Weight – 218lb 4oz
Catch – 31 Carp, 1 Bream.
Weather – Cloudy, sunny periods. Windy.
Water Temp– 21.0c > 21.0c
Match – Glenfall – 1st Overall
Prospects for this match looked good. It was warm, not overly bright and there was a stiff breeze blowing. Prior to the draw, I suggested over 100lb would win and even the club match record of 155lb could be broken.
I drew peg 13, which I was little disappointed with. Although I caught my personal best weight from here, this area of the lake was sheltered from the wind, whilst the rest of the lake had a nice ripple on.
With 13 anglers fishing, meant everyone had plenty of space, so I set up 4 swims, 13m shallow and 3 paste swims (5m right, 11m left margin and 11.5m 45 degrees to my left at the bottom of the shelf)
It took 20 minutes before I got my first fish over my bottom of the shelf swim. Throughout the match this swim proved to be the most productive. A handful of 8mm where thrown in every time I hooked a fish and when ever I experienced a blank spell, I would try the margins or the shallow swim.
The margins only produced 2 fish, whilst the shallow swim also proved difficult. Initially I thought I could catch shallow on the pole, but the fish simply didn’t want to come in close, properly due the flat conditions. In fact most fish I saw topping were in the windy part of the lake, so I switched to the pellet waggler so I could fish further out and managed 4 carp, but its was sporadic.
With 2.5 hours to go, I knew I was very close to breaking the match record and thought 200lb was possible. However there was a little winding up going on, when I was told Ian had 20 carp from peg 16, which at the time was 1 more than me. I knew he was catching, but I could only see the top of his pole over the reeds when he was landing fish and to honest I don’t think I saw it 20 times.
The last 10 minutes was the worse part of my match. An 8lber leaped clean out of my net and I managed to lose my deep water rig when a carp bolted for the reeds.
At the all out I felt confident of 200lb. During the weigh in Andy was leading with 101lb, Craig beat Jim by 1oz, 97-6 to 97-5 and there was also a 70lb weight, so the lake had fished well. I already had 3 fish for 38lb on the board, the biggest going 14-9 and a further 5 weighs confirmed I had indeed smashed the club match record and caught my first 200lb match weight. Ian was the last to weigh with 133lb for 2nd.
It’s fair to say I was quite happy with the result and whilst I thought breaking the match record was possible, to get over 200lb is a real bonus.
At the moment I have really hit a purple patch and long may it continue!!
1st - Ken Rayner - 125pts
2nd - Ian Pople - 120
3rd - Andy Lord - 114
4th - Craig Davidge - 105 (170-4)
5th -Chris Davidge - 105 (168-6)
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