I had been looking forward to this match as I had been
spending quite a bit of time at the venue and was starting to feel in tune with
it, but as I was to find out every day is a school day. My day started out with getting rid of a duty
mobile that then saw me getting to the fishery for about 0815, not helped by an
early morning phone call on the duty phone.
Welcomes done, hooks stocked up on and money paid we were
ready for the draw, that I volunteered to do, it was reasonable on paper, I was
on peg 7 Selwood, Ian had 9 on Cottage, John and Keith were both moaning as
usual about their swims on the snake (I can’t remember the numbers).
So to my peg and the weather forecast was right with a
strong wind cutting diagonally across me right to left and slightly in my face
I was in for a rough day. Peg 7 is a renowned
margin peg with a platform 10m to my right that usually has a few fish under,
so knowing how the fish in this lake like platforms I made a decision to get
the Ultra Power out of the bag, the margin rig was 0.20mm mainline, 0.18mm
bottom, size 3 T175 and Pink Vespe 22 hollow!!!! If I hooked it I wanted it in the net and had
been assured by a friend that this is the stuff on days like this. I had a 0.3g float on to try and overcome the
strengthening wind as even at 10m it was getting hard to hold the pole still at
times, bottom was quite flat but it was 3 ½ feet deep which did not bode well
for a hit and hold swim. It was also too
deep for the normal tactic of a small ball of groundbait so I went with 6mm
meat, corn and hemp on the margin line.
My next swim and my banker was a small groundbait feeder
that I clipped up a few feet short of the island for the skimmers, I started
with a completely free running feeder but ended up with a slightly different
rig:
By having the feeder sliding on a short twisted section
and another longer section of twisted line under the feeder I had very few
tangles (you will always get a few with 0.12mm) and the bites were proper most
of the time as the fish hooked themselves.
I also set up a rig to fish at 6 sections in front of me
and a method rod for the island chuck so I was ready about 30 minutes before
the all in. As the whistle sounded I
tried the method to the island trick, but the first cast was short due to a
gust of wind, the second landed well enough but came back covered in reeds that
had been torn off the island by spawning fish and the third chuck saw it up the
bank behind me. I fed the RH margin and the 6 section lines before casting the
skimmer feeder out, and that was it for 5 hours as I struggled to catch any
real numbers of fish on the tip, just 3-4 and then they would disappear for 20
minutes then I would get another couple and they would back off again. I tried the 6 section line and managed a
skimmer but I could not present properly on that line so it git chucked up the
bank next to the method, the margin produced a puppy after a couple of hours
and in the last hour I really concentrated on it hooking 4 landing 2 from under
the platform, The first lost fish I pulled the wrong way and got cut off, the
second was a foul hooker during a gust of wind.
The last 30 minutes was the most eventful with me taking
a small storm straight in the grid whilst waiting for a bite.
I ended up helping out with the weigh in and had managed
4th on the lake beaten by Mayo to my right who caught a few on the
method off the island, as did the other two above me but I cannot remember who
it was, weights were 60odd, 50 odd, mayo on 42, and me on 32lb.
The team fared well with the other 3 all getting top two
in section and Nic Mac managed third overall but as duty was calling I had to
go back to work at the double and continue to sit next to a mobile. We are
currently third in the league with a match to go, here’s fingers crossed for a
good day at the end of the month, but first I am off to viaduct on Wednesday,
better pack a few keepnets with the weights that have been coming out of late
;-)
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