Catch – 37 Carp, 4 Skimmer, 2 Roach, 1F1, 1 Tench, 1 Hybrid, 1 Tench
Weather – Dull start, becoming brighter.
Match – Wests Tackle Open – 1st out of 19
Another unseasonably mild day meant some were fishing in t-shirts, although I don’t think anyone fancied a swim, because the water certainly felt chilly.
As a comprise between those who wanted a 5hr match and those who wanted a 6hr match, we settled on 5½hr.
As usual everyone wanted to draw around the gap, pegs 5, 7 & 38, so I more than happy when I found myself 38. But with every flyer comes the pressure and Mark was certainly trying to pile it on with the usual banter.
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| peg 38 |
Anyway, decided I needed to keep things simple so set a HB billybob 0.1g for the far side and down the right hand margin, plus a SZ ninjaz 0.2g for down the track at 7m. Feed was 2 tins corn, plus 6 & 4mm pellet.
I was determined not to make the same mistake from 2 weeks ago at Whiteposts, so kept the catapult safely tucked away in the carryall. I really didn’t want to encourage those F1, which can be a real pain in the arse.
On the all in, a cup of corn & 6mm’s went down the RH edge at 12m and another cup at 7m. Whilst I let that settle I went straight over to the far bank, feeding a toss pot of corn/6mm’s and started to get indications straight away, soon landing an F1. Unfortunately the next hour or so was very frustrating, because I couldn’t hook a fish in the mouth. I tried varying the amount being fed and thought I got it sussed by reducing the amount going through the toss pot, but with the far bank being 15m away it was hard work for little reward.
In the meantime, I had kept both the RH margin and 7m line topped up every 20mins. After nearly 80mins I only had about 10lb, whilst Mark on peg 35 was already admitting to 30-40lb. I felt the far line was more trouble than it was worth so ditched it, hoping the RH would produce.
3 carp in 3 put ins and I was up and running. Initially I was potting in every 3rd fish, but soon switched to toss potting 6 bits of corn and 6 pellets, only potting a ½ cup when I started to get silly bites from silvers, as the carp shy away. When I rested the swim I would switch to the 7m line, were I had kept feeding pellet and corn. This line didn’t produce many fish, but they were proper ‘uns including a near 10lber.
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| down the margin |
Most fish came to corn, I tried 6mm pellet but had to wait longer for bites, so struck with corn. With just over 2hrs to go I was up to about 20 carp, whilst Mark had about 38, so a long way behind, however Mark was insisting his carp were only small. By the end, Mark had managed a further 10 or so, plus a load of F1s, whilst I had a further 17. We both thought we had beaten each other, but as it turned out my fish were much better than the average stamp, which probably also accounts for why I only caught 1 F1 from a lake full of them.
Pleased to have beaten Mark and won the match, it hasnt happened too often this year. However 1 angler was a little too bitter & twisted saying I hadnt done well, because I had an end peg. My response was you still need to catch them. Muppet!
1st 122- 4 – Ken Rayner – p38
2nd 115- 8 – Mark Poppleton – p35
3rd 96- 5 – Nick Merry – p23
4th 85-15 – Jono – p12?
5th 52- 8 – Craig – p5
6th 46- 4 – Steve Ince – p37
3 comments:
Great read as usual ken, name and shame the muppet please!
lol - Mark guessed right
Nice one Ken!
It is a flyer, but you've still got to do it right to catch em. I expect Mark was gracious in defeat, after all he has won plenty this year.
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