Weight - 16lb 1oz (13lb 0oz - silvers)
Catch - 62 Roach, 4 Skimmers, 4 Perch, 2 Hybrids, 1 Tench, 1 F1
Weather - Mostly cloudy and light winds
Match - Short Pole Series rd 4 - 2nd out of 28 - silvers
The final round of this short pole series and looking at the league table I was lying 9th, 2pts behind a payout position in 5th, which meant I had a very outside chance of a pick up. It would mean those above me blowing out and me winning my section with a big weight. Peg 13 gave me decent chance.
Before the draw I was chatting to Paul Faires who said he was going to target the silvers regardless of where he drew and he ended next to me on p12. Because he was solely targeting the silvers he wouldn't be targeting the margins between us, leaving them free for me to attack.
The other side of me was Trigger, who lets be honest is probably the best angler on our circuit at the moment. Fortunately he was in the next section, so I couldn't worry about what he was doing.
With a positive mind set I decided not to set up any silvers rig, leaving them for Paul to catch. I also decided to feed positively for the carp and unfortunately I think that was my undoing.
Starting on paste I had a big skimmer after 45mins, but nothing else. Trigger in the meantime had 2 fish on paste and started to catch down his margins. A switch to meat failed to produce as well. Things weren't going according to plan, although other than Trigger no one was catching much. Everyone's peg were fizzing like a Jacuzzi, but very few bites.
I had feed some meat and hemp down the deeper left hand margin under the tree, but again no bites. With just over an hour gone and still only one skimmer in the net I quickly setup a caster rig (jolly 4x14 > .12 > 18 silverfish maggot) to fish under the tree as I had seen some swirls when I feeding the meat.
Taking me up to the half way point of the match I probably had 8lb of silvers including a tench and a couple of 1lb perch, but really needed some carp to show. Whilst catching the silvers I kept flicking 6s out long to draw some fish in and catch shallow, plus groundbait down the shallower right hand margin.
I only caught 1 3lb F1 shallow and nothing from the right hand margin or my left margin which I had fed quite heavily with more groundbait. Looking down my section I started to see carp being caught along with any hopes of doing well enough in section and league.
I hadn't seen many silvers being caught, so decided to spend the last 90mins concentrating on them to hopefully pick up 2nd place, because Paul was already streets ahead catching mostly skimmers on worm.
Another 5lb of silvers meant my 13lb did indeed claim 2nd in silvers, so at least I managed a pick up on a difficult day.
Talking after the match, those that caught well had been fed fairly cautiously which probably explains why my very positive approach didn't work today. The fishing this summer has been difficult as the fish just don't seem to have settled down, probably due to constantly changing weather patterns.
Congratulations to Trigger for winning the league and giving me proper battering off the next peg.
1st 135- 6 - Craig Edmunds - p14
2nd 81-14 - Kev Molton - p17
3rd 64-13 - Tom Mangnall - p7
4th 56-10 - Tim Ford - p24
5th 52-12 - Mike West - p4
6th 51-10 - Glenn Bailey - p25
Silvers
1st 22-10 - Paul Faires - p12
2nd 13- 0 - Ken Rayner - p13
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