So up around 3hrs earlier than I would have liked, I loaded my kit into the wagon and sat and mused over a cuppa on what to use as bait, I am not one for chopped worm and I am not the ideal person to ask for expander pellet fishing. So it was a simple meat and groundbait attack, plus a few maggots as a last resort bait. Luckily I had some meat all chopped into little pieces, and I have a few bags of groundbait to get through!!
I arrived at the breezy looking lakes (well breezy in 2 thirds, only the first couple on Brick and the road bank of Tile escaping the brunt of it). I didn't really fancy a peg on Tile, but I never do. But the venue is usually pretty fair on the silvers front, though 3 to 5 and 15 to 19 are slightly preferred and with the 4 corners of each lake not in (carpy pegs!!) pegs 2, 9, 12 and 19 on Brick would surely benefit, the only peg on Tile that I may have taken would be 39 as it is a decent peg. With 31 fishing there would be 3 sections spread over the 2 lake.
After a bit of chat and a cuppa from Denise, it was down to the draw. I kept an eye on the draw sheet and was pleased to see that Tile was almost full with only 1 peg on there left in the bucket and a few more left on Brick. I waited until 3 balls were left, they were all on Brick, I plucked peg 8. Not bad, but to be fair there aren't any really bad pegs at the lakes.
I wandered my kit along to the peg and saw I had a regular Sedges silvers angler on peg 9 in the form of George 'land a 20lb carp an hour' Fletcher. On peg 7 was another Sedges regular, Steve Fouracre.
Opposite I had owner Jamie Cook and Keith Clapp.
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| Sedges Brick Lake. peg 8. |
I then set about knocking my kit together for the match, this consisted of 3 top kits with slack no.8 laccy, one for topkit length just off the margin reeds, one for 13m for using maggot/meat/expander in front (needed the bump bar, should have used on Saturday!!) this would do for 2+2 distance in front, both rigs were on 0.14>0.10>b911f1 size 18 hook.
Last rig was based on catching a few carp on purpose if I was really struggling and wanted a day's fishing, lol.....I didn't pick this rig up!!
I also set up my obligatory waggler rod for around 25m in front, plus a small cage feeder for the same line.
While I was setting up there was a nice bit of banter flowing between Phil Clapp (behind me on peg 32) and George, I was told to batter George and how George would be pestered by carp all day being the closest to peg 10!! All a laugh though, I kept on a George for most of the match, but he's able to take it, either that or he's deaf in his 'elder status'.
Anyways with plenty of time to set up I found myself faffing but stopped short of making any more rigs up or something else pointless.
The all in was called at 10:30 and my 1st cast of the 6hr contest was on the waggler, I fired a few small balls of groundbait at the float and waited for that 1st bite......George had that, a decent skimmer 1st chuck.
It took me a while to get my 1st fish, a 8 or 9lb carp on the waggler, a 2nd soon followed. But I persevered and I soon had a small skimmer which promptly fell off as I was about to swing it in.
Behind me Phil was also getting carp. Nobody else had much really, well Rob Dodd on peg 5 had landed a couple skimmers, but that was it,
After an hour I took a look on the feeder over the waggler line, especially as the wind and tow wasn't the best for the float. As soon as the feeder hit the water a skimmer took the bait on the drop, all 12oz of it, but it was a start. A short while longer a carp was briefly hooked, but the hook pulled.
All the while George had been catching small roach and skimmers and was doing well.
Steve on peg 7 was yet to catch more than a couple small skimmers.
Another lob on the feeder saw a decent 1lb skimmer netted, it took it about 1 second after the feeder hit the water!! Then it went dead.....
2 hours in and I came on the long pole and managed to pick up another small skimmer. It was slow going for most.
Over the next couple of hours I managed a couple more carp and around 4 or 5 skimmers of 3 or 4oz each, plus the odd rudd.
A look on the topkit line gave me a few quick roach to 4oz and a couple 2oz rudd, then I landed a carp of around 4lb before it's 13lb mate found my hook, then another couple carp escaped, all hooked on single maggot.
Steve Fouracre was having the same carp problems and by the end of the match he'd maybe had 130lb of them and I wasn't far behind with fish to around 17lb.....it's amazing what you can get in and relatively quickly on light gear. I bet if carp counted we would have lost nearly all of them.!!
With an hour to go it was clear that the only people on the lake who were catching were Rob Dodd on peg 5 and over on peg 19 was Derek Beard. Carp were becoming more active for most people!!
I switched to my 2+2 line, which I had fed more regularly for an hour before fishing and this game me a nice skimmer followed by a carp then a couple more skimmers.
A look on the 13m line also gave me 2 skimmers and a nice roach before the all out.
The last 15 mins were spent on the 2+2 line and other than a carp I had a decent skimmer, which, by now, Steve had been enjoying himself catching carp on the top kit.
Poor old George had stopped catching regularly during the last 90 minutes, though I kept telling him he must have 20lb, or 13lb or 15lb.....by which time I had confused him and he thought he must have 15lb....or 10lb....even he wasn't sure!!
I thought I'd got 8 or 10lb perhaps.
The all out was called and all began to pack away. I managed to acquire the weigh board for Brick lake and we began with George's mate Bob Pascoe. He'd fished a 'hot peg' according to George and wasn't disappointed to have 15lb 8oz, I convinced George that it'd be close between the 2 of them for a quid!!
As we went up the bank the only weight of significance was Rob Dodd's net of 36lb 12oz, mostly caught long-ish on the pole. There was a couple 9 and 10lb nets until we got to me. My estimate, as usual, was shy of what I actually weighed which was 15lb 3oz.
George's weigh was 'only' 10lb 3oz and he had to hand a quid to his mate.
Around to peg 11 and Paul Squire had snuck 11b 12oz into his net, I hadn't seem him catch a lot on the feeder, so he'd done well. Jamie had 6lb+, Keith didn't weight before Pete Manning had a creditable 12lb+ net. Then Mike Levy, who really (thankfully) doesn't fish too often put 15lb 12oz on the scales to overtake my weight. Eric Fouracre had just under 9lb and then Mike Davis 3lb+.
Lastly was Derek Beard, as he lifted his net it was clear he had nearly 30lb and not enough to beat Rob, but at 29llb 3oz it was a nice weight.
I went and looked at the Tile weigh sheet and it showed that Vic Bush had caught over 30lb, on chopped worm, but other than that nobody had caught a lot. It was a tricky day.
I marked the sheets for Jamie, top 3 and 3 sections, though I did accidently write Vic as winning (prob as he was the last person I chatted to) and Rob 2nd .....blond moment. I told Jamie the check and he pointed this out right away....what a numpty!
Results:
1st Rob Dodd, peg 5, 36lb 12oz
2nd Vic Bush, peg 39, 32lb 4oz
3rd Derek Beard, peg 19, 29lb 3oz
So a tricky day out for 28 of the 31 of us, I managed 6th but only 9oz separated 3 of us, I had dropped a skimmer back in the lake towards the end, but I don't think it was 10oz.
I did have a load of carp, in the end I had to stick with meat on the hook to avoid them!! Single or double maggot was the best carp bait.
After the match I spent a good while chatting to Barry Morgan about all things, but he said that he was pleased that in my KSD blog last month I went easy on him and didn't mention that he fished like a 'several 4 letter expletives', but's it isn't like me to rubbish how people fish, except myself and maybe Withers, and if anyone wants ideas or tips (ahem) then I am always honest, but in this case, just for him.....I agree that he did fish like a t**t....(tongue in cheek fella, see you soon).
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| Weigh Sheets, Sedges Silvers. |
No match planned for Sunday yet, maybe the MMT at Larford or I may try Summerhayes again,
Perhaps a rest day........hmmm.
Until then, Take Care.
Lee
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