Overview
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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

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
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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
- 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
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.

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!