Weight - 80lb 8oz
Catch - 52 Carp, 3 Skimmers, 1 Gudgeon
Weather - Mild, sunny and a light breeze
Match - Open - 5th out of 10
Nick Merry had arranged todays open/knock up, which was very timely in light of the fact I would be fishing Ash in next weeks pair's series and never fished the lake.
Peg 62 put me on the first peg, which everyone mentioned was a flier. However, now the weather is starting to cool down, I wasn't convinced it would be a flier, particularly when I saw a number of carp moving around in front of the middle pegs.
Due to the light breeze which was mostly off my back I set up a waggler, along with a method feeder (which was only cast once).
Plumbing up revealed a uniform flat bottom of around 5ft which sloped up to a couple inches towards the end bank.
On the all in, micros & 6s were fed at 13m where it began to slope up and started on the waggler with dead maggot. 2nd cast I had a small carp, followed by another shortly afterwards before that died.
A switch to the 13m line proved to be frustrating because there were obviously fish in the swim but lost more than I landed and just got the feeling the fish hadn't settled. In the meantime I had been pinging 4s 2m off the end bank and switched to let the 13m line settle, produced a beautiful 8lb mirrored ghostie, followed by a smaller carp soon after, before it than died.
Resting the 13m line did it some good, as I started catching and got into a rhythm mostly catching on corn over 6s. The end bank swim produced a few carp when I felt the need to rest the 13m line and looking down the lake I thought I was keeping pace with the middle pegs. Martin Preston next to me on p63 was by his own admission having a mare, probably spending too much time on the waggler.
As the match progressed the 13m line continued to produce most of my fish, but it was noticeable the fish were becoming smaller and I started to catch a few skimmers. In hindsight I made a mistake, cupping in a 1/2 pot of pellet, because the swim was never as good as it was before.
To honest I wasn't that concerned, a) because I was experimenting with feed and b) I fully expected my end bank swim to come on strong late on. I also had a number of fish on the waggler and with just over 90mins left I still felt I was in touch with the middle pegs. Unfortunately those last 90mins turned into a bit of a mare. It was if the fish simply moved out of the swim.
I still managed a couple of small carp from the 13m line, although the waggler produced a better stamp of carp, but it had slowed right down. The end bank swim didn't produce, so switched from feeding pellet to potting in groundbait and dead maggot. I had 1 gudgeon!
At the half way point I had also started feeding meat at the bottom of the near shelf, which didn't produce anything. So a really disappointing end to the match and felt had I kept catching at the same rate as the first 4hrs, then 100lb was definitely on the cards, but the peg simply died on me, as the middle pegs got stronger, where the top 4 weights came from.
Having said that, I cant be too disappointed with 80lb and plenty of bites at the end of October. Just wish the place was closer to home.
1st 114- 2 - Ash Tomkins (TackleUK) - p68
2nd 105-14 - Nick Merry (Colmic) - p66
3rd 95- 0 - Phil Cardwell - p69
4th 89-12 - Alex Nadin - p65
5th 80- 8 - Ken Rayner (Colmic) - p62
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