One last tactic I tried was the straight lead, I took the pellet feeder off and cast the lead baited with a single 8mm banded and spraying pellets of the top.
After a few liners the rod doubled over and I was connected with large creature of some sort. What ever it was didn't want to be caught and took me straight in a bush tight over to the Island. The fish won the battle and another chance was lost.
Most people around the lake only had two or three carp a piece so I weighed in and my two fish went just under 13lb. 53lb won the match but the rest of the weights were all low, the winner had caught a few by mugging them on the pole whilest they were cruising past.
Talking after the match, the general concensous was that due to the amount of rain we had in the build up, cold water had flooded the lake which had turned them off the feed. On Ian's water management system his lakes are fed from the local river and the Carp lake is the recieptient of the inlet so will have taken on all the rain water from the river. None of us are fish scientists however so it could have been that or some other reason to explain the reason why the fish didnt feed.
Despite it being a tough and difficult match with not a lot of activity, this fishery is one of the best i've been to so will still look forward to the next visit there in a few weeks time.
For more details on Holgan Farm go to www.ian-heaps.com/
The picture below shows my swim and the running line area's I based my attack on.
Despite the weather forecast to be far from seasonal, it means I can spend time with the children and still go fishing!
This then meant that another match at Ian Heaps's Holgan Farm was in store for Sunday.
The conditions leading up to the match were far from superb with Saturday presenting us with thunderstorms, a deluge of rain and a very strong easterly wind to boot.
The match was on the Carp lake which I hadn't fished before, but reading reports before hand, there has been a few big weights off there with Carp around 6-10lb the norm.
I drew peg 21 which I was told was a pretty consistent peg, I had an island opposite with a small bay that cried out fish so I was quite pleased with that.
I set up three pole rigs, one at 13m on the deck, one for the margins and one at 5m straight in front.
The Pellet waggler and pellet feeder were also set up to cast to the Island in front of me.
On the whistle I potted in a decent cup full of 8mm pellets and a few grains of Corn on the long line, and fed the margin and 5m line by hand to give a wider scatter of the bait.
Most people went straight onto the pole line on the whistle, but i decided to have a few casts to the island on the pellet feeder if nothing else to get some food over there.
It was a slow start however and after an hour, only one fish had been caught in the match, i'd had one liner on the tip and nothing on all three pole lines.
For some strange reason the lake had totally switched off, no one was catching, no one was getting bites. There were a few Fish cruising on the top so the next method to try was the pellet waggler.
I set the depth to as shallow as I could and gave it a few casts to see what was going on.
About 5th cast in a big Carp rolled next to my float and the float buried, thank fully I was into a fish! After a good scrap (and these Holgan Carp really pull back!) up popped a beautiful common about 8lb. Disaster struck however and just as I was about to scoop it the hook pulled, it turned out to be foul hooked on the side.
For some reason these fish were not feeding so instead the normal pellet waggler tactics of regular casting and feeding I did something more un conventional as cast it out and left it there just putting the odd pouch of pellets in over the top.
This method did eventually mug me two Carp, I lost another two foul hookers but it was a weird day.
Having a break now and again from the pellet wag I tried the margin and pole lines after continually feeding them but with out any bites.
One last tactic I tried was the straight lead, I took the pellet feeder off and cast the lead baited with a single 8mm banded and spraying pellets of the top.
After a few liners the rod doubled over and I was connected with large creature of some sort. What ever it was didn't want to be caught and took me straight in a bush tight over to the Island. The fish won the battle and another chance was lost.
Most people around the lake only had two or three carp a piece so I weighed in and my two fish went just under 13lb. 53lb won the match but the rest of the weights were all low, the winner had caught a few by mugging them on the pole whilest they were cruising past.
Talking after the match, the general concensous was that due to the amount of rain we had in the build up, cold water had flooded the lake which had turned them off the feed. On Ian's water management system his lakes are fed from the local river and the Carp lake is the recieptient of the inlet so will have taken on all the rain water from the river. None of us are fish scientists however so it could have been that or some other reason to explain the reason why the fish didnt feed.
Despite it being a tough and difficult match with not a lot of activity, this fishery is one of the best i've been to so will still look forward to the next visit there in a few weeks time.
For more details on Holgan Farm go to www.ian-heaps.com/
The picture below shows my swim and the running line area's I based my attack on.