Catch - 4 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 1 Tench, 1 F1, 1 Perch
Weather - Bright and sunny start, becoming increasingly cloudy. Heavy rain later.
Match - Open - 2nd out of 18 - silvers, 7th overall
More than happy to draw p19 and with 150lb coming off it last week I was expecting a few fish. However as you can see from above, it didn't happen. The lake just completely shut down.
I caught my first carp after an hour, whilst Mark Poppleton on p7 had 2 and Lewis Jones on p5 had 1. Eric Fouracre and Ray White either side of me had only caught a few silvers.
After 2 hrs I had another carp on 6mm pellet at the bottom of the far shelf. I had been warned that last week it was slow going early on with the fish not turning up until the last 2 hours, so I wasn't overly concerned, although I wasn't expecting it to be this hard. I deliberately hadn't fed much, but started pinging pellet to my right, hoping the carp or big skimmers would settle over the feed late on - they never did.
Lewis had so far struggled to catch from the island, but was now catching down his left hand margin towards the vacant peg 3. Russ on peg 1 had also started to catch, but as for everyone else we were all struggling.
A new swim feeding a small toss pot of 4s towards the gap, produced 3 skimmers and an F1 again on 6mm pellet in a 30min spell. Another carp followed later but I really couldn't string anything together.
Lewis and Russ were still catching and looked like framing, with my best chance of a pick up being the silvers. With 2hrs to go and nothing to lose, a pot of caster with some meat went down by the p20 pallet, hoping a some decent carp or big skimmers/tench/perch.
This swim eventually produced late on, losing a carp, before landing an 8lber on double caster and then a tench. The only problem was when striking the pole lifted into a branch and I think I pulled out of a couple big perch which needed a proper strike to set the hook.
Have to say I was glad when the all out was called and a number of anglers didn't bother weighing.
The last 5 weeks has seen my pick up rate drop from over 2 in 3 during the previous 10 months, to 1 in 3. Disappointing and whilst I've had a couple of bad draws, bad decision making has been the main reason for my drop in form. At least today whilst the carp didn't feed, I had a bit of luck catching the skimmers in a short space of time, but making the decision to fish caster down the right pallet instead of pellet accounted for a tench which meant I beat Mike Duckett for 2nd in silvers and a much needed pick up. Hopefully a turning point in my fortunes.
1st - 92-12 - Lewis Jones (Thyers) - p5
2nd - 92-11 - Steve Seager (Bristol) - p41
3rd - 92- 9 - Russ Peck (Lands End) - p1
4th - 77- 2 - Kev Molton (Bristol) - p46
5th - 54- 1 - Rich Heatley (PSV) - p13
6th - 51- 5 - Rod Wootton (Brstol) - p42
Silvers
1st - 18-14 - Rod Wootton - p42
2nd - 12-13 - Ken Rayner (Colmic) - p19
3rd - 11-10 - Mike Duckett (Lands End) - p58
The last 5 weeks has seen my pick up rate drop from over 2 in 3 during the previous 10 months, to 1 in 3. Disappointing and whilst I've had a couple of bad draws, bad decision making has been the main reason for my drop in form. At least today whilst the carp didn't feed, I had a bit of luck catching the skimmers in a short space of time, but making the decision to fish caster down the right pallet instead of pellet accounted for a tench which meant I beat Mike Duckett for 2nd in silvers and a much needed pick up. Hopefully a turning point in my fortunes.
1st - 92-12 - Lewis Jones (Thyers) - p5
2nd - 92-11 - Steve Seager (Bristol) - p41
3rd - 92- 9 - Russ Peck (Lands End) - p1
4th - 77- 2 - Kev Molton (Bristol) - p46
5th - 54- 1 - Rich Heatley (PSV) - p13
6th - 51- 5 - Rod Wootton (Brstol) - p42
Silvers
1st - 18-14 - Rod Wootton - p42
2nd - 12-13 - Ken Rayner (Colmic) - p19
3rd - 11-10 - Mike Duckett (Lands End) - p58
No comments:
Post a Comment