Fishomania Qualifier, Gold Valley Lakes. 22-04-15

A brief-ish blog today as not much happened, in fact not much happened for the majority of anglers.

A 2.5hr drive up the A303/M3 after a 5:30am departure saw me arrive at the complex at just before 8am. A few people were present and my 1st task was for a cuppa and bacon sarnie, both were rather nice actually.
I spent the next hour chatting to a few guys and then took a brief walk around Middle and part of Gold Lakes, I must say for those who haven't been there, the pegging can be tight and all of them are fully concrete, with solid concrete paths and roads around the venue.
As I took a walk round there were plenty of carp cruising the surface of Middle lake, especially on the pegs at the far end (83 to 89 or so) and I remained hopeful that this would be a good sign, however with almost every peg in on 3 lakes (all bar 1 on Middle) and the wind due to increase, the fish could go and hide and decide that doing bugger all would be their best option.

Looking up Middle Lake, Gold Valley

Anyways on to the draw, I was around 30th to pick a peg and other than the end pegs and those with islands on Gold Lake.
My peg was 92, nothing special, halfway along the left hand bank of Middle, but you never know.
I left the other local guys to draw their pegs and none of them drew a flyer and most were on Syndicate Lake.

I moved my car to the correct car park and then got my kit to my peg.
Tackle wise I set up a pellet waggler, a method feeder and a bomb rod, all to be fished towards the central rope. The wind had now become rather brisk and was blowing down the lake from my left to right and slightly from behind me, it was a nippy wind too. I kept in tee shirt, the other bank were rather wrapped up!!
I also set up 4 pole rigs, 1 margin, 1 banded pellet at depth, a shallow pellet rig and 1 for meat at 6 sections. I had a nice 18" tight in to my edges but the rest of the peg was around 2ft 6in deep from topkit out to 16m!! Others had less, including Nathan Watson down on around peg 97 or 98, 10 inches all over was the depth he had he said!!
Bait was a few kilos of groundbait, a couple tins worth of 8mm meat, some 6mm and 8mm pellets/ Plus some (all unused) dead maggots, corn and hemp.

Middle peg 92, Gold Valley Lakes

On to the match, at the all in I didn't go over the top and fired a dozen pellets over the running line spots before some pellets were deposited at 14m, some meat at 6m plus a little gb/meat in each margin.
I started on the waggler and after 10 mins I hooked and lost a carp that was hooked not in the mouth as a small scale was attached. Another 20 minutes passed and then I had a small bite on the waggler, after a spirited scrap I netted a 2lb carp brilliantly hooked in the belly, so I shallowed up.
Nobody else from what I could see had caught a fish.
Another 10 minutes passed when next door on peg 93 hooked a fish on the method feeder, as he was playing that I had a bit on the waggler, it started off as what felt like a skimmer, but then soon felt it's lungs and fought like mad.
A ten minute scrap with this skimmer (obviously a carp),  saw a mirror of the size you'd expect at Viaduct. A scoop and shuffle with the net, at the 2nd attempt, and it was mine.....well nearly it wasn't as I managed to break my landing net at the connection, on doing this the fish flipped and almost came out of the net, which really wasn't large enough for that scenario. But I got it into my keepnet.
The guy on 93 lost his fish.
Peg 91 hadn't had a bite, neither had most of the guys on this lake.

We were now 90 minutes into the match and it was hard work, I had been flicking bits of meat don my right edge, which I could see better, and the was a tail waving up at me so I lowered that rig in and waited. Soon enough the inevitable happened and the fish did the off and that was my margins done for the day despite my trying.
A look on the meat line saw a skimmer and roach netted.

The last 3hrs of the match was dire, 1 briefly foul-hooked carp and 1 missed bite on the meat line.
The last hour had seen a few others on the lake pick up the odd carp, some had already packed up (a good few actually) and others were just seeing out the time as you cant move your vehicle from any car park except the 1st one by the lodge.

The all out was called and a mass of anglers were departing, some hadn't had a bite, others just 1 carp or a couple skimmers.
I weighed in though and my 2 carp and 2 silvers went 20lb 2oz, that bigger carp was around 16 or 17lb. I was 3rd or 4th in my 10 peg section with that!!

The winner on the day was Bait-Tech's Dave Roberts with 103lb from 114(?) on Syndicate Lake, and Perry Stone 2nd with 90lb or so from Gold Lake peg 43.

A nice, busier, drive home followed.
I do feel that looking back maybe a fish for all using maggots or soft pellets could have been the way to go, but then you ain't gonna win doing that and the main prize is why we fish!!

Next up is a Pawlett match at Avalon on Sunday, the weather is likely to be less good and we have wetter and cooler weather due, just to disrupt the fish!!

Until then, Take Care.
Lee

P.S. Don't forget guys and gals, on August the 8th there is a match at Summerhayes to raise money for The Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund. Check out the Facebook page for details and to contact myself, Mark Cox or Norm Sterry to book in. It's all for a good cause. We have around 45 booked in now and ideally 64 would be amazing and would raise over £1200 for the charity.