With 25 down to fish the £15 entry was broken into £2 peg fee which Highbridge AA kindly donated back to the chosen charity: British Heart Foundation and a fiver from our entry went into the donation, overall £185 was raised, brilliant.
I arrived at the car park in plenty of time, only to be told that several day ticket anglers were fishing mostly from pegs 1 to 5, good pegs, so the numbers and pegs were altered a touch.
The banter flowed and I noted that the end few pegs on the long bank would be the area to draw, these pegs were 32 to 35 inclusive.
If you drew the island pegs then carp were a viable target, especially as the skimmers don't tend to haunt this area in large numbers. Lastly the area I didn't fancy were 6, 7 and 8 as the pegs opposite on this narrow channel were in the match, pretty much ruling out the chances of a decent net of skimmers.
After the rabble had drawn the tickets I was last in the bucket, I pulled peg 7, not impressed, not surprised though. So I made my way around to the other car park and set about getting to my peg and sorting my gear out. My peg and Brian Gatiss' (p8) and Phil Clapp's peg (p9) were all through the reeds. I had Chris Higgs opposite me (p28) and he had Colin Haggett to his left and Steve Giles to his right.
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| Front. P7 Apex |
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| looking left, P7 Apex |
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| Looking right, P7 Apex |
The pole rigs consisted of a 4x12 carpa chimp for my topkit line to my right, here I would feed hemp and caster hoping for a few decent roach and maybe a rogue skimmer or 2, or a decent eel (lots of eels in here to over 6lb). This rig was also used at 7m where I planned on chopped worm and caster.
A 4x18 float of the same pattern was for fishing various baits over a nice helping of groundbait at 13, the last rig, which remained biteless, was for my left edge and was for corn over hemp and 4mm pellets.
Hemp, corn, micros, 4mm, worms, caster and maggot were all on my bait trays, plus I wasted 1.5kg of groundbait.
After my initial feeding of the 7m and 13m lines I began on the topkit to my right, I caught a few roach and rudd in the initial half hour. Opposite me, during this spell, Chris Higgs had a few decent skimmers, he kept plugging away for the duration of the match.
Further along the end pegs from 32 to 35 all looked like they had netted a few skimmers.
After 40 minutes or so I went out over the 5 balls of groundbait I had fed at 13m, the float remained stationary over the next 25 minutes or so. On the hour I looked on the worm line and had a 6oz skimmer and a bootlace eel before bites stopped.
The next couple of hours remained quiet for me, picking up the odd fish close in and a couple over the 7m worm line. My 13m line was quiet of activity and I kept it in my mind to try nearer the end of the match.
A couple looks down the edge for carp were fruitless, but I felt you'd need at least a couple to stand a chance of getting in the money places (top 3 only), what more was I saw Paul Berry over on peg 24 lose a carp to his margin. Big Nick Selway (p33) was also having some action, in a 10 minute spell he played and landed a friggin big eel of 6 to 7lb (I had one way back in to 90's just under 7lb from the lake), un-be-known to me he went to put it in the keep net but the top ring collapsed an the snake found the safety of the lake again............!!! His next drop in on the pole saw him connected to a carp (they average 6-7lb), but he lost it at the net. He was catching a few decent skimmers though and along with Mike Davis on end peg 35, looked to have been building a nice net of fish.
As we approached the last hour I reckoned I had near 3lb and Chris Higgs opposite must have near to 10lb, also his neighbour Colin was beginning to net a few on the pole after a random attempt to catch on the pellet wag (okay!!). A nice eel of 1lb off the long pole line gave me hope that it may have come to life, especially when I foul hooked a rudd of around 1.5lb, this came off though which cheesed me off.
Another fruitless look for carp down the left edge was followed by me coming in shallow on my topkit, this is how is spent 45 minutes of the last hour, putting about 5lb in the net, quality roach and odd 3oz skimmer plus the usual 1oz fish. I still thought I was miles behind and the last 15 was spent long and down the edge looking for a bonus bream or (preferably) a carp.
The all out was called and I figured I was miles behind as I hadn't heard any news of the island pegs, plus I generally thought the pegs 32 to 35 would be the place to be. Chris would have more than me, but I didn't think Colin would be ahead of me despite his late flurry of skimmers.
I wished that I had gone and fished to plan and fished for the roach up in the water, I didn't, I hoped for some skimmers and a few decent eels.
Soon enough Phil Hembery was at my peg with the scales and board, only Dick Hurford on peg 6 had weighed, I couldn't see him all day and he's a quiet chap. 2lb 7oz was Dick's net.
I popped my 'over 3lb' net on the scales and settled at 10lb 4oz, slightly more than I thought, I was cursing in my head that I should have stayed, or started earlier, fishing for roach, especially when Phil said nobody had a carp from the island pegs and peeps had struggled. I also managed to get a slightly wet foot as I stepped back to see the scales and promptly missed the pallet....luckily my leg remained dry!
I stayed on scales duty and Brian tipped back maybe 5lb, before Phil Clapp looked like he'd go close to my net but fell just short with 9lb 11oz, consisting of around 9 nice eels plus a few roach/silver bream. Not much occurred around the island until we got to the 1st peg on the long bank, Paul Berry on carp-peg 24 put his bunch of skimmers on the scales with 8lb 9oz. (the same as Pete Manning who weighed before him).
A couple 5lb+ nets and a dnw preceded Chris Higgs, he moved ahead of me by 9oz, he'd plugeed away picking up 6-10oz skimmers throughout the match but had a quiet spell in the last hour.
We weighed a few more before Nick pulled his net out, remember he'd tipped back a 6lb+ eel and lost a carp in a funny 10 minute spell. His net looked rather bulky with skimmers (for the match) and he took the lead with 11lb 6oz. Mark Sweeting weighed 9lb 8oz from p34 but had suffered 'chip shop syndrome' and was battered both sides as peg 35, Mike Davis took the match with a fine net of 12lb 3oz, mostly small skimmers to 1lb.
This pushed me to 4th, one out of the money, but we were there to raise a few quid for charity, which we did, so it wasn't too bad.
Results:
1st, Mike Davis, peg 35. 12lb 3oz
2nd, Nick Selway, peg 33. 11lb 6oz
3rd, Chris Higgs, peg 28. 10lb 13oz
4th, Lee Williams, peg 7. 10lb 4oz
5th, Phil Clapp, peg 9. 9lb 11oz
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| Weigh Sheet. |
In hindsight, I should have ignored the skimmers and fish shallower for the roach, as I had been advised, but knew or rather thought that they'd be needed plus a couple carp at least. But the skimmers never showed like they can and only 3 or 4 carp were hooked and lost all day (the couple of carp anglers fishing did have a few over spombed pellets).
The pegs I figured would do well and they did. Plus I suffered from bumped fish and fish that fell off while swinging them in, a lost foul hooked rudd never helped. But then everyone loses fish so cant make excuses, I will try harder next time though.
Next up is Campbell lake on Sunday with PSV, but I may make a trip up to Durleigh on Saturday if I don't fish a match at Landsend or Acorn.
Take Care.
Lee
P.S.....A big thank you to those who took part and to Highbridge AA who donated the peg fees to the charity, plus Chris Higgs who put £40 of his own money in the donation. Plus thank-you to Pawlett Legion for the food laid on after the match and to Phil Hembury etc who organised the event. Thank-you.
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