27/04/14 - Acorns - Paddock Lake

Weight - 31lb 9oz
Catch - 16 Carp, 3 Perch,2 Roach, 1 F1, 1 Skimmer
Weather - Breezy and very wet
Match - Pole Only Series - rd 3 - 18th out 30, 6th out of 10 section

The 3^rd round of this series and I’m really struggling to build any enthusiasm. I had intended to practice for the series, by fishing the Saturday opens and maybe the occasional Tuesday cost cutter, but compared to other venues the fishing has been poor. My weekends are valuable & I don’t want to be fishing a venue where I’m your struggling to get a bite. It would appear I’m not the only one thinking that way with some Acorns regulars turning up at Lands End last week and Mark said a few turned up at Ridgeway on Saturday. Recently weights have improved, but I will be glad when then series finishes. I don’t mind fishing when it is hard, but it’s not right to be struggling to get a bite on single maggot in April.

C section for me today, with pegs 36 & 38 being the form pegs. Alas I found myself on p21, which put me on the right hand side of the bridge. In the previous 2 rounds the peg had come 3^rd & 6^th in section, so not the best peg in section, but should at least produce a few bites. Chris Fox was on the other side of the bridge and Nigel Vigus was to my right on p19, but a different section.

The wind was likely to be an issue today, but as it turned out it was blowing slightly from behind and wasn’t overly strongly, however it rained for most of the match which proved uncomfortable at times. Fortunately being able to park behind your peg meant I could keep most of the kit in the car.

Following a couple of decent results recently and despite my complaints about the venue, I was feeling confident of a fish. Plumbing revealed the far bank was deeper than any other peg I have been on & initially decided to pot in a small amount of micros & 4s, left and right along the far bank. Groundbait/micros/caster at 5m, micros & 4s at the bottom of the shelf at 11m to my right and some hand fed caster by the bridge.

Starting across with a HB Billybob 0.3g > .12 > 16 B911 & expander, after a few liners I landed a small carp, then a F1 came from the caster swim on maggot, but after an hour that was it! Chris was also struggling and it wasn’t looking good. The far bank was proving to be a waste of time, I even tried a 4x10 rig with a slow drop set off bottom, but nothing.

So far I had been cautious with the feed and decided to continue to trickle micros & 4s by the bridge and be more positive to my right. A switch to the 5m line did produce a skimmer and few small roach & perch on single maggot.

By the half way point I started to get a few indications and caught a small carp at 5m and a couple more at 11m on single maggot. However, it was a case of catch a fish, refed, try a different swim, and hope for a bite, before switching again.

The remainder of the match proved to be more productive. Dobbing a 6mm expander or piece of worm set at 2ft deep along the bridge produced a few better carp, but unfortunately the heavy rain came at the wrong time, putting the fish down. I also had a couple of carp from the positively feed right hand island swim and a couple of carp across by the bridge, either on expander, triple maggot or worm. With 90mins to go I targeted the right hand pallet. Nigel was already fishing tight to the bank and landed a carp. I decided to find a flat spot about a metre off the bank in the deeper water, cupping in a mixture of pellet & caster. I did catch another carp, but lost 2, 1 of which was definitely foul hooked.

A very bity match, where it was difficult to find a pattern, other than the need to continually rotate. I had more carp than most in my section, however their size went against me, finishing a disappointing 6^th in section. Another 5lb would have seen me jump 2 places.  Except for Tom Thick on p25, most struggled along the straight, with the better weights coming from the other side of the lake. Chris only had 15lb from his side of the bridge and Nigel to my right had 11lb, so not to many fish in area. Well done to Russ for winning from unfancied peg 4.

1^st 82- 2 – Russ Peck – p4
2^nd 68-12 – Glenn Calvert – p7
3^rd 61- 0 – Lewis Jones – p33
4^th 56- 8 – Tom Thick – p25
5^th 47- 9 – Dom Sullivan – p31
6^th 46- 4 – Rob Fogg – p9

Silvers
1^st 12- 4 – Eddie Wynn – p16
2^nd 11- 9 – Paul Faires – p34
3^rd 9- 8 – Charlie Barnes – p26
4^th 8- 6 – Tom Thick – p25
5^th 5- 4 – Norman Hugget – p40
6^th 4- 9 – Lance Tucker – p38