Weight - 43lb 11oz (18lb 10oz - silvers)
Catch - 5 Carp, 25 Skimmers, 10 Roach, 3 Tench
Weather - Mostly cloudy, heavy showers and sunny periods
Match - Float Only - final round - 4th out of 38 - silvers
I nearly didn't make this match, because Sapphire has pulled a muscle in her one and only front leg whist chasing foxes out of the garden. As a consequence I have had to carry her in and out of the garden for toilet duties. Fortunately on Saturday she was a little more mobile, even if she was uncomfortable.
This blog wont be long, because I cocked up the last 2 hours trying to force the peg. Being the final round of Tony's Float Only League and with nothing to fish for following a poor series I just wanted to catch a few fish, be that carp or silvers. P125 put me in the right area for silvers. A quick chat with Steve Long confirmed my thoughts, so unless I was sat on a load of carp I settled on the idea of catching a few silvers. To be honest I wanted a day on the silvers to rest my back which was playing me up recently. A trip to the osteopath has been booked.
The first hour was spent looking for carp on paste at 5m and 14m, however despite hooking 4 (not necessarily in the right place) only landing 1, plus a big skimmer.
A switch to the 11m line where I fed 2 balls of special G groundbait and I soon started catching mostly hand size skimmers on 6mm pellet, with the occasional slightly bigger fish. Topping up with a nugget of groundbait kept the fish coming, although the lack of any decent skimmers was a concern, particularly since I could see Paul Blake on p124 and Gordon Cannings on p127 catching good skimmers on meat in amongst their carp. I had also set up a 5m line, but this never got going, only producing a couple of small skimmers and a 9lb carp.
My right hand margin had been fed with caster/corn and only corn down the left, hoping for some tench later on. I had a run of small roach on caster, but felt I needed some better fish, so stuck with worm or corn on the hook which produced a couple of skimmers and 3 tench.
In an effort to pull in some better skimmers and with 2 hours left, I fed some 4s in my groundbait. This was a mistake, because the swim started fizzing too much and I struggled to get a proper bite. The skimmers just wouldn't settle. In hindsight had I stuck with simply topping up with a nugget of plain groundbait I could have caught the extra 3lb needed to claim 2nd in silvers. All the silvers weights above me were accidental big skimmers on meat.
Speaking to Steve after the match, he confirmed the skimmers have been tricky to catch recently and have been shying away from too much pellet.
1st 175- 4 - Craig Edmunds - p76
2nd 173-14 - Chris Fox - p115
3rd 170- 13 - Chris Davis - p116
4th 162- 2 - Steve Seagar - p118
5th 159-11 - Neil Mercer - p97
6th 158- 3 - Shaun Townsend - p100
Silvers
1st 31- 5 - Gordon Cannings - p127
2nd 21-12 - Paul Blake - p124
3rd 20- 2 - Mike Walker - p112
4th 18-10 - Ken Rayner - p125
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