Me and the wife loaded the car and made our way over to the lakes, pretty certain it was a 9am draw and fish 10-4pm. A few guys present and we ended up with half a dozen or so, not great but that seems to often be the case on a lot of matches that, unless they are leagues, then numbers can be varied to say the least. Anyways we had a nice cuppa thanks to Pete and a bit of a chat before the draw was done, a rover match today on Longs. I drew the golden peg, pick 3, then drew my pick, pick 3, so I would have the golden peg pot which can be won if the overall or silvers is won from the peg. The others all chose pegs in the 30's alongside the road, I fancied the far side as it is more comfy to ship and I would have a bit of room, not always good at times. I picked peg 12, this gave me 18m to the far side so that option was ruled out as I didn't quite fancy a day of fishing up to an island which is what I seemed to have done all over winter, plus the breeze was tricky.
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| Peg 12 Longs, Summerhayes |
Box and attachments sorted, some groundbait mixed and expanders pumped I went about setting up my rigs for the day, a DT F1/Silvers in 0.3g for the silvers was assembled using a 0.10 hooklength and a b911f1 hook in size 18. I would fish this in 2 spots in front, 5m using micros as feed and 9m using groundbait, but enough on them as the wind got up and I couldn't see the float in the reflections on the water.
My 2nd rig was for the topkit down each edge, meat left, dead maggots right, my usual DT Big D in 0.2g was made up but went untroubled during the day, so no more on that then.
Lastly I set up a DT RBS Open float to fish a few spots, 10 o'clock direction at 9m, right margin-ish at 6m and by empty peg 13 at 6m. There were other spots I could have tried, but didn't as the depth was standard to within an inch or so. Hooklength was 0.12 to a 16 B911 hook.
On the whistle I potted in my silver's baits and a 1/4 cup of hard 4's plus a pinch of micros and a couple 4mm expanders off in the 10 o'clock direction. I fed my 2 edges for the fish to find another day....
I began in front for the silvers, that lasted not long when the ripple arrived.
So out to my left at 9m and I soon had a few indications and a 1lb skimmer and then a 2lb carp.
A couple more carp of similar stamp and another 1.5lb skimmer followed in the initial hour. Not too bad. But I could see Martin Addicot opposite hooking carp regularly, but it turned out he lost most.
The second hour was quiet with only 2 small silvers netted and lost 1 foul hooked carp. There were still indications so there were fish around.
Hour 3 was a little better and gave me 3 carp, the largest perhaps 5lb and another nice skimmer and a blade skimmer. My carp clicker was on 21lb at this point. So far all of my fish had come at 9m off in the 10 o'clock direction. It seemed that I could only catch on 4mm expander over toss potted micros and hard 4s, meat and maggots gave me less bites.
At this point bites began to slow again so I tried putting a small helping in the deeper water away from my right margin at 6m. Ten minutes passed and I had a bite, a skimmer of 2lb was duly netted, that was my only bite there for the rest of the day, so a passer by methinks.
Back out to my 'catching zone' and I had another spurt of carp and put perhaps 15lb in the net. But again the bites would fade, another re-feed and another look on each of the edges with no joy, so I deposited 2 hard balls of groundbait off the leg of peg 13, I laced these with hard 4s and a few bits of meat.
The 5th hour was productive from both the 9m line and down by the empty peg 13, I did bump a couple from the empty peg area, perhaps me being too quick off the mark in trying to stop them snagging me, but I put another 8 or 9 carp and a single small skimmer in the net during this spell, my clicker showing 57lb. Plus perhaps 10lb of silvers in the other net.
The final hour came and I started it off with a 3lb fish from my 9m line, so I sent the wife off to get another net as I forgot if the limit was 70 or 80lb. Bad choice as 3rd net syndrome kicked in and I only managed to lose 2 carp once the net went in, only in the last 5 minutes was it that I put 2 carp in the 2nd carp net before the all out was called.
I packed away, rather quickly my missus said, and got the kit back to the car before helping with the scales. Bill Hopping asked what I had and I told him just over 60lb of carp and 10lb of silvers, he replied I would win easily with that. I wasn't sure as Martin Addicot had been playing fish all day, but as it turned out he had lost around 20 fish including some at the net.
We weighed everyone in and I was last, my clicker was close with my carp totalling 62lb and 14oz while my 10lb 1oz was my silvers. So that meant I had won, topped the silvers and I was on the golden peg. Nice.
Back at the hut and the pay outs done plus a bit of a chit chat and a cuppa.
Bill was happy to sneak 2nd as the silvers went to Martin with 3-15. He was more glad that he managed a fish on his beloved paste, when that works properly he becomes the man to beat at the venue.
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| A happy Bill Hopping. |
1st -Lee Williams 72-15 (10-01 silvers) peg 12 (qualified for both overall and silvers Champion matches in October)
2nd - Martin Addicot 37-09 (3-12 silvers) peg 31
3rd - Bill Hopping 19-02 (2-11 silvers) peg 37
In hindsight I could have set up a shallow rig and perhaps a depth rig for banded pellet as my bites at times were less than positive. I never had a bite on 6mm expander, maggot and pinkie and only 1 caro and 1 skimmer on meat. So it was for sure a pellet day.
Not sure where I am next (long) weekend. Friday at Acorn there is a silvers match in memory of Charlie Barnes, Landsend Saturday, Summerhayes or Landsend on Sunday. Viaduct has matches everyday from Thurs until Monday.
Until next time, take care.
Lee
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