Messingham Sands - Hollywood Lake

Overview

http://www.messinghamsands.co.uk/match%20lakes.htm

This is my second day in succession of fishing at Messingham Sands. Yesterday went pretty well with a second place finish on the Island pond with 114lb; hopefully I can go one better today, “well fingers crossed any way.” Today we are on Hollywood Lake, which is a canal styled lake approximately 30 meters wide, with 30 extremely well spread out pegs. The lake like all Messingham lakes is stuffed to the rafters with: Carp, Crucians, Skimmers, Ide and Tench.

The Draw

As I was the one doing the draw I would have to do with what was left in the bag; peg 6 was to be my home for the day. Nearly all the pegs on this lake are identical, so no real peg stands out as a flyer. On arriving at my peg, I was faced with flat calm water, but so was everybody else. There were fish topping everywhere on the lake, things definitely looked promising.

My Approach

For today’s approach I will be going with a 4 pronged attack. For the far side line I will be setting up both a bomb rod and a pellet waggler rod. The bomb will be the main far side approach, but the pellet waggler will give me an alternative method to try. The pellet waggler will also give me the option of fishing shallow short of the far side, which enables me to cover a large amount of water. On the pole front I will be setting up a shallow rig to fish at 13 meters. I will also be setting up a margin rig to fish down the right hand side, as there is a large amount of floating weed in the left hand margin.

Bait

For the far side line I will be using 8mm fishery pellets on both the bomb and pellet waggler. For the shallow line I will be using 6mm fishery pellets and for down the side my usual loose groundbait and corn approach will be utilized.

Rigs:

The Bomb

• Rod – 10ft Browning Force Bomb
• Reel – Browning Backfire BF
• Mainline – 0.18 Browning Cenex Feeder Line
• Hooklength – 0.16 Browning Hybrid Power
• Hook – Size 16 Guru QM1, tied with a knotless knot with a hair rigged band
• Bomb – 14 gram square lead (free running)

The Pellet Waggler

• Rod – 11ft Browning Commercial King Medium Pellet Waggler
• Reel – Browning Black Magic Burner 630
• Mainline – 0.18 Browning Cenex Match Line
• Hooklength – 0.16 Browning Hybrid Power
• Hook – Size 16 Kamasan B911 extra strong
• Float – 3.5g Drennan Crystal pellet waggler attached via a waggler adapter

Browning Black Magic Burner, & Commercial King Pellet Waggler

Shallow Pole Rig

• Pole – Browning Z12
• Elastic – Yellow Browning Cenex Reflex
• Mainline – 0.14 Browning Hybrid Power
• Hooklength – 0.14 Browning Hybrid Power
• Hook – Size 18 Kamasan  B911 extra strong
• Float – Shep special 4x12 Chianti Style @ www.carlshepherdsonstittletackle.com
• Shotting – Bulk no 10 Stotz set under the float

 Margin Rig

• Pole – Browning Z12
• Elastic – Solid 22
• Mainline/Hooklength – 0.16 Browning Hybrid Power, straight through
• Hook – size 14 Kamasan B911
• Float – Shep Special Edge Diamond
• Shotting – Bulk no 8 Stotz

The Session

I started the match by casting the bomb tight to the far side, and started feeding both the bomb and pole lines regularly. My intention was to fish the bomb for 30 minutes, then switch to the pole once fish had settled in the swim. The first bite on the bomb came after 5 minutes when the rod tip ripped round; a decent battle commenced, then a few minutes later the carp around 4lb was safely landed.

During the next 25 minutes I managed to hook and land another 2 smaller Carp. On the 30 minute mark I switched to the shallow pole line. I shipped the pole out and

slapped the rig over; before I even had time to feed, a bite, a quick lift and elastic streamed from the pole.

Keep The Swim Topped Up!

Before shipping the pole back I fed the swim to make sure there were fish ready for the next put in. After a good battle on light gear the fish was safely landed, a Mirror Carp around 6lb. The next 2 drops in resulted in 2 more nice Carp, and the next 5 drops after that resulted in small Crucians around 3 oz a piece.

All the time I fished the pole this pattern seemed to occur, I would get a couple of Carp then a few Crucians. In a bid to get the Carp feeding confidently and bully the Crucians out the way, I tried the pellet waggler; but I upped the feed rate on the pole line. The first cast on the pellet waggler resulted in an instant bite, another carp was on its way to the net. Two more casts resulted in 2 more fish, then for some reason no more bites materialised???

Time For A Change

A switch to the pole changed this, as upping the feed had worked a treat; I was now catching Decent Carp on a really regular basis. I did feed and try the margins, but this didn’t produce anything at all, but the pole line more than made up for this though.

At the end of the match I had had another fantastic days fishing; the scales arrived and after 5 weighs I totalled 133lb 4oz which gave me the match win, and another brilliant day at Messingham Sands!