So with the scene set on a rather wintery note, cold temps and bundles of snow across the region a few no-shows was always going to be the case and as it was there were a few from each of the 3 sections. But the roads in the main were ok in getting the fishery (and home after) as they were clear, I certainly never encountered anything out of the ordinary except down the street where I live.
The draw, unbeknown to me, was moved back to 9am to allow people time to get to the venue.
My turn on lake 3, no real preference in peg to be honest as I wasn't sure how it would fish, the air temps were chilly but we had seen a few warm days previous to around 14 degrees and that would have warmed the lake a little and would take more than 24hrs of cooler weather to drop them down too much. I had the 1st ticket for my section and pulled out peg 68, not too bad, a deeper peg and having the point of an island at 14m in front, a weed bed to my left and open water options.
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| Peg 68, Landsend Fishery. |
The snow, as you can see, had returned and pretty much snowed for a few hours of the match coupled with a poxy cold wind, which I am thankful that it was not blowing directly at me.
I set up 4 rigs:
A shallow pellet rig (0.2g DT Pinger) as the fish can come up in the water here, even in winter. This went unused.
A rig for the edges, dead maggot over the same, at topkit range next to some tree stumps, but my DT Big D never saw more than 5 minutes use.
2 identical rigs were also made up to target pretty much anything, heavy-ish silvers (or light carp I guess) rigs using 0.3g DT RBS Open Waters with 0.10 hooklengths and size 18 911F1 hooks. The only difference being was the depth. 1 was for long and in open water and the 2nd for 7m in front, next to the island in front and to my left by the weed bed, simple really. Strung out shot on both.
Bait selection was live and dead maggots, some casters (no bites), some expanders (froze unused) and some micros and a little groundbait for feed.
The match began and I fed a line at 7m in front with a decent sized ball of groundbait with a few dead maggots and micros added. A helping of casters by the weed bed.
Out in open water at 13.5m I fed a couple spots, one with micros and one with casters, neither gave me a bite all day so no more on those.
I started out by the island toss-potting maggots and micros with double maggot on the hook.
10 minutes passed and I had a roach, then another, nice sized ones maybe 3-4oz each.
I then hooked a carp which done it's best to escape but after a protracted battle I slipped the landing net under a 8lb+ common, well hooked in the pec.
A few more roach from the same spot then an F1 of 2lb found my welcoming keepnet, but we were all finding it hard going, even series winner Stu Barnett on peg 51 was not catching, just losing the odd carp.
I persevered, trying different lines with no success so it was back out towards the island. But things had really slowed, I would get the odd roach and even a blade skimmer now and then but that was it.
We were soon passed the halfway stage and Stu was catching regularly and probably had 8 carp or more, the rest of us, not a lot. Pete had a burst of 3 small carp down in peg 70, but that was it, he only had 1 more during the contest. Martin was getting a few roach on caster, I couldn't get a bite with that in the hook. Road was landing the odd silver, he already had a few skimmers in the first hour.
I then had a flurry of fish, a couple crucians from my 7m groundbait line and a micro perch (also bumped 2 decent fish, maybe foul hooked) 2 f1's from by the island and another f1 of 1lb by the weedbed, my only fish from there.
The next couple of hours dragged, I added the odd small silver from by the island and lost a carp that tied my rig to a rope (for the aerator) off the point of the island, I had to pull for a break. Stu was doing fine and would easily win the lake.
In to the final 60 minutes and another carp was hooked and landed, that would be 2 in the net, maybe 14lb total as the second was around 6lb. A few silvers including a nice 12oz skimmer were had on the 7m line as the island area seemed slow.
Martin had a small carp and Rod actually landed one late on, a 5lber, he also managed to lose a couple more skimmers and an f1, he wasn't having a good day. The all out sounded and I think I had 10lb of silvers and my 2 carp for another 14lb.
I packed up and went and started the weigh in, well not a lot to report there except Stu had 106lb from peg 51 to re-affirm his league winnings, but this match also bought him the knock-out winning as his opponent, Tony Rixon had 20-something pound of silvers from Match Lake (lake 2) peg 22.
I managed 2nd on the lake and best silvers on the lake with 12lb of those any 14lb of carp. So a pick up for me. Bonus.
So back at the cabin, car all loaded and I stayed to see how people had done overall in the series. Stu Barnett won overall and the knock-out. Tony won overall in the silvers while Nick Duckett, Martin Rayet and Gary O'Shea took 2nd, 3rd and 4th overall. Well done to all of them.
I managed 7th overall in the league and in the silvers I ended up finishing 4th. I am pleased with those results as it was my 1st time in the league and I am not a venue regular by any means (not sure I am anywhere to be honest). A couple poor choices and my usual inability to draw well regularly cost me some points for sure, enough points to alter things? I don't know.
Not sure where I am this weekend, maybe I will get a ticket for the Golden Rod match at Viaduct, maybe I will have a weekend off, I don't know, but it is my daughter's birthday so perhaps I will just eat cake.....
Until then, take care.
Lee
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