Weather: 6C overcast, foggy and cold.
Water: Colour had dropped completely out of first foot or so
Peg: 22
Baits: Casters, worm, mircos and 4mm expanders
Weight: 3lb 0oz
The weather is no where near the harshness experienced last year so the fur and feather should fish O.K. and the fish should respond even though there were a lot of anglers on the pool right... right... wrong.
I pulled peg 22 out of the bag which I thought could have been worth a few fish, I had said prior to the match pegs 12-19 would be my favoured draws today I wasn't too far out of the area I wanted. My approach was to catch anything and everything today as the time of the year means the carp would be reticent to feed and I cannot sit and do nothing in a match, it is not the way I fish. I plumbed a line at 13m and 14.5m to be the same depth at 8 1/2 ft and also a line short at 8m just 2 inches shallower so the same rig was used for the deck. I also set up on the drop rigs at 5ft and 3 ft to search the water for bites if things got hard.
My deck rig was a sconezone berweemz in 0.6g to 0.13 powerline and a 0.10 powerline hooklength with a size 18 drennan silverfish maggot hook. This was shotted with a bulk 2 feet from the hook and 4 no10's stotz spaced 6 inches apart. I matched this to white hydro, which although a little heavy for small silvers would ensure I get any bream, chub or proper carp in using the pulla.
My 'drop' rigs were on hillbilly billybobs the 3ft rig on a 0.1g and the 5 ft rig on a 0.2g both were on 0.10 powerline to 0.08 hooklenghts with a 20 drennan silverfish maggot hook both to a number 5 latex. Shotting was strung out 10's at 6inches apart for both rigs, the reason for the 6 inches is that this is the same size as my hooklength so the rig is falling evenly through the water and at no point is the line sinking faster than the hookbait, this also allows you to read any bites at any point on the rigs fall through the water. If there was a bulk then you cannot read any bites on the drop until the bulk has settled unless the fish hooks its self.
On the all in I potted in a tangerine sized ball of micros, worm, caster and peat that the worms came in on my 13m line and went over the top with the 5ft rig to pick out any fish cruising and intercepting the bait on the drop. I had a tiny nudge on this rig in 5mins so went onto the deck. I was feeding 8-10 casters every 30seconds to draw fish into my peg.
The first hour saw me blank completely on the deck and after 30mins I potted in again which had no result so at 11:00 I potted my 3rd ball in. 5mins later the bristle lifted and then buried, a strike saw white hydro streaming from my pole tip and unfortunately into Keith Holt's peg and his rig. This resulted in the carp becoming unhooked and lost (I still believe Keith purposefully sabotaged me!!!!).
After this I started to get liners on my rig so I slapped the 5ft rig on to the surface, again a couple of liners and then the float stayed sat proud of the water I struck into a lovely 2oz golden rudd... the dreaded blank was avoided. Again I was getting liners so I got the 3ft rig out and first put in the float cocked and then buried aggressively and a strike saw elastic zig zagging across the surface, a lovely 10oz-12oz perch was the victim.
All the time I was pinging in caster 10 at a time. The next couple of drops resulted in small 5 small roach looking things upto 1oz. I was contemplating going a foot deeper with my other rig when I layed the rig on the water and the float scooted across the water and a lift saw my tip get dragged under the water, the result a lovely chub of nearly 1lb. After this I went to the deeper rig after the 3ft rig did not produce.
First 3 put ins saw rudd come to the net all at around 2oz, a few fruitless drops then saw another chub to about 8oz come to the net. Next thing I know I am half an hour from the end of the match, I spend 15mins on the deck for 1 roach at about 4oz, until finally the drop rig produced an ide of about 8oz.
3lb went the scales, i had guestimated a bit more at 3 1/2lb which would have catpulted me up a couple of places but the prize I had my eye on was still at the table when I got there in 6th place. A huge bucket of continental style groundbaits and some pellets and additives will help my already clustered shelves of bait. A well ran match and well enjoyed, well by me anyway, well done Whitehall angling club and all involved for a great year.
In other news I have been to Larford fishing the classic qualifiers on sundays on the speci lake, I have had 1 good draw and 1 average draw and have done equally pants on both, narrowly missing out on a section win beaten by Grant Albutt and a 3rd in section all on the method at distance and some skimmers at 16m on the pole and pellet...
Water: Colour had dropped completely out of first foot or so
Peg: 22
Baits: Casters, worm, mircos and 4mm expanders
Weight: 3lb 0oz
The weather is no where near the harshness experienced last year so the fur and feather should fish O.K. and the fish should respond even though there were a lot of anglers on the pool right... right... wrong.
I pulled peg 22 out of the bag which I thought could have been worth a few fish, I had said prior to the match pegs 12-19 would be my favoured draws today I wasn't too far out of the area I wanted. My approach was to catch anything and everything today as the time of the year means the carp would be reticent to feed and I cannot sit and do nothing in a match, it is not the way I fish. I plumbed a line at 13m and 14.5m to be the same depth at 8 1/2 ft and also a line short at 8m just 2 inches shallower so the same rig was used for the deck. I also set up on the drop rigs at 5ft and 3 ft to search the water for bites if things got hard.
My deck rig was a sconezone berweemz in 0.6g to 0.13 powerline and a 0.10 powerline hooklength with a size 18 drennan silverfish maggot hook. This was shotted with a bulk 2 feet from the hook and 4 no10's stotz spaced 6 inches apart. I matched this to white hydro, which although a little heavy for small silvers would ensure I get any bream, chub or proper carp in using the pulla.
My 'drop' rigs were on hillbilly billybobs the 3ft rig on a 0.1g and the 5 ft rig on a 0.2g both were on 0.10 powerline to 0.08 hooklenghts with a 20 drennan silverfish maggot hook both to a number 5 latex. Shotting was strung out 10's at 6inches apart for both rigs, the reason for the 6 inches is that this is the same size as my hooklength so the rig is falling evenly through the water and at no point is the line sinking faster than the hookbait, this also allows you to read any bites at any point on the rigs fall through the water. If there was a bulk then you cannot read any bites on the drop until the bulk has settled unless the fish hooks its self.
On the all in I potted in a tangerine sized ball of micros, worm, caster and peat that the worms came in on my 13m line and went over the top with the 5ft rig to pick out any fish cruising and intercepting the bait on the drop. I had a tiny nudge on this rig in 5mins so went onto the deck. I was feeding 8-10 casters every 30seconds to draw fish into my peg.
The first hour saw me blank completely on the deck and after 30mins I potted in again which had no result so at 11:00 I potted my 3rd ball in. 5mins later the bristle lifted and then buried, a strike saw white hydro streaming from my pole tip and unfortunately into Keith Holt's peg and his rig. This resulted in the carp becoming unhooked and lost (I still believe Keith purposefully sabotaged me!!!!).
After this I started to get liners on my rig so I slapped the 5ft rig on to the surface, again a couple of liners and then the float stayed sat proud of the water I struck into a lovely 2oz golden rudd... the dreaded blank was avoided. Again I was getting liners so I got the 3ft rig out and first put in the float cocked and then buried aggressively and a strike saw elastic zig zagging across the surface, a lovely 10oz-12oz perch was the victim.
All the time I was pinging in caster 10 at a time. The next couple of drops resulted in small 5 small roach looking things upto 1oz. I was contemplating going a foot deeper with my other rig when I layed the rig on the water and the float scooted across the water and a lift saw my tip get dragged under the water, the result a lovely chub of nearly 1lb. After this I went to the deeper rig after the 3ft rig did not produce.
First 3 put ins saw rudd come to the net all at around 2oz, a few fruitless drops then saw another chub to about 8oz come to the net. Next thing I know I am half an hour from the end of the match, I spend 15mins on the deck for 1 roach at about 4oz, until finally the drop rig produced an ide of about 8oz.
3lb went the scales, i had guestimated a bit more at 3 1/2lb which would have catpulted me up a couple of places but the prize I had my eye on was still at the table when I got there in 6th place. A huge bucket of continental style groundbaits and some pellets and additives will help my already clustered shelves of bait. A well ran match and well enjoyed, well by me anyway, well done Whitehall angling club and all involved for a great year.
In other news I have been to Larford fishing the classic qualifiers on sundays on the speci lake, I have had 1 good draw and 1 average draw and have done equally pants on both, narrowly missing out on a section win beaten by Grant Albutt and a 3rd in section all on the method at distance and some skimmers at 16m on the pole and pellet...
I do enjoy reading your blogs, on the Whitehall pages,thank you so much.
ReplyDeleteBaldrick