Arriving at the venue around 8:15 saw several guys present and Misha making tea in the hut, a quick look at the pond confirmed what a rather excited Adam Caswell had stated, a few of the carp had decided to get frisky, mostly along the left hand banks and corners, where the wind was heading. The main affected pegs were the 30's and 1 to 7.
After unloading the gear and waiting for the later arrivals, Steve announced the payouts and the draw for the match was done, I fancied pegs 7 to 9, maybe 6 or 28 perhaps, I didn't want to be up at the calmer end from peg 15 to about 24.
I drew peg 6, a few comments from others indicating my drawbag ability....haha, its not that great!!
It was also the Blind Pairs match, which Misha did the draw, bringing the biggest cheer/laugh of the day when Adam was paired with Alan Healey. I was awarded Steve Wynne.
Coupled with this, was my knock-out against Lee Waller, who had drew along the end bank, peg 3.
At my peg I was greeted with ample splashing from the margins as some of the lake's residents had got into baby making mood.....Well they do say warm sunshine is good for the libido!!
I had Darren North to my left on peg 7 and he had Briank Shanks to his left on peg 9. Us three had the best of the fresh wind that had gotten up overnight and to be honest I was sure this area was the best to be in.
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| Peg 6, Trinity Woodlands, r/h margin |
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| Peg 6, Trinity Woodland, in front |
We had around 45 minutes to set up. I had planned to fish the method and pellet waggler to start, but with Lee Waller on peg 3, this restricted my distance in front, so that idea stayed in the holdall.
So I set up a method to fish tight-ish up against Peg 4, away from the spawning fish.
I also set up a few pole rigs, one for 7m in front for meat/hemp, but I never had a bite on that so no more on this. Another rig that was unproductive was a full depth banded pellet rig for 13m in from, all I had from this was a lost hooklength on a snag and a missed bite/liner.
I also set up a margin rig to fish 7m along the right margin, past the grasses the fish were spawning in, again this was rather unproductive, I had one foul hooked fish and 2 little roach. So no more on that....!!!
My last rig was a shallow pellet rig, which was to be fished over the 13m line and at top kit distance out as this is a spot I like to fish (lazy perhaps?...or clever?).
Baits were 8mm pellet, 8mm meat, 6mm pellet for feed, hemp and some wet micros for the method.
The all in was called at just before 10am, Steve couldn't have set up much!! I wasn't ready, so a minute or two later I lobbed the method rod across to peg 4, I repeated this a few times in the opening 30 minutes without a bite, but the angler across from me (Rich Jones) had landed one or 2 carp as had Darren and Brian had one I as well, I think.
My 1st fish came after around 35 minutes in the form of a 3lb common, a fish was then lost after I found a snag to my right, but it wasn't hectic, infact the 1st 90 minutes didn't see much in the way of action with odd fish getting caught from those I could see. The carp to my right were still having fun though!! I had lost one from the margin/pole line and landed a fouler from here, but I was getting bitted out, so I fed loads more and decided to leave it until the last hour or so.
By the time the 3rd hour had arrived, I had landed 4 or 5 small carp, while Darren and Shanksy had netted better stamp of fish, but their margins were proving a snaggy problem from what I could see.
All the while I had been feeding the pole lines pretty consistently, especially the topkit line, and there were now odd swirls and bubbles coming from the area. I had a couple looks on the lines in front at 7m and 13m, but these were fruitless and called them finished.
The 3rd to 4th hour was sort of productive, it gave me a couple more fish on the method and 3 fish on the shallow topkit line. I also had a few roach and skimmers here. I still never had any of the better sized carp with only 1 being a lump of 8lb, the rest 3-5lbers.
But by the looks of things I was doing ok. I was sure the 2 anglers to my left had plenty more than me and Rich Jones opposite had been catching on and off. The rest of the opposite bank seemed slow and I couldn't see past Brian on peg 9.
Into the 4th hour and I had to re-rig my shallow set-up as I had been trashed by a fish that seemed under control before belting up my left margin and back through my nets before escaping and mullering my rig. This gave me a few more minutes in the 'tip, and I was rewarded with an 8lb fish.
Back onto the topkit and my swim was masses of bubbles, but I couldn't seem to find what depth the fish were at, and I am sure lots of the 'jacuzzi' was formed by smaller silver fish. but I was plugging along and was soon attached to the odd better fish, one around 10lb and another that maybe was 14lb+ and struggled in and out of my landing net. I reckoned I had 50lb at this point and was on net number 2.
Into the final 60 minutes and I tried the margin without success so remained on the topkit, this saw me land half a dozen fish between 3 and 6lb and my last fish was landed after the whistle and was a good 9lb+ mirror. In that same period Darren had landed a few and Brian was a little quieter but still had a few decent fish.
The all out was called and I packed up before helping out with the scales duties.
Lee Waller had not weighed in so I was through in the knock-out.
I was 2nd to weigh and my silvers went a pound or so, my carp took my total to 116lb 4oz, which surprised me as my estimate of 70-80lb was short...again!!...I must not forget to use my clickers. Ho Hum.
Next to weigh was Darren (p7) he weighed in less than I thought with his total being 84lb 5oz.
Brian Shanks on peg 9 had a decent net, his weight was 114lb 12oz, which had me worried.
The next weight of note was Adam's silvers net of around 7lb, which was enough to take the £45 silvers payout.
As we made our way around the lake, weights were not great with a few 15-25lb weights, with only Rich Jones on peg 32 seeming like a contender to frame, his weigh in was 83lb 5oz. This meant I had won on the day.
I fed a total of 2.5pts of 6mm pellets and 2pts of 8mm pellets throughout the day, maybe if I had fed less then I could have found the depth of the fish, but I am sure I was just distracting rather than attracting fish as they passed. I had 6 or 7 smaller carp on the method feeder, the rest, bar one, came on the topkit shallow, so relatively easy on that front.
The pairs was a close call, done on points rather than weight with 1pt for first and 2 points for second etc. It turned out that the pairing on Simon Belcham and Rich Jones had won with 9 points. 2nd spot, on weight, with 10 points were Brian Shanks and Mike Welling. They edged out Pete Uzzell/Darren North who also had 10 points. Myself and Steve Wynne just missed out on a tenner each, finishing 4th with 14 points......
Results:
1. Lee Williams (p6) 116-4
2. Brian Shanks (p8) 114-12
3. Darren North (p7) 84-5
4. Rich Jones (p32) 83-5
5. Simon Belcham (p12) 55-7
6. Ron Hardiman (p13) 42-7
Silvers: Adam Caswell from peg 15 I think with about 7lb of bits, well a few skimmers and bits
Pairs:...
1. Simon Belcham / Rich Jones
2. Brian Shanks / Mike Welling
3. Pete Uzzell / Darren North
4. Lee Williams / Steve Wynne
So it was a decent match for 4 or 5 of us, but with the carp in semi-spawn mode and iffy on the feed, those without much wind, which I think was the main factor, struggled in the most part. Also I cant think that many purposely targeted the silvers as it was a pairs match, but in hindsight I think a few more guys would have...
The PSV blog with, I expect, full and proper results etc, will be online soon.
Next up for me is my usual Thursday Sedges evening match, this week on my bogey lake, Tile.
Otherwise I am over at Landsend with the PSV crew next sunday, I just hope it aint mugging city.
Until then, take care.
Lee
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