Catch - 6 Carp, 5 Skimmers, 3 Tench, 1 Rudd, 1 Roach, 1 Perch
Weather - Strong winds to start, quieten down later.
Match - Pole Only - rd 3 - 16th out of 32 (5th out of 8 - sections, 3rd - silvers)
I’m thinking of re-naming this Pole Only series the “poor weather
series”. Following the bitterly easterlies in the first round and ice in the
second round, we were back to the wind, but at least this time it was blowing
from the south.
It was my turn for C Section (pegs 12-22) and being on the long straight
meant no shelter for anyone, with the wind blowing the full length of the section. Despite the wind p12 looked to be the favourite
draw (as it was in the previous 2 rounds) and we shouldn’t have been surprised
when league leader Pete Bartlett drew it. So that was gone, which meant the
next best draw would be 21 & 22 around the bridge. Again we shouldn’t have
been surprised when Bob “bridge troll” Gullick drew 22, I think that’s 7 or 8
matches on the bounce when he has drawn a bridge! Russ Peck was on 22.
As for me p19 was my home, which I wasn’t particularly happy about since
it’s the narrowest peg at 11m wide in the section. However I could at least reach the far bank in the gale force winds and with
the increase in temperatures I was hopeful of catching a few carp
shallow. Having said I considered my best chance of a pick up would be to
target the silvers, although the pegs to my right is the better area.
Due to the wind I set up a 1g rig to fish down the track, over
groundbait and micros and a 0.4g chump to fish by the p20 pallet which was fed
with caster and maggot. Bob also fed the pallet, but only with a small amount
of corn, so no damage done.
Starting at 8m I caught a small 8oz tench after 15mins on maggot, which
was eventually followed by a 12oz skimmer. Looking around no one was really
catching much, so I struck with the 8m line. In the meantime I had been
catapulting 6s to the far bank, although quite a lot actually landed on the
island. After 30mins of catapulting I saw a swirl and went straight over with
hair rigged 6mm and promptly hooked a carp which was foul hooked and came off.
At the time I thought at least the fish appear to want some feed and kept
catapulting the 6s into the far bank. Unfortunately the carp just didn’t settle
and I had to cut back on the feed.
The next few hours was a case of rotating between the pallet and the 8m line. The
pallet produced a rudd, then a 2.5lb tench, whilst I had a couple more decent
skimmers and a carp from the 8m line. With 2.5hrs left, I guessed I was near top in
the section and well ahead in the silvers. At the time because I was “so far
ahead” in the silvers I unsuccessfully tried for some more carp on pellet.
At this point the wind was easing to the point it dropped completely. My
1g rig no longer looked right and set up a 0.3g frostie to fish down the track.
With the wind dropping it also meant I could more comfortably fish the 2nd shelf down and soon
had another skimmer and another tench, plus more carp – happy days, but I couldn't catch down the
track.
Chris Fox to my right in the meantime could now fish his far line,
catching a big 2lb perch and a tench. Oh dear, the silvers prize was no longer certain. During the gale, Chris had
managed to catch small skimmers and a few roach, which meant it was now very
close between the 2 of us, so time to concentrate on the silvers, because
almost everyone was now catching carp from the far bank and I couldn't catch enough from my narrower swim.
I did manage a few more carp and skimmers, but in hindsight I was
beginning to regret being too aggressive with my feed. I had kept pinging
caster to the pallet with the intention of giving another go towards the end of
the match. Unfortunately Bob beat me to it, losing a foul hooked tench.
Come the weigh in, it came as no surprise that Pete on p12 won the
section with 75-14, which included 10lb of F1s. With no other silvers weights
it was between Chris and myself and as soon as he pulled his net out I knew I
couldn’t beat him when he weight 9-13. Those smaller fish counted for a lot. My
9-3 was more than I expected, but the good news was Chris came 2nd
in the section with 37-9 so I picked up the silvers my double de-fault.
The irony today was I needed the wind to keep blowing, because in the last couple of hours I struggled to catch.
1st 83-8 - Mike Owens - p7
2nd 75-14 - Pete Bartlett - p12
3rd 70-12 - Lewis Jones - p8
4th 60- 1 - Tim Ford - p30
5th 54- 3 - Tom Thick - p40
5th 54- 3 - Andy France - p9
Silvers
1st 16-12 - John Bradford - top lake 6
2nd 14-15 - Lance Tucker - top lake 3
3rd 12-14 - Mark Broomsgrove - p36
4th 12- 1 - Dave Poole - top lake 7
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