Catch - 30 Carp, 2 Roach
Weather - Wet and windy, became a little dryer later
Match - Airsprung AC - 1st out of 13
On the drive down I started questioning my sanity. It was raining hard again and the temperature gauge read 12-13c, which felt more like autumn than summer. On arrival I realised I hadn't brought any 8mm pellet (other than the hookers I keep in a small container) and left my groundbait bucket at home. So not a great start to the day and was wondering whether it was going to be one of those days. Fortunately Steve Ince came to the rescue with a bucket so at least the groundbait could be mixed and the pre-ordered bacon baguettes arrived which were very welcome.
The most optimistic angler today was Tom Ince, who stood shivering under a golf umbrella, wearing shorts determined not to give in to the rubbish weather!
The good news was I couldn't draw the same peg as last time for the 4th time on the trot, because it wasn't in - yay! I fancied a draw on the far wooded bank and got my wish with p11, however of all the pegs on that side it was the 'bird cage' which is narrow with very little margin, i.e. the one you don't want. Fortunately I could park the car close by, taking what I needed from the carryall and rod holdall, leaving the rest to stay dry.
With the wind blowing into my face I decided to start on the method fishing with groundbait whilst letting the pellet fed 12m line settle. The intention was to fish the feeder for 30mins, but ended up staying on it for 2hrs with either a bright pink or red band 'um pellet being best. I did lose a couple to snags and had one decent fish roll over the hooklength, but 12 fish in the net was a handy start. For what ever reason the method caught fish here tend to be on the small side so I really didn't want to stay on it for too long.
A switch to the 12m line (carrat 0.2g > .16 > 16 B960) fishing 8mm pellet over toss potted 6s produced 3 carp, but it wasn't prolific and just got the feeling the strong wind was affecting presentation too much.
From the start I had fed meat and hemp into the deeper right hand edge and was immediately rewarded with a 4lber on double 8mm meat. The next carp snagged in some submerged branches. After tying a new rig (powertrap 0.2g > .17 . 16 carp feeder) a switch from 14-17 hollow to a heavier 16-20 meant no more carp made it to the snags.A good 90min spell saw me land 10 carp up to 9lb, before it went quiet, but I was now thinking about framing. I hadn't seen too much being caught from the far side other than Nick Ince (but it transpired he had caught a lot of smaller fish including roach on worm over pellet).
So far the left margin had remained untouched allowing the fish to settle over the groundbait - never had a bite other than from roach. Towards the end of the match loads more groundbait was fed into the margin, to avail. To be honest it wasn't an ideal margin to fish, with sunken roots and overhanging brambles, but even so I was expecting a few fish from it.
The last hour was a case of picking up a few fish on the feeder and then down the right hand edge.
By the all out, I was little dryer than when I started the match. I was pleased with my efforts and was fairly sure I had at least framed. Kev Hanson was admitting to 40 carp, mostly on the method and Hippy had also caught well on paste. Fortunately I had beaten both of them thanks to a few better margin fish and I just beat Ryan on p1 who had a very good last hour.
So a long overdue and much needed win.
1st 100- 4 - Ken Rayner - p11
2nd 99- 6 - Ryan Heard - p1
3rd 83- 0 - Richard Whitmarsh - p13
4th 82- 6 - Kev Hanson - p8
5th 71- 8 - Tom Ince - p7
6th 64- 8 - Steve Ince - p5
No comments:
Post a Comment