18/03/17 - Sedges - Tile

Weight - 110lb 5oz (10lb 12oz - silvers)
Catch - 17 Carp, 7 Skimmers, 1 Goldfish
Weather - Windy, mostly cloudy and overcast
Match - Pairs Series - 2nd round - 4th out of 34 overall , 1st in section

The last 7 months has certainly been an interesting time in my fishing. Really proud to have been asked to be part of Colmic South West, which then triggered a 10 week period were I struggled to catch and string any results together! Fortunately since the new year I have started to pick-up again and now the Colmic team is sponsored by Marukyu. I have used some of their products in the past, such as the JPZ pellts and 131 groundbaits, and I'm really looking forward to using more of their products. I would also like to thank Mark Poppleton, because without his efforts the sponsorship with Colmic and now Marukyu wouldn't have happened. My job now is to do justice to both brands.

Back to todays match and following our disaster in the first round Mark and I were effectively fishing for pride. It was my turn to draw and put Mark on p19 (brick Lake) were 100lb came from last week and I was on p27 (Tile Lake) which was in a decent area.

My section included Ben Hagg on p26, Dave White (p28) and Nick Veale in the corner (p30), so a tough section. It was also a lively section with Jamie Parkhouse on the other side of Ben in the next section. Dave in particular kindly reminded me of my 10lb from the previous round - more than once!

One of the nice things about Sedges is the venue rarely fishes the same the following week. Today there was a strong westerly wind, which was blowing off my back, which would make presentation easier, however I was concerned the fish would follow the wind to other side of the lake. I set up a 4g loaded insert waggler, a small hybrid feeder, a straight lead and just the one pole rig to fish banded pellet in 6ft of water. A shallow rig was also set up, but never got used.

On the all in a half cup of 6s covered in some Marukyu Halibat boost juice at 14m and I started on the waggler & 8mm pellet set at 2.5ft. After 15mins and no bites, prompted a switch to the feeder, which produced a 12oz goldfish.

After 40mins this was my only fish, but everyone was struggling, except for Jamie who had a good start on his pole line.

A switch the pole, fishing banded 6mm pellet was slow initially, but my pinging 6mm pellet I started to string a few fish together including a couple of decent size skimmers and 2 carp, before the line died. This now put me roughly level with Ben, but Dave had yet to catch and Nick in the corner was being hampered by the anglers walking around the canal lake.

A switch back to the waggler were I had been pinging 8mm pellet towards the end of the island (wind assisted) resulted in catching carp over the next couple of hours fishing between 2-3ft deep. Fishing in the ripple was important, because when ever there was a lull in sport corresponded with the wind dropping. What was also noticeable, I caught most of my bigger fish in open water up to 12lb 12oz, away from the island were I was pinging pellet.

With 2 hours left I was now leading the section, closely followed by Ben, who fortunately for me had a smaller stamp of fish.

A couple more tries on the pole only produced a couple of skimmers and those carp just didn't want to come in, whilst the anglers opposite in the wind were all catching on the pole. Other than catching a few fish early, no one really caught consistently on the pole.

The last 90mins was a case of picking off fish where I could. A couple more on the waggler and a decent carp on the lead/meat.

Come the weigh in I felt I was close to a 100lb and was delighted to weigh 110lb, banishing my previous rounds result. Ben finished 2nd with 78lb and Dave had a tough day with 32lb. As it transpired my 110lb was the best weight on my bank, finished 4th overall.

Mark struggled in his section which was won with only 15lb, so not surprise he wasn't too happy. Anyway well done to the winners and looking forward to James Cooper series starting next week.

1st - 160- 5 - Nigel Garrett (Mosella) - p40

2nd - 116-12 - Martin Bilder - p10

3rd - 115- 3 - Keith Bilder - p33

4th - 110- 5 - Ken Rayner (Colmic/Maryuku)

5th - 99-10 - Paul Lock - (Sedges)

6th - 94-10 - Jamie Cook - (Sedges)

1st Keith Bilder and Jack Arpino 2 points 332lb 8oz
2nd Jamie Parkhouse and Paul Homewood 2 points 287lb 12oz
3rd Ben Hagg and Dan White 3 points 437lb 12oz