1st match was a MFS match on Saturday and with a few regulars to the venue, I had only fished it twice before, but have gleaned plenty of info and learned that the foul hooked fish go like rockets and are tackle busters and those hooked correctly don't give up easily!!
I arrived at the draw in plenty of time, the weather was ok but was due to turn in the early afternoon, bringing persistent rain later in the day. Luckily it was warm.
I said hello to Chris Fox and let Ken Rayner put my name to my face, and after some chit chat with a few guys the draw was made, 18 of us were down to fish.
I pulled peg 112, an ok draw, but perhaps a few pegs away from where I wanted to be ie 115/116 or the pegs opposite them 126/127. But the venue is rammed full of fish, but the change of weather may affect their feeding habits. There had been a lot of fish caught shallow recently, which doesn't come as a surprise given the weather.
Arriving at my peg I kept it simple-ish, bait was 8mm meat, 8mm pellet and some 6mm pellet in case I want to target the silvers. I also had some paste made up.
Rig wise, I had a shallow pole rig for banded pellet, a margin/meat rig and a rig for 6m and meat. All on 0.20 mainline to 0.20 hooklengths. Solid middy 20 for the margin/depth rigs and 14/16 for shallow fishing.
My peg for 27/7 -- Peg 112
I also set up a pellet wag, but other than a couple casts I never bothered with it.
The all in sounded, I cupped in various baits into the varying spots and then I went out on the shallow line at 13m, there were lots of fish about, but other than foul hookers I struggled to get positive bites. A few people were fouling fish, but the 1st hour saw me land a single carp, but Mark Poppleton had landed a few shallow from p115 and Callum on p135 also was into a few. Rich on 110 was spear fishing (foul hooking every put!!) but did land a couple. Also the guy on p126 was into a few on the wag.
After 90 mins I ditched the shallow rig and went out to 6m and tried meat, again all I got was liners and a few lost foul hooked fish. So this meat line was changed to a pellet line and 2 big pots of 8mm baits went in over the top in the hope of forcing fish to the deck. A quick look down the edge on the top kit bought a couple carp before they did the off.
A look over the new pellet line with a banded 8mm bait just touching bottom bought me another couple fish, but each time I fed they'd come up in the water but not feeding, like they were attracted to the noise but not interested in consumption.
For the next couple hours I kept trying the edge and 6m lines and had the odd fish, but by now I knew I was miles behind Mark on p115, p126 was bagging, Alex Murray on p132 also had landed a few.
Rich on p110 and Callum on p135 were catching consistently. So it was trying something new.
With the guy on p111 having more positive bites and landing more by switching to paste, I put a bit on the hook at 6m and had 3 within 20 mins, then the rain came and turned my paste into soup, my luncheon meat was swimming and my pellets were dissolving!!
By now a few had left and the pegs opposite were struggling. Rich on 110 was getting loads as was p111. Mark on 115 had slowed, but still picking up more than most.
With an hour left I had around 50lb in the nets, which was not great, but I could see that my margin had fish visiting it regularly, in fact they were taking pellets off the folded grass. So the last hour was spent mostly on the top-kit in my right hand edge (but I was only fishing 2ft from my platform) coupled with a couple looks at 6m, my last hour was decent with a carp most drops on banded 8mm.
The end of the match sounded and all the sodden anglers packed up in readiness for the weigh in.
The last hour had been really good for me, rich on p110 and the chap on p111. The overcast and wet conditions had bought the fish onto the feed.
The scales arrived at my peg after Rich had put 170lb+ on the scales and p111 had topped 130lb.
Sadly these weights were plenty ahead of me, and my 3 weighs went 108lb exactly (inc 6lb of silvers), a bit more than my 80lb estimate. Luckily I suffered less foul hooked fish than most by feeding less, but maybe I did not bring too many into my swim?
The match was won with over 200lb from p126. The results are below. So 10 weights over 100lb from 17 anglers (1 chose not to fish after his draw). Good fishing? I came mid-table, I only trashed 6 hooklengths on fouled fish and killed a couple floats (which died when the rigs came back through the water)
Results MFS - 27/7/13
Next up was 28/7/13 again at Viaduct, would have been either Cary or Campbell, turned out to be Campbell.
I will do that blog soon enough.......
Cheers
Lee
No comments:
Post a Comment