Bury Hill Fisheries, 29th August 2018

A facebook post from Hathers looking for some volunteers for the Wednesday retiree, self employed and builders match at Old Bury Hill made me put in a day of unpaid leave, its just too good a place to miss and the fishing was reportedly very good.

Arriving at the fishery it was raining and quite overcast, given our summer, rain was last thing on my mind.

The Draw
We all gathered round the cabin jostling for position.  Eventually my turn and peg 13 would be my home for the day.  Neighbours Hathers and Shedders, so plenty of friendly abuse to be had.

Set-up
My initial thoughts given the wind blowing across the peg was to sack the pole and just fish the rods. Choice of rods were:
  • 12' Bomb and tea bag clipped up at 50 metres
  • 12' Method, also clipped up at 50 metres
  • 10' Method around 20 metres
I was setup very quickly and the weather was clearing so plenty of time to get the pole out and setup a line at 14metres.

Bait was mainly pellet and groundbait however I also had some casters, maggots and sweetcorn.

As we were all setting up, we heard a moan from next door, Hathers, he had left his reel handles at home... oh dear... he turned down the offers of reels from the lads and promptly disappeared home for a 90 minute round journey to retrieve his handles... what a knob! ;-)

All-In
With plenty of groundbait mixed I decided to drop 6 balls of groundbait together with half a pint of casters on the pole line spread in an approximate 1 metre square.

First choice was the method feeder at 50 metres with a timed cast at 5 minutes.  After 30 minutes not a sign although Hathers had returned from his round trip home to collect his reel handles...

I decided on a change and cast shorter with a method, again 5 minute casts.  Why change, well I could see fish getting caught on the pole lines next to me, plus Shedders had gone short too.  Not bites here either...

Hathers had setup now and he was catching fish on both his long line and short feeder line where he was pinging a few pellets over.  I decided that I needed to go long with the tea bag, go longer than the 50 metres I'd initially measured and clipped up at.
The missing handles...

All the cast were being timed and eventually around the 5 minute mark the tip rattled round and the first fish was on.  The 5 minute pattern continued for 3 fish and then they seemed to back off however I'd decided to stick to the plan now.

Bringing the bomb and dumbbell back in from the distance chuck one time I hooked up on something else that felt a bit larger which I assumed would be a foul hooked fish.  It turned out to be a Zander that had nailed the bait coming back in.  My first ever Zander, an ugly looking fish too... and it didn't count towards my weight either...

I fished the tea bag for the rest of the match until the final 30 minutes.  I also ran out of tea bagged pellets, so a quick dash to the tackle shop to grab some PVA mesh and make up some new bags was required.  The fish definitely came in groups of three fish, then they would back off.  A yellow 8mm dumbbell was the best bait over an 8mm pellet.

The final 30 minutes I'd quickly topped up the pole line with a ball of groundbait and went straight over it with some sweetcorn at 14 metres.  The bite was instant and another good Bury Hill bream was in the net.  I had 5 fish in the final 30 minutes, lifting and dropping the bait proved the answer and the last fish was a cracking fish of around 3lb.

Result
P1 Fred Flinstone 77:10 - 1st
P2 Silvers Johnson 77:08 - 2nd
P3 Nectar Swann 40:00 - Sect
P4 Bubsy FTW
P6 Big Simon 28:08
P8 Dean Liven 39:00
P10 Rik and Jago Baxter 25:10
P11 Handles Hathway 42:08 - 4th
P13 Lewy 27:08
P14 Shredders Speller 17:04
P16 Chris Reeves 58:12 - 3rd/Sect
P18 Tippy Taylor 34:08
P20 Tuckshop Norman 16:08

Conclusion
I should have stuck to my own plans at the start of the match rather than chasing the fishing that I could see getting caught around me... plain and simple.

I had a pound bet with Shedders which I won however I stupidly traded that pound to Hathers how just about doubled my weight which considering he started late was an excellent run.

Should I have gone on the pole earlier?  It wouldn't have harmed having a look see especially as my run of 5 good fish in 30 minutes probably doubled my weight.

More Pictures...
Look at the ugly mush...on the fish!
My first Zander, which didn't count
D'oh, what does this button do...???

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lake Semerwater, Wensleydale, 15th May 2022

Image
In a break from the normal commercials and after sorting all the the fishing gear out and finding a load of distance feeders that simply had not been used I decided it was time to tackle a large, wild water close to me. Searching YouTube and finding some videos by Jamie Harrison and Lee Kerry, Lake Semerwater became the target.  I roped in Patrick from work and Mr Curry an old friend I've not seen for quite some years.  The target was set, the prep was done and it was a very early start from sunny Stockton to drive to the beautiful Wensleydale and Lake Semerwater. Arriving at the farmhouse for 6am and catching up with Rich we headed down to the parking areas to be treated to fish in the shallows and a fabulous morning view. Patrick arrived about 30 minutes later and we tackled the bumpy 100 metre walk to where the stream fed into the lake. The Draw Rich as he was first to arrived went next to the stream, I went in the middle and Patrick on the right hand side.  Comfortable close
Read more

Renny Lakes, East Harlsey, 14th May 2023

Image
Well the second trip out in 2023, the first one didn’t go as planned, I didn’t take to many photographs we didn’t catch any fish and I didn’t write a blog post about it… sorry about that. So the fishing whatsapp group voted for a day on Renny Lakes which didn’t mean too much of a long drive for Mr Curry or the rest of us. I’d also invited Sam along, Sam last fished back in 2016 so a great chance for him to get hooked a second time so to speak! The Pegs Renny Lakes has changed from a three lake complex back to two lakes. So a quick walk round the larger lake we found three pegs next to each other with islands and open water to go at. Set-Up I’d brought two rods with me for a simple days fishing while coaching Sam. A waggler rod and a feeder rod with a micro hybrid feeder on. Bait was simple too, maggots, sweetcorn, 6mm and 8mm pellets. All-In I’d just finished plumbing the depth on waggler a few rod length out when Sam arrived. We quickly set his rod up to fish a
Read more

Lake Semerwater, Wensleydale, 13th November 2022

Image
After a very enjoyable trip in May and Jack wanting to learn a bit of feeder fishing together with the weather for November looking pretty good, our little fishing group headed back to Wensleydale and the fantastic Lake Semerwater.  The only one missing was Mr Curry who was on a promise?!   Watching the weather in the lead-up to the weekend it was looking like a great day ahead, overcast, no rain, constant air pressure however maybe a little windy. The Sunday morning drive to get to the lake for first light was very foggy with some rain, had the weather got it wrong? The Pegs Arriving at the lake, it looked fantastic, the water level was a lot higher than the May trip and there was a clear “tide” mark higher up the bank where the level had been some days before.  There was already a pike angler in the area that we wanted to fish however enough room between him and the river inlet for us to get two boxes in the water without disturbing each other.  Set-up When I gr
Read more