I take it you are not going to the Europeans then???

Just posted this report on another site,under a winners how did you do it thread! however in the main as well as long I would feed a 5mtre line which would with my long line be my main target areas and also a margin line, once it warms up a bit more the margin lines would be my main line lol

colemans cottage
Pathfield lake.

For those fishing at colemans cottage in the UK champs I suppose any bits of info gleaned is worthwhile

Arrived at the boundary for this match which really is a practice for the first london postal region round which will be at colemans the following week, In fact I like fishing Pathfield having posted a win on the lake last year in the first round of the leaque however the weather was a hell of a lot warmer last year, the match was limited to only 15 anglers, unlike the LPR leaque which is 66 anglers needless to say the match was filled with a who’s who of the LPR anglers Rob Pottinger winner of the garbolino clubman last year, Brennan, Joe Lonagon and Keith, etc, etc. For this match I had put in a bit of work having invested in a new margin pole and changed all my top kits over to dacron connecters after years of using stonfo’s, a switch to internal bushes had meant losing another 6 to 8inches off of the main pole, the thing I had neglected to do was check on my pole rigs or make any new ones up, however I was so wrapped up in playing with my new toy I never gave it a thought, I met team mates Steve Groves, Tony Corbett, Mick Elsom and Mac in the cafe, we all drew and I drew peg 11, the sunken island apparantly a good peg, however a quick word with Frank Thomas of Browning wickford who informed me it was in the main a long pole peg,I also had a chat with a lad who won off of the peg a week or so ago and had a big weight, mind the match on saturday had been won with only 50lb, Frank went on to say that he personally didn’t like the peg as it juts out from the bank like a pier, the trouble is if the margins fish well on other pegs you’l get battered he remarked, he went on to say that if I plumb up across there is a clump of rushes on the far bank slightly to the right you should find that a slightly deeper area,I wished Frank well 0n the open (even though he’d drawn what he called was a duff peg) as we all left to go to do battle on our pegs, when I arrived at my peg, most of the lads had already tackled up and with an hour to go time was tight, however what really threw me was the distance to the far bank island at 16.5 metres I was still a good 5 feet short, plumbing up it was slightly deeper to the right, the depth at 16.5 was a round 3 to 3 1/2ft deep which I felt was right, a metre shorter and the water shelved away, the other two lines plumbed up in haste and because of the extra depth of this peg compared to many others some of my rigs were a bit lacking in line, I rumaged around until I found a few that fitted the bill, however I also added some hooklengths of 0.14 to the 016 main line to increase the length of rigs but the lack of pre match preparation I felt could have cost me, as for the match itself there were a few carp milling around on the far bank and 16 and half metres put me about 5feet away from being tight to the far bank, but more importantly right amongst the swirling fish, I was in two minds to fish hemp and corn as it was very still cold, the water itself felt very cold, but i eventually decided on pellet, the trick on pathfield is not to feed to heavy just kinder cup as you go this was one of the reasons I decided on fishing pellet and corn as dumping in a load of hemp and corn via a big pot may not have been right on the day, better to play safe, however I did put a big pot of pellets in at 4metres and in the margin as i would not feed these lines again and would only fish them if required into the last hour, again if any fish had settled on the lines I would then kinder cup any furthur feed , as for the match itself it was fairly steady after 10 minutes I was into my first fish caught on corn over pellet and corn, I then had a couple of foul hookers as a resu

Oh forgot to add match was yesterday, wood long to the islands margin & 5metres, copse maybe bomb and pellet wag may be an option take a bomb rod in case it’s windy anyway baits remain the same.

I tipped one tin of corn in a bait box, also had meat, paste and expander pellets but as I caught well on corn didn’t bother ringing the changes, as for feed I used 4mm pellet not much again I had put around 2 pints in a bait box that I knocked into the drink half way through the match as a carp tore off to the left and my pole went across my bait waiter (don’t ask) so refilled a fresh bait box with another two pints of pellets slightly wetted them and carried on plenty of pellets left, what made me smile after landing the carp I searched for the bait box that had obviously gone into the drink even dragged the bottom of the peg to see if i could locate it to no avail, at the end of the match John brennan shouted down to me heres you bait box, I said thanks how did you get it? he said it floated down to him, I asked him what about the pellets? he said i used them thats the cost of recovery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well I was on the back bank of pathfield and when it blew it was left to right, worse on the teens & 20’s but then it normally is, however on some of those pegs you can reach the far bank with 13 & 14 mtres, the low numbers are normally quite sheltered on pathfield where as wood is a bit more exposed, although in places you have a high bank behind you, again I think copse is more sheltered.

@waveydavey21 wrote:

Hi Fred,

Thank you for this very comprehensive report (hope the other teams don’t read it)lol

Well done on your win. How much feed did you actually get through

Any other advice is very welcome.

Dunno, no we are not entering the Euros, down to Monk lakes for the Nats in September.

Did you sell the 401?

WD

DG

Davey

401 Sold just waiting on the money to go through. I will text you as we are probably sending two teams to Europeans.

sent you a pm wavey

Thanks Fred, LOL

@waveydavey21 wrote:

Ubat,

Are you fishing next Friday?

WD

No mate,

On Sunday (Team match, against Fred, LOL)