Monday 7 November 2016

5/11/16 - Avalon - Match Lake

Weight - 16lb 13oz
Catch - 27 Skimmers, 21 Roach, 1 Perch
Weather - Mostly sunny, but cold wind
Match - Silverfish League - rd 4 - 6th out of 20

A change in the weather system yesterday saw the winds switch to a northerly, which meant a freezing start and most of us thought it would be hard with 10lb likely to be a good weight.

Peg 14 is an open water peg, which in theory should be a good area, however a look at past weigh sheets suggested otherwise with only 10lb being the best this series.

4 pole rigs were set up, but only ended up using 2, one of them was a new float pattern I brought from dino floats spefically for fishing double bulk called "bream long" (see photo) 0.75g with an .10 bottom and 18 silverfish pellet hook. The other rig was an old jean francois 0.6g with an .08 bottom and 22 silverfish maggot hook. A small grip mesh feeder with .10 bottom and 18 B911 completed my set up.

On the all in 2 balls of groundbait with only a few casters and micros at 13m, plus a small ball of groundbait at 6m. Whilst that settled I started on the feeder, however Ray White and Pete Neate opposite also did the same, so wasn't too sure how productive it would be. After an hour I had a 1.5lb skimmer, 3 hand sized skimmers and a decent roach all on dead maggot. Neither Ray or Pete caught, but they didn't give it much time.

A switch to the 13m line proved to be a bit of struggle, catching another 1.5lb skimmer plus a few smaller fish over the next hour on the double bulk rig.

I really needed some decent skimmers because I could see a few further along landing some good fish.  Initially I wasn't overly concerned because it was still early and I just needed to be patience.

The 6m line turned out to be a surprise, as I had a good run of hand sized skimmers and roach on the light rig, over loose feed caster and the occasional nugget of groundbait.

Back on the feeder produced a 2.5lb skimmer, but nothing else, so the rest of the match was spent switching between the long line were I gradually moved out to 16m and the short line. It was really difficult to work out how best to feed. I had set up a pellet line at 14m at angle to my left, which didn't produce a single bite, yet the Nick to my right caught on pellet all day to win the match.

By the all out I probably had more fish than most, but only 5 proper skimmers which was disappointing. For what ever reason the skimmers didn't want to be in the area, with the other 3 weights in the gap weighing 7-4, 4-8 and 3-4. At least I kept myself in the running for the league as I'm currently now lying 4th overall with 2 rounds to go.

Despite the weather the lake fished very well, but I hope it warms up a little for the next round in 2 weeks.

1st 28-6 - Nick Fuidge - p13
2nd 21-13 - Rob Dodd - p12
3rd 20- 4 - Eric Fouracre (Mosella) - p16
4th 18- 4 - Chris Fox (Bristol) - p18
5th 17- 8 - Vic Bush (Mosella) - p6
6th 16-13 - Ken Rayner (Colmic) - p14

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