I had gathered that the hot/best/flyer pegs tended to be island ones, with pegs 7, 8 and a few in the 20's being most consistent.
Well after a late night/early morning, I had little sleep before the 6:30am alarm was due to wake me.
I also had to take Mrs W. to work in Weston on the way up (and get her on the way back), so I had planned to drop her in Weston at around 7:45 and get to Plantation at 8-ish. Alas this went wrong, little did I know that Weston is being dug up and put back in a better state, well the roads are it seems.
So I got the car loaded and had a cuppa before setting off, as we approached junction 21 we could see cones....the north bound slip road was closed, so my foot pressed a touch harder on the accelerator and it was up to the next junction, and back down the M5 to the south bound exit at Weston. An extra 20 miles thus far!!.....we got into Weston at 8am. I left the wife and made my way back towards the M5, the road was closed, so the diversion was taken....all out to Banwell and then onto the A38, then back into Congresbury.......gggrr....a few extra miles driven and more time taken, I expected to be late but luckily, I arrived at the car park at 25 past. As it turns out, the slip road on the M5 northbound should have been open at 5am, but they hadn't opened it!!
I went into the café and the draw was made, Nick Harvey wasn't present, he was told or thought it was a 9am draw. So we drew his peg first.
I drew my ticket about halfway along he array of hands and pulled out peg 33, this meant bum all to me, I had not ever seen any blogs or results which had this peg written on it, but everyone told me it was a waste of a peg, the worst peg in the match if not on the lake....Pagey and co pointed me in the direction of the pegs, none of which were numbered. They said it shouldn't be in and I would possibly struggle...more joys.
The general census was that the lake may fish hard with the cooler nights and recent rains, but today it began warm enough, so much so I sat in tee-shirt until the all out when it had become rather nippy.
Anyways I found my peg and it looked ok, nothing more, it was a bay type peg off the main lake.
For company I had nobody...well I had Kev Perry behind me on peg 31 and Rich over on whatever peg number it was - probably peg 37?, well it was the point of a spit opposite the end of the island.
Peg 33....Plantation Match Lake
My focus was always going to be fishing for silvers, well unless I drew peg 7 that is.....so I had with me a couple pints of caster, some 4 and 6 mm pellets for in the band, some micros and expanders and I mixed up some groundbait. Lastly I had some worm for chopping. Caster had been doing well on here from reports, so this was my banker bait.
Rig wise I set up my 3m whip set at 2.5ft deep, this is now my usual go-to silvers rig at the start of a match, more through enjoyment than anything, but it does me ok.
I also set up 2 identical 0.4g NG floats for 11m in front left (in line with blue keepnet) and in front slightly right (in line with silvers net). The left hand side was a couple or so inches shallower, and was baited with mostly micros, the right-hand side was for groundbait with caster on the hook. Both lines were for the skimmers, which apparently run to over 2.5lb and maybe a few roach.
I also used the un-banded rig for over my whip line as the depth was the same. A chopped worm/caster line down my right margin was assembled, this was tried a couple times without even a sniff.....
The all-in was shouted and I potted 3 walnut sized ball of groundbait over that 11m line, a decent cup of wetted micros over the other 11m line. A small helping of CW&C down to my right
I began on the whip and after 5 or so mins I had a roach of maybe 3oz, then nothing for a bit before a similar sized roach was plonked in the keepnet, by the end of the first hour I had 4 or 5 roach around 3-4oz each, most people were struggling from what I could see, except Rod Wootton over on peg 39? who after a quiet period on the long pole line had switched to the margin and started catching a few carp.
The next hour or so only bought me a few more roach, mostly on the whip, though 1 from the groundbait line gave me false hope as this was only 1 of 3 fish from open water all day for me. The roach were all same sized and if they had stuck around in numbers were good weight builders, but that is a big IF...
By the time 2pm had arrived, I maybe had 2lb of roach. So I quickly set up another rig for tight into 2 new margin swims, one to my left at 11m towards the empty peg and another to my right, closer in than the original cw&c line. Both lines were dealt big helpings of caster and worm, with the left margin given some loose groundbait.
Word had it that Paul Faires would easily win the silvers as he'd had some skimmers of a big size and Glen Calvert was doing ok. Also Rod had landed a good few carp, and the pegs in the 20's behind me had produced a few, along with plenty of foul-hookers from what I could hear. Peg 7... the hot peg...had Mark Bromsgrove on it, and he was doing very well, so 1st and 2nd seemed between him and Rod. Elsewhere a few carp were getting caught, but I really didn't know where people were at with the silvers, but I thought that maybe a couple decent ones or maybe a perch of a couple pound would help me.
So the last hour was spent fishing the two margins, with the odd look out in front.
I would love to say that the perch and skimmers had arrived, but I cant, I landed 3 more roach and two lumpy carp, both on double caster, one of which was landed on skimmer gear within 15 seconds....it was around 12lb came from the right hand edge swim, the smaller from the left towards the empty swim. Both were an unwelcome bonus, but beats waiting for nothing as the silvers were notable by their absence.
The all out sounded and I knew I hadn't done anything to worry the pay-outs, but felt I had done ok given the peg. The last hour saw Kev behind me boost his carp tally to around 6 and Rich over on the point swim had topped his carp tally to 4 or 5. Rod had a quiet last hour from what I gather. Lance Tucker on peg 5? had landed a few carp during the match and had done ok.
The temperature had dropped noticeably and the fish had slowed as well in the last hour. So much so that I had to put my coat on as soon as I got off my box.
I loaded the car and wandered back to get my catch weighed, everyone commenting how hard and disappointing the day was. There was 2 sets of scales, so weighing didn't take long.
First I plonked my couple of carp on the scales, they totalled 18lb 6oz.
My roach weighed in at 3lb, giving me 21lb 6oz.
Elsewhere Mark Bromsgrove won the match (peg 7 - 78lb 40z), Rod Wootton (p39 61lb 4oz) was 2nd, Lance Tucker 3rd (36lb 8oz p5) and 4th was Brian Slipper (p12 28lb 8oz).
Silvers was won by Paul Faires with a great catch of 15lb 8oz, 2nd silvers was Glen Calvert with 7lb 4oz.
Weigh Sheet....No peg numbers.
So all in all it was a hard day with most struggling at times, the weather was pleasant enough for November, but I enjoyed it and will be keen to go back at some point.
Next up for me is a match on the River Parrett, a venue I have not fished for around 18 years...cool...roach fishing....let the rains keep away a bit more this week.
Until then, stay safe and have fun.
Lee
No comments:
Post a Comment