Weight - 25lb 15oz (18lb 0oz - silvers)
Catch - 42 Skimmers, 6 Roach, 2 Perch, 1 Rudd, 1 Carp
Weather - Warm, sunny, flat calm
Match - Open - 3rd out of 13 silvers
With a club match on Match Lake, all 13 of us were on Speci Lake, which wasn't going to leave much room, but it would at least mean fewer spaces for the carp to hide.
Peg 29 definitely wasn't my first choice, but on arrival there were a few carp showing themselves along the island which raised my hopes a little. So the plan was to target the carp at the start and see were we go from there. With Bryan Hadley on p28 and Dave Wescott on p30 I didn't think the margins would be worth the effort.
On the all I went across with paste and got a few swirls, but no proper bites. It was the same with pellet and caster. In fact I wasted 90mins chasing carp, foul hooking 2, only landing 4 small fish. In the meantime Lewis Jones on p32 and Andy Hembrow on p31 had already started catching, including some proper munters.
In an effort to start catching something, softened 4s, micros and groundbait was fed at 11m to my right and softened 4s to my left. Fishing 4mm expander (SM Chimp 0.3g > .12 > 16 silverfish pellet) I started catching hand sized skimmers. By regular toss potting and alternating between the 2 swims every 2nd or 3rd fish I managed to keep the fish coming.
As the match progressed I gradually went longer and longer finishing the match at 14m. I was enjoying my day, with plenty of bites, but in the flat bright conditions I only caught 1 decent skimmer, plus a couple of 1lb fish, with the majority being 4-6oz fish. Trying 6mm banded pellet it only took longer to get a bite for the same size fish, so I stuck with expanders.
As a back up I cupped some caster by the island but with no shade I don't think the fish were keen to settle in the shallow water, as it was taking ages to get a proper bite. I also started feeding caster to my left at 3m late on, which can throw up some bonus fish, but double caster only produced small roach.
By the all out I was left a little frustrated. Despite the number of fish caught I really needed at least one or two more decent skimmers, although I think I may have pulled out of 1 - doh! Everyone loses a few fish, but the really frustrating was the time wasted at the start. I really should know better and switched 30mins earlier I would have probably at least claimed 2nd in silvers. Instead I was 1 out of the money for the 5th time recently. Not a great habit to get into. Rich Lovering included a couple of chub, an ide and a few decent skimmers in his winning silvers net. As for Ricky he had 6 or 7 decent skimmers, so the better fish seemed to prefer the other side of the lake today.
Taking the positives out of the day, it was nice to see so many skimmers growing on and at least I had a few bites.
On the drive back I got caught up in the Balloon Fiesta traffic. I think I may have been a bit grumpy by the time I got home!
1st 131- 1 - Andy Hembrow - p31
2nd 130-12 - Lewis Jones - p32
3rd 124- 3 - Ryan Shipp - p40
4th 73- 2 - Vince Shipp - p37
5th 67- 2 - Rod Wootton - p26
6th 64- 2 - Dave Wescott - p30
Silvers
1st 21-10 - Rich Lovering - p34
2nd 18-10 - Ricky - p36
3rd 18- 0 - Ken Rayner - p29
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