Hartleton 24-6-16

My third trip to Hartleton, and having got a little used to the venue now I really look forward to some pleasant fishing, some good company and maybe the odd beer too.

I arrived at breakfast time on the Friday in reasonably good weather and was surprised to find most of the vagrants camped on the usual back were far further down towards the deeper end than usual, and not only that, the island peg was empty. I’d been dying to give the peg a go, but being one of the later to arrive I reckoned my chances were pretty slim. But it was vacant when I arrived and I soon changed that.

So standard set-up followed. Tent, breakfast, fish for a few hours, lunch. Then a trip into Ross on Wye for a few bits and pieces (ice and alcohol were involved I think). 

Fishing wise, I have to say I still haven’t sussed the bream out. If you want to have a really good session at Hartleton you have to catch the bream and regularly. Maggot and caster won’t do it, neither will worm or soft pellet. And I’ve not done any good on meat or corn.

My first session (pre-Ross) was spent playing at 11m and produced the usual roach and bits – this is ok, but I can catch this closer in a lot faster. And sitting out for a big fish didn’t seem to work either. At one point I hooked a carp which briefly pulled out 8m of elastic before shedding the hook, but that was that.

Late afternoon (post-Ross) I tried a few different things, still no bream, but then I tried a soft 6mm pellet on my roach rig at 5m, fished incredible delicately on a canal-type rig. It took a little while to get it going, but soon the method really started to produce quality roach (4 oz ish) one a chuck. If I could make this work in the match then I reckon 30-40lb would be possible. This seemed a safer bet than the hope for a bream approach.

Saturday. Match day. 

I was up early on Saturday and decided to have a couple of hours first knocking fishing feeder to the island. I cast, I waited, nothing happened. Two lost feeders later (I should have clipped up a bit closer to me I think) and I gave that up as a bad idea that was unlikely to feature in my match plans. Still I had actually set up a rod and fished the feeder at Hartleton at last – only taken three year mind you.

So breakfast and prep for the annual match.

Tactics were as before, 11m line fed heavy for an occasional look at the bream, 5m on soft pellet for quality roach, rudd and skimmers.

Well, what can I say? All was going well until I tangled my K2 rig about two hours in, and when I looked into my rig tray I had nothing similar to replace it with (I don’t do the delicate fishing I used to) and try as a might, whatever rig I put on instead just didn’t give me the presentation I needed. I caught, but I lacked the fluidity and speed on the previous afternoon.

At the all out I reckoned on 20lb of fish. This was ok, but I was not overly confident.

I was weighed in first, 22lb 8oz. Good, but I suspected not good enough.

Musky (retired, terminal flatulence)

Next was Hamish with a very creditable 18lb 10oz. A big bag of small fish caught close in (I suspect my small fish tactics of the previous two years were starting to be copied).

Banksy was next with 17lb 8oz of hemp caught roach. Ditto the small fish tactics.

Then Godber pulled out a net full of bream. That was it, I thought. Beaten by bream (as per my second place on 2014). However, the bream were hollow and to everyone’s surprise they only weighed 20lb 8oz

That left Trev who being a carper had adapted to match fishing extremely well and weighed in 2lb 8oz.

And finally, it was down to Steve in the jungle. Steve is a good angler on an unknown peg, but he’d had a frustrating time and weight in just 7lb 8oz. The following day Steve absolutely took his peg apart losing a couple of carp close in and bagging bream and roach – just shows you the difference a day can make.

So yours truly retains the Sean Kelly-Patterson trophy.

What we'll all be wearing in 2017 (yeah, right). I promised Trev I wouldn't name names, so that's ok then :-)

That was the end of my fishing at Hartleton for 2016. Thank you all for your participation, you may now kiss my waders.

So looking forward to 2017 and hoping to work out what Godber does to catch those bream, and hopefully doing it better than him.