Weight - 7lb 7oz
Catch – 3 Tench, 3 Perch, 3 Roach, 1 Carp, 1 F1, 1 Bream.
Weather - Sunny & cloudy. 1light shower. Cool when the sun disappeared.
Water temp – 18.0c > 18.5c
Match – Glenfall Club Match
This was 2nd club match of the year. The 1st was last month at Horseshoe Lake, where I came 3rd with 7 carp for 85lb. The match was also a knock out competition, the eventual winner winning next years membership. At £75 it’s worth having.
We were due to fish the old lake, which had 16 sensible pegs, although you could fit a few more if required. The lake has 2 areas. Deeper open water, which is called the bowl and then at the shallower end there are 3 islands.
When we arrived there were carp moving around, so I was quite optimistic, however 16 members turned up, so the fishing was likely to be hard. For the knockout competition, I drew against Graham, who would be a tough draw, particularly if he drew on a few fish.
I drew permanent peg 19, which was behind the islands. I wasn’t disappointed with the draw, since I had some room and I had seen carp moving around. Graham on the other hand drew peg 16, which was opposite an island, but he didn’t have much room either side.
My intention was to target the carp, which averaged 2-4lb, with a few bigger lumps. I thought 20-30lb would be a good target weight and as such brought plenty of pellets (micros, 4mm & 6mm expanders), paste, some corn and a handful of red maggot from yesterdays session.
Directly in front of me was a channel between 2 islands. The left hand island was 10m away, whilst the right hand island was 9m away. I also had loads of margin to my right and Ian was pegged 10m to my left.
I started off feeding the left island and the point of the right hand island, with micro pellet and a few expanders. I also started feeding the right margin but the intention was to leave it well alone for at least 3 hrs. I started on paste in front of the right island, using the paste as my only feed, but I didn’t get a bite for 30 minutes, which was a worry, because very little had been caught so far.
My 1st fish came from the left hand island on 6mm expander, but it was hard going. After 2 hours it became obvious the fishing was really hard, even fishing maggot on the hook only resulted in small fish.
I had a heavy & a light rig set up and decided to stay on the light rig (.13 hooklength to a 16 B911), fishing 6mm expander and simply wait for the bites. I cut back on the feed, using a tosspot, instead of a cup. Concentrating on the point of the right hand island, offered reasonably deep water tight to the island. I still continued feeding the margins, still hoping for a few carp to turn up late.
To cut a very boring story short, I struggled, but eventually managed to catch 1 carp, losing 2 others, 1 which broke me in some sunken snags and the other ran behind the island.
Ian to my left had managed 2 carp, 1 of which was the laziest carp I have ever seen. It just flopped around on the surface. Other than Ian I knew I had beaten the pegs around the island, including Graham, so at least I was though to the next knockout round.
At the weigh in I was surprised to find my 7lb 7oz, was enough for 6th out of the 16 anglers. The best weights came from the open water and only 21lb won the match.
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