Weight – 32lb 2oz (18lb 2oz silvers)
Catch – 29 Perch, 5 Carp, 4 Chub, 3 Roach, 1 Ide
Weather – Cloudy & windy
Water Temp– 15.0c > 15.0c
Match – Open – 8th overall, 2nd silvers
With heavy winds forecast, I was hoping for a sheltered peg, so I was reasonable pleased with peg 13. I had Rod Wootton opposite on peg 11 and Nicky Collier to my right on peg 15.
The wave machine was only due to be on for 2 hours. So after a quick look under the pallet on 14, without any joy, I decided to try caster down the left hand bank. Initially tried at 14m, tight against the trees, but the branches prevented me from fishing on top of the shelf and after 10 mins without a bite, I came back to 12m were I could fish tight to the bank.
1st put in I had a perch, but the next 15mins proved very frustrating when I kept bumping fish, probably Perch. I got it sorted by increasing from size 20 to 18 hook, changing the shotting pattern and striking harder! The next 2hours produced perch up to 1-12, plus a couple of small carp on double caster, feeding a tosspot of caster and red atomic cloud. By the time the wave machine switched off I had over 20 fish in the net and pleased with my progress.
I had been feeding 4mm towards the point of the island, but when I went over all I got was liners, both at the bottom of the shelf and the top of the shelf. I even tried towards the aerator after cupping in some pellet, without success. This proved frustrating, because both Rod & Nicky started catching regularly, although Rod was suffering from foul hookers.
After unsuccessfully trying for carp, I had a decision to make, either persevere trying for carp, or switch back to the silvers. In reality it was an easy decision, because pegs 17, 18 and 19 were all catching and I felt I was too far behind to catch up.
So back to the left hand bank, where I had kept a pouch of caster regularly going in. A few more perch, where followed by chub and a couple more small carp, but I had to wait longer for fish, lifting and dropping for bites. I tried fishing longer, against the tress, but this only produced small fish and the only place I could catch was tight into the bank.
At the all out, I hoped I had done enough to at least pick up in the silvers. When Dave Hodgson on peg 6, weighed 18lb, which included a tench of 4-14, I wasn’t sure and there was a few tense moments as I weighed in the scales bounced around the 18lb mark, 18-2 was the final reading. However Dave "Beanie" Wescott was still to weigh. According Garry he had over 20lb, whilst Beanie admitted to 15lb! But he did admit to being useless at guessing and as it turned out he had 23lb, all on caster on top of the shelf. Fortunately Mike was paying top 2 in silvers.
Match winner was Kev Molton on peg 18, with 94lb on corn and Nicky was 2nd with 81lb. I felt I’m missing a trick with the carp at the moment, because I cant seem to catch whilst others can. With the 1st round of Mikes winter league next weekend I need to consider my approach, because the last thing I want to do is bugger up a potentially section winning peg, so I see a day off coming up soon.
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