On arriving at the draw I realised that there were going
to be more than the 20 I thought were turning up and that we would now be split
over Cary and Cambell. Brews drunk,
hellos dished out it was time for the draw, Greg and I had decided that we
would go a quid if we drew a similar area as the venue can be very peggy at
times, as it turned out he was on 113 ad I was on 114 so a quid wager it was.
I got my peg and it was obvious that there was a few fish
moving around in front of us as they were showing all the way between pegs 110 to
my left and 115 to my right. Due to this I decided on a simple plan which would
consist of fishing the pole about 8 metres to try and push it towards Greggs 13
metre line, a bomb rod to fish meat and pellet and waggler rod to fish the same
over the top. It turned out Greg set up at 16m later!! I was ready well before the all in so decided to give Gregg some
good advice as he was going on about just fishing for skimmers, I tried to get
inside his head I would regret this decision later.
At the all in I fed about 30 grains of hemp and a few
cubes of meat on my 8 metre line and then pinged the waggler out into the
middle, I then waited and waited and waited.
I've been watching Greg catch shallow on the pole at 16
metres and the guys to his left were catching fish, I was starting to despair
come close to the two hour point when nothing had happened to such a point then
I decided to use a lighter bomb on my bottom rig and then I dipped my bait in
some glug, the bait was in the water for about four minutes and carp number one
was on. It came in quick and it was a nice double so a good start. I pinged the
rig out again and I had a second bite pretty quickly after that and again for
the third bite and soon I was starting to catch up with Greg who was currently
saying he had about 50 pounds and my 3 fish went about 30 pounds.
I had to go on the waggler and tried the short pole line
but at this point I was getting fed up so I decided to start a margin line. I
got off my box set up another top kit plumbed up down the margins on top kit
plus one left and right and start throwing in some meat.
Over the next hour I had another Carp on the tip and a
foul hooker in the margin, I was reckoning to about 50lb to Gregs 70 so it was
close, but I then sat there fishless for the next hour and a half, whilst Greg
had 4 quick carp from down his left hand edge. I was using all the tricks I had
by this point and suddenly moaning was a viable tactic and the tip flew around
with another carp on pellet.
Charlie in the swim to my right was now catching down his
edge as well so I decided to follow suite and in the last 30 minutes I had 4
more carp that probably went 40lb between them, then it was the all out. The day had been a rollercoaster but I was
admitting to 100lb with 11 carp from 4 to 14lb in weight.
The history books will show that Greg had 128lb I had
100lb 10oz (not a bad guess) and Charlie won the match with about 155lb so I
was well and truly Harried (Battered both sides). Still it was a really good day getting out
and catching a few fish and trying to get my eye in for later in the year.
What would I do different:
I should have spent less time on the waggle oin the early
parts of the match as the wind was too strong and was making presentation
difficult, I should have also set up a long pole line and short pole line
rather than a line in the middle of the two areas, I only needed 3 more fish to
give Greg a run for his money, so in the next few months I will be mostly tying
more rigs 😊.
Rigs used:
Feeder 1:
Rod: Drennan S7 10ft Carp Feder with 1.5oz tip
Reel: Cadence CS5 4000
Line: 8lb sensor, 0.19mm powerline hooklength
Hook: 12 QM1
Feeder: 20g Guru cage
Waggler:
Rod: Drennan ultralight 12ft
Reel: Cadence CS10 4000
Line: 4lb sensor,
Hook: 18 Guru pellet wag pre tied to 0.17mm
Float: 3.5g Drennan visi wag.
Pole Margin:
Elastic: Preston 17H
Line: 0.21mm to 0.19mm Powerline
Hook: 4 T175
Float: 0.4g Drennan Carp 3
Pole short:
Elastic: Blue Colmic Hollow
Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm Powerline
Hook: 2 Tubetini 175
Float: 0.2g Drennan Carp 4
