Whitehall Thursday Evening Match - Whitehall Pool 16th June 2011

Weather: 16C cloudy with one heavy shower at start of match
Water: Dark brown
Peg: 9
Baits: Fishery pellets paste, paste and paste
Weight: 30lb 0oz

Onto my second Whitehall evening match, I have thoroughly enjoyed the 2 I have fished and will be looking to get to more in the future when Rugby training allows. My first match was a straight shoot out between me and the next peg, unfortunately I could not get another carp out or winkle a few silvers out to make up the extra 1lb that beat me off of the next peg. So this is how the match on the 16th went...

My attack today was going to be paste for lumps and as a back up paste for lumps. I got to my peg and immediately noticed the tree in the water in my left hand margin and the scum that was attracting flies floating on top. Now this was either going to hold carp or deter them from the swim which I'll find out later. I then set upon finding where the slope levels off enough to fish the paste and this was found at 7m in 9 and a bit ft of water.

I have struggled with fishing the paste in the depth of water you find at the Whitehall pool however a switch to a different shotting pattern has helped to firstly get teh rig out and then to read bites. I am using the Sconezone 'Jadz' paste floats in a 0.8g in this swim and shot this with 0.6g of shot (10 no8 stotz), I have 7 shot 8 inches from the float and then 3 shot are placed directly under the float. This I find helps with the rig being blown around and line swinging around when being cupped in and also settles the rig and the float alot quicker in the deep water. This was on 0.17 preston powerline straight through to a size 12 B911 to a top 2 with black hydro on a pulla. My edge rig was again a Sconezone Jads in 0.6g with the same line and hook combo but to purple hydro on a pulla.



SconeZone Jadz 0.8g

Onto the session; I started off at 7m with a decent ball of atomic paste and and filled the paste pot up with dampened 4mm fishery pellets. It didn't take long for the peg to start fizzing away with smaller fish and after 2 more balls of paste went in on the hook I had a bite which I promptly lost. At this point the peg was silly with fizzing so I went half a section out (inch deeper). As soon as the float settled I was getting nods and then the float sat under the surface, a strike saw black hydro race across the pool and my pole sections quickly following it out. Quite a lengthy battle ensued but resulted in a lean 6lb mirror in the net.

At this point I had stopped feeding pellet and was really squeezing my paste hard on the hook to get it down past the silvers. I had a 20min mess around in the edge and it was solid with silvers and the scum was getting on my new sconezone floats, so without a sign of a carp I chucked the top kit up the bank and focused on that 7m line. I had to wait 15mins for my next bite which was a classic paste sail away a firm strike saw my elastic sit straight above my swim. On shipping back I thought I had a big ol'bream however as soons as this fish saw the net he decided to go beserk!! A near miss with the tree in my margin and a 8lb-9lb was in the net.

I am now over the half way stage in the match and to my right Lee Davey has 3 fish and Dave Warren has 2 lumps. I then get into another dopey 8lb fish that easily comes to the net, this time I am back on the original 7m line and have started banging in the pellets to make something happen. I ship back out and wollop the float flies under and a firm strike pulls my pole tip under the surface. Hey up, a long battle results in a good double as fat as it is long in the net. Now Lee on the peg next to me has 4 fish in his net with 30min to go and he says thay are small. I don't believe it so am begging for that float to go under for 1 more fish.

A long biteless 20mins of the match where I tried longer, shorter, more feed, no feed and even put some green atomic cloud in my paste resulted in a few liners and a nervy weigh in. I weighed 30lbs dead  and enough for the win thanks to the size of my fish. I couldn't have done it without Dave Yapp's sausage and bacon sanwich before the match - pukka!!