Due to an impromptu trip to the pub on Wednesay evening, the planned early start failed to materialise and I slung my gear in the car at about 12:30pm!
I drove down to Smithys to get some hook pellets (more on that later) and a few micros.
I then proceeded to take possibly the longest, most roundabout trip to Barston ever. Eventually I pulled up at the very swish looking golf club after safely negotiaiting the roadworks on the Kenilworth Road.
There was a match on the Match lake from pegs 1-11, and the rest of the lake was pretty full. I had two pegs to pick from, 15 and 16. I decided on 16 because I'd already lugged my kit that far! I prefer it like this to be honest, as in my experience when these sort of lakes are empty you don't learn anything as the carp just crawl up your pole!
Sitting down to plumb up revealed 2 feet of water under my feet, 2 feet tight over at about 12 metres, about 4 feet next to the lilies to my right and about 5 feet over the ledge behind the lilies to my left.
Due to the appalling wind I decided to abandon the farbank line before I even got a rig on the top kit and concentrate on the inside lines (something I'd heard can be productive at Barston anyway). Despite the wind the weather was lovely, warm sunshine. What a refreshing change to the last week.
For the deep water swim to my left I set up a 4 x 16 Dinsmores pattern on 0.14 Matchteam straight through to a Preston PR28 (size 18) and Middy Shock Core 12-16 elastic. The shallower rig for the left hand swim was exactly the same except with a 4 x 14 float. I also set up a 4 x 12 float on 0.16 to a size 16 PR22, again to Middy 12-16 for (hopefully) catching on paste at my feet at the end.
To the left I fed half a drennan 500ml pot of micro pellets, with about a dozen grains of corn and a couple of pinches of 4mm pellets. (Dynamite baits). To the right to gain a hopefully instant response in the slightly shallower water I fed half a pot of pellet slop only. Going straight over the slop resulted in instant indications, as my corn hookbait was the only real food in the swim. They were very finicky though so by putting 6 inches of line on the deck with all the shot in a bulk 8 inches from the hook I was able to achieve stable presentation, with breakers heading down the lake right to left and one heck of a tow going the other way! I netted a very surprised looking skimmer of about 12oz as my first fish, so fed over the top of the swim straight away with more slop and a big handful of pellets. Going back in resulted in a chubby little carplet of about a pound. Topping up with a kinder pot of slop or micros after each fish saw me put 5 fish for about 6-7lb in the (figurative) net. I boshed in some more feed and had a look on the left hand swim. Straight away was into a run of carp averaging 3lb or so, and by feeding a kinder pot of pellets and a couple of grains of corn after every fish I put another dozen or so in the net over the next two hours, all on corn. By this point I'd all but abandoned the right hand swim, but had been flicking micros and 4mm pellets tight in the bank slightly to my left for the last two hours. I was now seeing a few swirls and mud plumes in the shallow water, so moulded a lump of paste the size of a golf ball on the hook and dropped it in. The float just kept going and a common of about 5lb was soon safely in the bottom of the net. Despite the disturbance I pulled out another two carp of 3 and 4lb respectively. Following a lost foulhooker which resulted in a Matchteam bids nest with a scale the size of a beer mat (almost
) I decided to call it a day, having put somewhere in the region of 55-60 lbs together in a little under 4 hours. It looks like I'd have won the match by a fair distance too, even with a later start...
I tried those Van den eynde hook pellets (the ones in the square tub) and they smelled lovely, looked a bit pale, and stayed on the hook well. Sadly the fish didn't like them, so I'll have to try them elsewhere. I also tried some of the ringer hook pellets, which smelled even better, were darker. However, I don't know if the fish liked them or not as I couldn't get them in the swim! I don't know if it was just mine or if they are always this soft, but I left some on my tray to dry up and get a bit tougher. These then would stay on the hook better. However, the barston carp only wanted corn!
I thought I fished really well, making changes at all the right times instead of being lazy, and really experimented with my feeding, from which I learned a lot. By my own admission I'm an average at best commercial angler, but on thursday I felt I'd got to grips with pellets a bit more.
I might even go back next week....
Barston, Solihull - Match Lake
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