Weight - 41lb 10oz (12lb 15oz - silvers)
Catch - 17 F1s, 12 Carp, 23 Skimmers, 10 Roach
Weather - Muggy start. Warm & sunny later
Match - Tackle Den (19 fished) - 9th overall, 1st in section.
19 of us today, with 14 on the Old Match Lake and 5 on the
island of Willow.
I drew p23 on Willow, normally a flyer, however from the
recent match results I’ve seen the weights haven’t been great since the
introduction of the F1s over the winter. So, I was hoping to catch a couple of carp
early and then late down my margins, and in between I was expecting to spend
time catching F1s and skimmers.
An array of rigs were set up to cover my options. I started
on the method cast to the far bank, with an 8mm orange wafter and soon caught a
small F1. A change to a 6mm wafter produced another 2, plus a 2lb carp in the
first 30mins.
Still hoping for an early carp, I switched to fishing U-zit
GLM paste at 3+2 where I had been feeding 4s and caught a carp, but it was only
a pound. As there didn’t appear to be any decent size carp in the area I got my
head down, switching to my F1 paste rig catching F1s, small carp (1lb) and
skimmers over the short line.
The line went a bit iffy after an hour and I tried fishing
the tea bag and 8mm pellet towards the far bank, where I had been pinging 8s,
but I only caught a couple more small carp. In fact, everywhere I tried it was F1s
or small carp, including down the right-hand bank on 8mm pellet, where roach
were a problem. I even tried slapping but couldn’t find any decent carp.
My second stint on the short paste line, produced another
run of F1s and a couple of decent sized skimmers. I kept going hoping the
better sized carp would turn up, but the roach did instead!
As I had my back to the rest of the anglers in my section, a
quick enquiry revealed everyone was struggling and we were fishing for the section
as a couple of anglers were catching on the Old Match Lake. I still felt I
needed a big carp as it was quite tight between us, and a couple of carp would
make a big difference.
With 2hrs remaining I started feeding my margins.
Pellet/corn down the left and groundbait/micros/corn down the right. I never
had a bite down the left and won’t mention it again. The right margin was
frustrating. At one point there was obviously at least 1 carp in the swim as
there were swirls and roach scattering, but all I caught were a couple of roach
on double corn.
With 20mins remaining, 4 balls of groundbait went down the
right margin. In the meantime, I saw Andy Black on p20 land a double from his
margin and John Pearce also caught a carp. I really needed one myself.
The short paste line produced a couple more carp, but
nothing bigger than 2lb. Back down the margin there was no signs of carp after
my barrage, which was a worry, but I gave it a go anyway. The float just sat
there and literally disappeared as the-all out was called and I was attached to
a carp. At 5-6lb it wasn’t as big as I hoped, but at least it was a carp.
At the weigh-in my section had no chance of framing, but
fortunately I at least won my section from John who weighed 34lb.
1.
114- 9 –
Matt Gale – p10
2.
95-11 –
Jason Crump – p1
3.
87- 7 – Michael Wilson – p13
4.
56-13 –
Steve Venn – p8
5.
55- 4 – Pete Philips – p16
6.
53-10 –
Cliff Dutton – p2
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