Pops Charity Pairs Match, The Sedges. 12-8-18

I managed to get a partner in the shape of Mark Leader a few days before the match, luckily we bagged the last of the 20 places (40 anglers, 20 pairs).
In the few days leading up to the day we had seen a drop in temperatures and even some of the wet stuff had fallen, and with the wife due to come along on the day it was expected to be damp most of the day.

I arrived in plenty of time, well that's a lie, I would have arrived in plenty of time but the staff in McDonalds managed to take 15 minutes in getting a couple Sausage and Egg McMuffins together.
But I arrived, paid my dues and said hello to most of those fishing.
I got Mark to draw as he had won the midweek open on Brick Lake with 167lb. he came back towards the end of the queue with pegs 14 and 22, not the best draw but okay enough. Mark chose to go on Brick so I trotted back to my car and drove it 20 yards to my peg to unload the kit, bonus.

No silvers rigs were assembled even though there was a prize for top silvers on each lake.
My tackle assortment was as such:
A method feeder to fish towards the island and over my pole line.
A shallow slapping/mugging rig using a 0.2g DT Pinger.
A DT float's Big D for my 2 edges but I never really got to give that a proper try.
Lastly a couple DT RBS opens, one for meat at 6m and the other for banded pellets under the shallow line at 14.5/16m.
Bait was micros for the feeder, 6mm and 8mm pellets plus some meat and groundbait.

For company I had Ziggy Slowinski on peg 23 and probably the person most likely to win on peg 21, fishery owner Jamie Cook.
It was still raining at the all in and within a few seconds of Jamie chucking his feeder out he had fishes back out of the water in numbers where he was casting, hmmmm.
Me, I started shallow after feeding my peg and it was a good 20 minutes before I had my 1st carp which actually came on my 1st drop on the depth rig, at 8lb it was an ok start. I then had a skimmer before all indications stopped.
A quick look on the meat line gave nothing, a few more looks shallow gave me no response, the fish were there but seemed more interested in swimming around quickly.
So after 90 minutes I was still on one carp well behind Jamie and from what I could see Eric on 38 was getting a few.

I lobbed the method over the pole line and within minutes I had carp number 2 in the net, but it was a false dawn even the liners had stopped. So I reluctantly chucked the feeder to the island where I pretty much spent the rest of the match baring a few looks on each of the pole lines.
I would get a couple fish in quick succession before it went quiet, I actually went over an hour at one point without a carp. But I persevered and managed to catch 4 carp on the shallow rig, there was no consistency in that though,  I had no more on the depth pellet rig and only a skimmer on the meat with 10 minutes to go.
I had one fish I weighed that was 13lb and a few ounces but at the all out I had clicked 69lb on one clicker and 44lb on the second plus 3 skimmers.
I reckoned Jamie had around 200lb as I had told the wife, he had 3 nets in and he usually puts 60lb in each and is very rarely out on his estimates. Eric Fouracres on peg 38 had a good last couple hours and had more than me, maybe 150lb. But everyone else, except Ziggy who had struggled on peg 23, I could not see.

I packed up my kit and followed the weigh in on Tile, helping out with the sums should Nigel Hull need it. Starting with Jamie, who said he clicked 199lb,  after a few weighs and he had 200lb 1oz. Not likely to be beaten.
Me next and my estimates were not far out with 13lb 4oz weigher, 3lb 11oz for my 3 skimmers and then 110lb 15oz across my 2 carp nets totalled me up to 127lb 14oz. Not too shabby, and a day where my smallest fish was around the 6lb mark.
Ziggy had a hard day and weighed 26lb, then other than Keith Bilder who had 152lb 8oz, the rest weighed in the 40lb to 60lb region.(
The pegs down the causeway fared a bit better with 5 of the 10 anglers having 100lb+ (plus a 97lb net) culminating in Eric on peg 38 weighing 154lb 2oz.

Overall I finished up 5th in the match and on the lake as Brick was hard going with Mark struggling on peg 14 with 15lb and the lake was won with 73lb 14oz from peg 11 ahead of a level 73lb and then a 57lb.  Top silvers on each lake was 25/26lb. As a pair Mark and I were equal 6th.

Results:
Brick Lake, 
1st Jack Arpino 73lb 14oz peg 11
2nd Phil Wilkins 73lb peg 6
3rd John Fuidge 57lb 2oz peg 13

Tile Lake,

1st Jamie Cook 200lb 1oz peg 21

2nd Eric Fouracres 154lb 2oz peg 38

3rd Keith Bilder 152lb 8oz peg 25

Pairs Overall 

1st Jack Arpino and Keith Bilder 4 points 226lb 2oz

2nd Jamie Cook and Phil Clapp 6 points 244lb 1oz
3rd Phil Wilkins and Nick Baggot 6 points 215lb 7oz

£220 was raised for St. Margarets Hospice, which was great.

Next week it is the next round of Tony's Float Only series, back at Sedges, so not an early start.

Until then, take care.
Lee