Pawlett Match, Sedges, Silvers only. 10-04-17

The annual Silvers match at The Sedges began in warm and sunny conditions, the warmest day of the year and the carp looked very active.....It didn't end very warm though, but the carp were definitely active!!

32 of us lined the 40 pegs of Brick and Tile Lakes, leaving only the corners out on each lake, I had a natter with a few peeps before the draw. I wanted, needed, to be on Brick Lake, as I cannot seen to catch well enough on the silvers front on Tile, but I enjoy Brick and I am more comfortable and confident on that lake. A whole bunch of very tidy anglers fishing the match including some decent silverfish anglers, John Fuidge, Ziggy, Mark Leader and the usual suspects such as Vic, Eric, Mr Parkhouse and the Clapps to name but a few.
Into the draw basket, fingers crossed, out pops peg 28.....On Tile. Bummer. I actually, again, deliberated not fishing. I didn't fancy Tile to compete with Brick Lake when it comes to the overall placings so a double negative for me. Still it was dry and the sun was shining.

Arriving at my peg I could see plenty of carp, a number that seemed to increase during the day.
I had Nick Selway on peg 29 and Kev Crouch on 28.

Peg 28 on Tile Lake

4 top kits were assembled, giving a few of Dean Townshend's (DT Floats) a whirl. Pencils in 0.2g on a couple of rigs and the new-ish F1/silvers Titan (bendy titanium wire) in 0.6g and 10x no 11's.
The 1st Pencil was for down my left edge where I would feed caster by hand, hopefully snare a few roach and maybe a decent perch or a rogue tench.
The 2nd Pencil was for fishing up in the water at 13m using caster and maggot as hookbait. I would fish this over my initial groundbait deposit where the 0.6g rig would be used on the deck. Loose fed casters would be lightly fed over the top via the catty. This spot was off slightly to my left.
Lastly the lighter 10x no11 rig was set up using a banded hook for hard pellet, 6mm, over an initial feed of micros and I would ping a few 4mm pellets over the top. It was the same depth over each line, opening my options a little.
Also I had the same depth (give or take an inch or so) at 2+2 where I fed corn, but it stayed fishless.
My pencil rigs were made up on 0.16>0.11>Guru F1 pellet hooks in size 18.
My deep rigs were on 0.16>0.11>18 LWG or B911 for the hair rig.

All-in, 4 balls of groundbait cupped out long, 1/2 a cup of micros out long slightly right and a few casters and maggots dropped down my left edge.
Out with the shallow rig and I soon had a small roach in the net saving a blank. The lake in my area was calmer and loads of carp could be seen all over the place. It was a slow 1st hour, I think I only put 3 or 4 small roach in the net on the shallow rig and a solitary 4oz skimmer that came to caster on the deck. But it looked like more than the guys each side of me.

It took a whole 90 minutes before I hooked my 1st carp of the day, I think by the end of the day I had landed 15 and lost a few to hook pulls, at times they were taking casters as soon as they hit the surface and take my hookbait before my rig had been lowered in.
So after my carp flurry I managed 3 or 4 more skimmers shallow, one was around 12oz-1lb but the usual size was 4oz or so. A perch of 4oz and a couple roach also took a liking to my caster shallow tactic.
All the while I was feeding a few casters down the edge and pinging pellets long over that line, but I only ventured over the pellets once and hooked a carp, so that line was pretty much left along and u hoped the carp stayed there, or headed elsewhere!!

At the halfway stage it seemed the lake wasn't fishing great for silvers but the odd decent skimmer and very odd tench had been caught. I think I had around 3lb in the net and Kev had overtaken me with some nice skimmers on his short line. Nick was struggling properly.
I persevered fishing my caster and maggots up and down in the water but never managed a non-carp species on the deep rig. A few roach sand odd skimmer from 6oz to 1lb found my keepnet in between the carp.
So with an hour to go I was behind Kev and Nick had begun to get a few skimmers and was possibly level or just ahead of me. I decided to look down the edge, nothing happened so I potted in 3 cups of groundbait as a last resort. 10 minutes later a couple roach topped down the edge so in I went with a single caster, the float went under and a carp was hooked...! Duly netted and released I had another look and had a roach, next look I had a decent fish on and luckily it was a bream of perhaps 3lb, then I had a second of similar stamp. Another roach and another pot of groundbait.
A quick on the long shallow rig saw 3 carp hooked even without feeding...the last netted after the all-out. I reckoned I had around 8lb, as did Nick and Kev, but I hoped the last couple of bream took me ahead of them, Keith Clapp was said to have had 14lb+ from further back to my right. Brick Lake, as expected had seen a few guys catching well enough. The best we on Tile could hope for was a section win.

I packed the kit away and waited for the scales. I found them weighing in Mark Watts a couple pegs to my right, the scoresheet had Keith Clapp putting 14lb 15oz on the scales.
Mark never weighed then Kev had 11lb+ before I tipped my silvers into the sling and registered 14lb 6oz.
Nick had 9lb+, most of which came in a 20 minute spell late on.

I didn't follow the scales but caught up with them towards the end of Brick Lake and I could see a good few nets of 15lb, 17lb, 19lb, 20lb, 28lb and then Ziggy put 29lb+ on the scales to take the honours on the day.
I was 4th on Tile behind Keith 14-15, Paul Homewood 14-07 and Jamie Parkhouse 17-03. Nowhere overall.

Results:
1st, Ziggy Slowinski, 29-12. Peg 17
2nd, Pierce Furlong, 28-02. Peg 12
3rd, Vic Bush, 21-09. Peg 5

Weigh Sheets

So a nice day really, kind of enjoyed it despite my own initial despondencies. The fishery is a quality fishery and the weights were pretty fair throughout.
I was really impressed by the new floats and I also tried some Nick Gilbert micro bore laccy, both the 4-8 and 6-10 and they handled the carp pretty well considering and it was very nice on the silvers, I will be getting some of his lightest micro-bore at some point and some more of the 4-8 for sure.

Not sure where I am on Friday/Saturday/Monday, but Sunday is the last round of the Avalon Teams of 3, nothing on the overall front for us to fish for so it is down to on the day winnings for us.

Until then, have a great long weekend.
Lee