The weather was, apparently, expected to provide some storms, but as it turned out the temps never got to the levels expected, the breeze kept us cool and we only had a few minutes of heavy drizzle rather than rain.
A full 40 fishing, 15 on Homeground, which would be my preferred lake and Hillview for 25 anglers. I arrived early with Shawn Kittridge in tow as he followed me on the drives to and from the fishery, but we made it in record time so plenty of time to browse the shop and have a natter before the draw was to be made.
On to the draw, I would be drawn against the Trig (aka Craig Edmunds) for the knockout, so that would be me out baring a miracle or some glaring misfortune by the in-form man himself....#clutchingstraws Anyways into the bucket and peg 79 on Homeground was my peg, a good feeder peg by reputation... but as is the case on this fishery bites should be had.
For company I had Adrian Jeffery on peg 80 (last peg in section) and he had Trig next to him on corner peg 81, he had Dan White in front/left of him on 82, so some fish would likely get caught from that end bank.
To my right I had Neil Mercer for the second match running, then Tony Rixon on peg 77, then up in the corner on peg 76 was Beaver (Paul Elmes), so a tough section, well actually there wont be an 'easy' section on this league such is the quality of angler fishing. But I am happy to always try and beat one in section each round.
At my peg I mixed some groundbait for the silvers, covered the meat and casters in water and cracked open a tin of hemp. Other than that I had a few maggots which went unused and the obligatory 8 and 6mm pellets.
On to rigs, well I guess most of you will have figured what floats I used for 99 percent of my fishing, all DT Floats patterns. A 0.1g Pinger float for shallow fishing at 14m for 6 and 8mm pellets.
A F1/Silvers for silvers at 2+1, which only got wet once.
A couple of RBS Open Waters for pellet on the deck and for my 2+2 meat line.
Lastly my edge float was a Margin Diamond, which I find spot on for shallow edges under 2ft deep and using smallish baits.
I set up a waggler, but the wind was wrong and I only had a couple casts on it for no reason really.
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| Peg 79, Todber Homeground |
Simply it started slow for me and Adrian next door and after an hour it was obvious we would be battling to see who comes last in section.
I began by feeding my silvers line with a couple decent helpings of caster laced groundbait, I fed a pot of meat and hemp on that line and starting to ping a few pellets out at 14m.
Starting on the meat I had a couple skimmers and a tench then a small carp of 2lb. Then it went patchy, so a look on the silvers line and it was small perch and a roach, but just as slow there so I abandoned any idea of fishing for the silvers properly.
Out on the deck at 14m with a 6mm in the band and I foul hooked a couple which came off, so shallow it was, a nice ripple....yep that'll do....nope, it won't, I picked up a handful of small fish over an hour or so, but the guys to my right were catching more quickly than me.
So now it was maybe 3.5hrs in and a lowly 25lb plus a few silvers was what I had, which was a little more than Adrian. Not much more though.
I could see a few shapes in my left edge where I had been chucking a few bits of meat, some casters and pellets. With the exception of a massive common pushing on comfortably mid doubles, the shapes were breamy. So I lowered my rig in and missed a bite, next swing in an I could see the meat had landed in around 2 inches of water but then I saw a bream come in an take it, awesome. That was one scabby bream, one eye and covered in sores, not pretty. But at 5lb or so a welcome bonus, actually the odd bream would take the mis-fed offerings off the mudline, rather carpy!!
A small carp followed before it went quiet, so back into swim rotation mode and the odd carp would get caught. Alongside a couple of 3lb+ tench and a few skimmers etc I kept putting something in the nets. Just nowhere as quickly as everyone else it seemed.
Into the last 90 minutes and sport picked up for me and Adrian, we started to get a few bites on our short lines, I had actually converted my silvers line to a pellet line and this was giving a few fish, missing plenty of bites, but I was reluctant to go shallow, but I should have upped the feed, but I didn't and kept getting missed bites.
The edges started to see odd bonus fish visit and I did manage 3 decent carp, 2 of which were doubles and 1 maybe 6lb.
Then I managed to get my top 4 pulled off and shoot up to my left, but the fish came off and Adrian pulled it in close enough for me to grab it. Cheers mate.
Next drop I hooked a carp that went up to my left, and myself and Adrian became tangled, the fish came off and we both got our rigs back...lucky!!
A few fish in the last 15 mins, mostly little tench, were added to the net. Adrian had a good spurt of fish and I felt that maybe he would have just pipped my as 6oz tench don't cut it against 2 to 3lb carp at the same catch rate.
So the all out was called, I thought, well my magic clickers showed 25lb in one net and 35lb in the other. Plus my silvers of perhaps 15lb or so. I banked on 75lb.
I didn't wear my 're-sizing specs' for this match so I would be happy to see how close I was.
With the car loaded and the weigh-in under way I saw the 1st three in my section put 137-14 to Paul on 76, Tony had 136-13, Neil weighed 109-02. Then my turn, my 2 nets were 19lb and 40lb so not so bad on the clickers, my silvers weighed 20lb 10oz. So 80lb 4oz.
Adrian next, he lifted his silvers which were 15lb 3oz, then he lifted his carp out and it looked like he would be close but luckily, for me anyway, he added 55lb and a few ounces giving him a total of 70-07.
Trig went on to beat me, no shock, but from the peg he moaned about, he managed to put 179lb 11oz on the board, Dan was next and to be fair we all expected him to beat Trig, but fell short, but a healthy 162lb 7oz caught mostly on paste (he was practicing using that). Around the opposite side there were 50-14, 80-00 (inc 24lb of silvers) and 78lb finishing that section. Then the final 5 weighed in 98-11, 52-02, Shawn had 121-02, then there was 48-12 to Pete Ashton before Steve Nadin on peg 90 (top peg) put the top silvers net on the day of 41-12 on the scales, couple with his carp gave him a total of 172lb 4oz and 2nd on the day.
I never followed the last few weights on the other lake but 3 weights over 150lb were had and the silvers never really fed with 18lb and ounces was top weight off there. Must say that Jack Billet did have the largest 'silver' of the day in the form of an 11lb catfish.
1st, Trig, peg 81, 179-11 (Homeground)
2nd, Steve Nadin, peg 90, 172-04 (HG)
3rd, Ryan Shipp, peg 53, 162-14 (Hillview)
4th, Dan White, peg 82, 162-07 (HG)
5th, Gary O'Shea, peg 54, 156-09 (HV)
6th, Mike Nicholls, peg 42, 150-12 (HV)
Silvers,
1st, Steve Nadin, p90, 41-12 (HG)
2nd, Nick Brown, p84, 24-08 (HG)
3rd, Lee Williams, p79, 20-10 (HG)
For full weigh sheets, take a browse of Tony Rixon's blog or that one of Mike Nicholls (Silverfox) as they have them on theirs.
So a 4th in section, series defo over, but I managed to pick up a few quid for (default) 2nd in the silvers pool which was welcome.
As for the fishing, again I learned some stuff, and have got a better understanding of maybe where I went wrong and what I did that worked but fishing can be odd at times. The top 4 guys all fished in the main, different tactics to each other. Trig fished mostly pellet with some on corn, Steve fished meat over meat/groundbait, Ryan fished caster down his edges and Dan fished paste....so I guess it is a matter of takes your choice and do your best to make it work....perhaps!!
Not sure where I will be this weekend, so until then, have fun and enjoy the sun.
Lee.
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