The PSV crew were in attendance on Hawthorn Lake, but I was fishing with Pawlett as I like the main lake, but I would need to be lucky at the draw as drawing on Westpool wasn't preferable.
Anyways, I arrived in plenty of time and had a chat to a few of the guys from the clubs and done a good deed in letting Adam Caswell scrounge some maggots as he'd probably only got 6mm pellets and a lump of paste(concrete).
I didn't load the trolley with the rod bags as I never knew where I'd be, Westpool doesn't lend itself to rod and line tactics much.
The 9am draw was soon upon us and as usual I held back to near the end of the queue, with 25 of us fishing, though should have been 26 (Karl Turner never arrived), we would be reasonably tightly pegged.
Steve Fouracre commented that I should draw for him as at Viaduct the other week I drew him the winning peg....!! I agreed, though he went on and drew his own.
I delved into the bucket with 3 or 4 tickets left, hoping for Main Lake pegs 3, 5, 7 and 14 (in form peg). 1 or 15 are good carp pegs should they be there in numbers and are seen as flyers.
I plucked peg 15, my silvers match initially went out of my head and I thought to myself that the day would mostly spent fishing the method feeder to the end bank. Not my idea of fun, but needs must.
The long walk to my peg wasn't too bad, but once at my destination I had to rest for a few minutes.
I looked at the swim and it was obvious that the end bank could be my main line of attack, though I did decide on a baiting a few more lines as I would rather catch on the pole.
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| Shiplate Main Lake peg 15 |
I did have casters, live and dead maggots, expanders, 4mm and micro pellets in the carryall, but these all stayed there for the duration. Out came 6 and 8mm pellets, some corn and a tub of mixed colourful bandum pellets.
Rigs were simple, a 25g method feeder on 6lb mainline to 0.20 hooklength with a size 14 B911x.
3 pole rigs were assembled, after faffing to find some the right length.
The first rig was for 2+2 to my left margin by a small tree, this was an NG HD Margin float in 0.3g.
The 2nd rig was for the same 2+2 distance in front, this was a 0.3g NG Power Pencil.
Both of these were for fishing corn, the margin one just corn, the line in front over regular small balls of groundbait.
Finally a 0.4g NG Decker was set up, this was for 12 or so meters. Two lines would be covered by this rig, one at the 1 o'clock direction (never had a bite, so no more on that) and the second further down to my left as far round as the marginal tree would allow. This would be fished using 8mm pellet over 6mm pellets.
All rigs were on 0.18 mainline to a 0.16 hooklength and size 16 B911x hooks, obviously the pellet line had a hook with a band attached.
By the time the all in had arrived someone's car alarm had gone off a few times, I thought it sounded like mine, but though to leave it.
We had a minutes silence in respect of an angler, and todays match would be a memorial type with a cup for the winner.
At the all in I deposited various amounts of bait into the allocated areas before I lobbed the feeder up to the end bank.
Keith Clapp on peg 14b had a carp first chuck on the method feeder to the island. I had to wait 20 minutes for my 1st sign of fish and this fish promptly took me into the tree that sits in the water to my right, I lost the fish,,,,,,gggrr.
A full half hour passed before I had another fish on and this one took me into the left hand margins, which you cant see, but are predominately trees, luckily I got the little 4lb fish in the net and I was pleased to be off the mark.
So an hour in and I was on one carp, that poxy car alarm had gone off maybe 10 times and I was convinced it was mine. I carried on fishing and was soon into carp number 2, carp number 3 and 4 also soon followed, but they were only averaging 4lb. With fish to 30lb in the lake I would need a few lumps along the way.
After 90 minutes into the match my clicker showed 25lb, which was a decent start. But I decided then to wander back to the car to see if the alarm was mine. I wasn't sure my car was the culprit, but it never went off again all day, so it possibly was.
That 20 minute walk didn't help my swim as it took me half an hour to get another fish, which I lost down to my left. But a 8lber was soon netted not long after. A 4lb mirror soon had a new resting place in my keepnet.
I refed my pole lines and carried on with the method feeder, switching between groundbait and pellets on the frame. Banded 8mm pellet was the best hookbait, though a switch every now and then to something a little brighter did bring a response.
I soon had another wrap round on the feeder and something a little more substantial was attached. After a bit of a tug-of-war with the fish I saw a massive swirl on the surface about 20m out, the fish looked huge, easily 20lb, likely at least 24lb. It tore off again and waddled across the surface for another 25m before the line fell slack......gutting!! The feeder was reeled in with the hook straightened out. I was a little despondent but I carried on with a new hooklength attached.
We were soon at the 3.5hr stage and my clicker showed 43lb, so another net was sourced from my net bag. A 12lb fish was soon happily residing in the 2nd net and I figured I was doing ok, though I could only see peg 1 and if I turned around 3 guys behind me on Westpool, including young Lewis on peg 13.
2pm duly arrived and I was attached to a decent fish again, which gave up after a slow plodding fight. It looked around 20lb, but felt around 17 or 18lb. Colin Haggett was in my swim at this point and he commented how big it looked and said generally things were not too hectic for most guys.
I could see some bubbling on my 2+2 line in front so, kept a closer eye on this while I gave the pole a try down to my left at 12m, a missed bite was soon followed by some resistance and a nice 6lb carp was soon netted despite it's attempts to free itself in the marginal snags. Another carp of perhaps 4lb was landed from the same line before things stopped from there.
Another 15 minutes on the method feeder saw another lumpy carp netted before the decision to look at my shorter line in front was made.
1st drop in saw the float continue going and I struck into some resistance, not a carp but a nice bream of 5lb 1oz. I hoped more would follow as these bream can be serious weight builders, better than carp, as they don't fight as hard.
Sadly this was my only silver fish of the match as a couple more carp came off this line over the following 20 minutes. My second clicker showed me having 40lb in the net, so it was looking like I would have to scrounge a 3rd carp net....
Elsewhere I could see peg one had started to catch a few, Lewis on Westpool peg 13 was started to bag up while Keith Clapp on peg 14 was picking up the odd carp shallow on the pole.
Another look down my long left swim saw a succession of missed bites, liners I think, so the decision not to bother with that area was made.
I came into my margin swim and hey-ho a 6lber was attached and fought like mad trying to get into the marginal trees etc. A 2nd fish from the margin came my way before it went dead. That was my last look down there.
1 more fish from the 2+2 line, a fish of around 3lb saw me pinch a net from Keith. This was bound to be the nail in the coffin for me catching as I find that adding nets along the way is bad luck. The fact I had decided to leave 2 of my usual 4 carp nets at home as I'd planned on fishing for silvers coupled with the reality that 60lb plus 20lb of silvers would be a good weight. Sod's Law, I guess, meant that things went awry on that front.
Into the last hour and I pretty much decided on staying on the method feeder, this gave me 5 or 6 carp to 8lb and the 3rd clicker showed 40lb at the end. My three nets showed 43lb, 62lb and 40lb, plus my 5lb bream. Hopefully I wasn't far out on the weights as going over could cost me.
The all out sounded and the packing up began. I knew I had done ok, but behind me on Westpool, Lewis had been getting a fish a chuck for an hour or so. On the Main Lake, I could not see or heard of anyone bagging a big weight.
The scales soon arrived with Steve Howell helping with the duties.
Well my bream went 5lb 1oz. My 4 weighs of carp added another 151lb 3oz, giving me a total of 159lb 4oz. This should be enough for the win, I was told, but I would wait for that to be confirmed.
I finished packing up and made my way back to the car park. I managed to find out that the low numbered pegs on Hawthorns had been most productive with 3 of the first 4 places filled by pegs 1 to 4. Pete Sivell won their match. No doubt Steve Burgess will do the blog soon.
Anyways, I loaded the car and then walked back round to peg 14b with Keith as he had to collect his carryall and nets. The scales were in the process of weighing Westpool, but Giffy on peg 9 and Lewis on 13 looked likely to take the top couple of spots on that lake.
After a bit of chit chat and banter in the hut, the results were read. This is what I managed to remember (I never got a weigh sheet pic).
1st - Main Lake peg 15, Lee Williams 156lb 4oz
2nd - Westpool peg 13, Lewis Hembury 66lb-ish
3rd - Westpool peg 9, Chris 'Giffy' Ware 55lb+
4th - Main Lake peg 14b, Keith Clapp 54lb+
Silvers was won with 20lb.
So a productive day for me, if not a touch dull fishing the 'tip for the best part of it. I probably had around 40lb of carp (and that bream) on the pole, but a couple of quiet spells, the 20 minute walk and some lost fish may have cost me the lake match record, which I found out after, was about 170lb or so.
I found certain spots where I cast to gave me varying amounts of success, and that groundbait on the feeder bought me smaller fish than the pellet, though the pellet on the feeder would mean I'd wait a little longer for a bite.
I fed the best part of 6pts of 8mm/6mm pellets over my feeder area, I say area as the wind was a pain at times and my catty wasn't the best for firing pellets the distance needed. But it must have worked at least a bit. Another thing I found helped was the ducks and moorhens, when they were in the swim and feeding on my loose fed pellets, bites would come a lot quicker, so I tried to keep them in the area.
Next up for me is a PSV match on Viaduct Campbell lake.
Until the next time, tight lines.
Lee
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