21/04/12 - Fishponds

Weight – 194lb 6oz
Catch – 24 Carp, 1 Golden Orfe, 1 Bream
Weather – Mostly sunny, cloudy periods, cool westerly.
Water Temp – 15.4c – 15.6c
Match – Glenfall Club – 1^st out of 9 overall

It’s been 2½ months since Sapphire had her leg removed and the recovery is incredible. She is so full of energy and life. The photo just shows how well she is, as well as showing the type of dog she is, surrounded by items she has managed to chew to destruction or as we are now calling it been “Sapphired”.

Today was the first Saturday club match of the year at our club water, fished 2.30-7.30. I was running late, so when I arrived the draw had already taken place and anglers had just started going to their pegs. I was left with the last peg which I thought was peg 15, but should have been peg 16, both pegs are in the corner so no damage done. I also had loads of space today, with only 1 angler (Graham) in the open water on the long bank, yet 3 anglers were in the arm of the lake.

Decided on 2 rigs today, which meant I managed to set up in time. A HB redneck .20 & 12 carp feeder for the paste and a HB dweezil 0.3g .18 > 16 B960 for hair rigged 8mm on the deck.

Most who fish this peg usually fish to their right in the shallow water, but I decided to ignore this area, simply because it’s a tackle graveyard and there is no point hooking a fish if you can’t get it out. Instead I settled on 2 swims, the 1^st was to my left at the bottom of the shelf at 8m and the 2^nd was out in front at 10m at the same depth.

After 30mins I had 2 carp on paste to my left, but I felt the fish weren’t taking the paste properly, so switched to pellet and had another 5 in the next 30mins.

During the 2^nd hour I had a further 3, plus a big golden orfe. The 3^rd hour still proved to be slow with another 3 carp and a bream. So far I had only 4 carp on paste, but I was getting the “paste” fish on pellet so I stuck with pellet for the remainder of the match.My open water swim was now showing signs of life, whilst my left hand swim had slowed. I had been feeding a handful of 8s, but now started feeding 2 handfuls into the open water swim. The 4^th hour saw another 4 carp netted and the final hour saw a further 7 carp landed, including my biggest of the day weighing 13-9.

Yet another pick up and 3 wins this month. Obviously its my time at the moment and really enjoying my fishing so far this year, but with 2 visits planed at Gold Valley in the next 2 weeks could see the wheels fall off.

1^st 194- 6 – Ken – p15
2^nd 154- 7 – Graham M – p22
3^rd 140- 5 – Marcus – p5
4^th 88- 3 – Andy – p10