51 fish this year, spread over Campbell, Cary and Lodge lakes. With sections of 6 or 7 you need at least 3 or 4 section wins to get in the top ten I would say.
On to today, I was in the queue with fellow debutant Matt Williams chatting away and I commented I would like to be on Cary as it seems the most consistent at the moment and 10-15lb is capable from every peg I feel. I didn't want lodge I said, especially not peg 66 or 53, not the best 2 pegs at all.
So hand in tub, out comes peg 66 for me, Matt next, he pulled 53. So much for beginners luck!!
I got to my peg and the water was black with carp from 3lb up to 20lb, not just my peg but most of them, but it was worst up the end I was. Anyways I had Tom Thick across on 63 and he had Glen Calvert and Gary O'Shea to his left, but Tom was the 1st person in my 7 peg section, so really we had the rough draw. I had Dan Squire behind me and shipping back and landing net useage was a touch awkward, but we coped.
I decided against worms today after seeing all the carp, so my bait tray was casters, a few maggots and some 6mm meat along with a couple kilos of groundbait. I also had some micros with me and I was undecided on whether to use them.
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| P66 on Lodge Lake, Viaduct |
All lines and laccy were 0.14>0.10 or 0.08 and middy solids in 4-6 for the edges with roach in mind and the other 2 were middy solid 5-8.
I could go into how excellent the day was for me, but it really was a hard slog for most on Lodge.
I caught the odd roach and very small skimmer on both groundbait lines, there was lots of 1/2oz roach up in the water with odd better fish but these were too small to target and the better fish swirled irregularly , but I was apprehensive on setting up a shallow rig simply die to the amount of carp in front of me.
I tried the micros line a couple of times, each time resulted in carp being hooked, so I soon knocked that on the head.
The margins never gave me a fish all day, something that I would have put down as a banker, but these days happen. So it was a matter of hoping for a decent 1lb-4lb skimmer every now and then from either of the 2 groundbait lines. This never occurred and it was mostly the odd 1-3oz roach with the very occasional 4oz skimmer.
Tom Thick opposite me was also struggling and until he managed a few decent skimmers in a 20 minute spell late on I was probably just ahead of him. The others on his bank looked like they were doing ok, but I couldn't see or hear much from my side of the lake.
I did get 3 net skimmers, maybe 8oz each in the last hour but it was not very good really and I expected me and Tom to be last 2 in our 7 peg section.
Anyways after 6hrs the all out was called and I reckoned on 4lb-ish or bits and bobs. I reckoned Tom had 9lb and the rest of that bank were into double figures to perhaps 17lb, but was hard to tell,
I packed up and waited for the scales. A quick check on a couple other guys in my section and the most anyone would admit to was 11lb, Matt Williams even packed up and didn't weigh in off 53.
Behind me on Cary, Dan and Sam Powell to his left had a great peg to peg battle and bith would hav close to 30lb each. Most people had a few bites on the lake and the weights at the end showed everyone had over 11lb, good fishing.
The scales arrived at me and Tom had weighed 9lb 2oz. My 4lb or so actually weighed 8lb 8oz so I was only a couple of my 'bumped' fish off his weight, but to be fair he bumped a couple and we both had baby roach fall off shipping back throughout the day.
I followed the scales a couple pegs and Rob Eagle had 6lb 4oz, then Nigel Easton 11lb. So I wasn't last in section, result!!
I loaded my car and had a quick update from other guys and rumour was Trig (Craig Edmunds) had won from peg 123 and Campbell with 39-something but it was close as Gary Webber (p115) also had 39lb+. Some of the guys were happy with their day and others less so, even with 17lb coming last in the 1st section on Campbell...
Results:
1. Craig Edmunds - 39lb 12oz - peg 123
2. Gary Webber - 39lb 2oz - peg 115
3. Ziggy Slowinski - 37lb 6oz - peg 126
4. Tony Rixon - 36lb 3oz - peg 94
5. Sam Powell - 35lb 8oz - peg 98
6. Chris Davis - 35lb 2oz - peg 77
In all there was 10 weights from Cary and 10 from Campbell over 20lb, good fishing. Top weight on Lodge was 17lb.
All scores and sheets can be seen on Here or probably on Mr Rixon's or Mr Nicholl's blogs at some point.
Me, well I was 4th in section, which from my draw I was pleased enough with. Maybe I could have got another point, but always 'maybe'.
Next round in a couple of weeks.
Until then, Take Care.
Lee
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