Weight - 84lb 0oz (18lb 3oz - silvers)
Catch - 16 Carp, 20 Roach, 6 Bream, 4 Perch, 3 F1, 1 Chub, 1 Rudd
Weather - Wet & windy again! Cleared up later
Water Temp - 23.6c > 23.7c
Match - Open - 5th out of 5
I should be fishing the 4th round of Tony's float only instead of writing this blog, however I twisted my lower back, which is tedious.
Despite the wind and rain I wanted to go fishing today, well it was that or watch bugger all on TV. With only 5 turning up, there would be plenty of room for everyone and it was decided to put 15,17,20,22 & 24 in. It was also decided to pay overall and a top in silvers. Personally would have preferred top 2 overall, but it was eventually decided on the flip of a coin.
I found myself on 15, which today was at the windiest end of the lake. Initially whilst setting up the surrounding trees provided shelter from the worst of the wind, however almost as if on cue, as soon as the all-in was called a big gust of wind turned my umbrella inside out and the wind starting coming directly down the lake.
Mike West was on p20 and I fancied him to win, so decided to target the silvers, starting on the far bank by potting caster. I would have prefered to have catapulted the caster, but the strength of the wind won't allow it. In the meantime I potted some 4s at 8m and regularly topped up hoping for skimmers later.
Originally set up a 0.1g frostie for the far bank, but with the increasing wind I had to swap to 0.2g which sat better in the water and I picked up a few silvers and a couple of small carp mostly on worm, but the wind was proving really troublesome.
After an hour I tried the 8m line, but unlike Jim on p17 who was catching some big skimmers I was mostly catching roach. Unfortunately I forgot to bring any expanders, so brought some from the on-site shop, but to be honest, they weren't great, so resorted to using 6mm meat. This produced my first decent skimmer, but there was still loads of roach around, when what I really needed was those skimmers. I kept plugging away on the 8m line as well as the far bank, still picking up a few silvers, plus a couple of carp, but with Mike catching carp and Jim catching silvers it was difficult to decide which way to go.
I had been feeding meat down my margin, plus by the bush to my right, but as yet haven't yielded anything of consequence. I had also been feeding 6s further down the island towards to the point and there was a few carp starting to mill around the feed. So on went an 8mm pellet, I soon hooked a carp, only for it to snag on some underwater vegetation, losing the rig.
My back was starting to feel the pain of battling the wind, but it was twisting round trying to sort out my umbrella that had turned inside out that I pulled something in my lower back. In hindsight I really should have fished with a bump bar, which I retrieved from the car, plus some pain killers. The irony is I went to osteopath yesterday, because I could feel it getting tight.
For the next hour, I couldn't fish longer than 8m, but picked up a couple more skimmers, before a couple of carp intervened and then the roach returned.
The pain killers took the edge off the pain, plus the wind had eased. So I switched back to the far bank (with the aid of my bump bar), deciding to focus on fishing worm over caster, because I really didn't want to be lifting and dropping pellet. By cupping the caster, I had a run of carp, plus a few F1s and I lost a near 3lb ide, when the hook pulled out at the net.
In the last couple of hours it was a case of rotating the far bank, with the 8m line and my margin was also showing signs of life of a few carp in amongst some quality roach on meat. I was really hoping for some quality silvers, because Jim had stopped catching skimmers and was now catching carp from his margin, so I was hoping to pick up in the silvers by default, however I was catching mostly roach, instead of the skimmers, plus the carp had decided to turn up. So quite a strong and enjoyable finish to the match, although my back was definitely sore.
In the end the lake fished well, admittedly we had plenty of space, but even so I wont have expected to be last with 84lb. My best spell was once the wind dropped and I feel 100lb plus would have been possible if it wasn't for the early strong wind and me pulling my back.
1st 125-0 - Jim Jenner - p17 (35-0 silvers)
2nd 123- 0 - Mike West - p20
3rd 86- 0 - Mark Walsh - p24
4th 85 - 0 - Dave Wescott - p22 (59- 0 silvers - ide, F1s on caster)
5th 84- 0 - Ken Rayner - p15
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