Weight – 72lb 7oz
Catch – 14 Carp, 3 Tench, 1 Crucian
Weather – Cloudy muggy start, becoming showery & breezy
Match – Open - 4th overall
This match should have been called the Cider Farm overspill open. With Sue needing the car on Saturday I only had Sunday to fish, but where to go? Mark was fishing a clubbie in Devizes and a call to Tony revealed he had an Open at Cider Farm, which was sold out. Mike was only running a Saturday open, so it looked like I would be pleasure fishing. I was giving Cuckoos Rest serious consideration because 2500 small carp had been stocked and the bream & tench were on the feed. However late on Friday Mike called back to say there were a few interested in a Sunday match, so I booked in.
There was only 10 of us and we all in the same situation, either too late to book in or didn’t wish to fish Cider Farm. With an 11am draw I arrived an hour early and walked around the lakes. There were loads of carp cruising the surface, with most around peg 7/8, 14 and the 20s. I drew peg 1, which I wasn’t too disappointed with, because there was a few fish moving around between myself and Lee Trivett on p24.
Pete Nurse was peg 3 and Mike West on 5. All match these 2 never stopped winding each other up, it was like listening to an old married couple. Pete was convinced Mike had beaten him and vice versa, but as it happened neither won because they both weighed 52-11.
Next decision would I be using Tony's lovely crisp casters, probably not, because we were only paying 1 silver place. So pellet & paste rigs were set up for up & down the shelf, the silvers would have to wait for another day. On the all in I started firing 4mms towards the island and a ½ pot of 4 & 6mms with some paste at 14.5 down the left hand edge at the bottom of the shelf. I also put ½ pot of micro, 4mm and some casters at 13m in open water just in case the wheels fell off (which I never used).
I went straight down the right hand edge under the tree, having seen some carp moving around at the start, but only managed a 12oz crucian. After a couple of put ins at 14.5m with paste and I had a 9lber, followed shortly by a 4lber, so a good start, but then I couldn't get another bite. In fact I didn’t get another fish for an hour, despite carp moving around the island, but I couldn’t get them to take my hair rigged 6mm pellet.
Another look down the RH edge produced a carp and 2 more followed at 15m down the LH edge on top of the shelf before they disappeared again. At this point the heavens open and the wind picked up, making it more difficult to fish long with paste. I had kept the pellet going into the island and most of the fish I could see were on the other side in vacant peg 22, but my feed had definitely pulled a few to my side. The problem was finding a clear spot, due to roots and god knows what snagging my rig. I managed to trash 3 rigs, but after much messing around with depths & shotting, found it best to fish 16.5m, a metre off the point of the island and I started to string a few fish together, including 3 tench in quick succession.
I did try down the LH edge but only managed 1 more carp. I had intended to go 17m, but since the wind picked up I simply couldn’t keep the rig there long enough without the pole being blown into the bank side foliage. At least fishing the island if a gust of wind did blow it pushed the pole away from trouble. Besides I think most of the carp were settled by the tree stump, which was 19m away, however the stump is only 14m away on p24 and Lee started catching a few tight in during the 2nd half of the match.
For the rest of the match I would catch a few from the island, when they backed off I would try other swims without success, but when ever I came back to the island the fish would have returned and I would get a couple more before they back off again.
In general this was a frustrating match, apart from a 45min spell when I caught regularly I had to keep chopping and changes to keep the fish coming. The wind ruined my plan to fish 17m down the left hand margin and trashing my rigs didn’t help either.
Peg 1 isn’t the peg it used to be since Mike cut the trees back and snags by the island doesn’t make for an easy days fishing. However I think (I may be wrong) 72lb is the best weight from the peg for quite sometime, so I was pleased with that, but its difficult to compete with the form pegs at the moment. Garry Wall caught all day on p14, fishing paste to the platform on his right, whilst Shaun Townsend caught shallow on pellet from peg 7.
1st – 147-14 – Garry Wall – p14
2nd – 117-10 - Shaun Townsend – p7
3rd – 90-10 – Lewis Townsend – p21
4th – 72-7 – Ken Rayner – p1
5th – 68- 0 - Nathan Hawke – p16
6th – 64-12 - Lee Trivett – p24
silvers – 25-8 – Dave Sawyer – p11 (skimmers/soft pellet)
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