A warm and bright day was forecast with southerly/south easterly wind predicted, thus meaning that the ripple and wind would be pushing up the lake towards pegs 18-23.
I arrived in good time and managed a bit of a chat with a good few of the guys, we also had a new joiner in the shape of Mike West, no doubt fishing with the lake likely to give him a chance to hone his paste skills....
I must say I wanted a peg up the far end (we had the left bank pegs 1 to 23), so 18 to 23 would be great, with the latter being the one I said would win with 115lb....I was a little wrong on that.
But also the usual peg 5 would be a good draw and maybe the now tidied peg 7.
With 16 of us fishing the pegging was left to Vic Bush to sort. So after a bit more banter it was on with the draw, somehow I got to pick the first number......peg one!! A good peg unless the wind is pushing up the lake, especially a new wind like we had today. But I was optimistic of a few fish.
Next to me on peg 3 was Dave Stephenson and then John Wolstencroft was on the flyer that is peg 5.
Further along was Darren Vowles on p6, p7 was Simon Ryall. Ivan Currie had p9.
The far end pegs 19 to 23 consisted of Chris Parr, Adie Baker, Scott Smallwood, Mike West and lastly Andy Hembrow on peg 23.
Peg 1, Avalon Match Lake
I had come armed with worm and caster for the skimmers and a decent amount of 8mm pellets in the likelihood that I would be using the pellet waggler.
Alas having a calm peg which didn't look inspiring, though there were a few carp jumping beyond casting range. My bait tray consisted of a few 6mm pellets to feed with the meat and a few 8mm pellets (for the band). A couple of tins of 6mm meat and a handful of worms as a change hookbait. Silvers were not even on my agenda now. Though a little groundbait was mixed for the left hand margin.
I set up a lead rod for banded 8mm pellet to be fished next to a straw bale at around 22m along the end bank.
2 rigs for meat were made up, the 1st was for 14m just off the end bank, this was a NG Margin float in 0.2g this was rigged on 0.22>0.20>14 B911 hook. The fish do fight well here.
The 2nd rig was for topkit plus 3 sections fished slightly left in front of me, a 0.4g NG Diamond was used with 0.20>0.18> 14 B911. This rig would also be used at 14m down in front of peg 2's platform.
I did set up a shallow pellet rig, but other than 10 minutes use, it never got used.
I was ready to fish well before the 10am start, so I went and had a chat with Dave on the next peg.
The all out was called and 1/2 a cup of meat/6mm mix was potted in on the edge line and the same went on the topkit+3 area.
I started on the bomb, but after 45 minutes of no fish and boredom I came in on the short line and had a carp immediately, a 6lb fish was a nice start. Sadly no more followed, just a palm sized skimmer.
Elsewhere Dave had landed a couple and lost 2. John W. had lost one and landed a couple and Darren had landed 4 or 5. I would guess that the far end pegs would have been productive.
Going into the 2nd hour and I was still struggling for bites from carp, there was plenty of small silvers kicking around, which in hindsight I should have fished for. But I carried on regardless.
By the 3rd hour I was up to 3 palm sized skimmers, a carp of 1lb and the 6lber.
The 3rd hour was just as bad as the second, though I did snare another 6lber, this came on the bomb rod while I ate a packet of crisps. A 2lb skimmer was also netted during this hour.
By now word had come down that Andy, Mike and Adie were catching well, especially Andy on peg 23. John and Darren had been doing ok as had Chris Parr on peg 19.
Into the 4th hour and I had seen John catch a fish shallow on the pole, so I began to feed a few pellets at 14m in front, but this was given up as a bad job, all I could see was the odd cruiser, none seemed interested in feeding.
As I approached the 5th hour I gave the swim by peg 2 a go, this bought me a result in the form of a 4lb carp, caught on double dendra. A small skimmer from this line soon after made me re-feed that spot.
A look on the short line gave me 3 small skimmers so a look along the end bank was in order. A bite 1st put was great, this turned out to be a hyper active 1lb stockie, a 2nd, 3rd and 4th soon followed before they disappeared.
Dave on peg 3 had lost a couple and landed a couple more and we looked like we had similar weights.
The last hour was soon upon us and I found it rather quiet, landing a single 4lb carp from the area in front of peg 2, I also lost one which snapped my hooklength on the staging of the peg. I also had a couple baby skimmers to finish the match off.
I think I ended with 4 decent sized carp and a handful of little 1lb stockies.
As I began to pack up Vic came past as he was going to start the weigh from peg 23, which I had been informed looked like had won, with Mike West and Adie Baker pushing him close.
A quick chat with the guys on the pegs just up from me confirmed that nobody had much in the way of silvers as they'd not been fished for down this end.
John said he had around 50lb, as had Ivan and Darren. Me and Dave guessed at 25lb each.
The scales were soon at me, though I had put everything in the car except my nets.
The weigh sheet told me the story that the far end pegs had produced best with Andy Henmbrow winning, followed by Mike West and Adie Baker. John Wolstencroft on peg 5 had taken 4th.
The silvers weights were 19lb and 16lb from Dave Wride and Paul Purchase on pegs 11 and 17 respectively.
My silvers weighed 5lb or so and my carp amassed 36lb. So I ended up with 41lb and a few ounces for mid-way. Though not too bad considering the seeming lack of feeding fish at the car-park end of the lake (my swim).
Results:
1st Andy Hembrow on peg 23, 134lb 4oz
2nd Mike West on peg 22, 102lb
3rd Adie Baker on peg 20, 84lb 13oz
4th John Wolstencroft on peg 5, 65lb 11oz
Silvers:
Dave Wride had 19lb 3oz from peg 11.
Weigh Sheet
So it was a decent match, even if I was at the wrong end of the lake, and I guess, in hindsight, I could have fished for the skimmers.Tomorrow I am taking my kids (plus others') fishing, probably over Sedges on the Canal lake.
Next weekend I have Clevedon's blind pairs match on the 2 canal lakes at Shiplate, I have never fished these lakes so it could be interesting.
Until next time, Take Care.
Lee
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