11.04.17

Guru's Pemb Wrighting tops 111 peg winter series!

After an intense 12 match series in a league with 111 anglers competing, Guru’s Pemb Wrighting was crowned champion on the Coleman’s Cottage Winter League after the final round on Sunday!

Catching up with our very pleased Product Developer, he revealed the tactics he used throughout, and the important things he learned this winter and spring!

“I can’t believe how close this league was after twelve matches! To put things in perspective, the top three all had the same number of points after dropping three results. The results were worked out on section points, and out of the twelve matches, myself, Jason Collins who came second, and Pat Cooper in third all managed seven wins and two seconds – well done boys!

“Sunday saw me draw in a fair section on Stepfield Lake, on peg 21. This pool is deep down the middle (seven feet) so I set my stall out for a simple match of fishing in the edge and across to the far bank. As I thought with the hot weather, fishing on the bottom in the deep water would be hopeless. There was the possibility of some shallow fish too, but it often tends to be more carp up the end of the lake where I had drawn apposed to F1s, so I wasn’t hopeful of an F1 shallow fest!

“I had probably 30lb in the first hour fishing in the edge, feeding corn and Bag’em XP groundbait. I also caught three carp right over to the far bank at last knockings feeding maggots. The middle part of the match was spent mugging fish that were cruising in the heat.
I weighed in 88lb for a satisfying section win.

“The best rig at the weekend was the mugging one, set up with white Hydro Elastic. Mainline was a super durable 0.17mm N-Gauge, to an 0.13mm N-Gauge hooklength, and a size 16 Super LWG eyed hook with four No10 micro shot on the rig below a prototype Guru AR pole float.

Trickling in maggots from a Pole Pot worked well on cold days.

Peg 21 on Stepfield - a peg where mugging worked well!

“The league overall was a brilliant learning curve for me, and after wanting to fish it for several years now, I came away from it having learned a few very valuable winter and spring lessons.

“The first is to always take some ground bait! A lot of my fishing for the previous few winters has been done with mainly maggots and pellets. This year I saw a few lads at Coleman’s using a bit of ground bait here and there, so I put it into my own approach too. At times it was a real turning point in a match when I put in groundbait, even when it was freezing! It was a real eye opener for me and a good reminder that sometimes you get stuck in a rut of preconceived ideas. A bag of Bag’em XP normally did the job!

“My next learning step was to make sure I didn’t neglect shallow water. The lakes at Coleman’s are relatively clear for commercials, so before the league started in my head I had discounted a lot of shallow water spots due to the clarity of the water. Quite early on in the league I had clocked the fish liked being close to features, no matter what the depth was. On one round I had a good run of fish fishing right over in 18-inches of water when the lake was clear. Resting these shallow water spots was the key, to let the fish regroup between catching them. Also, fishing a long line above the float was a help; up to three feet of line between float and pole tip with a big back shot to steady the rig worked wonders.

“Big Hooks opened my eyes this winter too! I’ve never been a massive fan of small hooks, always finding it better to use a bigger version and miss less bites. I often used a 16 Super LWG or Kaizen, even when the fishing was hard. As I said, you just miss less bites and loose less fish! A lot of people warned me that Coleman’s fish were very spooky and fishing light lines and was key but by matching my big hooks to a 0.10mm Pure Fluorocarbon or 0.11mm N-Gauge hook length worked well.

“It was a league I REALLY wanted to win, and to do so on my first attempt was extra pleasing. I made lots of new mates and loved every minute of the competition and craic with the lads. I’ll be back next year!”

Using a big size 16 Super LWG and light line was deadly.

Pemb discovered the importance of groundbait this winter.

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