Weather: 20C-22C sunny.
Water: Dark Brown, in the shade for most of the match.
Peg: 17
Baits: 4mm screttings pellet, 2mm coppens pellet, 6mm van den eynde marine expanders Atomic Paste, caster and white Maggot
Weight: 53lb 6oz (1st)
An early start was needed in order to find this one and to try and decifer Mr Hope's directions and the legend that he is got me there without getting lost!
Nothing known about this place apart from its stocked with carp and silvers which doesnt make the match easy to go about planning for. I planned to fish caster for no other reason than I had 3 pints of them I had turned myself. They were rank and much titilation was had in the car park before the match, resulting in them being covered in tumeric?
I set up a caster line at 10m on the deck at 5ft with a 0.2 homemade pencil on 0.13 powerline and a 0.11 hl to a 18 B911 and a on the drop 2ft - 1ft rig with a 4x10 (stotz) Hillybilly guzzunder to the same line combination. These were on double 5 latex and preton 9h respectively. I set up a pellet line at 5m on a 0.2 maver invincible series 7 on 0.15 to 0.13 to a 16 B911. A paste line was set up here but not used. Final line I set up was towards an empty platform on my right in 18inches of water on a Hillbybilly Ratcathcer 2 float to 0.17 straight throught a 14 B911. (This had 2ft of line above eventually as the fish were spooking, more of that later)
I started pinging caster at 10m and had the odd fish, a lovely mixed bag included roach, rudd, perch, chub, tench and a small carp from this line. I had to play with depths, shotting and feeding to keep fish coming and never really put a string of fish together. I alternated from this line and my 5m pellet line which I was feeding with a medium cad pot every 10mins. By this stage it was 2 1/2 hours into match and people with the sun in their pegs were catching carp irregularly. By 3 1/2 hours I had 8lbs in my nets, not good by any means, however the sun was moving towards my peg and with it cruising carp.
I fed my margin swim with a pot full of micros and a pot full of caster and went over with 4 maggots on the hook. I had 3 quick fish giving me great confidence. The fish then started to spook easily in the margins so I changed to a longer rig and held the pole away from their heads.
I put some more in the net this way, feeding a ball of pellet every fish by hand. By lengthing the rig I had also made myself a 'mugging' rig. I tried flicking the rig past the nose of cruising fish and hoped they would snaffle the 'quad mag' bait. I managed 10 fish out of an attempted 30 on the mugging front. At the same time I put the rig into the edge whilst waiting for a suitable fish to 'mug' and then hurridly postioned my pole. This was a frantic last hour where I put 40lbs in the net and was swinging my pole around a lot, my shoulders ached to say the least.
When the scales came around I couldnt believe I had done 50lb and beat 2nd place by over 20lbs after the appauling start to the match, just shows that you should never pack up early. Next match Laugherne Island at Cob House, a Nemisis of mine as I have never done very well on opens there although I enjoy fishing it. The semi finals of the knock out will also take place here so all to play for.
No comments:
Post a Comment