Results from Thursday showed that the fish, in the main, had followed the wind, but would they follow the wind today, which was blowing the opposite way to then?
I made good time on the journey up and arrived to find Matt Challenger loading his trolley.....keen bean. Nearly everyone else was up in the café chatting and eating. We wandered on up and waited to do the draw. I fancied anywhere from peg 10 up and around to 22, where the wind was pushing. The pegs at the café end were calm and I hadn't saw a fish top prior to the draw. I didn't fancy 30 round to 6, though peg 29 is always worthwhile.
Into the bag, 3rd from last, and I pluck peg 30, café end before the bridge. It has always been a peg that seems to pay second fiddle to both 29 and peg 2 as you tend to feel a bit hemmed in, I had the end of the central island 16m away off in the 11 o'clock direction, which as I am suffering from a dodgy back, wouldn't be a line on my menu.....but at 1 point I tried for 2 minutes, it hurt, I gave up.
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| Harescombe Match Lake peg 30. |
These lines would be a left edge swim just before the infall, corn over 4mm pellets here.
2 lines at 2+2 on the diagonals, the left one for meat and maggots, the right hand one for banded 6mm pellets over 4's.
Lastly a rig for just near empty peg 1 at around 10m away from me , this would be for banded pellet over micros and 4's. I had 3 bites but no fish from here so no more on that.
Bait was live maggots, 6mm meat, corn and a few micros and 4mm pellets. Oh and some 6mm pellets for in the bands.
For company I had Ross Sewell on peg 29 to my left, and Lee Waller on peg 2, you can see him in the pic above. But I had a good view of the whole lake and could judge how I was doing.
The all in was soon called and I fed the two edge swims and began on maggots, 20 minutes passed without any activity for me, though Lee had netted a few fish. Further up odd fish had been caught.
After 20 minutes I had a random few minutes, I had a couple roach but bumped 3 better fish, so I changed the hook and hoped this solved the bumped fish issue. It had, though it was after 90 minutes that I landed my first carp/f1, a 2lb carp came to the maggots, this was followed by a couple skimmers and an F1. I was missing a few bites and did try coming shallower but this didn't have the desired effect, small roach methinks.
After a couple hours Lee Waller had done reasonably well, but most others were struggling, Matt Challenger, on the first pegged peg on the far bank (peg 18) was catching as were those from pegs 10 to 15. I had a look on the 2+2 pellet line and promptly had a skimmer and a small carp, but that was it for that line for the rest of the day.
A look down the left edge gave me a 2lb carp and a chub, then a skimmer before that area died.
So for the remainder of the match I struggled away switching between the 2+2 maggot and meat line and the left margin line. I found that meat would give me more positive bites than the maggots but I would have to wait a bit longer and the fish was less likely to be a roach or small skimmer.
As we entered the last couple of hours my clicker showed around 20lb plus I had a couple pound of silvers. Lee Waller was plenty ahead of me, he had a good few barbel alongside his F1's
I could see Steve O'Toole catching pretty much every drop on his short line, his neighbours further up from him and Matt Challenger were all catching.
It was at this point I started to catch well, both on and off the bottom on meat and maggots, picking up the occasional fish from the edge kept me busy until the end of the match, which incidentally coincided with the wind really lightening up. Maybe the fish had drifted down as the winds had eased?
The all out was called and my clicker showed 40lb, plus I had my silvers, so perhaps 48lb total. Lee Waller would have around 10lb more than me, though we probably had less than further up, especially Matt Challenger and Steve O'Toole.
I packed up and tried to get the gear away from the rain, which stopped by the time the weigh in began.
First to weigh was Ross on peg 29, he had 15lb of skimmers and a couple carp for 25lb 4oz.
I was next and my 8lb 12oz of skimmer/roach/chub was added to my slightly underestimated net of F1's and odd carp. My total was 56lb exactly.
Lee Waller popped 61lb 4oz on the scales, then Derek Lucas and Steve Burgess put 34lb and ounces on the sheet, this was between them, Steve just pipping Derek.
Steve O'Toole then took the lead with a cracking 83lb 4oz net, well fished that man.
Matty Taynton had 2oz less than Lee Waller then Lionel Legge had exactly 49lb.
Last up on the car park bank was Chris Szakacs who had 58lb 7oz from peg 15.
I left the scales at this point to go back and get my nets together and finish loading the car.
I caught up with the weigh sheet after the weigh in and Matt Challenger had taken 2nd spot on the day fishing worm over caster, he had 71lb 5oz. The rest had 24lb, 39lb and 44lb.
So a fair enough day, plenty of bites, though my first 2 or 3 hours were tough as it seemed the fish had followed the wind. But the last couple of hours were very enjoyable.
I wish there was somewhere as similar to this nearer home as it can give a cracking days sport, you don't need 100lb+ weights for a good match, just decent nets which give a close contest.
My largest fish was maybe 2lb today.
Results:
1st, peg 8, Steve O'Toole, 83lb 4oz
2nd, peg 18, Matt Challenger, 71lb 5oz
3rd, peg 2, Lee Waller, 61lb 4oz
4th, peg 10, Matt Taynton, 61lb 2oz
5th, peg 15, Chris Szakacs, 58lb 7oz
6th, peg 30, Lee Williams,56lb
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| Weights.....ignore Steve's results maths.!! |
Until then, take care and tight lines.
Lee
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