This match was going to be held on Wildmarsh lake but had been switched to Woodlands a few days ago, I personally prefer Wildmarsh to Woodlands mostly as I struggle on Woodlands when it comes to the silvers and also you are massively more likely to encounter accidental carp which can be frustrating at times.
I arrived at the lake with plenty of time to spare and done the normal dip/dry of the nets before a bit of a chinwag with some of the others.
Most of us felt a peg on the near side of the lake would be preferred as it seems generally the better skimmers show in larger numbers on this side. I liked the looks of anywhere between 26 and 32.
The draw was made and I went in around half way down the rabble and plucked peg 14 on the far bank, a decent enough peg. It turned out that I had Phil Clapp to my right on the peg that won the silvers last week (peg 13) and Dick Hurford was further down to my left in peg 16.
Opposite me I could see pretty much everyone. I really expected Eric Fouracre on peg 26, Jamie Cook on p28 and Vic Bush on 32 all to do well, as would Keith Clapp up on 22 (if he could keep the carp at bay). But as I said, the other bank would be the better draw.
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| Trinity Wildmarsh peg 14 |
The 1st was a shallow pellet rig as the bigger roach and hybrids get caught shallow on pellet, but I didn't use this today.
The 2nd rig was a topkit rig to fish up in the water to hand using caster over caster and a bit of groundbait.
The 3rd rig was to fish on the deck using banded pellet and remained unused.
Lastly I set up an identical rig to the deep pellet rig but to fish with caster, maggot or worm on the hook. The deep rigs covered pretty much anywhere in the peg from topkit out to 13m, well except a channel that was a good few inches deeper and around 2m wide and went from 5m out to 13m.
Bait was 2pts of caster, 1pt maggots, groundbait (2kg), 4mm pellet, micros, worm and some corn.
Oh and I set up a small shallow waggler, but remained unused.
At the all in I cupped some groundbait at 13m in the 11 o'clock direction, some micros at the same distance in the 1 o'clock direction, sadly neither of these lines gave a fish of any note, just odd plippy roach or rudd.
I fed some chopped worm at caster at 6 sections slightly off centre as well, hoping to catch here primarily later in the match.
I began on the shallow topkit rig hoping to nab some roach, especially the better ones.
I soon had the fish swirling at the lightly fed casters and odd hard nugget of groundbait, but I couldn't get any stamp fish despite various attempts, even whole worms were getting the same 1oz fish problems. But I stuck at it for around 90 minutes before trying the longer lines without sensible success.
The 7m line was similar, so it was back to the topkit both up and down in the water and kept plundering the small fish.
After 3hrs I was struggling compared to the far bank where Jamie, Eric and Vic all were catching well and looked well ahead. But carp were becoming a problem for a lot of the guys.
It was at this point I also had my 1st carp and a decent 8oz skimmer was netted a few minutes later.
Phil had landed a good few 6-8oz skimmers and Dick had an F1 in the net.
The sky looked rather iffy and thunder could be heard in the distance, it soon arrived in a 20 minute storm of heavy rain, wind, thunder and hail....nice. I was now cold, bored and rather wet.
My bait was awful and my maggots were doing the off.....!!!
I persevered between the topkit line and the 7m line and had a little run of fish including a couple small tench of 2lb and 1lb, two skimmers of 2lb, one of which was caught on the shallow topkit rig and a nice 8oz rudd.
I had also decided to feed my left margin with a couple hours to go, with no intention of fishing there, but hoping to get the carp into the edge and away from my baited spots. This worked and by the all out I had maybe 20+ carp grubbing up that margin, slurping in the vegetation and looked to be proper scoffing!!
With 90 minutes to go I could see that Jamie had slowed down in his catching but Eric was still doing well.
I kept on the 2 lines until the all out and was rewarded with a few 4-6oz skimmers and a carp, there were loads of carp up in the water and a few times I pricked them as I lifted my rig, or they'd swirl at my feed, making me move spots.
But the rudd and roach kept coming, although generally still 1-2oz fish, it was weight going into the net.
Phil landed a couple nice skimmers but was up to around 8 carp, he also had an f1 of 3lb or so, probably to move in front of me.
The all out soon came and I reckoned on having 10-12lb perhaps, though Phil said I had 14 or 15lb.
I dried what I could and got my kit around to the car and followed the scales.
First up was Steve Fouracre on peg 7, he'd had small fish mostly and a couple tench and odd better skimmer. He weighed 20lb 8oz.
We then went along the other guys noting weights of 17lb and a couple of 8lb.
Then it was Phil's weigh, he plopped 21lb 8oz on the board to take the lead, he'd beaten me I was sure.
I lifted my net out and it looked close to Phil's net and so it proved with my weight being 6oz more than his at 21lb 14oz, the best net off that bank on the day.
Dick had 9lb+, then Keith had 18lb, Dave Nash 13lb 12oz. Brian Gattiss dnw'd and also lost a few sections of his pole as a carp took them on a swim before they sank!!
Eric was next to weigh and his 2 nets gave him a very good 32lb 8oz, Jamie then plonked 23lb 12oz the scales. Kev Crouch and Chris Higgs had 14lb and 7lb nets respectively.
Last to weigh was Vic Bush, he had to do a couple weighs and he looked close to Erics weight, but just fell short with 30lb 4oz.
The pegs on the lodge/solid bank had obviously given up a lot more better skimmers and F1's compared to the far bank pallet pegs.
Results:
1st, Eric Fouracre, 32lb 8oz. Peg 26. (he won the club's both finals)
2nd, Vic Bush, 30lb 8oz. Peg 32.
3rd, Jamie Cook, 23lb 12lb. Peg 28.
4th, Lee Williams, 21lb 14oz. Peg 14. (section)
5th, Phil Clapp, 21lb 8oz. Peg 13.
6th. Steve Fouracre, 20lb 8oz. Peg 7,
7th, Keith Clapp, 18lb. Peg 22. (section default)
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| Weigh Sheet. |
Sadly I never had any F1's and I couldn't get any of the better roach going, which really let me down, but I was glad I only had 2 carp on long enough to get landed and I only pricked a few others when lifting the rigs and therefore I didn't lose any hooklength etc.
To have the top net off my bank was nice, especially as I didn't expect us to compete with the near bank pegs 22 to 32. Maybe if I had stuck with the shallow topkit line for the duration I may have done a few pounds better, but that is a big maybe.
Next up is a few matches in the week, I know I am fishing Sedges on Wednesday on the Canal lake, but I am unsure on Thursday where to fish, Friday I may go to do the new costcutter match at Summerhayes.
Next Sunday I am fishing Viaduct Campbell I think. I may also go Acorn on Saturday, I shall see.
Until next time, Take Care.
Lee
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