So it was off up north for the Army team to Westwood
lakes near Boston, Lincolnshire, Craig and I were sharing a van so he picked me
up on Sunday afternoon and then we had a leisurely drive up to the
accommodation at some RAF base ready for the team brief on the Sunday
night.
The brief was get ready for a lot of fish and that
shallow with pellet would be our main approach so with that in mind we all got
a good night’s sleep…. Yeah whatever.
Day 1, Falcon peg 43
So the plan was 2+2 with pellet shallow for the first 3
hours and then down the edge for the last 2 hours, I set up a 12 inch and 6
inch rig and plumbed up an edge rig, then I went to the Café with Craig and a
couple of other for around an hour before going back to my peg to wait another
half an hour before the start of the match.
The all-in was called and I was straight out on the
deeper shallow rig, straight away it was obvious that the wind would be an
issue as it was sort of in my face over the high bank opposite and it was
making the feeding of 4mm pellet on the shallow line troublesome. Top overcome it I started to feed 6mm and
this sorted it, almost, but I was still not accurate enough really, I was also
soon onto the shallower rig and I started to catch steady away for the first
couple of hours.
At the three hour mark my shallow line had become very
hard work so I moved down my two edges feeding pellet and trying to catch on
the deck, Scott to my right was doing ok on it but I just could not get it to
work correctly and I ended up frustrated and chasing fish shallow down the
edge, in the last 15 minutes I sorted the feeding though and had a golden spell
of probably 15 fish in as many put ins.
It was not enough though and my 43Kg was enough for 10th
out of the 14 anglers on the bank, top weight though had been a high 50Kg I
think and with most people on 45-50kg it had been a close match.
Day 2, Falcon peg 20:
This time Gaz had said that we could do any method for
the last 2 hours if we wished so on top of the shallow and edge rigs I also put
up a paste rig. This time it was Craig’s
shout on the coffees and cake so we were sat in the café for a while again and
we were all set up and ready to go well before the all in.
Fortunately I was fishing 2+1 this time so my sore
throwing arm was not going to get as much of a hammering, and as I had Gaz sat
top my right on the corner I knew I was being watched so I needed to put in a
half decent performance, for the first 2.5 hours again I was fishing
shallow. Finding the best feeding
pattern to get the fish taking your hook pellet was key and once you had found
that they would usually hook themselves, however, due to changeable weather
they turned off again. It was at this
point that I pulled out my Joker card and started on my paste line, although I
wasn’t setting the world on fire I was defiantly catching a few fish, and by
feeding maggot down my left hand edge every now and again I would get a few
barbel on it. I chopped and changed
between the paste and edge for the last stint of the match and the fish were of
a much better stamp than I had been catching shallow and I even had a few
barbel on paste so there were definitely a few in the area.
Once the all-out was called we followed the scales around
the lake and although I guessed about 50Kg I think I actually had 61Kg for the
top weight of the day. So Paste was definitely
an option come match day.
Day 3 Osprey peg 18
This time we were on Osprey and al that we had heard
about was the other two teams catching 100kg weights for the last 2 days so to
say that we were full of excitement wa an understatement, unfortunately the
weasther gods got in the way and it rained from about an hour after the all in
until after the all-out. The best tactic
was shallow with pellet by far and although it slowed down for me in the last
hour or so when I switched to a paste line, it wasn’t quite right although once
I sorted the feeding in the last 15 minutes I started to bag and had 6 carp in
the last 15 minutes for probably 20lb.
this time it was feed a quarter of a cup of wetted 6mm pellet and catch
2 carp then repeat.
The weights to my right were impressive with everyone
having over 70KG, I had 71Kg for 4th on the day and what a day it
had been catching F1’s on a top kit. I had spent the previous night tying
pellets into lasso’s and then varnishing them so that they stayed on the hair
for more than 1 fish, but I had used most of them up so after the team was
announced I was back in my room tying hooklengths for the Inter Services the
next Day.
Inter Services Championship, Falcon peg 37
This had been a good area when we had been on the lake a
couple of days earlier, and I ended up with Baz from the RAF team and local
expert in my section, he even came over to point out that I was sat on a flyer
which is nice. Same plan as every other day so two shallow rigs, paste rig,
track rig, shallow paste and a margin rig were all set up, and then it was the
wait for the all-in. I started at 2+1
and caught very well for the first couple of hours, my paste line gave me a few
carp and the margins were also slower than expected but fortunately I was able
top keep the shallow fish coming all day by feeding a mixture of pellet and
caster in the final hour to fend off Baz’s late charge. In the last 2 hours Baz actually tried to
empty the lake of fish, I was just lucky that most of his fish were smaller
than mine. Baz has 63Kg I think, the
Navy lad had 40kg I think and I managed 71 Kg for a section win that though is
where the good news ended as we only managed 3 out of 10 section wins as a
team. Results were RAF 14 points, Army
22 points and Navy &RM 24 points.
Inter Services Individual Championship, Falcon peg 23
This was an out and out individual match so I could do
what I wanted, and a lot of people drew and then went home so there was bags of
room in some areas. Mine was not one and
I had Toby, Martin and Gus to my right and a Navy lad then Pez to my left. I had a stiff breeze left to right and it was
cooler than it had been all week so I set up a track paste rig, a margin paste
rig and a shallow paste rig.
I stared on the track and caught from the start, the main
problem was liners and foul hookers due to the numbers of fish floating around
just off bottom, but I was steadily putting weight in to the onion sack all
day. Craig came around after a couple of
hours to see how I was doing and because I was doing all right we decided to
stay. Martin, Gus and Toby were all
struggling to get any numbers of fish shallow and they were being forced to go
onto other tactics, Martin even managed to snag a near double figure carp and
get it in after about 15 minutes of
faffing about…
The all out was gratefully received and the scales told
us that Gus had 30kg, Martin 40kg, Toby 41.060 and I had squeaked the section
with 41.260Kg, Pez had 43 Kg again after swapping to paste after 10 minutes of
not catching shallow. Rocky was third,
Gaz second and Steve won it all with 50Kg + weights from 3 pegs in a row around
where I had been the day before.
All in all it is a fantastic fishery with great
facilities, I wish that we could have been on a couple of the bigger fish lakes
but never mind, Thanks to the RAF for running it and I look forward to the
Navys choice of venue for next year.
What would I have done differently?
On day 1 I definitely struggled because I had to fish
2+2, also all week I struggled to get the margins to work properly so those
are the two aspects to look at, although I really do not fish venues like that
very often.
Tackle used:
Pole Paste:
Elastic: Colmic Blue but swapped to Preston 17H
Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm Powerline
Hook: 4 Tubertini 175
Float: 4X10 Big H Paste
Pole shallow 12 inch:
Elastic: White Hydro
Line: 0.19mm to 0.13mm Powerline
Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag
Float: 0.2g Drennan crystal dibber
Pole shallow 6 inch:
Elastic: White Hydro Swapped to blue colmic for last 3
days
Line: 0.19mm to 0.13mm Powerline
Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag
Float: MW Pea
Pole Margin:
Elastic: Blue
Colmic but swapped to Red Vespe after day 2
Line: 0.19mm powerline to 0.17mm Powerline
Hook: 2 or 3 Tubertini 175
Float: Drennan carp 4 0.3 or AS4 0.4g
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