Woodland View hold their annual Clubman match once a year for all the clubs that have fished a match at the venue during the previous 12 months. We as the Jubilee Nomads fished a match here as part of our 3 day festival earlier in the year. So we were able to book into this well attended match.

The weather was terrible, strong wins and heavy rain greeted anglers on arrival at the fishery and this would have put some off fishing. There was still a great attendance with 61 anglers fishing the match over Front and Back Deans, plus Arles and High pools. This match is a thankyou from the Preston Innovations backed venue and all anglers received a Preston cap some hook lengths and feeders at the draw. The winner received a free weekend stay in one of the venues caravans and a margin pole was up for grabs for the 2nd placed angler.

A good draw (for a change!)

I drew end peg 34 on Back Deans, always good for a few fish despite being at the shallow end of the pool and as we were now into winter fishing. I hoped for a good day. A lot of cold rain water overnight and continuing while I set up made me decide to fish for anything and maggots would come into play today but with peg 34 being a end peg I was confident of a few carp out of the corner. As it was probably going to be hard the plan was to try to catch a few carp early and then fish for anything to continue to add fish into my keepnets. So I plumped up 3 pole rigs. One for carp into the corner. A short 2+2 line which is always good at Woodland and a 13 metre line if needed. With a strong blustery day forecast I also set up a bomb rod for throwing over to the aerator if needed.

fishing for carp first

I started on a soft 6mm Sonubaits expander first on my 2+2 line cad potting in a few mirco’s over the top and waited for a bite. I had a liner straight away so I knew a few fish were there but caught nothing and I soon changed down to a 4mm soft pellet but after 30 minutes I still had empty keep nets. So into the corner I went but with a grain of corn this time while cad potting in some micro pellet. After 10 minutes the float dipped and a nice ghostie around 4lb graced the landing net. 2nd put in and 10 minutes later another carp around 4lb followed. Everything was going to the plan as everybody else was struggling. But that was it no more carp followed. I decided to begin to feed maggots on my short and long pole lines and big cupped some corn and micro into the corner with the intension of trying it again later.

Despite the blustery conditions I went out to 13 metres next with triple red maggots on the hook and began to catch some nice sized Skimmers whilst spraying a few maggots over the top. I was catching Skimmers and the odd Roach now. So at least I was adding weight to my two carp from the corner, but I wondered if there were any carp around on this 13 metre line that would take a large bait so I changed to a 6mm soft pellet next and fed a few 4mm’s over the top. This worked straight away. I caught two more carp but that was it. So I now had four carp and some Silvers and looking around the pool everybody was struggling. It was a tough match as predicted probably because of the cold rain water that had gone it. But at least I had achieved the start of the plan. I could now fish for anything.

Switching to maggots

Venue expert Kev Slade was pegged on Front Deans directly behind me and catching well short on maggots so this reinforced my plan to switch to maggots at some point. He was catching F1’s and stockies on maggots short but not on my pool! So I began to fish maggots on my 2+2 line and I soon began to catch more Skimmers and the odd F1. All these were adding to my overall weight and as no one was catching carp on my pool from what I could see I was happy with these Skimmers. I started with triple red maggot but double maggot was better and after another hour I hooked and landed my fifth carp. This gave me the confidence to stay in this short 2+2 line until the end of the match. Just resting it every 20 minutes while I looked into the corner for another carp. But none came my way there. So I concentrated on the short maggot line until the end of the match. I did hook another carp here but lost it and the wind now ruled out fishing long. I was adding Skimmers to my weight anyway and I saw out the match on this short maggot line.

Weighing in

Come the weigh in I could see that I’d beaten all the anglers on the far bank but I didn’t know how my bank had fished. Especially down the other end of the pool in the deeper water. I knew the angler next to me hadn’t caught. When the scales arrived the top weight was 53lb. This won the pool and I didn’t think I could beat that. But they were paying 1st and 2nd in each section/bank so I was still hopeful of a brown envelope. My five carp weighed in at 27lb and then my Silvers went 14lb giving me 41lb overall. This was 2nd in section and also 2nd on the pool. The other pools fished better and the angler in my section that had 53lb didn’t mainframe in the top three overall, so he won the pool but I was happy to pick up the 2nd in section money anyway. Plus the rain held off before picking away my gear! It’s definitely winter now and fishing for anything will be the way forward for the next few months!

Best rig of the day

Short pole line – 4×12 Preston F1 Maggot set up on 0.17mm Guru N-Gauge mainline with 8 no.10’s strung out in 2 in gaps above a size 18 Preston 0.11mm SFL-B Ready rig set up on green Preston 11 Dura Slip elastic.

The Result

Club men’s championship 61 anglers spread across deans high and Arles on a very windy cold morning thanks to all who are supported us this year and for coming today. Thank you to Preston innovations for the sponsorship of prizes which every angler who fished received
1st Tom Cross Darlinston ac. D29. 111-0
2nd K Slade. St Stephens. D33. 87-0
3rd P Rutter. Match box. D44. 64-0
4th J Powell. Nomads. H29. 63-4