Coming into the 4th round of the league I was lying 4th, a little way behind Pete Ball, Matt Banks and Tony Gilbert, so I needed good section points. With 15 booked in we were all on Match Lake with 2 sections, 1 down each side of the lake.
As I didn’t get to fish the lake yesterday, I set up a number of rigs to cover my options, including a silvers rig as the results suggested there were loads of silvers (F1s, tench, crucians, skimmers) to be had. However, as usual paste (Blue Ice : Kriller) was going to be my main focus.
Plumbing up revealed it was only 2ft in the deepest part and the lakes really need some water.
On the all-in I soon mugged a carp, before they quickly sulked away or refused to take the bait. I didn’t waste too much time on this, before switching to fishing paste against the far bank in the shadow of the opposite tree, catching 3 carp before they went scatty and difficult to get a proper bite.
Retreating to a 2+2 line off to my right where I had a fed a few micros and 4s, fishing an expander didn’t produce a bite. A switch to worm was better, catching small tench and crucians, but after 30mins it really wasn’t quick enough, and the line was binned.
Matt Banks on p15 decided to go down his margin early catching 3 or 4 fish and soon overtook me. As I thought I needed to catch F1s and silvers mid-match, which in hindsight was a mistake, I switched to fishing a hair rigged 6mm pellet, tapping in 4s at 14m at the bottom of the far shelf. This was better catching some bigger F1’s and tench, but only 1 carp.
Back on the paste by the island resulted in another 2 carp, before they went funny again, but I was still about 10-15lb behind Matt, who was still taking the odd fish from his margin.
By the halfway point (2¾hrs) I probably had about 30lb. I had been feeding mostly 4s, with a little meat/corn into my right margin, but as yet no bites, so I started to introduce more micros, but again no bites which was a little frustrating and surprising. Therefore, with nothing to lose I mixed up some groundbait with loads of micros to try and pull in some fish.
Fortunately, I managed a couple more carp from the island, but I really needed to catch closer in. I had also started feeding 4s on a 2+2 line, initially as a throw away line, but this turned into a really good area, again catching on paste.
As for my right margin, the introduction of groundbait really helped. Initially I tried meat, then double worm, but was getting messed about by smaller fish, so ended up on paste, rotating between the margin and the 2+2 line.
By all out, I expected to be 4th in section as I thought Matt might have just beat me, Nigel on p22 was admitting to 110lb and Tony had 4 nets in. As it happened I had slightly more than expected thanks to my silvers, beating Matt by 10lb and Nigel had overestimated weighing in 92lb. As expected, Tony comfortably won the match and section.
My 2nd in section consolidated my league position with 2 rounds remaining. Overall, an enjoyable day and come the end I wished we had fished a 6hr match, rather than 5.5hrs as I finished the match strongly.
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