04/05/14 - Acorns - Paddock

Weight - 26lb 12oz (8lb 8oz - silvers)
Catch - 7 Carp, 8 Skimmers, 8 Perch, 1 Tench, 1 Roach, 1 Rudd
Weather - Warm & sunny
Match - Pole Only Series - 5th out of 10 - section.

The 4^th round of the Pole only series and it was back to a free draw. After chatting to Tom Thick in the café there was only 3 tickets left. I pulled p28 and Tom p33 – need I say more!

Oh well, at least I had plenty of room, with a spare pallet either side, but there is a reason for that, since it is a poor area. From my peg I could see most of my section (pegs 21,22,23,25,26,30,32), but couldn’t see pegs 36 & 38, although that wasn’t an issue since I expected these 2 pegs to do well any way.

Rigs were set up to fish tight to the island, the 2^nd shelf, down the track and finally for fishing in front of the pallet either side of me. My intention today was to fish the 2^nd shelf off the island, feeding micros & 4s in 2 spots left and right, fishing 4 or 6mm expander, hoping for a few carp. I didn’t expect many, but hoped they would be a decent size.

On the all in I also fed swims at 6m left & right with caster & groundbait, plus some pellet tight to the island. Starting across, other than 1 liner after 10mins this line was binned for the rest of the match, although I did keep an eye on Mike Owens (p26) and Lance Tucker (p25) who was fishing across and if they started to catch I could always change my mind. They didn’t.

Nothing so far from the 2^nd shelf, so I just kept topping up with micros & 4s. Nothing from the down the track either. It wasn’t until after 45mins I eventually had a rudd from the left hand margin.

A change back to down the track produced some small perch on single maggot, before a skimmer made an appearance, but that was it. Another groundbait topped up killed the swim-oops!

A switch to the 2^nd shelf & 4mm expander (HB Chump 0.3g > .12 > 16B911) and the float went under! And it was a skimmer. By swapping left & right I added a few more skimmers, which was getting Charlie Barnes concerned on peg 30, but he needn’t have worried because he was always ahead of me.

During the match the EA made a visit to check rod licences and the bloke who checked mine only checked it yesterday at Lands End. Just like buses!

The left hand margin so far had been fed with caster and some dead maggot, hoping for a few more silvers, but other than a few perch and a skimmer, it was small carp that put in an appearance. As for the right margin I had decided not to feed until the last couple of hours, again feeding caster/dead maggot with some pellet. This produced a tench and another small carp on triple dead maggot.

My 2^nd shelf swims had died, so fed further left & right which produced some more carp and a couple more skimmers. A final look down the right margin and I hooked what I think was a big carp, since there was a big swirl, but a few seconds later the hook pulled.

Overall, despite the result I was pleased with how I fished, it was a shame about the lost carp at the end, which would have pushed me into 4^th in section, but beating pegs 32, 36 & 38 was always going to be hard.

1^st 95- 1 – Mike Nicholls – p7
2^nd 87-15 – Russ Peck – p12
3^rd 81-15 – Tom Thick – p33
4^th 69- 8 – Brian Slipper – p9
5^th 53- 5 – Kev Perry – p10
6^th 52-14 – Mark Broomsgrove – p36

Silvers
1^st 13- 6 – Chris Fox – p17
2^nd 10- 9 – Charlie Barnes – p30
3^rd 10- 4 – Lance Tucker – p25
3^rd 10- 4 – Glenn Calvert – p38