I went to bed quite late on Saturday and the car was frosted over then, so when I woke on Sunday I knew the scraper was going to be needed. Alas it was solid, but 10 minutes with the scraper cleared all windows from ice, on the plus side the car was showing 2.5-3 degrees. It had obviously warmed up in the 5hrs since I went to bed.
I loaded a few bits into the car including the ice breaker and the rod ready holdall, which I didn't need on Saturday. The wife made me a flask of tea and some toast, she even prepared my bread for the punch, bless her.
I arrived at the venue at 8am, plenty early enough, but Vic and Pete were there anyhow and 15 minutes later I had company in my two team mates. James and Paul arrived early, so we managed to get our draw done in plenty of time. I got Section B, Paul had section C and James was in A, we were all peg 6 in each section thus being allocated permanent pegs 23(corner so all or nothing) for me, 38 (ok) for Paul and 9 (fair to decent) for James.
Soon after others started to arrive and comments and chitter chatter followed as is the relaxed approach to this series. The general idea was that it'd be tough after the frost, but everyone wanted to pick up decent section points and the usual skimmers and bonus carp was the aim.
I set up 3 rigs for the pole and at the last minute a lead rod was assembled.
Rigs were simple:
a 0.6 NG Caner for silvers, 0.14>0.10>18 B911f1 with 8-10 soft middy solid elastic.
a 0.5g NG Power pencil for carp, 0.20>0.16>14 B911 with 18-20 elastic (edge look snaggy).
a 0.6g NG Gimp, 0.14>0.12>18 B911 with 12-14 elastic. This was for the silvers line should I be getting too many carp.
Bait wise I had the usual micros, maggot, expanders and caster. I also had some 8 and 6mm pellets for the lead, along with some bread (remained unused) and 1/4 pint of corn. I mixed up 2 pints of groundbait as I had an inkling that it'd produce.
While setting up I managed to drown my micros and they turned to paste....wally. My 2nd lot wasn't much better but useable...wally. I also managed to mix my groundbait too dry (it floated on 1st cup)....whoops...wally!!
Ten minutes before the whistle young Matt Harris (Thatchers Youth) turned up as his team had forgot about the match, so he assembled a small feeder rod to start on to get fishing while sorting the pole etc.
On the whistle I cupped 2 balls of groundbait at 14m at the 11 o'clock position, some micros at 14m against a bale of straw close to the end bank (sort of 10am direction). I also cupped some micros and corn by another bale of straw at 7m to my left against the end bank. I also loose fed some maggot at the topkit line.
I lobbed a banded pellet close enough to the point of the island while I let the bait settle and have a cuppa. 20 minutes of boredom came and went so it was out with the pole.
1st drop over the groundbait I had a bite and a 3oz skimmer was netted, then a 3oz roach. For the next 20 minutes or so I put a bunch of small skimmers and roach in the net, amassing maybe 1 pound. I was enjoying it.
Looking at the pegs I could see it seemed I was doing ok, Dave Allen opposite on p24 had a few fish on the topkit line, Matt on p22 had a carp or 2 on his feeder. Further down there had been a few silvers caught, but I was unaware of much else.
An hour or so into the match the wind got up, and my peg, along with peg 17, seemed to be getting the worst of it. It became a struggle to hold the pole at 7m, so my 14m lines would have to be tried when or if the wind died down. I, at this point, opened a new line at 11m at the 2 o'clock line, but this never produced a bite all match despite several attempt, so no more on this.
I tried the topkit for 10 minutes, but this only gave me one roach. So it was the 7m margin line. I baited the hook with a grain of corn and lowered it in, it was tricky too as I was fishing 90 degrees across the wind...but within 30 seconds I had a bite and missed it, so I dropped the rig back in and the float buried again and my strike saw several feet of elastic come from the tip, now I wasn't going to pussy foot around with carp from this line as there are branches, twigs and reeds to contend with, so within 30 seconds I had a little 3lb carp in the net. Bargain.
15 minutes later I lost a foul hook fish, resulting in a massive scale being my parting gift.
The following 3 hours saw me switch to the long 14m groundbait line (the micros never gave a bit all match) when I could, this gave me the odd small skimmer. Meanwhile Matt was upto maybe 6 carp and was miles ahead. The pegs further down looked like they had landed a few fish and Dave opposite had a couple lumpy looking carp as well as some silvers on his topkit.
The 4th hour of the match saw me lose 3 carp, all foul hooked, but despite me adjusting the feed and alternating my rig depth, bites were not regular, especially with the wind and lack of presentation. This resulted in me adding some extra line to the rig in order to try and stop my pole tip buffeting the rig around, this was a good move as I immediately hooked another carp, which saw my direct approach in landing the fish pay off with the carp soon in the net, this one was maybe 2lb.
Into the last hour and from what I could tell, Matt looked like coming out as match winner, if not top 3, he had maybe 30lb of fish, he'd lost one or two as well I think.
20 minutes from the end I lost another carp before the following 2 drops saw a carp landed from each one, the all out sounded at 3pm so I finished with 4 carp and maybe 1.5lb of silvers.
I didn't expect to finish last in section as I think I had a few more than Titch William on peg 21 and Dave Allen on p24. With Keith Clapp in my section, on peg 17 (he won 1st round from there) I wasn't optimistic of doing great, also I couldn't see what the pegs along from Dave had done, but I was soon told they'd not done great.
I packed my kit away in quick time and loaded up the car. A chat with a few guys gave me reason to think I'd done ok for team points as the pegs from Dave to Jamie Parkhouse on peg 29 had no carp between them. So maybe a section 4th or 5th would be ok, but should have been better....so I thought.
The scales were soon at my peg and a quick look at the board saw that Matt had put a level 30lb on the scales but the pegs before him hadn't done as well as I thought. 10lb 11oz and 11lb 2oz were the better other weights. I knew I had close to 12lb of carp plus my early silvers.
Infact my silvers weight 1lb 9oz and my 4 carp went 12lb 11oz, totalling 14lb 4oz, putting 2nd in the match at this point with that weight!!
I took my car down to the car park and chatted with a few guys who told me that 'Lucky' John Dursley on end peg 48 had probably won the match as he had calm water and good presentation at 16m all day.....It turned out that I had 2nd in section too, and would be getting a section payout...bonus.
I did see that the Weston team of Jonny Page, Simon Ryall and Ron Stark had come last in 2 sections and 2nd last in the 3rd...how do they do it!!??
Paul and James informed me they did ok, but may have done better. But were defo mid section-ish. So team points looked ok, but not setting the series on fire.....but we had dropped points on weight in previous rounds, and our weights were not brilliant.
By now there was only a handful of us left, James and Paul had left, leaving me to see the results.
These were:
1st - John Dursley with 38lb 10oz from p48
2nd - Matt Harris, 30lb from p22
3rd - Lee Williams, 14lb 4oz, p23
Silvers 1st was R. Andres on peg 32 with 12lb 10oz
Silvers 2nd was Vic Bush, peg 42 and caught 10lb 12oz
Top Team was Somerset Carpenters with 28 points..!!
Section money went to M. Weston on p40, Mike West peg 3 and K. Clapp on peg 17.
Weigh Sheets 12-1-14
So how did it go? I think had the wind not got up when it did I would have been good for a lot more silvers, but I really do need practice in fishing 14m+ in the wind...maybe some upper body strength building is in order as well.
Maybe I should have switched to heavier floats on the pole and lengthened the line a bit, but all in hindsight.
Team wise we finished 4th on the day, dropping a point due to weight, to Fish and Field who are doing well overall.....We are back up to 3rd in the series, 3 points off the lead, but that is a big ask really. We do need to get into 2nd for a placing at the series end, but still we are 6 places higher than we expected to be, so we must be doing something ok.....
Next up for me is a match with Pawlett at Landsend next Sunday, which is the 1st time in ages I will have fished it, but I suppose I could have booked into Apex, but although it's fishing well, a bit more shelter was the deciding factor, I am bored of all this rain and wind.........especially the wind!!
Until next time,
Lee
p.s. Avalon and Sedges are jointly running a couple of festivals this year, the 1st being in April, with a prize fund of 8 grand (£8000) based on a full capacity. See the pic below.
April Festival - Sedges and Avalon
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