Fate is a funny thing, and in the middle of a really busy
period personally with moving house and working away from home I was supposed
to be on the Royal Signals Carp Championships at Todber Manor. I had managed a
practice session the week before that resulted in 16 fish to 22lb 6oz, and
since only 23 fish had come out of the lake whilst I was there I thought that I
would be in with a chance, given a decent draw. I also have a link to the video on the right hand side of this page.
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| An early morning double |
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| Little Hayes |
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| 22lb mirror |
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| 17lb Common |
As I have already alluded to though fate is a funny thing
and it was never to be as I was involved in a bit of a crash on the Monday
night heading down to the fishery when a not so young lady decided to see how
close she could get to my bumper at a roundabout… the answer – 2 inches. Not a problem I hear you say as most of the
damage was on the bumper and that was what it’s for ….well the safety belts
fired their safety’s so I could not drive anywhere.
My Van was recovered to Blandford.. From Stonehenge?? And
Sarah picked me up from the side of the road, this meant that all my kit was in
the wrong county and I had no idea as to when I would get transport so I would
miss the draw the next morning. Due to this I cried off the Carp match. Monday night and Tuesday morning saw my phone
in meltdown with calls to and from insurance companys and just after lunch on
the Tuesday new wheels were delivered to me…as I thought that the carp match
would be out of reach by now I phoned Craig to see if there was any room on the
Viaduct match the next day, especially as it would give me a chance to concrete
my third place in the league. I was in luck as someone had dropped out so
plansd made I drove to blandford to collect my carp gear, drove to todber to
take some photos and then got home and prepped my kit the best I could in an
hour.
The morning arrived and I drove to meet up with the rest
of the team at Maccy D’s, banter in full flow and brerakfast done it was soon
to the venue for the all important draw. Azi Red was myself, Daz and Ben so I
was volunteered to do the draw, it was not good news as once again I pulled 94
out of the bag, this time Daz was sat on it, Ben had 114 and I was stuffed on
peg 60. Team wise it was an alright
draw, 94 should have had a few fish in front of it and 114 is always decent the
only real bogey was 60 but I decided that a good days fishing is still better
than a day at work so I got on with it.
I set up a pellet wag, a meat rig for 14.5m, a margin rig
for the platform of 61 (Which H on 62 also plumbed) and a dobbing rig. I
started on the dobbing rig having fed half a pot of bait on the 14.5m line and
straight away I knew I was up against it as I was sat in the shade and all the
fish were enjoying the sun. I swapped to
the pellet wag to try and make some thing happen and in short bar 1 bite at
about half way through the pellet wag was a damp squib. I managed to mug 2 fish
through the course of the day but I never had them in numbers in front of me, H
was catching on the bomb so I set one up and lost a foul hooker (or an eel!)
and I managed a small tench and a rudd on a short meat line, and a foul hooked
roach complete with egg sac on paste down the edge, I changed to paste as there
were skimmers and roach spawning down the edge under the trees to my left.
The end could not come soon enough especially as every
match angler I spoke to went unlucky and every pleasure angler went that’s a
really good edge peg. I really didn’t want to talk to any more people after the
match.
My 2 carp and bits went 23-8 enough for 13th
in section, the team was 12th out of 16 I think in all a not so good
day. The rest of the fishery was quite fair with a few tons and good back up
weights. Ben managed 80 odd pound but
Daz had a mare as well.
Moving house this week then the commy national then the
land command… better dust my hook tier off.
What would I do different
1. I
tried everything at viaduct to no avail so apart from concentrating on silvers
that were conspicuous by their absence I was stuffed.
2. I
am going to have to bite the bullet one day and pack up everything bar the
dobbing rig to see if it is viable, although I think a bigger hookbait like an
8mm punch of polony would be a better option.
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