Matrix Power Micron

About 12 months ago i realised that the line I was using to make pole rigs and hooklengths from was a total mixture of different brands and types. For a few years I'd used a product that hadn't really let me down, but there was a lot of information on the net that this line was at least 0.02mm thicker than stated. "But fish don't read labels" is a common statement.

True, but I'm still a great believer (rightly or wrongly) that the thinner the line the more natural presentation with the way the hookbait acts, so I'll always err on the side of a lighter line than a heavier one (within reason of course) If i decide that a 0.12 hooklength is right for the conditions and size of fish I'm after, then I want to be fishing with something close to that diameter and not nearly at 0.15. It may not be that vital in the grand scheme of things but it gives me more confidence in my gear if i know its as described. Added to this I also wanted to try and stick to one make of line, so i could get used to its characteristics.

I tried a variety of lines and most of them were ok but some either just seemed to kink a bit easily when tying hooks or others a were a bit stiffer than I'd expected.

I decided to try Matrix Power Micron in a couple of sizes and have never really looked back since. In my opinion the line is very supple, strong and resilient and seems to resist kinking when I tie spade end hooks in my customary brusque manner.It seems as abrasion resistant as anything else I've used and has very low memory - Its nice to take a pole rig off a winder and see the line nice and straight and not looking like a big 'Z' shape ! I now use this line from 0.08 to 0.20 diameters which covers 95% of my fishing.

In fact i cant fault it at all. I did suffer a few breakages recently but this was my fault for fishing too fine a hooklength which snapped when the elastic bottomed out by an angry carp building up a head of steam in the opposite direction.

I use the line for pole rigs and hooklengths ( pole, float and feeder). Its usually priced around  £5 for a 100m spool which is par for the course.

The product doesn't seem to have a lot of a following at the moment which i find strange. However, I've never seen it in a tackle shop and have always purchased online which could explain things a bit if its not that common.

If you're looking to try a different rig line from your usual one then i really recommend this product from Matrix...highly recommended.

http://fishmatrix.co.uk/catalogues-products.php?section=1&product=183&catalogue=7

Robin

Outgunned - Wed 8th July 2015, Peg 15 Lookout Lake, Angel Of The North

I was back at the Angel for my session today as I fancied having another crack at fishing the pellet waggler. Something that I'd only tried last year for the first time and was keen to try again. However (as ever) the weather gods had seen me coming and the high temperatures of the last 2 weeks were forecast to come crashing down to a maximum 15°C with plenty of rain and a stiff northerly breeze. On the positive side I wouldnt need suncream and there should be plenty of 'ripple' on the water 

At the fishery there was a match on Bowes Lake and  a coaching session on the 1st 15 pegs of the main bank on Lookout. That was fine with me as i fancied the island anyway. The trip across the footbridge to it being slightly unnerving, as 2 swans roosting on the bank approach took extreme offence at my approach and blocked my path, hissing and generally giving the impression that me wanting to cross THEIR bridge was seriously p!ssing them off. I rounded them carefully ensuring that this was not the time for my trolley to tip over again, depositing a Daiwa seatbox on top of an irate bird  (when I was a kid there was a famous family tale about my granda having his arm broken by a swan for trying to steal its eggs....fair enough really but id always treated them with a healthy respect. Any bird the size of a small pterodactyl fully deserves its own space in my opinion !)

On the island the low peg numbers were taken, so I followed up on my loose plan by setting up on peg 15. Right on the southern end of the island, possibly a bit sheltered from the wind but also at the 'right' end of the lake if the fish followed the wind.

Peg 15

As nice a fishery as it is I'd normally avoid this area as its probably only 50-60m from the main road and a nasty roundabout that seems to have a permanent traffic queue around it. I think I'd counted 5 emergency vehicle sirens before I even started fishing.

Road to nowhere ?

 Perhaps not the ideal peg if you want some peace and tranquility.But as the road noise became white noise I tried to plan a strategy. The peg has a load of options as per my photos. In a match you'd have to fish straight in front of you but in theory when pleasure fishing I could have also cast a feeder or waggler over to the pegs on the far bank about 25m away at 90° to my seatbox,  however somebody could easily arrive and fish here later in the day, so after a good plumb around I decided on the following in the water in front of my platform :-

With a 6g pellet waggler i could get quite close to the far bank reeds. I'd been advised to fish 10mm Angel feed pellets so I had a hair rig with a 16 hook and a band tied in a knotless knot and started pinging about 3 pellets across towards the reeds every other minute or so whilst I continued to set up.

I had planned to fish a long pole line with the '5m' line as my main focus but the wind was rattling across me from left to right. As well as this the 5m line turned out to be 6 sections which i hoped would be far enough away from the bank to do everything as the longer line was going to be hard going in the wind.  I did though set up 2 lines both left and right to give me some options. There was about 2" difference in depth so i would use 2 rigs and feed in different ways. 

The left hand line was more into the breeze so i started with 1 good pot of bait, a mixture of chopped worm and casters with some micros and groundbait (sonubaits Bloodorm and Sensas IM5 mixed 70/30) in a slop, gently squeezed into a ball. I would give this time to settle and planned to top up as needed with a kinder pot. The right hand line was easier to feed by hand more often, so although i began by cupping in a 3rd of a pot of hemp and maggot, I was going to feed every 5 mins with about 30 grubs and go from there.  I would leave the margins for a while but the carp always seem to come in tight to the bank in summer, so I new this would be a main part of my focus later.

I started on the pellet waggler,  Alternating between feeding every cast, twice per cast  or nothing. It didn't work. Either the fish weren't interested at all or with the cold start it was just too early in the day. I'd given the method a good 45 mins without any kind of touch so shelved it for now. Back to plan B.

I tried the heavier fed LH short line with hard pellet in a band but there was quite a tow on the water. I had a DT Open Water Tear on this line  which meant the rig was nice and stable but the fish didn't seem too fussed about a moving bait and i didnt fancy fishing overdepth with a banded pellet. So i abandoned the pellet and deepened the rig to have about 2" on the bottom and keep it still. I started alternating between a worm head and double caster as I'd been firing in a combo of casters and 4mm pellets about every 5 minutes. At least i was now getting bites and fish; nothing big but some roach and skimmers started liking the bait. I decided to refeed with a MAP pot of chopped worm and leave the line for 10 minutes while i tried my RH maggot line. I'd opted for a DT Pencil for this line as the wind and tow was much decreased in this swim. With a strung out bulk over the bottom half of the rig to search through the water column.(I also had a top kit with a shallow rig on to go over both swims but this didnt really produce anything when i tried it), however most bites came after the rig had fully settled.

The fishing was definitely getting better and apart from some tiny perch, i was getting more roach with some better skimmers and a few spirited crucians but no carp. In fact it was now mid afternoon and I'd just started to notice fish moving and crashing about, something that had been totally absent so far today.  The temperature had lifted a few degrees and the sun had come out for a bit waking the fish up.

In spite of not fishing the pellet waggler I'd continued to feed regularly and with the wind dropping i decided to feed my margin lines and have some time on the waggler. Almost straight away I started  getting  indications before hooking an ide of about 1.5lbs. I could get plenty of bites but was only hitting a small percentage, so tried  shallowing up but the bites stopped. Fishing 2-3 feet deep seemed to be the best. I'd had another ide of around 2lbs but just had the feeling that the bait wasn't quite right. Ann in the fishery tackle shop had recommended fishing 10mm hard pellets on the pellet waggler but as there were no carp showing i couldnt help wonder if a 8mm or even 6mm would have been better on the day (unfortunately i didnt have any of these 2 try on this occasion). But the method of fishing the pellet waggler was really enjoyable. Feed, cast, strike or twitch the rig and feed again. Its an ultra positive and active way of fishing that would be brilliant on the right day.

By now I had hungry carp tails up in my swim. I'd fed groundbait and hemp in front of my platform and on my RH margin cupped in less groundbait but a pot of dead maggots. For both lines i was fishing a DT Margin Diamond on 0.165 mainline to 0.135 hooklength and a Maver CS23 size 14. I started on the right hand swim with 6 maggots on the hook.  The float settled and bobbed before burying. My strike was met by me netting a shocked looking 4oz roach, quickly followed by its twin....obviously these fish were not aware that they were supposed to be chubby carp !

I fed another 1/3 pot of maggots and went to the other margin line. In previous summers I'd caught well on paste so tried this again. I had fed 4 pots of groundbait earlier with the hemp so used a blob of groundbait on the hook. As usual the float danced around in front of me for a few minutes before burying. This time i lifted into a fish which took off towards the far bank,  a few seconds later the hook pulled. Despite how little i fish I'm still fairly used to losing fish here when fishing on a top kit, so undaunted, baited up and went out again. This time when i hooked another fish i felt better prepared but this time after a more determined fight the line went slack and i brought the rig back with a large scale attached to the hook ! Id hoped by fishing paste and not having the point visible that I'd be able to reduce foul hooking. I was getting a bit frustrated and this got worse as the next fish i hooked smashed the hooklength when the elastic bottomed out. I'd waited all day for the bigger fish to show up and now I'd lost 3 in a row. I refed the swim with more groundbait which brought the carp back in front of me within a minute. I decided to give them a few minutes to settle and went back to my RH line with maggots. This time a quick battle led to a lovely tench of about 1lb in the net.

I always tend to bring a small tin of corn with me on any commercials and fancied giving this a go as a hookbait. Corn is banned (along with meat) as a feed at The Angel but its just so visible. I put 2 grains on the hook and this time a thumping bite was followed up by a good 7 minute fight as i treated this fish with real kid gloves. At long last I had my carp and at about 7lbs was a welcome sight. 

Common Courtesy ?

I now was in a bit of a dilemma. I had planned to fish until 4pm, it was now 3.50pm and the fish were feeding in both my margin swims. Time to re-evaluate my finish time i think !  I started to slowly pick off more carp, not quite to the size of my last fish but between 2 and 6 lbs.

Tanned Leather (sorry !)

I swapped between paste and double corn and whilst bites were not instant it was fun. Until I got broken again. Stupidly the rig I was using was the heaviest i had and id ordered some heavier elastic too which hadn't arrived in time for me to use. I caught another 8 carp or so before i packed up but did get broken a third time. 

Not the best angling in the world because i just wasn't prepared correctly.

So packing up I'd had an enjoyable day really. I'd caught some really nice fish and the carp ahowing towards the end had made it. I know that a lot of people turn their noses up at carp for some reason but i love them and like something that gives the tackle and elastic a work out. The valuable lesson learned though was to have heavier rigs/hooklengths available. The fish that snapped me may well have all been foul hooked but i think i didn't give myself the best option of getting them out today. I will be back with a bit more fire power next time. If the carp are showing it'll be interesting to see who wins !

Also seeing the queues of traffic going to and from work and the emergency sirens sounding regularly during the day,  reminded me why this sport is a distraction from the stress and pace of our working lives. 

Thanks for reading. Tight Lines.

Robin