Pawlett Match, Avalon Fishery, 26-04-15

With the weather looking least favourable for fishing (or rather less than 'easier to fish in') I had for some reason decided I would fish for silvers today. That was my 1st mistake, I should not really pre-decide what I am going to fish for before the event, but I know I wont learn.

I arrived in plenty of time for the draw and with 30 or so of us due to fish, including a couple new-comers and a couple who don't fish with us 99% of the time, it was going to be a competitive match.
A good bit of banter flowed, a bit of it based around the 5 day event that Avalon and Sedges are having this week. It was all good fun though.

I waited until there were 3 numbers left in the bag and managed to pluck out end peg(for the match) number 42. A decent margin peg, carp peg and ok-ish for silvers.
I made my way to my peg and set about sorting my kit, 2 rigs for 14m in two spots, one fed with groundbait the other wetted 4mm pellets that a 6mm banded would be fished over (no bite here so nin more...!!).
A 3m whip to fish caster over caster in front and lastly a margin rig down to my left, just as a last resort, plus the odd tench and decent skimmer can get caught down the edges here.
I did set up a pellet waggler too, but the wind wasn't right for good presentation and would blow off course within seconds of it landing.

P42 Avalon.
 

For company I had  Keith Clapp on peg 40, opposite I had Martin Heard  on peg 7 and Eric Fouracre on peg 8. Both of those two were targeting the carp, Martin on the pellet wag  mostly, Keith on the feeder as the wind wasn't great for pellet wag fishing.

Bait was simply 8mm pellets incase I chose to fish for carp, some meat for the edge swim. I also had some caster, dead maggots, expanders and wetted 4mm pellets. Plus some groundbait.
At the all in I deposited 5 balls of groundbait on the 10 o'clock 14m line and some wetted 4's in the 2 o'clock direction at the same distance.
Some 8mm pellets fired to the island and a nice helping of meat down my left margin.

I began on the wag , but other than a lost fouler I gave up on this, mostly as my heart wasn't into fishing for carp today. So I came in on the whip and began catching a few rudd and odd small skimmer and perch.
Opposite Eric and Martin had landed a couple carp, as had Keith.

An hour into the match and it all seemed to be going a bit 'Pete Tong' for me, the silvers had drifted off and the decent skimmers had not appeared in numbers, I had a couple of around 12oz.
I tried the pellet wag and managed to snare a small carp and pulled out of a couple, but I had to get right tight to the island, this was not a problem, but the wind moved the float too far off within seconds of the float landing.

Back on the silvers and I caught a few more small fish on the whip then a baby 6oz carp on the groundbait line. It was tricky for me, but I did feel like I was going nowhere fast, Eric had started catching a few decent skimmers on the pole, plus he'd had a few carp and even a crucian.
Martin Heard was amassing a great weight and looked well clear of everyone I could see or hear.
But I figured most people were getting some carp, I also heard that James Withers on peg 4 had landed a few decent bream/skimmers. So my silvers fishing wasn't going to plan and I was seemingly too far behind in the carp  stakes.

At around 2pm I took a look along my margin and this gave me a couple squeeker carp and a handful of baby perch. I guess I had 15lb of fish in total (6lb silvers and 9lb of carp).
I decide to try the pole rig over the whip line and this gave me around 4 skimmers of 6oz each.

P42 Avalon, left hand margin.

A couple more carp from the left margin and another on the waggler probably boosted my carp net to around 18lb. But I stuck mostly on the topkit with either small bits of meat or 3 dead maggots as bait, this gave me a few small fish before the all out. I reckoned on 30lb max in total.

Elsewhere, Martin was over 150lb, Eric had lost a load of silvers (decent bream) but had landed a good few and looked to be topping the silvers nets. Keith and Nigel (next to him) had  a good few carp each, in fact 3 of us told Nige that he was over his net limit easily......it turned out he wasn't much to a  few of our amazements!!

I packed my gear up and walked around to watch the weigh in.
Bruce Hunt weighed 60lb+ from peg 1, James had 20lb 7oz in his 28lb net from peg 4. Martin Heard put 166lb+ of pellet waggler caught fish on the board and had probably won.
As we went through the field we saw plenty of 30-50lb nets and Eric's silvers weighed 30lb and ounces plus he had 46lb of carp.
Tom Mangnall and Jamie Cook on pegs 28 and 29 had put 77lb and 70lb on the scales respectively, Tom's net was 2nd on the day Jamie won the section.
Then we made our way along with Nige only putting 66lb (not the nr 100lb a couple of us guessed) on the board.
I was last to weigh and I had 26lb 8oz of carp and  17lb 12oz of silvers giving me 44lb 4oz and around 10th overall and 5th in silvers.

Results:
1st Martin Heard 166lb 5oz p7
2nd Tom Magnall 77lb 7oz p28
3rd  Eric Fouracres 76lb 3oz p9

Silvers
Eric 30lb 8oz p8
Pierce Furlong 20lb 11oz p19
James Withers 20lb 9oz p4

So all in all I didn't do myself any favour in terms of either the silvers or overall but I know I should have stuck to the whip as I am sure I could have caught 25lb or so....OR got a feeder out and made an effort for the carp, I am sure I could have had plenty more carp........but my pre-empted decision and impatience never paid off today.

Weigh Sheets, some consistent weights.

Next up for me is a jaunt upto Makins for a Fishomania qualifier, then on Sunday I think I am on Cary with the PSV crew.

Until then, take care.
Lee