It's only natural...........

Yesterday saw us back in G'Town for a match with Cavan AC. They were holding an open and it was also
 used as a get together for the Leinster Junior panel. The juniors inter pro match is a couple of weeks away, so a chance to get them fishing the water that will be used was arranged.
As they have to fish their Inter Pro match under CIPS rules they were only allowed use natural baits, no pastes, no pellets and it's probably fair to say at least one of them was feeling disadvantaged. The draw was at 09.30 fishing from 11 to 17.00 hrs. One look at the lake and with a nice breeze blowing in the direction of the low numbers, I was chuffed to draw 15, NOT  but happy enough when Rob drew 4. I've fished that lake for a long time and they do follow the wind. Off to the pegs, set up time and I've only left my Tackle Box in the shed at home, it's a long story.......... Scrounged a few bits from Robs gear (cough,cough) and at least I could wet a line but it was a mess really. I did get a few none the less and finshed up with 7kg +. There was quite a few similar weights so I was happy enough (ish).

Rob it seemed was having a better time of it and a couple of times during the day I was told he was
catching and had apparently had a couple of lumps.

This one pulled so hard it was in the next peg at one stage !!

With tips, guidance and advice being given by Several venue regulars, Rob was having a great day. Our thanks to Gavin Walsh (Ireland Junior team Manager), Eoin Schweppe (NCFFI Pro) and a couple of other lads, who's names escape me.
Thanks lads, much appreciated.

We had been on the venue earlier in the week and after it I figured a different margin float was in order. Rob was trying out a Preston In Line Dibber and gets the seal of approval.

Preston Pink 4x10

Also tried out on this set up was a Dacron Connector, it keeps the line away from the tip so zero tangles. I think the rest of the kits will be converted to these, one of those bits that does exactly what it says on the tin. The day itself was ideal, warm, cloudy and a nice breeze and that should have helped the weights but they were in the main dissapointing. Quite a few weights of 7 kgs and odd.

Josh Kavanagh (no relation) 7kgs and odd

Ooops, slippery little beggars

Derek Gibbons (CAC Chairman) 7kgs and odd

By the time we got to Mark Connolly in peg 13, there was great excitement when the scales went round to 13kgs and odd. Mark was fishing with the Leinster Juniors so it was even better that his bag was caught on naturals.

Marks cracking bag, all hail the humble maggot

It may be that best of all for Mark was that he battered his Dad, we'll never know.

Rob wasn't sure but had 35 fish and though he might beat that, so when his turn came round and the scales went to 14kgs and odd he's well pleased and with the last 3 swims claiming not as much, he was
even more pleased.

Yes Derek, they are slippery little beggars....

Surprise !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, sometimes you just never know whats round the corner and as Rob packed away the remaining of his gear, one of the lads doing the weigh in in peg 1 called me and said, you'd better check this,
yep it's 16kgs and odd and theres a very very small bit of dissapointment. He's still well pleased with himself
(2nd overall) and rightfully so. All done using naturals, the new bits of end tackle have worked, I love it when a plan comes together. So two of the top weights are done using naturals and by juniors, it all bodes well for the up coming Inter Pro's. Who needs all these pastes and pellets eh ??

Our thanks to Cavan AC for the invitation, enjoyed that.

G'Town

After a couple of poor days where we'd seen as much action as your average Bohs fan does in a season
Team Kavo were on the road and heading for G'Town. Accompanied, eventually, by a friend from FTI
we arrived on a wet morning, armed to the teeth with various pellets, pastes etc to see if we could tempt

Paul, playing a good'un

a few suicidal carp.
Rob's big day with the Leinster team is fast approaching so a few days fishing the venue that is to be used for the Inter Provincial made sense. We do very little fishing on commercials so today was to be about catching first and foremost, recent trips out hadn't helped in that regard so getting him used to playing carp was the main aim. Getting elastics sorted and trying out a couple of new bits of kit was next.
Our three main aims were sorted, we caught fish, Rob got the feel of his new "carp" pole and I had some success on an adapted 4m whip. Most fish are caught close in so I adapted a 4m whip by removing the tip, adding elastic and a very useful bit of kit it is.

Still at it.......

 

Anyone got a spare landing net handle !!!

All 3 of us elected to fish a couple of margin swims and a line out in front. Myslef and Paul fished at about
7m, Rob chose to go out to 11m to see what his new pole felt like and he had most of his fish at that

length, using banded pellet.

Go Team Leinster

The fishing wasn't easy with a lot of fish cruising around the surface, tempting them to really get their heads down was tough going. It's been a tough start to the Sumer all round I think, with the bad bad weather playing it's part. It's still blummin cold and as you can see in the photos, it's Mid Summers day and we're all wearing winter clothing. It chucked it down a few times during the day, are we getting a Summer this year ?
We threw everything we had at them, hard and soft pellets in various sizes and flavours, banded, hair rigged, hooked. Pastes in different colours, consistency and flavours.
In the end most fish were taken on good old sweetcorn in the margins, goes to show for all the latest
"guaranteed" fish catching baits, a tin of corn still has it's day.

We packed up in the rain, with Rob claiming victory, 26 fish to my 21, an estimated 20lb to 15lb,
well he is "on the Leinster Team" afterall............................

Friday evening, canal matches,

A few lads had decided to have a series of not to serious canal matches on a stretch
that was once famed but is now rarely fished. Close to Leixlip so local enough for me with a bankside
drat at 18.00 hrs. The stretch is 15 mins from my house so I was delighted to be asked if I wanted to be involved. The plan is to fish it every Friday for the Summer months and by then we'd get a good idea of what, if anything, was still there.
I drew an end peg, no 48 on the stretch so was happy as I headed to the peg. It's a really nice stretch
and from the minute I arrived atmy peg I though I'd be OK. What I didnlt know was that peg 49
was getting fished very regularly by one of the competitors and within minutes of the all in at 19.00 hrs
it was obvious there were fish sitting there. Eoin Schweppe had landed right on them and had a great first hour, I on the other hand was geting a few fish but nothing to keep me in touch with him.
We're fishing 3 hour matches so theres not much time to catch up or make serious changes so I kept plugging away with my initial 3 lines.
At the end of the 3 hours, Eoin had easily won it but would my small bag register. As it turned out it
did and I was 3rd overall after Eoin (1st) and Bob Hume (2nd).
The weights wern't great, I had 11 fish for 1.5lb (ish) but with only a couple of dry nets it seems there
are still fsh there and we'll therfore continue to give it a go over the next few weeks,

Time for the commercials

No, it's not time to make a cuppa !!!!
Rob got the really good news that he had been selected for the Leinster Junior panel to fish an interprovincial match in early July so we decided to give the commercials a go. Toomans in
Leitrim was first up and we headed off with dreams of carp pulling elastic all over the lakes.
We were accompanied by Gary Kearney and Ron Durkin and arrived bright and early only to
find the match lake alive with spawning carp !!!!! Not much chance of a bag of carp there we decided, so
we elected to fish the bottom lake. Lovely place, nicely tucked away on the site and swims were bagged.
The 4 of us settled in and were soon joined by Ollie and Derek from FTI along with a friend of theirs.

There was a couple of fish thrashing about in the middle,  but that was going to seter the 7 of us.
What did deter us was a complete lack of any action around our various swims. Derek was doing OK on maggots and was getting fish quite regularly, the rest of us were getting nothing except frustrated.
A bite to eat and Gary, Rob and myself figured we might aswell move. So up sticks and back
to the match lake where things had quitened down a bit. We gave it a go here for a couple of hours and eventually I managed to tempt a bite.

A decent scrap ensued but there was allways only going to be one winner,

That was it for the day, we packed up shortly after and headed for the long drive home knowing that we were back at the same venue the following week with gang from FTI AC.

The week passed and plans were made to fish the venue differently on our second visit. After spawning the carp were feeding on naturals, so mags, caster and worm were the chosen bait for the return trip. Smaller rigs were tied, i.e. smaller hooks and floats.
16 of us arrived and everyone was in good form, the usual banter ensued and after a draw which saw me on the end bank with a big wind straight at me and lashings of rain to accompany it.
I had decided on two lines only, one close and one at 7m. The line close in was 4 maybe 5 feet
at the bottom of the shelf and the 7m line was considerably deeper, probably twice as much.
Choppies and caster on the near line had me land an orfe and a skimmer in the first 15 minutes.
It all went downhill from there and nothing I tried would tempt anything. Several, cold and wet
miserable hours later I'd had enough. Pleasure fishing ?? pleasure my arse.
It was dammned hard work and had it not been for the surroundings and the company it would have been a complete disaster.
A week off work and we're going to give G'Town a go, hopefully that will restore our
faith in commercials,

Bless me father for I have sinned

It's been 3 months since I updated this !!!!!!!!!!!!
These few photos belong with the last post but damned if I can figure how to insert them in the right place.

Suddenly It's June and Spring is gone in a flash. Everything seems to be going by so quickly and the fishing has been hectic. The canals are calling and between Enfeld Club matches, the Senior and Junior canal
champs it's "all out" to use a term, on the canals. It's fair to say we're both quite happy on a canal and we both enjoy our days on them. In no particular order because I can't remember the order, the Senior Canals were held on Enfield stretches so I was happy that at least I'd have an idea of what was going to be needed. The days before had myself and a few Enfield club members out with the rakes, strimmers etc to get the two selected stretches in good shape. Day 1 was on Ferns and allthough I drew at the right end I didn't draw up far enough.  Peg 11 and it proved difficult enough, for whatever reason I couldn't get any decent fish and nothing off the bottom, so all I had were blips from mid water and that was never going to be anything like good enough.

Rob was with me for the day and after a couple of hours he came back with news that Seanie Ward was baggin on Peg 1 and he bagged all day. His finishing bag was a cracker at over 8kg.

I packed up after 5 enjoyable hours knowing that unless I drew an absolute flyer the following
day, it was game over. My final few blips after day 1,

Day 2 was on Longwood and the talk before the draw was that low numbers would be best so when I
drew 38 out of 42, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
In the car driving to Longwood I knew I'd have nothing to go for and when I got to the peg
it was confirmed. Possibly the most featureless, barren peg I've ever seen, never mind fished.

Any other day you'd go right past it without a second look, so I settled in and decided the best bet was to go for a section place. That wasn't going to be easy, looking up the stretch theres current and previous
international anglers any of which could easily batter me. In front of me theres a bed of lillies going out
about 5 foot and then theres nothing. Not so much as a leaf right over to the far bank, not a thing to hold
fish so from the begining I figured there was none there. I wasn't far wrong not a bite off 3 lines and the only way I could get anything was by fishing mid water and scratching for blips, again !!!!
I did manage a few and in talking to the lads along the section I was managing as much if not more than them.
Plan "A" was coming together and a section place was looking on the cards.
So it turned out, I had .75 of a kilo and was looking good with only 2 of the lads to weigh in and both of them claiming they had very little. Pat Bartley pulled a net of blips from the canal and it was going to be close.
He only went and had .76 of a kilo, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Next was Brian O Donoghue who had .74 I think, whatever it was it was less than me so second in my
section and I'm very happy with that. It's a bit of coin to cover the weekends cost but even better was the idea that I could actually do it. I had a section win the previous year which I allways thought was more down to luck than anything else, so getting placed again and from the middle of a crap section, I'm happy.

All good in the hood, well almost !!

April had us out and about with mixed results and constant reminders from the fishing Gods
that for every good day there'll be bad days too. It's part of the draw of it all I guess, never quite knowing
whats going to happen. Will the float go under ? Will the tip go round ? Did I get this right ? Did I get
that right ? Theres more to this aul fishing lark.
A thoroughly rotten canal match with Enfield had us heading for a different stretch of the canal the following weekend after a suggestion from a couple of my fellow competitors. Maybe they were winding me up !!!
A Saturday afternoon session on a venue I'd only once fished before saw very little coming to the net.
Rob had a few perch on his "I will get a bite, worm tactics". I had little better until a surprise dip of the float and loads of elastic suddenly on show resulted in this wee surprise.






It really was a bonus fish and made mockery of allways having to get things right. Any Tench I've ever had before came off the bottom, this lad had a swipe at my "blips rig". A single pinkie on a size 20 drennan hook
fished closer to the surface than to the bottom. Still I wasn't complaining, cracking good scrap on
no.4 elastic and a very light hooklength.
We called it a day after that but decided we'd put in a bit of bait and re visit early the following morning.
Less said about it the better.

A couple of weeks later and theres an FTI get together on Muckno, one of my favourite places.
With the draw of the venue itself and time with the gang from FTI, heading up the road had me in a great
mood and really looking frward to the day. Ne'r mind as they say, a really poor day unfolded and I packed
up fishless after a few hours. I had 2 tough hours on the pole, a couple of time was holding on for
all I could. I should really have packed it away earlier but I wanted to try a few things, none of which worked. Back to the fishing wagon and out with my trusty feeder gear. Thanks to Karl for the few bits
I needed and soon enough I'm blanking on the feeder as brilliantly as I was on the pole.
After a fishless hour I packed up and headed home. Like I said earlier, theres allways bad days.

Not sure where this one fits in but after a long time trying I finally got Golden Balls to leave his pole at home and we headed for a well known match venue in Cavan. We'd fished it before on the match stretch and had good results on the pole. Today was a feeder only day and to make sure we only brought 1 feeder rod with us and  it was to be Robs first time fishing this method. We clipped on a wee lead at the start to get his casting sorted and after looking like we were good at 40 turns we clipped up and set about getting some bait in to the swim. The casting wasn't great and as it turned out hitting the spot at the original distance was
proving difficult so we abandoned that line and moved back to 30 turns where fairs fair, Rob was hitting the spot pretty much ever time. To compliment the feed going in on the feeder I was catapulting on top of every cast and boy was I glad I did. Three great hours on that line and bite after cracking bite saw him bagging
a very nice 26lbs of roach, hybrids and skimmers. Jammy little git had a right good introduction to it, allthough I did have the odd cast, well I had to demonstrate for him the odd time, insert smiley here..............