| During the past few weeks I have attended some of the open matches at Docklow Pools, Hereford and although the conditions have been far from favourable, the fishing has been superb.
After a recent spate of bad draws at Whiteacres (where you really need them) it has been a refreshing change to get some good pegs. The Sunday matches at Docklow usually attract between forty and seventy anglers, making it a very 'peggy' affair! Unfortunately I have not been anywhere near a respectable draw on the Sunday matches as the fish tend to get pushed into one or two pegs when every peg is in. Nevertheless, the Saturday matches have been a little fairer because there are fewer anglers and more places for the fish to go.
The first Saturday match I fished was on the 'Match Lake' and I was fortunate to draw peg '6' on the island. The peg is something else! I have never seen so many feeders and wagglers hanging from a tree before. They are beginning to weigh the branches down. I think some casting lessons would be advisable for those attempting to fish the peg again.
After about two hours of catching small chub on the waggler, the peg showed signs of slowing, so I cut the feed rate rather than over-feed them. I had been feeding maggots near to the island and catching chub and roach 'on the drop' but I now had to wait for bites. The wind, which was south-westerly had dropped at around 1:30 and with about two hours remaining, I began to question the need to feed three maggots to catch 'eyes'. I had brought about four pints of casters and a pint of maggots with me, so I decided to 'give them some' rather than take it all home. I put about four big catapult pouches of casters out and then fed about five times a cast to try to induce a response from the chub, which were not feeding. After about ten minutes I caught one in the eight ounce bracket and then another around a pound both on the drop!The peg is only about three and a half feet deep so I shallowed up to a foot and kept spraying it with caster. This seemed to sort out the better ones in the peg as the next few chub were all around two and a half-pound, closely followed by a three-pound job.
I was catching on a diameter .12 hook-length to a 22, B611. I saw no need to change as I was getting them all out apart from one that went under the keepnet rather than in it. The method seemed to be putting some bait in and then twitch it through with a single caster on the hook. I tend not to use shot down the line for this unless fishing deeper. These big chub tend not to feed on anything below a foot deep so you have to shallow right up to catch them. They don't get caught on big hooks either but size 20 is usually about right. I caught steady for the last hour and weighed 30lb of chub and roach to win the match. Nick Young's travelling partner, D. Newton, was second with 13lb on a day when there were no carp caught at all. The heavy feeding approach worked well but there are times when feeding three maggots is often the better tactic when they are not in the mood.
Farmer Jack.
The Wednesday open.
Having 'caught a few' on the previous Saturday I decided to push my luck again in the Wednesday match on the 'Farmer Jack' pool at Docklow. I was in two minds whether to go there at first as there was one on at Earlswood and I caught some there on the pole the week before. I weighed 66lb of carp, all but six of them on the pole in the last hour. I wanted to try it again but received a phone call from Brian Gay the day before asking me to find a match for a 'Stopwatch ' feature for Match Fishing really quick. He didn't fancy driving to Earlswood- (Too tight- fisted, no wonder he's got so much money) so we went to Docklow as that is the only other place where there are decent opens on Wednesdays in the Midlands.
When I drew my peg, 59 on the 'Jack', I thought I might catch a few there as Paul Evans had caught 26lb off it on Sunday. Must have been 'solid' I thought. Wrong! It turned out to be a real struggle as I couldn't catch any carp and the chub were only small but I enjoyed catching some quality roach on the 'chopped worm at 14.5 meters. I did manage to snare a carp of about 4lb on the waggler but I don't think Brian got a picture of it due to the fact that his shutter speed was too slow on his camera and it wasn't in the water long enough. I don't think you need to play them for twenty minutes on diameter .10. Fifteen seconds is plenty!
I was getting some decent roach and a few chub on the worm but you couldn't keep them coming, I think the water was too clear where we were. I started to put a few together as the light faded, which confirmed my suspicion about the water clarity. I netted one about 10 ounce and then another around 8 ounces, with which Brian started to get interested again by setting up the camera. The next drop in the elastic came out again followed by " they are having it proper now" from Brain, but when a gudgeon appeared on the surface, foul-hooked in the guts his rising enthusiasm completely disappeared.
There were people fishing the corn around me but they seemed to be waiting an hour for a bite at times and although I wasn't 'emptying it' I was putting fish in the net at regular intervals, which is what you need on a photo stint. I had a good day and I really enjoyed but didn't win a 'penny'. All the weights came from other side of the lake as it is split into two. Howard Green won the match from peg 25 with 44 lb. of carp down the edge and Steve Harris was second from peg 2 with 26lb. My 14lb of bits put me fourth and just out of the coin but it was better than sitting it out all day.
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