A nice easy enough journey of around an hour or so down some little lanes and as the weather was clear, warm and sunny it was rather enjoyable.
Anyways back to the venue and the fishing, I arrived in plenty of time and Matt Williams and Mike Wilson were both present, I had a look around the tackle shop, which I must say is very well stocked and prices competitive. They have kit for carp fishing, coarse fishing, match fishing and catfish fishing.
The lake we were to fish was only recently opened and was rather bare and barren, but very nice platforms that were not too close together, there is 15 pegs in total on the lake that is just over an acre in size. Two islands are present in the lake. There isn't any marginal growth as such and it is rather barren. There was plenty of fish moving and jumping, we got told there was loads of silvers, tench, skimmers, roach and perch.
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| Todber Manor, Homeground Lake.(peg 81) |
The draw was done, peg 81, the end peg on the near bank, and with peg 80 not in, I had the corner of the island to fish to with the method feeder. To my left on the end bank was Matt Williams, I fancied him to do well from there. Opposite me was Chris Szakacs, to my right on 79 and 78 were Will Dearlove and Ron Hardiman respectively.
I had read that the method feeder and shallow pellets are the 2 ways to go, so both of these were set up, a meat rig for topkit distance in front of me and a sort of margin rig for 2+2 down to my left where I could find 2ft depth, which was 6ft off the bank, though I knew the fish would come into the shallower water close in, I felt they'd spook easily.
Lastly a full depth pellet rig for 13m which is also where I planned on the shallow fishing.
Bait was groundbait for down to my left, 6mm pellets for up and down at 13m, 8mm meat for the short lines, I also had a few 4mm pellets for feed, plus wetted micros for the feeder.
On the whistle I fed a few pellets long, meat short and groundbait to my left. I started on the feeder and nothing occurred for about 20 minutes, so that was abandoned for a while. During that opening period Ron Hardiman and Brian Shanks were getting plenty of fish, small tench, small skimmers and one or 2 carp. Will had 1 carp on the feeder, but he wasn't getting any joy. In fact a few of us were struggling.
So a quick 5 minutes on the topkit with meat saw a couple missed bites, this gave me a 1oz perch the missed bites were from small silver methinks, so out to 13m with a 6mm in a band, a few 1 to 3oz tench came my way then a carp of around 1lb.
The next 2 hours went along similar vein, odd carp among the small tench and odd skimmer. Will, Brian, Mike Wilson and Will were catching the most consistently from where I was perched.
It was a few hours into the match when we saw Adam Caswell had a diabetic fit and ambulances were called and after some treatment he was carted off to Yeovil. Brian Shanks spotted his condition and between him, Ryan and a few others helped out. We all wish him well.
Back to the fishing and I managed a carp of 3lb or so on the method and mugged one of similar size on a piece of meat. But although I was getting fish regular down to my left and on the topkits, the time between fish was lengthy and I could see Chris on the peg opposite from me getting plenty of fish down his right edge, as was his neighbour Brian Shanks. Also the 3 to my right were getting fish more regularly on various tactics. Will even managed a good fish of perhaps 8lb+.
With 2hrs to go I fed a bit more aggressively to my left and on the topkit lines, abandoning the other lines. This proved to work a bit better as I then managed to increase the regularity of fish getting put into the keepnets, the fish were right in the edges too, maybe 8 inches of water, but some surface scum prevented me getting my rig into them and a 0.5g rig and 8mm pellet wouldn't get through the crap, so it was the slightly further out/deeper spot that I had to concentrate on, coupled with the topkit line.
I was soon enough picking up carp averaging 1lb or so, plus one or two nice skimmers. I suppose my biggest fish was 4lb. So the remaining period of the match was fished this way.
At the all out I was certain to be struggling at the back end of the field as it seemed all except Matt, Ryan and Mark Radford had struggled as much as me during the day.
I packed up my kit, loaded the car and began the weigh-in with Mike and Chris.
I was 1st up to weigh, putting nearly 9lb of skimmers on the scales, then my 2 well split carp nets made the total up to 81lb 2oz....miles more than expected and more than most thought I had. Surprised really.
We weighed in the rest, seeing Chris Szakacs putting 87lb on the scales thanks to the 2nd half of the match, Brian Shanks topped 100lb as he caught well all day, then a few more weighed in before Mike Wilson put less than what I thought on the scales, Ron Hardiman pipped my weight by 9oz, I was sure he'd done 100lb, but he had lots of baby tench. Will had 51lb...well short of my guess!!
Results:
1st, Brian Shanks, Peg 85, 101-09
2nd, Chris Szakacs, Peg 83, 87-04
3rd, Ron Hardiman, Peg 78, 81-11 (section)
4th, Lee Williams, Peg 81, 81-02
5th, Alan Healey, Peg 88, 61-02 (section)
So for the 2nd week in a row I was pipped for the section money, but for a change I wasn't next to or opposite the winner!! Interestingly the top 3 caught on corn I believe, soft pellet also accounted for a few fish.
But it was a nice venue and definitely one I will return to as it's not too far really and the place is clean and tidy and will no doubt give lots of bites to all.
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| Weights |
Until then, take care.
Lee
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