Weight - 37lb 3oz (7lb 10oz - silvers)
Catch - 11 Carp, 7 F1, 7 Skimmers, 1 Rudd
Weather - Mostly sunny, cold NE breeze
Match - Open - 5th out of 25 (3rd - silvers)
Really bored with this weather now and the Met office predicts another 7-10 days of this easterly system. Also this March has been the coldest since 1962 - no kidding!
I was a bit surprised to find 25 had booked in. Turns out today was advertised as an Easter open, with £20 pools instead the usual £12. However, the payout was top 3 overall and top 2 silvers only, with no sections so the draw was going to be all important.
Peg 12 was my home for the day, which I was reasonably happy with, but felt I would be up against it, with the better draws at the moment being around the small island. For company I had Lewis Jones on p10 and an angler I didn't know on p13. At least I had some room into the corner, but another frosty night meant a slow start.
After plumbing around I settled on fishing down my right hand margin on the 2nd shelf feeding caster and 2 areas against the island on the 2nd shelf, feeding micros and 4s. I also had a swim in the open water to my right and at the bottom of the far shelf.
Rig wise I set up 3 rigs, but only ended up using 2. Jolly 4x16 > .08 > 20 silverfish maggot for the open water and frostie 0.3g > .10 > 18 silverfish pellet to fish the 2nd shelf.
On the all in a small ball of groundbait with micros was cupped into the open water and a pinch of micros at the bottom of the shelf. It was no surprise it took 30mins to catch my fist fish a small skimmer on maggot over the groundbait. My first carp was a 6-7lber over the micros, which took a while to land on .08 bottom.
I kept the caster going into the right hand margin, as well as loose feed 4s to the left side of the island and micros on the point. There was definitely a few fish moving around, but they were reluctant to feed in the cold. By the half way point I had a few more skimmers and carp for about 15lb on double maggot from the island, which was on par with Lewis, but every time I looked up pegs 6 & 7 were landing fish.
First look into the right hand margin and I had a carp straight away, but lost the 2nd. The open water swim produced a couple more skimmers and F1s mostly over the groundbait, whilst the 2nd shelf accounted for more carp.
With an hour to go I knew I was fishing for at least 3rd, but didn't realistically think I would challenge for the silvers, so stuck with the carp, landing another 4. That decision probably cost me £70. I beat everyone around me, p13 only weighed 4lb, whilst Lewis had 23lb. However my silvers weighed 7-10 and 8-2 was needed to win! A surprisingly low weight.
In the end I felt I fished a good match and got the most out of the swim (except for the silvers). If I repeated that in tomorrows pole only series I would have won the section.
1st 55- 6 - Mark Bartlett - p6
2nd 47- 1 - Ade Baker - p7
3rd 45-12 - Shane Lovell - p5
4th 37-15 - Mark Walsh - p37
5th 37- 3 - Ken Rayner - p12
6th 34- 1 - D Blakemore - p9
Silvers
1st 8- 2 - Charlie Barnes - p26
2nd 8- 0 - Rob Fogg - p15
3rd 7-10 - Ken Rayner - p12
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