Weight - 207lb 8oz
Catch - 41 Carp, 2 Tench, 1 Skimmer
Weather - Cloudy, Cool Westerly Wind
Match - Glebe/MFS - 1st out of 13
A text from Mark said he was going to the Glebe to fish a
mid-weeker run by Ross who is a Glebe member as well as a regular contributor
on MFS. When Mark booked in there was 16
so far, with the expectation of 20 all fishing Pool 1. As it turned out only 13
fished, so a long way to travel for what was effectively a knock up. However, with
a 2 dayer in 10 days and the Masters next month, I didn’t take much persuasion
to fish and the Glebe complex has to be one of the best in the country.
Since there were only 13, most of whom were Glebe
members, we had plenty of space. However the weather again tried to ruin
things, with a cool strong wind blowing down the lake. Initially when I pulled
p30, I wasn’t sure, because although it’s the end peg last year it wasn’t the
best draw, with most weights coming from the middle of the lake and p8 has been
the peg to draw recently. However, when I arrived at my peg I really fancied it
with the wind blowing into the end bank and there was plenty of fish moving around.
Tactics for the day was caster shallow, with maggot,
caster or worm on the hook. One area I have struggled with at the Glebe is
catching consistently from the margins and at 5m. As well as the 2 gallon of
frozen caster, I brought plenty of bait with several tins of corn, 6pts of hemp,
2kgs of groundbait and 6mm pellet. I was in danger of confusing myself!
At the start of the match I started firing caster at 12m
and was soon catching, although I forgot how hard these fish fight, when the
first fish broke me when I got it onto my top kit a bit too quickly.
After an hour I had 8 carp, mostly caught downwind of
where I was feeding, I even had a few at 6m where the fish where milling around
by an outflow pipe.
In the second hour I caught a further 7 carp and a skimmer,
adding a further 10 in the third hour. A call to Mark who drew p16 suggested
most people around him were struggling and Mark was admitting to about 80lb,
whilst I thought I had about 100-120lb.
The wind was starting to get stronger and catching
shallow was proving more difficult with only 7 carp in the fourth hour. I even tried
the waggler and managed a couple of carp, but it wasn’t right in the wind.
After 3hours I had started feeding groundbait on a regular
basis into my left hand margin and having left it for an hour thought it was
time to give it a try, however without success. Since my shallow time was
dying, I decided it was time to cup in some hemp & corn into the end bank. The fifth hour produced 6 carp and 2 tench.
Down the right hand bank I found it best to feed a large toss pot of hemp &
corn with double corn on the hook. I did try worm and 10mm JPZs, but in the
wind I think double corn just sat better.
The last hour proved to be really difficult. I had
started to get loads of liners in the margin and no proper bites. Instead of
cupping in a big pot of bait and leaving it 10mins, I tried to catch from the
left hand margin, which proved fruitless and when the carp re-appeared on the
shallow line I spent too long chasing fish who were proving very difficult to
catch. In fact I didn’t catch for 30mins. In the end I went back to toss
potting hemp & corn down the end bank and caught a couple more carp before
the end.
On the all out I thought I had blown it, because I could see
Mick Wilkinson further down the lake catching on the feeder and Mark said he
had 17 fish in the last 90mins and was admitting to 160lb, which is what I
thought I had, although hoped for a little more.
Walking the bank after packing up it sounded like it was
between Mark & me for the win. I was first to be weighed and was delighted
to weigh over 200lb, which is my best weight from the Glebe. Ross on p26
included 54lb of accidental skimmers in his 117lb. There was no surprises by
the time we got to Mark, who finished with 198lb to finish 2nd
overall.
As for all that bait I brought, most of it came back with me, except for 10pts of caster, a few tins of corn and a pint of hemp.
Needless to say it was a happy car on the drive back down
south, but I was still not happy about how I approached the margins and have no
confidence with the groundbait approach which it very popular here, although I
got the impression that this approach today attracted quite a few silvers.
1st 207- 8 – Ken Rayner – p30
2nd 198- 0 – Mark Poppleton – p16
3rd 170- 4 – Andy Boffin – p20
4th 148-12 – Mick Wilkinson – p24
5th 143-12 – Gordon Parker – p6
6th 121- 8 – Rich Bedder – p1
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