The lake had loads of carp, skimmers, plenty of roach and a few tench and perch for good measure.
Anyways, todays draw was 8:30 and fishing was 10:00 to 15:50, there was 15 of us spread on the 2 long banks.
I woke at 7am, had a cuppa and some cereal, loaded the carp and set off at 8am....I had driven about half a mile and decided to grab a breakfast roll from Munchkins food van. So the 5 minute drive took 20 minutes, lol.
I arrived to a car park with plenty of vehicles in, but I wasn't last to arrive, Nick Harvey, Kev Perry and a couple others arrived after me.
I unloaded the car, loaded the barrow, paid my £20 and waited for the draw. After a couple of 'hellos' and chit chat, the pegs were in the bag. Top 3 and 2 silvers were the payouts.
I drew towards the end of the rabble, plucking peg 27. Not too bad, but I would rather have been further up the lake on either side, as the little wind we had seen recently was pushing that way.
For company I had Adie Baker on p26 and Kev Perry on 29. Opposite I had Simon Ryall and Nicky Harvey.
Peg 27, Trinity Woodlands.
I had fished peg 28 earlier in the week, making a couple rigs up and attempting to catch silvers, which was my ideal plan for today. Now I did have between 20 and 25lb on Wednesday in 4hrs fishing, but I never managed a skimmer over 4oz or so, but had a great big roach near to 2lb and a nice sized perch. I only hooked 2 carp on Wednesday which was a surprise given it's relative mildness.So I had ideas, and rigs, that'd sort my fishing out, so I thought!!
For bait today I had a pint or so of caster, some maggots, a kilo of Sensas matchblend and magic mix, some micros, corn and 4mm pellets. I had some expanders in 4 and 6mm, plus bread for hookbaits.
I set up a waggler with 2 no.8's down the line, this was for various baits at around 20m.
A bomb rod for the waggler line, plus searching, this had a 18" tail, on which a size 16 hook with a band was tied for bread and pellet as bait.
4 pole rigs were assembled:
The first was 0.4g margin float for tight in to my left, 0.20>0.16>size 16 B911 with corn or 6mm expander. Solid 18/20 was my choice of elastic.
The 2nd was a 0.4g NG Silverfish Caner, set up on 0.12>0.08>22 B511, no.4-6 laccy for a topkit line.
3rd was a 0.6g NG Decker, bulked 18" and a no.10 dropper. 0.12>0.10>B911f1 size 18, no. 4-6 solid laccy. This was for 14m out, slightly right in deeper water (it sloped Left to right). Aiming for skimmers mostly.
Lastly was a 0.5g NG Power Pencil on 0.20>0.16>size 16 B911, to be fished at 9m at 10 o'clock sort of line and 14.5m at the 11 o'clock position as it was the same depth. Baits would be 6mm expander pellet or corn. Laccy was a 10/12 middy solid.
The all in was called at 10am and I spent a little while cupping in several balls of groundbait on the skimmer line. A cup of mixed 4mm pellet and corn was deposited on my 14.5m carp line, the same went in on the shorter line. A few casters were flicked to the topkit line, as this line was the one I expected to make the bulk of my catch, like I found it had earlier in the week.
I didn't bait the margin swim, leaving that until 90 minutes from the end.
I started on the wag with maggot and waited 5 minutes for my 1st fish, a little 1/2oz roach, followed a couple minutes later by a 3oz roach. Switching to corn never bought a bite, so I lobbed the lead and bread out for 20 minutes, this didn't bring much, just a single liner.
By the end of the 1st hour a few carp had been caught, but nobody I could see had landed more than 2. I had a few small roach in the net.
The following 90 minutes went ok though, well I say ok, but I would rather not have hooked carp on the lighter lines, but I did, and by half past 12 I had 3 carp in the net. 1 on the topkit line and 2 from over where I wanted skimmers. They were a while to land, but I succeeded.
Adie, next door on 26, had landed a good few silvers, and possibly had 5lb of them. The guys directly opposite were struggling as was Kev Perry on p29. Word had it that the end peg on my bank, Mark Walsh had landed a few carp as had the end peg opposite him.
I was stuck on whether to try and bag a bunch of slivers, which didn't seem like playing ball for me, I was even struggling to get bites on maggot....only soft 4mm bought me the old silver fish. Or fish for carp, which seemed most plausible for a pick up. Although even that would be a struggle as I would be playing catch up to at least 3 people. To be fair I was going nowhere, sort of in limbo so to speak, not close enough for a silvers pick up, but as the carp go to upper doubles, 3 fish could be 40lb...so carp it was then...........so I thought.
Between 12:30 and the all out was a struggle for me, I did land 2 carp in quick succession. 1 each from the 14.5m and 9m lines, but bites seemed to come when I cattied 4mm's over the float. The fish may have been up a bit in the water, but the shallow edge rig was dropped in with no response.
I even struggled for silvers.
Other anglers had started to catch, Jonny Page even bagged one on a pub chuck while he packed up the pole etc. Adie was getting good amounts of silvers and Rich Heatley on peg 30 was catching well, as he had been all day. Much to the amusement of Kev Perry, or should I say to the amusement of those watching from the other side.....good banter....lol.
The all out sounded and I had come nowhere, but I packed up and duly helped out with the weigh in.
First up was end peg 23, Mark Walsh, he weighed in a possible winning weight of 66lb 5oz.
Lewis on peg 24 targeted silvers all day, bagging himself a 12lb 14oz mixed bag.
Adie Baker weighed in a total of 27lb 5oz, of which 14lb 2oz was his silvers.
I weighed a poxy 3lb 5oz of silvers and my 5 carp went 26lb 2oz. 29lb 7oz total.
Kev Perry (p29) weighed 14lb+
Then came Rich Heatley, his carp weighed 74lb 6oz, his silvers 3lb 4oz. He now looked the winner with 77lb 10oz total, a good weight.
Peg 32 had 7lb+ of silvers then there were a few 20lb-ish weights before Simon Ryall put 1oz less than me on the scales. Nicky Harvey DNW'd.
The last 2 to weigh were Jonny Page and Phil Nash. Jonny picked up the odd fish during the match, including his late lead caught carp. His total went 37lb 11oz from peg 14.
Phil, on end peg 15. He had been catching a few lumps, some looked doubles from what I could see. So in the almost dark conditions I called his weights, they totalled 48lb 11oz (2lb 3oz silvers in that). That was 3rd overall, so well done him.
So overall it was a fair, tricky match, which is how I like it. Maybe I could have had a few more of both silvers and carp, but despite trying various things, the fish never responded. I do think a pellet wag attack could have given a few fish. There were a few mooching in the upper layers. All if's and but's.
Weigh sheet...
Results:
1st- R. Heatley, 77lb 10z
2nd- M. Walsh, 66lb 5oz
3rd- P. Nash, 48lb 11oz
Silvers:
1st- A. Baker, 14lb 2oz
2nd- L. Walker, 12lb 14oz
So next up for me is the Pawlett Xmas match on Sedges next sunday, which should be enjoyable.
Until next time, take care and enjoy yourselves
Lee.
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