Silverfox Match Angling: Thursday 18/02/2016 - Over 55's and Disabled - Dave Crookes Fishery

Thursday, 18 February 2016

Thursday 18/02/2016 - Over 55's and Disabled - Dave Crookes Fishery - Withy pool

Haven’t been fishing The Dave Crookes Fishery recently but decided to give Withy pool a try as it has been relatively left unscathed.

It was a really bumpy ride down the roadway to Withy Pool – need a 4x4!

I think 24 anglers are too many for this Pool, with 20 being about right, thus being able leaving out some of the less fancied pegs. Into the draw bag and out comes disabled peg 66. Happy with this as it can throw up either Carp or Skimmers. That said due to the opposite leafless trees it is very difficult to see the float, especially today with the sun being in and out – out with a yellow float was fine, with the sun in I couldn’t see any colour float tip too well.

As the peg is in a leg I only had peg 67 for company, Bailiff John Fry. However, I did have an intruder from time to time coming between us throughout the match who I caught on video below.

For me an 1 1/2 hours to set-up is far too long so had plenty of time to wander around and take the pictured right.

I set up the Ronnie rig for caster over caster and as it transpired I was too optimistic which produced absolutely nothing and was soon abandoned. The rig I fished for 99% of the six hour match was a 4x16 Jolly – 0.18 G-line main line and a 0.14 G-line hook length supporting a no 16 -808 Tubertini hook.

I fed a line at 10 metres with wetted micro and the 11.5 metre line with GB laced with maggot. I started on the semi-hard pellet hook bait at 10 metres and didn’t have any indication whatsoever, having a painful first hour fishless and freezing cold as I was in the shade. I tried the 11.5 metre line with maggot over the GB and likewise didn’t have any indication. Meanwhile John Fry was catching Skimmers regularly on expander pellet. Back on the 10 metre line but this time started to feed maggot and with double Maggot on the hook and had my first bite, a 2oz Skimmer. I decided to keep topping up with a smidgen of micro and a red maggot. I soon had another bite a 2 oz Ronnie. It then went quiet for a while until I had my next bite a 9lb 13oz Common Carp which was carefully played to the landing net. Over the next four painful hours I landed another 5 small Ronnie’s.

With my back aching from holding the pole for lengthy motionless periods, I was glad to hear the all out and start moving around.

I weighed 10lb 7oz fro fifth in the match ad last in the envelope brigade.

The match was won by Ray Bazeley (pictured right with the Silvers winner) with 22-04-0 from peg 44 which included a 16lb 6 carp and a couple of decent Skimmers.

The Silvers was won by Tony Rixon with 12lb 4oz comprising of mainly four Bream to 4lb…see Tony’s blog for more details.

Withy pool fished hard today with many DNW’s primarily due to the weather conditions being against us with rain all day yesterday and a frost come morning and bright sunshine all through the day.

Full Result: