The day started off ok, a bit of sun and reasonably warm as myself, Paul Berry and Mark Watkins stopped off at The Hobbs Boat Inn for their all-you-can-eat breakfasts.
So after 6 sausages, 6 bacon, 3 tomatoes, 3 eggs and a load of toast......plus some fresh fruit and yoghurt, it was time to head off to the fishery with bellies full.
27 or so of us were to be spread across the 2 canals, all 15 pegs were in on Hawthorns, though peg 1's angler couldn't make it, while on Westpool left out 2 or 3 pegs.
There was also an open match on the Main Lake, so the parking was tight but the place was a hive of activity. I made chatter with a few guys and mentioned that I fancied Hawthorn peg 3 or either 11 or 13 on the Westpool.
I let the rabble get on with the draw and plucked the 3rd last peg, Hawthorns peg 8. Splat bang in the middle of the lake and a couple short of peg 10, which is a nicer peg, though I did have the aerator in my swim. Ziggy and Jamie Cook had the last couple pegs, Jamie on the furthest peg on Westpool. Ziggy was in the middle somewhere.
I got to my peg, there looked to be a few fish around the area, I had Mark Watkins above me and Jason King below me on peg 7.
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| Hawthorns Peg 8, Shiplate |
I went about sorting my gear, 4 rigs today, none for silvers as I didn't fancy fishing for them.
A shallow pellet rig for generally towards the aerator, a depth pellet rig for the same area.
A meat rig for my left edge where I had a snaggy area that looked fishy and there were fish in the reeds and tree roots behind where I would fish.
Lastly a rig for around 2ft off the far bank in the shallowest water I could find.
Bait was 8mm meat, 6mm pellets, hemp, some groundbait for potting across and a few 8mm pellets if needed.
On plumbing up I knocked into a few fish, this gave me hope for the day ahead. There were some skimmers and chub spawning across in the grasses and this would no doubt pull the carp off any bait fed. I couldn't get tight over due to the grasses.
At the all-in I began down the edge, not feeding, hoping to snare a mug fish or 2. But this never happened, so out with the depth pellet rig just off the aerator, loose feeding 6mm pellets hoping to draw the fish up in the water.
I started to get some fizzing and odd liner so I switched to the shallow rig, I never had a bite. I did foul hook a couple though on the deeper rig.
Meanwhile, Paul Berry a bit further along, had a carp 1st drop. Mark Watkins also had 1 or 2 in the 1st hour......me, I tried a few areas but after 2hrs I was on 7 scales....No fish.
So into the 3rd hour and I kept plugging away and managed my 1st fish at around 2:15pm!! A big double figured carp was landed after a prolonged fight. The carp don't half hang on in these lakes, especially the larger stamp fish of 5lb+.
I was well behind a few guys, Mark Watkins, and the 3 guys to my left had around 6 fish each, it was slow going for everyone really.
My 2nd fish came at 2:30 and it was a skimmer than let milt out all over me....nice.
I had another skimmer a few minutes later that did the same, both skimmers came from my furthest line.
So far, so boring....my fish count at 3:30 was 2 skimmers and 1 carp along with 9 scales!!. I still expected to pick up a few more in the last hour, so to my delight I dropped in my left edge and pulled out a 2lb carp, then a even smaller carp that was almost swingable. It then went quiet so back out on the shallow rig, I managed a 3lb fish that took my pellet as I slowly shipped back!!
4pm came and I snuck a 7lb fish from my right edge where I hadn't fed, then a 3lber from the same spot. I missed a few bites, pricked a few carp also, but that's not unusual.
With 15 minutes to go I was nearly drawing level with the guys around me, so I was glad to put 4 more carp to 6lb in the net in the last quarter of an hour. All from my left edge.
At the all-out my clicker showed 34lb plus that last fish was around 6lb which had to be added.
So a tidy final period after earlier going 3.5hrs with only 7 foul hooked fish to show for my efforts.
On my lake, rumour had it that only Phil Clapp on my favoured peg 3 had done well, and a good few peeps were admitting to between 4 and 8 carp, I had 10 and the 2 skimmers.
I loaded the gear onto the barrow after I had packed up, took it up the slope before following the weigh-in, Brian Gatis had 29lb and Phil had 70lb, then we had a few 30lb nets before my attempts went 51lb plus 1lb 8oz for my 2 skimmers to move into second spot. This is how the lake finished.
I went and loaded the car before going to wait for the results.
The Main Lake had fished just as hard and other than peg 1 and 1a who both had around the 120lb mark each. 45-50lb was a decent weight on there today and the silvers was won with a lowly 12lb, so they still have fish-sex on their minds too.....
The results from Westpool filtered through and John Fuidge had 67lb or so, but not too sure on the others. It turned out that Jamie Cook had 6oz more than me with 52lb 14oz. He had over 14lb of silvers in his catch!! Nice. So I'd won my section.
Results:
1st, Phil Clapp, 71lb 4oz (H3)
2nd, John Fuidge, 68lb 11oz (W9)
3rd, Jamie Cook, 52lb 14oz (W15)
4th, Lee Williams, 52lb 8oz (H8)
5th, Mark Sweeting, 48lb 14oz (W1)
6th, Keith Clapp, 45lb 13oz, (W7)
Silvers:
1st, Jamie Cook 14lb 12oz (W15)
2nd, Robb Dodd, 7lb 8oz (W13)
3rd, Ziggy Slowinski, 7lb 2oz (W12)
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| Weigh Sheets.... |
So a frustrating day, I am sure I could have done a little better, maybe pulled the maggots out of my carryall and tried for some silvers, maybe opened a new line at the bottom of the far shelf? All hindsight I suppose.
I will try and figure out how to catch fish in the middle 4hrs of the match on the canals at this very good fishery.....one day!
No matches planned for me next weekend, so I may go pleasure fishing next Sunday somewhere.
The following Saturday is the 1st round of my Saturday Series, this round being on the Match Lake at Landsend fishery.
I still have 4 or 5 spaces, £60 to enter, £20 match day pools. You can get cover for any round/s.
Dates are:
28th May, Landsend Match Lake
11th June, Trinity Wildmarsh
9th July, Sedges Brick
6th August, Avalon
20th August, Viaduct Campbell
Until next time, Tight Lines.
Lee
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