We were supposed to be on the Dorset Stour again for this match but, the weather Gods had other ideas and it was back to Lodden lakes for the second match of the year with the Army Angling Federation Group 2.
Once again we did the draw remotely the
night before and this time I was placed on peg 14, fortunately I had helped
Greg with the pegging so I had a good idea of what I would need to take with
me. The now customary messages around the people who fish the place regularly
were sent around and intel was gathered, I knew I was in a good area with tons
of room so now all I had to do was catch enough to win my section.
On getting to my peg the plan was simple, check the groundbait I had mixed the night before, clip up a feeder rod to the island boards, plumb up the waggler in open water and then set up all of my many pole rigs. I was going to fish 3 rigs long for skimmers, a line at 2+2 for roach, a top kit line for roach and then the left-hand margin with worm hoping for a bonus.
I had managed to take a quid of Nic Mac
at the weekend river match so I was quite happy when he was pegged opposite me
on a proper flyer peg 33, I had a little oops just before the all in that saw
me hook my hand and tangle the rod into all my top kits but I was almost ready
for the start, as I started to pot my first ball of groundbait in on my 13m
line Nic Mac asked if we were going another quid, well it would be rude not to. 3 balls of groundbait were fed on the long
line, some worm under the tree, I pinged the feeder to the island and started
to catty corn into the open water.
After 15 minutes I had received a few small indications and had caught a small roach on the feeder, when out of the blue the next cast had a positive indication and a 10oz skimmer was on the end, happy days I thought. But that was it for another 30 minutes, I had a few more odd indications but could not convert any of them to fish, I had seen a few roach topping close in so I decided to try feeding a little bread on the 2+2 line and fish some punched bread to see if I could get a run of them together as the only people I could see catching was Greg and Mick to my right.
In fact they were catching regularly, and proper skimmers so it was head down time, I put on a 6mm punch of bread and caught a micro roach, same next put in and decided that bread was not the one. I fed a ball of groundbait on the short line and cast the feeder in disgust, I was going to fish it out until the end of the first hour now.
58 minutes into the match and my tip
went around again and skimmer number 2 was in the landing net, now I was in a
quandary, do I stay on the tip and hope it gets better or try something else? Well 2 more casts on the feeder saw no bites
or indications so I came in on the long pole.
I started on the 0.4g rig but that didn’t feel right in the conditions,
there was little undertow or wind, so I decided to swap to my hairy fairy 0.2g
strung out rig. A single dead maggot was
laid out the back of the bait and I was attached to skimmer number 3 quite
quickly and so my day panned out for me.
I would have 1 or 2 skimmers on the long pole line and then spend 30-60 minutes
looking for roach or bits to keep putting some weight into the net before a few
skimmers would arrive again out of the blue.
At the halfway point I tried the wag
and corn and had a couple of funny indications so I swapped to double dead red
maggot on the hook and had a 1lb skimmer, but that was it for the waggler. I had nothing on the feeder after the first
hour, I struggled to keep roach on the hook on the short lines due to fishing
caster and hooking very small roach and I had 1 micro perch from down the edge
on 2 whole worms!
All day I had been watching Greg and Mick catching well, Greg even had a 4lb grass carp!! As the scales came around I just had to hope that I had caught enough to beat Nic opposite as he was not only going a quid with me but also in my section. My 10 skimmers and a few roach went 5.370 KG, this beat Nic by less than a pound as he had 7 fish but they were all larger than mine. Most of his had come from open water on the feeder. As it turned out it was enough for me to win the section, I had also taken a quid of Docs around the corner as we were in the naturals knock out against each other.
Greg won with 20.480KG with Mick second on 20.240KG, it had been frustrating watching them catch all day but fortunately the pegging had seen them in with the rest of the top of the lake so I dodged that bullet.
Again another well run match and the
last for the next month due to Lockdown 2.0.
Thankyou to http://www.gillinghamanglingclub.co.uk/ for allowing us to use their lakes again with short notice, well done Greg on another well run event. See you all soon.
What
would I do different:
After seeing the frost in the morning, I would should have fished the feeder in the open water and the waggle closer with maggot. I won’t bother with bread unless its very cold and clear on there and that’s about it really, in need more light rigs tied as I only had one 0.2g rig and had to cobble another one together to get catching again.
Rigs used:
Pole Double Bulk:
Line: 0.15mm to 0.11mm Powerline
Hook: 16
Float: 0.8g Drennan Carp 2
Elastic: Number 5 preston slip original through 1 section
Line: 0.13mm to 0.11mm Powerline
Hook: 18 Preston SFM
Float: 0.2g and 0.3g Drennan AS3 long 0.5g AS3 short
Elastic: Preston 7 dura hollow
Line: 0.13mm to 0.11mm Powerline
Hook: 18 Preston SFM
Float: 0.4 Drennan SF2
Elastic: Preston 13H through 1 section
Line: 0.19mm Powerline to 0.17mm Colmic Stream
Hook: 3 T175
Float: 0.6g Drennan Carp 3
Rod: 3.3m Matrix horizon xs with 1 oz tip
Reel: TDM 3012 loaded with 6lb Guru Pulse
Rig: Helicopter 0.11mm hook length to 16 911 F1
Feeder: 20 Guru commercial open end (The smaller one)
Rod: Cadence CS10 13ft number 1
Reel: Cadence CS10 4000 loaded with 3lb maxima
Float: Dave Harrell 3AA sensitip wag
Hook length: 0.11 to 18 eyed and quick stop for corn, size 16 B911 f1 for maggot
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