25/05/14 - Acorns - Paddock

Weight 0 48lb 10oz (7lb 7oz)
Catch - 10 Carp, 15 Skimmers, 3 Perch, 1 Roach
Weather - Bright & sunny, but windy!
Match - Pole Only Series rd5 - 9th out of 30 overall, 1st out of 10-section

The 5^th and penultimate round of this league and it was my turn for A section which is the worst of the 3 sections and with the forecast for wind I really wasn’t looking forward to it, because there was no shelter on any of the pegs in the section.

I was disappointed to draw peg 2 having struggled from there during the first round, although I did win the silvers section. Having said that a few more carp had shown is recent rounds, however the wind was blowing strongly straight up the lake from left. Because I knew I would be in for a tough day I brought plenty of maggots to feed at 5m, with the intention of catching a few silvers. I was in good company today with Andy France on peg 1 (bit a different section) and Glenn Calvert on peg 3.

After feeding a nugget of groundbait/micro/maggot at 5m, plus micros/4s at 11m, I started across fishing 6mm hair rig (SM chianti 0.2g > .14 > 16 B911)  over potted micros/4s and despite the wind caught 4 skimmers and 2 carp by the end of the first hour. However the wind had picked up and presentation was difficult to say the least. I even set up a new heavier 0.3g HB Billybob rig to fish worm or maggot, but other than 1 lost carp at the net I didn’t have another fish, despite trying throughout the match. The margin was also a bust, but I didn’t expect it to produce so didn’t spend too much time on it.

My 11m line did produce a couple of skimmers, but again trying to get any sort of presentation was tricky, which meant the only area I caught consistently was at 5m. Initially fishing single maggot (polar ice 0.75g > .10 > 20 silverfish pellet) loose feeding maggot & 4s, I managed a few skimmers, but the middle part of the match proved to be very difficult. In fact I couldn’t see much being caught in my section and thought Glenn was properly leading having caught 4 or 5 carp. Andy on P1 was catching by fishing the round the corner in the margin.

The wind really was really having an effect and fishing longer than 5m was proving fruitless, but with an hour to go I picked up a couple more skimmers, plus a carp but it was very slow going. It was decision time. I thought Charlie Barnes on p4 would be leading the silvers, but I also thought if I could catch a few carp I could get a top 3 section pick up. So I quickly knocked up some paste, stopped feeding maggot and started feeding more pellet.

The final hour had me wondering whether I should have switched earlier landing 7 carp, overtaking Glenn and hopefully taking the section. During the weigh in I was surprised to beat Charlie for the silvers and pleased to win the section quite comfortably. Overall the pegs at the windward end of the lake fished best.

1^st 90-12 - Kevin Lloyd – p7
2^nd 82-12 – Pete Bartlett – p12
3^rd 67-12 Bela Bakos – p40
4^th 62- 8 – Lewis Jones – p22
5^th 62- 5 - Rob Fogg – p6
6^th 54- 0 – Andy France – p1

Silvers
1^st 24- 2 – Paul Faires – p5
2^nd 15- 6 – Eddie Wynne – p9
2^nd 15- 6 – Chris Fox – p10
4^th 7- 7 – Ken Rayner – p2