MFS - How End Fishery, 9th June 2013

After a very heavy weekend out with friends in St James Park and then in Clapham I managed to drag my butt out of bed at 6am to get ready for a day at Phil and Tarnya's place, How End Fishery in Bedfordshire organise by Colbrad from Matchfishing Scene.  Col had put extra effort in to ensure there were enough anglers competing that it would count towards MFS Champions League points!  So a big thanks to Col and the lads who came from further afield (Mark and Ruddy).

Gathering round in Peb's tackle shop, we were all buying out bait, odds and sods and then there was RuddyRoach (Steve) who apparently calls Phil when he breaks tackle which he has been doing quite a lot latey!  So Ruddy turns up with a top kit that had "smashed" on him at the Glebe in the MFS Glebe pairs event...  There were at 5 pieces of carbon taped together with elastic, pulla bung and connector just dangling in the carbon wreckage.  He is a funny bloke Ruddy and he was wearing his lucky jumper... you all know the one, the light brown one with small holes over it, would he be lucky today as a pound was riding on it between us!

The Draw
As the crowd was gathering and the pegs being put into the bag for the draw somebody in the group decided to gas everyone out and let a silent but deadly fart rip through the cabin... It emptied the place in 30 seconds... shocking behaviour!  Sorry lads but I just couldn't help myself ;-)  This wouldn't be the end of any poo type smells of the day... more on that one later...

Today we would be fishing Yasi's Lake and f the first time I've seen an orderly queue lined up and when I got to the bag I pulled out Peg 2.

The Set-up
I've fished both Peg 1 and Peg 3 before, one during another MFS match back in April 2012 and the other a day with Mark in May 2011, just after Phil and Tarnya open the doors to the fishery.  This made me feel comfortable with the area I'd drawn.  The lake profile at How End on both Yasi's and Dani's surveyed via laser so the depth around the lake are very even and this helps with rigs as the far shelf rig also is your near shelf rig.  My plan was as follows as advised by Phil:
  • Far shelf line, not on the shelf, but just off it on the downward slope
  • Right hand margin, using the far shelf rig
  • 5 metre line at full depth
  • 5 metre line at 3/4 depth
Bait for the day was Red/White maggot, Casters, Worm, expander pellet and some corn.

As I was preparing the expander pellets, Mark called over and asked if I could make him some up too which I did.  I took them over to his peg and while I was there managed to stand in a pile of dog poo which went all over Mark's roller and rod holdall.  I didn't realise until I got back to my peg and the stench was quite apparent.  This allowed plenty of friendly abuse from the lads around me and I suppose was sweet revenge for the stink bomb I dropped earlier ;-)

The All-In
Col "whistled" the all-in and I decided to try something a bit different to normal.  So instead of cupping in bait to my chosen swims I decided to feel my way into the match via the kinder pot.  The only area I would feed was the far shelf with 6-8 casters every 3-4 minutes.  So kicking off the 5 metre swim with a kinder pot of chopped worm and caster I baited up with 3/4 of a worm to see if I could mug a large carp or barbel early.  30 mins in and two kinder pots, lift and dropping the bait, the float finally dissappears and the first fish is on... not for long mind you as I lift to bring the fish to the net it bumps off and so began my day of "bumping" fish, or as the term has been now coined, "doing a Lewy"... Thanks Baz ;-)

After an hour on the 5 metre line, nothing, so I decided to go over to the far shelf and try my luck there.  Baiting with a single red maggot the float soon went and the smallest of perch came skittering across the water and in the net, not the best fish to start with and the white hydro never even budged!

The maggot started to produce some ide on a regular basis and I was getting into the rhythm, but I was still bumping a lot of fish, so I changed the white hydro top kit for blue hydro which helped a lot.  Phil popped round and suggested I swap to caster as a hook bait.  This started to produce fish quicker and I also up'd my feed rate.  Meantime Barry to my right had hooked a few carp and barbel and I still felt I was on the catch up.  Dean to my left was trying the paste but wasn't having too much luck.

As the match progressed I change to double caster and this resulted in a better stamp of ide.  It was clear there was plenty of fish out there as the float was dancing around everytime I fed.  As I was fishing slightly down the top shelf I didn't get any foul hooked fish.

The sun came out to play and I had been catching and bumping fish steadily throughout the day.  The double caster hook bait was changed to a section of worm which was more resilent and allowed me to catch a few fish without the need to change the bait every time I either hooked, bumped and missed a bite.

With two hours to go I primed the right hand margin line which in the end didn't produce anything at all.  Dean to my left had started to catch some good barbel from the margin and Barry was hooking small perch from his margin.

I fished my match out on the far shelf and had fed around 1.5 pints of casters during the match.  Once the all out was called Barry felt that I had beaten him, but I wasn't so sure, only the weigh in would tell!

The Result
28lb 12oz of mainly Ide with one carp... which took the Section win and overall 4th on the lake.  Well happy, especially as I got Barry's pound off him ;-)

Top Ten
1st Trevor J 44lb 10 oz
2nd Justincase 32lb 6 oz
3rd Ruddyroach 31lb 4oz
4th Lewy 28lb 120z
5th Steve 50-50 24lb 4oz
6th Colbrad41 23lb 8oz
7th jwb 23lb 2oz
8th Baz315 21lb 12oz
9th Brian B 18lb 0oz
10th Dean C 17lb 6oz

Sections
A Trevor J, JC, Ruddy
B Lewy, Colbrad41, Baz315

Well fished Trevor who had been fishing worm over micro pellets.

Conclusion
I was really pleased with my result but had expected Barry (Baz315) to have done me weight wise with his carp and barbel.  I did bump a lot of fish (now know as doing a "Lewy"), swtching to the blue hydro helped, but I wished I'd gone down to Pink Hydro, just didn't bring it.  So the main lesson learnt is always pack for the unexpected!

A great day, well organised Col, big thanks as usual to Phil and Tarnya, this fishery is getting stronger and stronger with the fish really growing well.  Bring on the two dayer in August, although I can see a lot of soar heads that weekend!

Pictures of the lads...
What a lovely bunch ;-)













Nice arse Phil ;-)




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