Weight – 27lb 0oz (13lb - silvers)
Catch – 8 Roach, 5 Bream, 5 Perch, 3 Carp, 2 Chub, 1 F1
Weather – Bright & calm, later rain
Match – Open - 4th overall (2nd silvers)
Mike Nicholls bless him is obviously getting senile in his retirement years, with far too much time on his hands. As a consequence he finds found fault with most things in life, therefore turning into a proper grumpy old man. The silverfox added a comment to my blog last week saying he didn’t know there were opens on Monday & Tuesday, I assume in reference to the date I add my blog entries. If I had as much time on my hands as Mr Nicholls, then I to could update my blog the same day as I fished. Alternatively it was just a poor attempt at sarcasm.
Today saw me on peg 19, which I haven’t drawn for about 4 or 5 years. Recent form suggested it was worth a few fish, although now the out & out flyer it used to be.
Only 9 anglers turned up so at least there would be plenty of room, which can present its own problems on a cold & clear lake. With so much space, I decided to positively feed in front of peg 18 at 14.5m, with 3mm pellet by catapult. My other swims where fed more conservatively, starting with 20 casters at the bottom of the far shelf and a pinch of green swim stim & micros at 14.5m at 11o'clock.
I started on corn, fishing to my right where I hadn’t fed and 10 minutes later a foulhooked carp was safely landed. With no further bites, I spent the next hour concentrating on the bottom of the far shelf fishing caster, but I had to rotate with maggot and pinkie to keep bites coming. A quick look on top of the shelf produced a run of perch & a chub, but the swim quickly died due to water clarity.
With my caster swim dying, time to try my groundbait/pellet swim and I eventually managed a ½lb skimmer on 4mm pellet. At the ½ way stage I felt I was doing OK, but everyone was fishing for 2nd, because Garry on peg 7 got off to a flyer and probably had 40lb in the first 2 hours. Mike on peg 24 also started getting amongst some proper perch fishing tight to the tree.
As for me, I had to keep rotating swims and the grounbait/pellet swim became the strongest swim, with skimmers up to 1½lb and a carp, all on pellet. My positive swim in peg 18 produced a few liners, but no fish. I tried dumping caster & maggot in front of the pallet on peg 18, but this only produced a few silvers.
As expected Garry won with 63lb. 2nd was Alan Oram from the in form peg 11 with 33lb, but he had to wait 1¾ hours before he got his first bite. 3rd was Mike with 32lb, which included 17lb of mostly perch, plus 4 carp.
I was left a bit frustrated that I couldn’t keep my caster swim going, however I was pleased I was able to catch a few skimmers in less than ideal conditions, so hopefully I have began to get to grips with them.
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