Weight – 42lb 12oz
Catch – 13 Carp
Weather – Cloudy sunny periods, shower later
Match – Wiltshire Angling Evening Open – 4th out of 9 (1st in section)
A pleasant evening for a change, without any gale force winds! 10 had booked in, but only 9 fished, so it was decided to have a section of 5 down the left hand bank and a section 4 on the right hand bank. Also to take advantage of the longer days the match was due to finish at 9.15, instead of 9.00pm, so 3.5hrs fishing.
I was pleased to draw the concrete drain on the RH bank, with Gary Etheridge to my right and Pete (Wiltshire Angling) to my left. Gary wasn’t happy with his peg, because the farmer had decided to cut down some overhanging branches, but unfortunately left a few in the lake.
Today I felt I needed to keep it simple, so left the pellet waggler rods at home (but I’m sure it will work when the weather warms up a bit). I did bring some bread in case it was hard, but except for 1 put in never used it, which the ducks were happy about at the end of the match. Focus was on very soft paste at 13m and down the margin. Feed was mostly 6mm’s with some 4mm’s (only because I didn’t have enough 6’s with me).
As the match started there was a gentle breeze blowing into my bank, with a nice ripple and I really fancied it for a few fish and I was desperate to do better than my previous 2 matches here. After 30mins I already had 5 carp, but the wind switched slightly and I began to struggle, so by the end of the 1st hour I was up to 6 carp, leading my bank and from those I could see opposite was doing OK.
I had being feeding a pouch of pellet, but since the wind dropped/switched direction the fish seemed to spook, before returning over the feed. As mentioned I did briefly try bread & 8mm pellet, but didn’t have a bite, so stuck with paste.
When plumbing around at the start, I found the margins were much deeper than in open water and thought I was guaranteed to get a few fish down there later. However despite continually feeding from the start, other than 1 lost fish I had nothing, which was a surprise.
Moving into the last 90mins I started feeding 2 pouches of pellet at 12m whilst still fishing at 13m. Although I had to wait for the fish to settle I started to put a few more fish in the net, however I could see a couple of anglers opposite now catching, particularly Mark who was taking advantage of his “end” peg and was catching most put ins (he did say afterwards he started to catch properly when the wind changed and he had some ripple to fish into).
I only lost 3 fish today, but that did include an 8lber at the net when the line snapped above the float – obviously nicked it on something. It also meant I lost 1 of my new Jon Walker MP shallow paste floats, which I only brought on Sunday!
When the match finished I was certain I had won my section, which I did with Gary weighing in 33lb and Pete had 25lb (Terry Fell tipped back). I had hoped to frame, but the top 3 all came from the opposite bank.
1st 74- 5 Mark Poppleton
2nd 60- 5 Tony Gilbert (included 3 carp in the last 15mins for 30lb)
3rd 57- 8 Ian Willets
4th 42-12 Ken Rayner
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