The weather forecast was showing as strong winds couple with heavy showers, some of which had a chance of being hail.
I arrived for the 8:30 draw in plenty of time, but alas it was delayed due to Horseshoe lake needing to be pegged. So the numbers went into the tub for a 9am draw.
I fancied a peg on the Horseshoe lake as it'd make a change, plus most thought it'd be a better chance of catching. There were 11 pegs on Horseshoe and about 20 on the Main lake, and with the payouts identical, top 3 plus 2 silvers on each lake, the chance on an envelope was significantly better on Horseshoe..
Anyways, I pulled out peg 27 on the main lake, the flyers of pegs 7 and 8 went to Lance Tucker and John Woolsencroft respectively. My peg had an island around 25m in front, but with 26 and 28 both pegged I didn't have any margin lines.
View from Peg 27, Plantation Main Lake
I set up a whip for any silvers, a pole rig for 13m on two spots (8/10 laccy, 0.4g NG Decker 0.14>0.10>b911f1 size 18) and a method feeder for towards to island.
Bait wise I had 1/2pt of each caster, pinkie and maggot. I also had a pint of micros and mixed a mix for the method. Some corn and pellets for hook baits finished off my tray.
I plumbed up on the pole line to find that the swim had a slightly deeper (2 inches) spot around 6ftx4ft big on the 10o'clock direction, so that would be my main attack. This was for micros/expanders.
The 2nd pole line was in the 2o'clock direction, this would be for maggot/pinkie/caster.
The whip line was fed with pinkie/maggot and to fish maggot, pinkie or caster on the hook.
The all in was at 10:15 and would fish for 5hrs. I baited small amounts of baits onto each line and I started on the method and within 10 minutes I was getting indications, but no bites, just a few liners etc. I tried various baits, dropped short, cast across with no bait on the feeder, all with no joy.
After the first hour the only angler I could see who had caught fish was Jonny Page, over on peg 18. Everyone was struggling, we had been treated to a couple showers and the wind was gusty rather than constant.
At 11:30, after trying the pole line with no joy, just a single missed bite, I tried the whip and within 10 seconds I had a bite, I struck into some resistance. I landed the fish, a carp of around 1lb. Bonus.
Well I stuck with the whip for 10 minutes without another touch.
By 12pm the 2 anglers to my right had not caught, the angler on my left had a carp of around 3lb and I had been told that peg 8 was bagging. Jonny on peg 18 had landed a couple carp and Mike Owens on peg 12 had landed a few nice perch. Don Sutherland, on p31, had landed a carp or 2 fishing towards his island.
I spent the next two hours trying the method, pole and whip, all without luck, I missed a bite on the soft pellet over micro line during a rain/wind shower. So at 2pm I decided to do what I should have done from the start and set up a waggler. The liners on the method early on made me think about it, but the weather made me stay on my box.
First cast on the waggler cast towards the island, single maggot on the hook (0.10>b611 size 18), float dotted to a dimple. Within 10 seconds it disappeared and a 3oz roach was in the net, 'cool' I thought. Maybe a run of roach will come?
The next half hour saw me miss a couple bites before we has a massive hail storm coupled with really strong winds, some brollies blew inside out and everyone was frozen. This coincided in me not being able to see my float and I promptly lost a fish to the island when I saw the mainline rise out of the water. Bugger.
I tried the pole for 10 minutes at around 2:40 without a bite. So I was back on the waggler for the last half hour.
During this 30 minutes I landed a skimmer of a pound and a similar sized perch, I also lost a foul hooked carp and bumped 3 fish, whether they were perch or carp I don't know, but they felt ok sized.
I was also getting indications, which was a bonus, although 4 hours too late.
Elsewhere Paul Faires on peg 38 had been lead a merry dance by a carp hooked at the wrong end on light tackle. Don on peg 31 had a run of 3 or 4 carp. The angler to my left hadn't had any more fish, even trying the pellet wag. The chap on peg 26 was fishless, as was Rod Wotton on p25.
A few guys had packed up ages before and by all accounts Horseshoe was dire as well.
Even the flyer peg 7, with Lance Tucker at the helm, had not given him a bite.
The all out sounded and everyone packed up, peg 8 had obviously won, I think he had 12 carp, and there were a couple 15-19lb catches. But it had been hard.
The scales arrived at me, my carp went 1lb 7oz and my 3 silvers went 2lb something.
We had the presentation and raffle in the café, which was great, I managed to wangle 3 winning tickets, which made up for the lack of fish. But the biggest cheers went to the anglers who blanked, including Lance Tucker and Rod Wotton among the 8 who never caught.
The results:
Main Lake:
1st - p8 - J Woolsencroft - 64lb 10oz
2nd - p31 - D Sutherland - 25lb 8oz
3rd - p1 - P Nicholls - 19lb 12oz
1st silvers - p12 - Mike Owens - 6lb 14oz
2nd silvers - p23 - B Slipper - 5lb 3oz
Horseshoe Lake
1st - R Lovering - 15lb 5oz
2nd - G Calvert - 11lb 8oz
3rd - P Deacon - 8lb 3oz
1st silvers - A Hembrow - 2lb 2oz
2nd silvers - S Carvelo - 1lb 8oz
So all in all it was a very tricky day with over a 1/4 of the field not catching, plus we had a few weights of under 1lb, including 2oz and 4oz weights. But I enjoyed it, although I should have tried the waggler earlier.
My silvers was enough for 3rd or 4th best silvers weight, which shows how poor it was....lol
A great thanks to Adie and Clevedon FWAC for their generosity and everything this year, lets look to 2014 being just as good.
Next up for me is a match on the 29th, where I am on Avalon for the teams of 3 series, where I hope we can do well.
Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to all the readers of my blog.....Thanks.
Lee
P.S......Bridgwater AA's Xmas match on the Bridgwater/Taunton canal was won with a massive 81lb of tench to Simon Garbutt, well done him. 2nd was 50lb+ and 3rd 30lb+. Plenty of roach, rudd and perch were caught throughout, which shows how good a venue the Bridgwater/Taunton canal can be, yet so under fished these days,
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