AAF Group 2 Pairs witherington Farm, 27/08/2011

This was the inaugural pair’s match that pairs together an angle who would take part in the army masters competition and an angler who would fish the clubman. The Idea was to allow the Clubman to pick the Masters brain on how to fish the venue and hopefully learn something that would aid them in the future.

The draw saw the pairs and pegs get selected and I was lucky enough to end up with Pete and fortunately he had a good idea as to how to approach his swim so my job was easy, just go and catch some fish from peg 74 on the Inner Snake. On arriving at my peg about 3 people had told me that I was on a flyer, but you still need to catch the fish was my reply. Looking at my swim I had a small overhang in the far bank rough that would be my main area, there was a cut out opposite the next peg to my right (oh yeah everyone had 2 blank pegs either side!!) that was screaming out for a method chuck, I had the platform to my left just out of sight so I knew that I would fish a margin line down there and finally I planned to start on a paste line at 5m and then join it with another at 11m somewhere. I plumbed up at 5m and found the same depth at 11m in line with a purple plant at around 10 o’clock, these lines would get fished with paste and the rig was 0.19mm to a 0.17mm bottom and a size 5 Tubertini 175. These hooks are nails; I matched it with a Frenzee FP900 in 0.4g and had red Vespe E2 hollow which as with all my elastics was set through a Tension Puller kit. For the across line I set up a standard 0.15mm mainline to a 0.13mm bottom and 18 B911 with a 4X12 Big H Border float on Yellow Reflex Hollow elastic for fishing pellet on the deck, I also set up a Sconezone Slapper on 0.17mm and 0.15mm bottom to an 18 PR36 for fishing shallow again on the same elastic. My Margin rig was a 0.3g Frenzee FP800, 0.19mm to a 0.17mm bottom and a size 3 “175” this time on 13H preston Hollo.  Finally I set a method a 30g small inline method with a 4” 0.19mm hooklength with a 16 QM1 and a bait band, the rod for the short 18m chuck was my new Browning Force Carp Wand, at 8 feet long it is the perfect length for short chucks and also getting the fish to pop up closer in when you are landing them.

My bait for the day was a pint of mixed 2mm and 4mm carp pellet with a handful of Sonubaits F1 groundbait, a few 4mm and 6mm expanders, 2pints of hemp, a tin of corn, a tin of 6mm meat, a pint of 6mm carp pellet, some special paste mix and a kilo of Sensas crushed pellet groundbait that I mixed quite wet. On the all in i put a big lump of paste on my hook and filled the pot up with hemp and 6mm pellet before shipping out to my 5m mark and awaiting action, I got indications almost instantly and on my 3^rd put in the float buried and carp no.1 was on its way to the keepnet. Not bad for 10 mins work but alas that was the only one and after 20 mins I fed my 11m paste line with a pot of hemp and pellet before shipping across the far bank with a 4mm pellet on the hook and a cad pot full of pellet. The reaction again was almost instant but short lived and after an hour I had 3 carp a goldfish and a skimmer, I alternated for the next 40mins between the paste line at 11m and the far bank before seeing a carp swirl across and my mind was made up to fish shallow across. This gave me two small carp and a few Goldfish and Rudd over the next hour and by this time it was obvious that the 11m paste line was not going to work as I had only foul hooked 1 carp on it and was getting skimmered so I needed to come up with a plan for the 2^nd half of the match.

I decided to start my LHS Margin with 3 cups of loose groundbait and I plumbed my paste rig to fish on a 2+1 line just behind some reeds in the water to my right where it was a foot deeper than my left margin. I fed a few 6mm pellets and cubes of meat on this line by hand and went back across for another 20 mins. This saw me get seen off by a carp in the reeds so I chucked the feeder to my right and over the next hour I had a couple of carp and a skimmer on the tip before my mainline broke halfway down (8lb Sensor??????) and a few more goldfish on the shallow rig so I had a look down my LH margin, this was followed by a roach eating double meat so I fed another two cups of groundbait and tried my RH margin. The float buried almost immediately and another carp was on its way into the waiting net, followed closely by a skimmer, I tried the LH and had a carp so the pattern for the rest of the match was set with take a couple of fish from a margin, reefed and move onto the other side. The last hour was strong with about 8 fish to 10lb coming in for as total of around 16 Carp and a handful of bits for a total weight (Eventually Mayo!!) of just over 74lb. This was enough to win my section and the news got better when I caught up with my partner and he had finished 4th in his section, history will however show that our 5 points was only good enough for second pair on the day beaten by Gary and Daryl with 4 points, but it was still a good fun day and I can’t wait for the next one!!