30/08/14 - Glebe - Uglies (Pool 3)

Weight - 128lb
Catch - 13 Carp, 3 Skimmers
Weather - Sunny, cloudy period & breezy
Match - Angling Trust Masters

It’s that time of year again for the Angling Trust (formerly ACA) Masters at the Glebe, fishing under the South West Match Group banner. Fortunately this year the big lake at Mallory Park which I hate wasn’t included, but it did mean that 2 sections of 14 would be on Pool 1 so that would be 2 sections to avoid.

Tony Rixon picked me up at 5.30 and 2hrs 20mins later we were eating a decent breakfast at the Mallory Park café. An anxious looking Mark Poppleton was waiting for us, although I probably didn’t help matters by suggesting we were 70 miles further away than we actually were. And that set the tone for the rest of the day.

As well as being a member of the Angling Trust, there was also a requirement for each team to bring a “big” team prize and each individual must bring a small prize for a raffle draw. The other 3 members of our team, Tom Thick, Dan White and Nick Merry, were travelling up together, however they had left there prizes at home, so stopped off at Morrison’s to make their purchases. Mark was presented with a fresh mackerel and a horseradish! Toms mind works in a different way!

Prior to the draw Tony and I walked around Pool 1 and Uglies (pool 3). Tony quite fancied peg 1 on Pool 1, which was sheltered from the brisk breeze and I fancied a draw on Uglies, simply because I have never fished it. Come the draw, we both got our wishes.

I was reliably informed my peg 48 on the narrower side of the island was a good shallow peg, fishing 17m swinging a shallow rig towards the far side bushes. Unfortunately today there was a brisk breeze blowing across me right to left, which would meant fishing shallow was unlikely, but still set up a long line rig just in case and a pellet waggler rod was already setup. However I wasn’t too impressed with the platform (see picture) and it took a little while to get settled.

The other advice was Uglies was full of big fish and I might be only need 12 fish or so do well. With this in mind a rig to fish corn at 7m (Ackoo Powertrap 0.4g 0.2g > .17 > 16 carp feeder), a margin rig (Ackoo Carrat 0.2g > .17 > 16 carp feeder), and a cage feeder rod were also set up. 10mins before the all-in a carp rolled on the far side and I decided to start on the feeder, whilst letting my 7m line rest after cupping in a pot of corn and hemp.

30mins later the feeder only produced 1 small skimmer and I didn’t want to waste any more time on it, particularly since my 7m line was fizzing already. The following 60mins proved to be incredibly frustrating, hooking 6 carp, but losing 5 due to hooks pulls, although 1 was definitely foul hooked. A minor rig adjustment adding a no 10 shot closer to the hook and I landed 6 of the next 7 fish. Whether the increased ratio was due to the rig adjustment or the fact I got my feeding right, potting a ¼ cup of corn & hemp I’m not sure, but at least I was catching.

A couple of casts with the straight lead didn’t produce anything from the far side over loose fed 8s, I even tried the pellet waggler and shallow pole, without success. When the wind did drop to a sensible level late into the 5hr match, I was already fishing the margins.

As well as plenty of corn, hemp and pellet, I also brought all 10pts of my frozen caster today, just to make room in the freezer, which was going to fed somewhere and the right hand margin was the place.

Since the start I had been cupping caster and a little corn into the right margin and groundbait into the left margin, fully expecting the left margin to be the best. As it turned out the right margin proved to the most productive with 5 carp, whilst I only had 1 over the groundbait, all on double corn, including a proper munter of 19lb, missing out on my personal best by 8oz.

So a really strong last 45mins and I was left wishing the match was longer and also regretting losing so many fish at the beginning. It was just one of the days. Had I landed just half the number of fish lost, I would have probably come 2^nd or 3^rd in section, instead of finishing about half way.

Back at the Mallory Park café food was provided free of charge which was very welcome before the long journey back. The results revealed we finished 6^th overall, which is respectable bearing in mind the calibre of angler fishing. Diawa won and MAP finished a close 2^nd.

Remember the mackerel? Well someone decided it was a good idea to put into the front grill of Marks car. Apparently it’s now somewhere on the A417, after a brief period being stuck in the wiper blades – well it was funny at the time when I received the following picture from Mark.