However I still have 2 or 3 matches left in 2015, today's, next Sunday's Avalon Xmas match and another round of the Teams of 3 at Avalon, oh plus I am fishing The Sedges on Boxing Day and possibly this coming Wednesday at the same venue.
Back to today, the weather looked the best it has been for a few weeks, wind was very light and temps were up to around 14 degrees, so rather mild. 28 fishing so a tidy number.
I arrived at the lakes in plenty of time to load the trolley, have a cuppa and then a natter with a few of the other anglers.
There seemed to be a few fish topping around the pegs 4 to 7 on Brick, plus 10 and 11, the far corner pegs on the same lake. I didn't take a look at Tile as I didn't fancy it today (as usual), so I put a metal block on that lake, hoping it would also avoid me at the draw.
Pegs 14, 15 and around 4 to 6 were the numbers I wanted as I intended to fish for the skimmers, hoping to qualify for the club's Silvers Final in 2016, I am unsure if I had qualified so thought it best to make certain. Obviously a corner peg would dictate carp would be my quarry.
Half way along the rabble and I stuck my hand in the bucket and pulled out peg 9, second to last peg along the left bank of Brick Lake, not too bad, maybe a touch far along for the silvers, but you can never be sure. It was also one of the golden pegs for the day.
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| Sedges Brick Lake peg 9 |
Arriving at my peg I thought it looked okay, if not lacking the fish activity seen in pegs 10 and 11 or around peg 6. For company I had Kev Crouch on peg 10, Nick Selway on peg 7 and opposite was Martin Heard on peg 11, he looked a good bet to win today, he had Jason King next to him on peg 12.
I went about setting up a few bits of tackle.
A waggler at depth rod, a tip rod with a small feeder on plus 4 top kits for the pole:
First was a 0.8g rig for silvers at 14m, second was for silvers again but a strung out shotted 0.4g float.
Third rig was 0.2g margin rig for down the edge to my right and finally a 0.6g rig for meat at 7m in the 2 o'clock direction.
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| Sedges Brick Lake peg 9, right hand side, |
At the all-in I deposited some groundbait at 14m, this was lacced with dead maggots and caster.
Some maggots and meat went on the 7m line and some 6mm pellets and meat went down the right hand edge at 7m.
I began on the feeder with a popped up pellet as hook bait, but it was ages before I had a bite, actually I had swapped between both the waggler and feeder for the first hour without success.
Kev on peg 10 had landed a couple carp on the method feeder, Steve Fouracre on peg 20 had a carp or 2 and so had Mike Davis further along my bank.
It was around 1hr and 10 minutes into the match before I had a positive take on the feeder and a 1lb skimmer was netted on popped up pellet, another soon followed on popped up bread then came a 10lb carp to popped up pellet, that was a short 20 minute burst. Then it died again.
A look on the long pole line saw small 2-3oz skimmers taking the maggot hookbaits, their bigger relations absent for most. I persevered and to be honest it was frustrating, Kev on peg 10 was catching regularly on the method and pellet waggler. Martin Heard had one or 2 fish also.
Nick was in the same boat as me, struggling for action of any kind!!
Soon enough we were at the halfway stage and I had in my keepnets, 2 nice skimmers of 1lb each, 3 little skimmers and one carp for maybe 14lb total.
I was getting line bites and odd knocks and pulls, but despite trying the waggler at varying depths it was not productive. The waggler never gave me a fish all match
It was at this point I changed the hooklength to 0.10 and a size 18 hook for double dead maggot, hoping for a few skimmers.......I was rewarded with a double figured carp, why do they do that? Anyways another carp of about 8lb followed before bites dried up again.
It was now 2pm and I was up to 3 carp (28lb) and maybe 6lb of bits off the long pole line.
All the while I had been feeding my 7m line by hand and the right edge via the odd cup of meat and pellets, this edge never gave me a bite all day.
I tried the 7m line and missed a couple knocks before a 2lb skimmer was netted, then another before a near 10lb carp was landed. A 15 minute spell without a bite, swapping lines etc, before coming back in to 7m and repeating the process of 2 skimmers and a carp, rest and return.....
So my last 90 minutes was spent doing this and I kind of felt i was clawing myself into the section monies contest as both Kev on peg 10 and Mike Davis looked to have in the region of 90lb and were likely to be in the top 3 (I hoped), but it was the silvers I had come to catch and was now catching a few of decent stamp plus odd rogue carp.
The all out soon arrived, just after I had bumped off a couple nice skimmers, I hoped that they would not make a difference to my net of silvers, with only 1 silvers pot to go at I was confident of having enough for the best weight off Brick, but wasn't sure how Tile lake had fished.
As I packed my kit away I reckoned on Kev, Mike and Steve Fouracre being top 3 on the lake, maybe with Martin Heard there or thereabouts as he had landed a few fish late on from along the end bank.
Jamie asked me to weigh in Brick Lake while he did Tile, so I started with peg 1 and Nigel Hull.
He had 24lb, before Mike Davis on peg 3 had 81lb+. Then we weighed the next three who had between 17 and 29lb before it was my turn.
I had 2 weighs of carp, only 7 carp, but they amounted to 68lb 9oz and topped up with the silvers (24lb exactly) gave me the lead with 92lb 9oz.
Kev Crouch weighed next and I expected him to move slightly ahead of me, but alas he hadn't, he had 78lb 2oz of carp and a 4oz skimmer. I was a touch surprised by that.
Around to peg 11 and Martin Heard, he asked what the winning net was and people stated it was me with 92lb, he was a touch surprised as he had not seen me catch much. Anyways he weighed in and totalled 77lb exactly. Jason King was next with 54lb+. Then came a few 20lb+ nets before we got to the last person on the lake, one of my Teams of Three team-mates, Steve Fouracre, again I thought it would pip me and it nearly proved so with his 12lb 8oz of silvers and 74lb 8oz of carp combined pushed him to 2nd spot with 87lb.
I went and looked at the weigh sheet from Tile Lake and saw that the top silvers was 14lb and ounces and top overall on that lake was 74lb 10oz to Chris Higgs, he'd got off to a flyer but slowed up during the day, plus he had a couple double figured lumps in his total.
So I had won overall, had top silvers weight and was sat on one of the golden pegs.....bargain!! So i qualified properly for both the All-Winners final and as hoped, the Silvers Winners final.
It was back to the Legion in Pawlett for the presentation and some grub.
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| Weigh Sheets |
1st, Lee Williams, peg 9. 92lb 9oz
2nd, Steve Fouracre, peg 20. 87lb
3rd, Mike Davis, peg 3. 81lb 8oz
4th, Kev Crouch, peg 10. 78lb 6oz
5th, Martin Heard, peg 11. 77lb
6th, Chris Higgs, peg 36. 74lb 10oz (top Tile Lake Weight)
Silvers:
1st, Lee Williams, 24lb. Peg 9.
2nd= Phil Clapp, 14lb 4oz. Peg 34.
2nd= Jason King, 14lb 4oz. Peg 12.
So a hard going 4.5hrs, it was quiet for most during this time, except 3 of the corners on Brick, but I was chuffed that the skimmers turned up as they can be a great weight builder, as it proved today.
Next up is Avalon's Xmas match next Sunday, but I may fish Sedges' open on Wednesday as it is my last day's holiday of 2015.
Until then, Take Care.
Lee
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