Winter Leagues are suppose to be tough......!

Well our first winter league match went ahead last Sunday the weather had turned into a proper winter mode for the week leading up to the weekend. There was snow on the mountains outside Sydney, temps below freezing for 3 or 4 nights close to Sunday's venue and we were all expecting it to be a right struggle.
Add the fact that this venue hadn't been fished by the club here for over 3 years mainly because of the drought in Australia for the last 8 yrs or so as the levels had dropped so low it had almost disappeared to a puddle as you can see on the pic below. All this plus I had never seen the venue before and didn't know what to expect in terms of depths, fish, methods, etc meant I wasn't sure what to expect. You can see from the picture from goggle earth which is about 3 yrs old how low the water was,then I have added a blue line around which is the water line that greeted us Sunday morning when we drew at the venue itself


There was only 14 of us fishing as it seemed this venue had left some bad impression on some the last time it was fished. I drew Peg 11 but to be honest didn't really mean much to me bar it was almost beside the entry gate and I didn't have far to drive or unload my gear ( fishing the venue blind meant I had brought the lot too !)
I had some what of an idea the the bottom was abit all over the shop from looking at the pics earlier in the week and casting a bomb around at the start helped to confuse me even more somewhat. As my peg was somewhat on a point with the deeper dam end to my left and the shallower bank to my right it varied everywhere I chucked it. I finally found it somewhat level with about 9 ft at about 28 turns on the feeder but found it just kept sloping away to my left from there. I spent a while searching around on this line as I had felt the feeder was going to be the method for today and had seen several large fish roll out in the middle as we set up. I had an open end feeder to get some bait in at the start and planned to fish a small method over this or a bomb for the rest of the match. If I thought finding a spot of the feeder was bad to chuck at I almost spent another 25 minutes trying to sort out some pole lines. First I went to my right at 11 mts and had about 2 ft or so and the same at 13 and 14.5 mts in that direction...with it being so cold all week I didn't have much faith on this line but set up a small BGT dibber on .18 to and animal 16 on a loose black hydro. I had been told there were some lumps in here and would leave a full pot of corn and hemp there at the start in case some came in later. Straight in front of me at 13 mts I seemed to have what was like a sharp ledge where it dropped from 2 1/2 ft to 4 ft and then as I as plumbed around to the left it just sloped and kept sloping till GT (one of our Italian club members) must have started to wonder how far over I was going to claim as part of my swim...I wasn't going to go that far thou as once I got to a 2 o clock position it required a top 4 rig and I hadn't much faith in catching on the pole too much so didn't bother setting one up.
I set up a .4 gram HB critter to fish tight at the bottom of the sharp slope at 4 ft on .16 line to white hydro and a B911 16 hook on short line and also set up .5 grm dwezzil on a longer line to fish out past on 14.5 mts or to search down the slope to my left later if it was hard. With all the plumbing up plus with having to do some grass cutting to get into my swim (well it hadn't been fished for 3 years..) I wasn't fully ready to go at the all in, I don't think many were to be honest but threw the loaded open end feeder out as I put my waggler rod together (I was still wondering what I had to do to plumb this up). I cast 3 more feeders out with some maggot and corn in and fed 1 ball of groundbait with some chopped worm and half a cup of maggot and hemp on my 13 mt line plus a cup of corn and hemp 11 mts to my right. After spending 5 mins plumbing the waggler at 25 mts I found it was 8 ft in front and sloped back to 3 ft or so to the right of my swim and continued to catapulted some corn out there while I settled down on the method feeder for a bit. I also had Neil from our nationals team of 4 to my right again (this must be the 5th time this season this has happened).

13 mts in front of me was where the ledge was and the dam was to my left from there















My swim at 11 mts to my right was one about 2 ft deep as far out as I went













The lake is full to the brim again of years of drought.....But I really do wish I had got some good pics of the bottom of it when it was low..













Neil was once again drawn next to me with 5 of us on this side and 9 anglers on the other side of the lake















After having just one twitch on the feeder for the first 30 minutes and not seeing anyone on my side catch anything some thoughts of taking up some new hobbies here to blog about were really starting to enter my head. Yorkie on the end peg to my left then hooked into a good fish and after 5 or 6 minutes landed a fish about 3 kgs. He hadn't got his fish in the keepnet when I had just decided to chop a little more worm for the pole line when my tip flew around (it's like carp know when you got your hands full to try and drag you rod off). I also now had a fish close to 3 kg in the net and then looked around two minutes later to see Neil and Jon on the end both playing fish on the waggler together. I continued with the feeder after feeding some more worm on the pole line and had plenty of twitches and knocks but despite trying all sorts of baits couldn't get a proper bite. I tried a bare hook at one stage and got another smaller fish in thinking they maybe just hitting the groundbait on the feeder and thought that's it but didn't get anymore after that. After finally spending 1 1/2 hours on the feeder I had to try something else as Neil and Jon on my right were now getting fish regularly on the waggler despite both fishing in just 2 1/2 ft of water. A quick drop in on all pole lines and I didn't have a liner I refed a little on each and went out on the waggler. After another biteless 30 minutes and now hearing reports of some having 20 fish from the far side plus the 2 anglers on my right still catching I was really wondering if bird watching would be such a bad hobby to take up.
A quick check on my 13 mt line with a small piece of worm before I was going back on the feeder in the hope of a few more lumps and my float shot under just as the rig settled. Back out again after putting a 1/2 kg fish in the net and it went down again. Next put in and I also added alittle chopped worm in the kinder cup and it hardly settle before it went again. And then again, and again, and again..........Bird watching is for poofs anyway and I wasn't really going to take it up.
After adding 11 fish all between 1/2 to 3/4 kg to the net it slowed down a little so I fed another ball of groundbait with some more chopped worm and hemp and flicked my longer rig our at 14.5 mts. I added 2 more fish but decided to rest it for a bit and tried my 11 mt line with nothing and decided to try the feeder for a little while. Both to my right had slowed catching and now the 2 to my left were picking up the odd fish. With an hour and 20 minutes to go I hoped I would get a good last 60 minutes from my pole line. With only a few twitches and liners on the feeder went back with an hour and 10 minutes remaining and had 7 similar size fish again in as many put ins before it went quiet again. I decided to stay on the pole and search about a little around the slope and got another fish close to 5 kgs. to the left of the slope. The last 5 or 6 minutes they had lined up again at the ledge and I had 3 more smaller ones out before the final whistle. The bigger fish seemed to keep moving in and out and messing the swim up but I had quite enjoy the last 2 hours of the match
It turned out the whole lake fished well in the end and Jon to my right had finished ahead of me on my side with 31 kgs. My net went 25 kgs something and was enough for 4th on the day with new member Brummie Paul winning from Peg 1 on the far side with 35 kgs mostly on paste in his first club match here. Well done but I don't think you need any more tips on adjusting to fish in Oz !

my own net went 25.5 kgs in the end...........

What a match it was in the end...most of the shallower swims threw up the best weights and it ended up being the highest weight per angler on average for the whole year for the club with over 273 kg of fish caught by 14 anglers and when you consider its winter here, all the venues here are wild fish and carp are never stocked it was not something everyone expected today. Plus when you look down at the weights and consider almost everyone had a 3kg fish or two in their nets plus many lost a few it was a close match up to the end. 4 anglers all had fish on a the all out so a good day was had by all. The next winter league match has now been switched here too so fingers crossed will be just as good. Trouble now is it can't stop raining here.......

Myself and Brummie Paul and maybe more are out here again midweek for a go on some other venue as the rain has held up work for me now too so will post on if we have a knock up, plus he has a nugget belonging to me now from the weekend which I need to get back................

Here also is the full weigh sheet from last Sunday's match

1. paul heath peg 1 34.86kg


2. jon moses peg 13 31.22kg


3. howard hill peg 4 28.66kg


4. dara finnegan peg 11 25.56kg


5. danny brown peg 7 22.16kg


6. bill childs peg 5 21.74kg


7. giles cooper peg 8 20.92 kg


8. mark dean peg 3 19.16kg


9. shaun redmond peg 6 17.40kg


10. ralph czichon peg 9 12.10kg


11. neil dourish peg 12 11.72kg


12. john davis peg 2 9.28kg


13. mark york peg 14 9.04kg


14. GT peg 10 8.64kg
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

time flies.......!

Been a little behind here with my blog since the last few matches here but have become somewhat busy with work the last couple of weeks. Our new event which was being fished on that irrigation canal at Finley at the end of May had to get hastily re arranged to a different venue as we had just found out the week before that the levels on the canal itself had dropped over 8 foot and it would be un fishable with the high steep banks. Why this happened we're not sure but it may have been for some maintenance work on some locks as no water is run off this time of the year for irrigation. Why someone would choose to grow both rice and cotton in what is basically a desert anyway is beyond me but we had another venue close to this place and it was another irrigation canal but of a separate system and the levels were fine. More about that later, first I had our final teams of 3 match the weekend before
This was fished on a venue we started fishing here last year, Cecil hills lakes. Its a series of retention lakes that have been formed once again by damming the original natural creek that ran thru this area before it became a new suburb. You may have noticed by now most of our venues here are these kind of lakes and ponds and that most have been man made to help with flood controls when they build a new suburb and some also as a natural resource. Many are new or have been built in the last 10 yrs or so. It is also another factor why so many of the Aussie native fish numbers are in decline here as most of them need to get to brackish water here to breed and with all the dams and changes they have made to the streams and river natural courses it can only end with fewer fish getting out to breed. This combined with the fact that you replace a running creek with a dammed up shallow lake that has low oxygen levels in the summer time usually means that not many of their natives even survive except for catfish and eels in the new water system. It does however usually mean a perfect waterway for carp to survive and become prolific in so I am not complaining. But you ask any Australian here what they think the problem with their waters and native fish are the the first answer you here is carp are to blame. It's even taught to the kids in school here that carp are an invasive species, bad for the water and shouldn't be put back when caught..He He, the same people telling them this stuff are the ones that are creating the perfect place for them to breed and thrive. In some aspects esp in fisheries managements I do really think they are still an undeveloped country here
Anyway back to this month's matches
The best our team could do was second overall but the league really was just a bit of extra fishing here for most plus I like fishing this venue so was looking forward to it. As there was only 12 of us we had plenty of room and spread 8 pegs on the smaller lake and a section of 4 on the big lake.
The big lake is a little deeper and doesn't have the same head of fish as the smaller one (although they are bigger) but I was glad when my section were drawn on the small one. I have fished the big one twice this year in club matches already and really wanted a go on the little one. I drew a peg I had fished the last time I fished here at Christmas and had over 50 lbs off but didn't expect that today. the nights have really started to cool down here and today also was another bright and windless day. I had Neil on the peg to my right in my section and the other 2 anglers in my section were on the bank to my left. My peg was snag free so I had HB grizzleys .2 grm on .16 line to B911 16 for 2 swims left and right at 12 mts in 3 ft of water both on white hydro. A Shady Shallow on .18 to an animal 14 in almost 2 ft of water to my left margin with black hydro and I had one other rig with a HB critter .3 grm on .16 line with B911 to fish further out later in the match at 14.5 mt if the fish moved out but also I could use on my 12 mt line if the wind picked up

For bait I had some corn, maggot, bread,worm plus some hemp also.
I set up a small method feeder to fish out toward the middle but really just to use as a rest for my pole lines as I never get much on the feeder here
The Aussie are building perfect little carp puddles but please don't tell them....


I kicked off my dropping a small ball of groundbait on each line and half a cup of corn and hemp on my margins and went out on the feeder while flicking out a 4 or 5 maggots on my 12 mt lines for the first 15 mins. I didn't feed anything on the 14 mt line yet as sometimes I have found the fish seem to just sit back there from the feed on the closer lines and I had planned to use a kinder cup for most of my feeding anyway and would just feed with this when I switched to 14 mts.. Half an hour went by on the tip with just a few knocks but no fish and it seemed to be quiet all over the lake. First drop in on the pole and I had liners straight away and within 5 mins had a 1 kg fish in the net. It wasn't hectic but over the next 2 hours I added 9 other fish by taking a fish from one swim, feeding a kinder cup of maggot and 3 or 4 pieces of corn and going over to the other swim after, but had pulled out of 3, one which was foulhooked and left me a 50 p piece on the hook.
My margin line had just given up my smallest fish and never felt like it was going to fire up. Going into the last hour I was doing good in my section and could see Shaun directly across from me was getting a few but he was in a different section so wasn't too bothered. All my lines had dried up somewhat so I added my 14.5 mt section and fished out side my right hand swim. By dropping a little nugget of crumb and a few maggots I added 7 more smaller fish and lost 3 again but it was really starting to take off for the last 20 mins (doesn't it always...!)

How many times do we often wish we had another half hour........?

In the end it got quite chilly again as we ended up in the shade but I won my section with 10 .42 kgs and our team finished 2nd overall in the league. Shaun won the overall on the day with 13.8 kgs and I think my weight got me 4th overall so it was quite a close match. Those few lost fish would have cost me had it be a club match but wasn't too fussed today as I had done my section. Thanks also to Brummy Paul who stopped by to check out the club for his new season here in Sydney and got some pics for me with my camera.

Now on to that canal match

We had to switch it to a different canal system and one I had fished here a year ago on our way to Mildura to a different match. It was also stuffed with carp with good access and had a nice town with a few bars and motels in it. What more do you need ! The only concern we had was it was summer last time when we fished it and as with all new venues we were sure how it would go in the cooler months or even with a few anglers putting some pressure on it but most were eager to give it a go as it had all the makings of a good venue which was pretty central to all the anglers all over Australia to host future national champs matches. Myself and Mark got there on Thursday afternoon to the little town of Narrandra and found Maurice from the Sydney club landing a carp and ending with over 30 kgs from a few hours already. We messed about getting some rigs together on 2 pegs that evening and I got one carp but didn't really fish much and had planned to get cracking on the Friday. The match was Sat and Sun. We headed to the local bar later for dinner and met up with some of the others who made it that evening.

We had got 20 anglers booked in so had 5 teams of 4 for the 2 days with 2 teams from Sydney, 2 from Melbourne and 1 from South Australia. It is always good fun going away to a new venue here and meeting up with others from other states here but had a few drop outs with the short notice with change in venue and originally had 32 booked in

Almost reminds me of my local river Suck back home in Eire..except for the Kangaroos which we seen loads off and of course the lack of rain and muck...!

Friday morning and there was 16 anglers out to fish so we pegged out the twenty pegs and kept the end pegs free and would throw whatever bait we had in them when we packed up. Mark and myself fished where we had the evening before but it was a lot windier today and fishing the pole was quite hard. The canal itself is had a little shelf about 2 mts out where it dropped to 4 to 5 foot deep and sloped of to 8 to 9 foot in the middle. The water itself was quite clear thou which I didn't like as it was very coloured in the summer and there was no flow today either...last time I fished it I used a 4 grm float and it just held back on it..today I could use a 1 gram but the wind was ripping right thru downstream and it made it even harder to fish. It fish quite hard in the end and mark finished the best of all of us with 13 fish for about 25 kgs, I had 7 for about 15 kgs and there were 4 or 5 more with 2 and 3 fish each....We were hoping the bit of bait going in would get some fish going the next 2 days and all went back to the bar again that night for dinner and several beers. It is a quiet little town and I bet the local landlord had wondered had they made a mistake when counting the nights takings that Friday night !


Our own team was a man short now also for the weekend as one of the Sydney guys had to pull out so all had agreed to let the best 3 of 4 section results count for the results at the draw on Sat morn.


I drew peg 4, the one Mark had fished the day before and raced off feeling fully confident of getting a few fish today.
The wind was getting up a bit as I was setting up so I settled on just 2 pole rigs, one to fish at 10 mts in front of me and 13 mts down slightly to my left in case the fish backed off and then a feeder tight to the far side and a bomb also for there or my pole line should the wind get worse.....


Worse..! I reckon someone does this on purpose here cause it seems so many times here in Australia the minute our hooter goes someone jumps somewhere and turns on the "wind switch"


It blew down the canal as hard as it could and continued for the next 6 frigging hours. It became impossible to hold the pole even at 10 mts but I don't think it made much difference as they weren't many fish around. After 6 hours I had 1 bite for 1 carp for 1.5 kgs on the feeder and was 4th out of my 5 man section. Pegs 1 to 3 had a few fish with 7 kgs being the top weight but the middle sections fished hard with Shaun from our team winning his with 2 fish for 4 kgs . Mark went on to win the last section with 10 kgs from the far end but was on the other Sydney team. Danny was unfortunately in the rock hard section and all blanked except one angler. There was still good craic in the bar that night again and most did feel it wasn't going to be a venue for the colder weather here in Australia in future but enjoyed it anyway. With that in mind we all agreed to be the Guinea pigs and re peg the next section of canal which was around a bend from where we were for Sat for Sunday's match just so we could test out the depths,etc so we would know for a future match back on here again, plus it was slight more sheltered from the wind which greeted us again on Sunday morning.


I drew peg 2 today and had some willows on my far bank. This section was closer to a lake which the canal flowed into and back out of again







I had about 2 inches more in depth today on both lines again but the water was still very clear.


I did have more depth on the feeder line and clipped up tight as I could to the branches and seen some little fish top under them as I set up. I had a waggler also set up to fish to the willows but wondered what the wind again would do......


Yup along with the hooter it came but not as bad as it was yesterday and I could just about mange the pole...however after 1 1/2 hours no one had a bite bar young Dillion on peg 4 who had a fish on the feeder. Then in the third hour I started to get some little twitches and knocks and eventually hit one little carp all of about 4 ozs on a little piece of punched bread with a small feeder. After a few more twitches I hit an animal of a thing that that headed under the bush and hit the clip before I got it off...after 30 seconds of trying to turn it it rip into the branches and we parted company....f####**g..bugger.! I had a 16 drennan carp feeder on and it had almost straighten it ! It was hard all the way down the pegs and young Dillion added another shortly after. I stayed on this line and between switching over to the bomb and feeder had got 3 more little carp with a few minutes to go when my tip slowly started to go right around...It wasn't big but I was still playing the fish when the all out went ever so carefully, and it was a valuable 1 kg to add to the 450 gram the little babies added up to...young Dillion Howard won my section with 2.2 kgs and their team went on to win it overall. Shaun had won his section again and won the individual beer vouchers but the whole of Danny's section blanked. Our team did finish in second in the end and just 5 points off the winners.


All in all even with it being a really tough weekend fishing wise everyone enjoyed it and meeting up and all did say we should try there again after the winter...The town has all you would need, a few bars, good meals, good accomodation, not expensive , not too far for anglers from all areas to fish here and a perfect even and fair 70 peg venue...now it just needs some fish......!.It's on our way from Sydney to Mildura where we will be going in Oct to fish the Murry cup so we will prob stop off for a day again and see what it's like then...it can't really be any harder than this time anyway




I have been out for a few pleasure session this weekend gone by and had a few fish but it is certainly heading into winter mode here now...and will get some pics up next blog here. We have our first winter league match next weekend and then a few of us will be having a knock up the week after so will add them in.

I had also threatened to a few I was going to take up "bird watching" on Bondi beach and blog with pics about that anymore if the fishng didn't improve here soon . Well I was down there the other day and it's been that cold and wet here there was no one on the beach...not a seagull or any "bird" to be seen anywhere..!..let's hope our winter league fishes good or I will be rightly buggered then.................................

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