Catch - 5 Carp, 16 Skimmers, 1 Roach, 1 Rudd
Weather - Sunny & windy later
Match - Float Only rd 4 - 9th out of 40 overall, 2nd in silvers, 2nd in section
The 4th round of the Float Only series and a tough day was expected with 40 anglers on the lake in flat sunny conditions, although it didn't stay flat for long.
Peg 7 put me on the end of the first island and I was told it was a decent peg. My section ran down to peg 1 (Dave Hodgson P6, Tim Ford P5, Neil Mercer P3 and Joe McMahon P1).
After the practice match 2 weeks ago I had a clearer idea of how I was going to approach today and bar a mistake with my feeding it nearly worked.
On the all in 2 balls of over wetted groundbait (I didn't want an active mix) was fed at 10m to my left with caster & 4s, and unlike 2 weeks ago I didn't feed any chopped worm. Whilst that settled I started on the waggler & pellet cast towards to island, as was Bob Gullick opposite. Despite fish moving around the island, either of us caught.After 30mins it was time to try the 10m line after dumping some pellet & paste at 14m. Fishing worm at 10m, an 8lb carp was landed after 10mins and then I had a run of skimmers ranging from 8oz up to 2lb, which probably put me ahead in the section. However like everyone else the middle hours of the match were challenging!
I preserved with the waggler for a while losing a couple of hooklengths as I got too close to the reeds. I did hook a fish which snagged me before I could do anything, but eventually I flirted with danger once too often casting the waggler down the side the island only to get snagged on an underwater branch losing the whole rig. I didn't bother setting it up again, mainly because those that were catching on it in my section were all commenting on how small the carp were and they were being caught infrequently. I reasoned if I could get my long paste line to work and then my margin I might be able to catch better sized fish making up ground on the rest in my section particularly Tim who managed to keep catching the odd fish throughout.
In between fishing the waggler I caught a couple more skimmers off my 10m line, but it was slow, so I set up another line to my right which produced a couple more skimmers.
The long paste line was a disappointment. Although I caught 2 skimmers, in hindsight I don't think I fed heavily enough in the 6ft deep swim.
Towards the end of the match I concentrated more on the left margin where I had been feeding 4s & 6s. By fishing paste tight to the bank in 3ft of water, I hooked 5 carp, landing 4. The lost carp I think was fouled by the way it was swimming around.
By the all out, Tim was admitting to 50lb, whilst Neil & Joe were admitting to 30-35lb. Dave had a bit of torrid day getting proper chip shopped. I thought I had about 40lb, however the carp were a little heavier than I thought and ended up pushing Tim quite close for the section. 2nd in the silvers was a nice consolation though and my 4th pick up in the series.
1st 115- 7 - Paul Elmes - p9
2nd 82- 5 - Glenn Bailey - p36
3rd 81-13 - Vic Bush - p23
4th 72-10 - Bela Bakos - p14
5th 72- 4 - Tom Mangnall - p24
6th 64-10 - Tony Rixon - p11
Silvers
1st 26- 8 - Paul Faires - p17
2nd 15-10 - Ken Rayner - p7
3rd 15- 2 - John Fuidge - p40
4th 13- 8 - Bob Gullick - p42
5th 12-12 - Tony Rixon - p11
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