Catch - 18 Tench, 6 Skimmers
Weather - Frosty start. Cold, sunny and flat
Match - Silverfish League - rd 5 - 1st out of 8
After the disappointment of the last round, when I couldn't catch anything but carp in the later half of the match, I felt any chance of a league pick up was unlikely. However there was an outside chance assuming I won and other results my way.
Another freezing start and the colour had dropped out of the lake, which at least meant the carp where unlikely to be active. I thought 10lb would be a good weight today, although Dom was a little more optimistic with 18-20lb being needed to win. I found myself on peg 8, which along with peg 3 has been a good area for tench, which I didn't think would feed after a frost.
Only 2 rigs for today, because it was pretty much the same depth all over, including down the margins.
- Jolly 4x12 > .08 > 22 silverfish maggot
- HB Frostie 0.3g > .10 > 20 silverfish pellet (only used for 5mins)
On the all in, a golf ball of groundbait (black mussel & squid & black lake) with a pinch of pinkie and caster was deposited at 11.5m and some micros at 13m to my left. Starting at 11.5m I had a few tremors on the float and missed a bite on maggot. So switched to single pinkie and got a positive bite, which I initially thought was a carp or fantail (which don't count), but was relieved to see an unseasonal tench pop up.
By toss potting pinkie I kept catching mostly tench, which to be honest was a surprise, because I didn't expect them to feed, but I wasn't complaining. It was becoming obvious that everyone was struggling. John to my right had a couple of fantails, but no proper silvers, Dom to my left on peg 6 hooked his first fish after 2hrs, which was a carp, as was his 2nd.
Swapping left and right kept the fish coming, but in the 3rd hour it slowed down. I had been feeding both margins, with maggot/pinkie to my left and maggot/caster to my right, but never had a bite from either.
With an hour to go, I was still catching the odd fish, but really needed to increase my catch rate, because I could Dom starting to catch quiet regularly. Over the left hand swim I put in a full toss pot of pinkie and my 11.5m swim was extended to 13m which received a ball of groundbait.
All this improved matters, particularly in the last 30mins when I had another run of fish, which made me breath a little easier. Come the weigh in it became obvious how hard it was, with 2 anglers only catching a single fish, which is incredible when you think about how many silvers are in this lake.
This series hasn't quite gone to plan for one reason or another, so I really pleased to have won and with other results going my way, there are now 3 of us all on the same points in 2nd place, which means a straight forward shot out in the last round.
1st 14-4 Ken Rayner - p82nd 10- 0 Dom Sullivan - p6
3rd 8- 7 Barry Fitchew - p4
4th 6- 9 Kev Jefferies - p3
5th 6- 1 Andy Gard - p1
6th 5- 8 Darren Greenwood - p5
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