Weight - 66lb 6oz (14lb 2oz - silvers)
Catch - 12 Carp, 18 Perch, 4 F1, 3 Rudd, 2 Skimmers
Weather - Hot & sunny. Strong easterly.
Water Temp - 23.3c > 24.3c
Match - Open - 4th out of 9
Its funny how certain pegs tend to stick and for me its peg 11, although I would have prefered peg 21, a) because it was out of the wind and b) its a flyer. However, there was one angler who didn't want it. Nigel Bartlett was very unhappy, because he knew he would be spending most of match playing carp rather than catching silvers.
The way the wind was meant fishing to the island was going to be a challenge, as it was blowing stright down the lake, so I set up 2 rigs for fishing across, 1x for caster and the other for 8mm pellet. As for the other rigs, I set up a soft pellet rig for fishing down the track, which never got used. I also set up 2 meat rigs, 1 for fishing under the platform of peg 12 and the other for fishing at the bottom of the shelf to my left.
There was plenty of fish moving around but the question was, would they feed having only recently spawned? A quick look on 8mm pellet, didn't produce so decided to stick with double caster on top of the shelf for the 1st couple of hours just to catch what I could, which did include a couple of carp and F1s in amongst the perch. Due to the wind I couldn't fish with a toss pot so ended up cupping caster with a pinch of 4s every 2nd fish.
In the mean time I had been feeding 6s to the point of the island and a switch to the pellet rig resulted in 5 carp, but I also lost 6 or 7 foul hookers. The wind was also adding to my frustration. When I was fishing in front of the island, I had to be careful how I struck, because on a couple of occasions a strike co-incided with a gust of wind and a rig in the bush! This meant not striking too hard, which lead to a few bumped perch. Now I was fishing to the point of the island, I wanted to fish 16m towards the rope, but I couldn't hold the pole long enough.
I tried mugging a few carp that were cruising, but they weren't interested and those fish that were hooked properly were tight to the island.
With a couple of hours to go, Mark on p7 and Jim on p13 were catching, but reports suggested the lake was fishing hard. I was really hoping for a good couple of hours on the meat, but a F1 and big skimmer was all I had which was a surprise as well as disappointing, so it meant I really needed to get those carp sorted by the island. Another try with pellet, resulted in more liners. I think part of the problem was it was difficult to feed accurately with the catapult and the fish were just rushing around after the pellet.
Therefore decided to cup in caster & pellet, switching back to double caster. This resulted in 5 more carp and I thought I may have caught up Jim, well that was until he landed an 8lber on the all out. Just wish I had switched back to the caster rig sooner.
Mark had an easy win today fishing mostly meat, whilst Jim finished 2nd fishing 10m into the left hand margin on 8mm pellet.
1st 126lb - Mark Leader - p7
2nd 72lb - Jim Jenner - p13
3rd 68lb - p19
4th 66lb - Ken Rayner - p11
Silvers
1st - 22lb - Dave Sawyer - p17 (skimmers)
2nd - 14- 8 - Mark Leader - p7
3rd - 14- 2 - Ken Rayner -p11
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