16/09/12 - Acorn - Paddock

Weight - 44lb 13oz
Catch - 11 Carp, 8 Perch, 7 Skimmers, 1 F1, 1 Rudd
Weather - Cool, cloudy & breezy
Match - 2+3 Short Pole Only - 20th out of 50 (4th out of 10-section)

50 pegs meant every peg was in on both lakes and everyone wanted a draw with some space. I found myself on peg 16 in the middle of the straight, with Matt Tomes on 15 and Paul Lock on 17.

I made up rigs to fish caster/maggot, pellet and paste, so covering all basis, because during Wednesdays match p16 wasn't in but the pegs to the right all caught, whilst those to the left struggled, which meant I wasn't sure whether I had carp or silvers in front of me.

Our section ran from 11 - 20, so the expectation was pegs 11 & 12 were the ones to watch, however it was Tim Clark on p19 who got off to a flyer catching carp on caster from the end of his keepnet. As for me I decided on a steady approach starting straight away on the paste feeding some 4s via the toss pot, hoping for some early carp. However after 20mins I had nothing to show for my efforts other than a couple dips on the float. I suspected skimmers and a change to soft pellet produced 3 fish and then I couldn't catch.

After an hour and seeing others catching the devil on my shoulder started talking to me. What I should have done in hindsight was stick with the soft pellet. But no I decided that I could catch shallow on caster, so started feeding caster. Whilst I primed the shallow line, I switched to the short line but only had micro perch. The shallow line proved to be a waste of time and now 2hrs gone with 2lb in the net things weren't looking good.

A quick chat to myself about being patient (a real problem for me at the moment!) and I potted some caster with corn down the track. Letting that settle I went back to the short line and bugger me, I had a couple of carp on maggot.

Down the track produced a few more skimmers, then a few more carp. As the match progressed I started getting more carp, although not as many as Matt who was catching on soft pellet. My short line completely died, but I managed 3 carp on my top kit in 1ft of water by the sedges late on.

In hindsight, I lost focus in the 2nd hour, being too easily distracted by those that were catching, when I really should have just stuck with soft pellet. Tim Clark won my section with 72-12, whilst Matt was 2nd with 59-2 (and yes I forgot to give you my pound - so double or quits next time). Paul the other side spent the day on pellet & paste and tipped back 30-40lb.

Bearing in mind every peg was in the venue actually fished quiet well.

1^st 111-10 – Glenn Bailey – p2

2^nd 104- 0- 0 – Allan Oram – p7
3^rd 98-10- 0 – Tim Ford – p27
4^th 81- 3- 0 – Bob Gullick – p21
5^th 80-13- 0 – Mike Nicholls – p30
6^th 80- 9- 0 – Craig Edmunds – p1

Silvers
1^st 32-10 – Tom Thick – old canal p5
2^nd 27- 4 – Pete Wild – old canal p6
3^rd 24- 6 – Martin Rayet – old canal p2

oh - anyone seen Tonys blog yet? Anyway, it doesn't take long to write about catching 11lb. No-one mentioned it much, during the weigh-in.