25 June 2015

AAF Gp2 Match 9, Todber Manor

Well it was back down into deepest, darkest Dorset for this one and even though I was a little late getting to Skevvys Café for the draw, fortunately Ben and Daz had sorted me out with pools though.  A really good breakfast was dispatched, AGM was held where somehow I ended up as Match secretary….. again.
The draw was good with Daz ending up on Park peg 2, Ben was on the new lake and I was on permanent peg 19 on Whitepost, we wished each other luck and after a quick stop at the shop to stock up on some bits when I found out that Dave was on peg 1 in the corner, went a quid with him. Then Gary was on peg 5, Docs was on the pipe swim, John was at the other end of the top lake, then Pez was on the end of the bottom lake and finally way off to the left was Graham on the other end of the lake, anyway, my peg looked like this.




As you can see the bush on the left hand side was a bit close and there were a couple of troublesome branches that I was able to deal with thanks to Graham and his secateurs and then it was time to get sorted. I have got quite a good track record on this lake so the plan was simple, paste and pellet shallow across towards the far bank, paste short and paste down the edge (might be a trend!!).  My paste rigs were all 0.19mm line to 0.18mm with a size 5 Tubertini 175 hook, the floats were either Big H paste in 4X10 or a Drennan Carp dibber in 0.5g and elastics were red or orange Vespe hollow, red for across, shallow and down the edge and orange for the short line.  The pellet rig was a 0.2g Drennan clear dibber on 0.17mm mainline to a 0.12 or 0.16mm hooklength with a Guru pellet waggler hook and a baitband. 
At the all-in I wanted a quick fish so I shipped out to 13m (a meter or so short of the far bank) with a paste rig and a small pinch of hemp and 6mm pellet in the pot, I waited 2 put ins and had carp number 1 in the net within 3 minutes, straight after this though I started to get funny indications as every fish in the lake seemed to be cruising in the surface layers so out went the shallow rig at 12 inches deep and I was soon getting among the F1’s.  I started on a 6mm pellet feeding 4mms and found that I would get a quick run and then have to work a bit before finding them again and this went on with me changing depths and where I was catching in the swim, my eureka moment came when I tried a 4mm pellet and I hooked a carp that did me in the far bank straight away.  I scaled down my hook to a 20 on 0.12mm line and caught a quick run of F1’s followed by 6 carp when I shallowed up to 6 inches deep (4 inch hooklength and float), although they backed off quickly probably as my light elastic was all over the place with them.
Because bites stopped from the carp I tried my close paste line, I was fishing it at a top kit plus half a number 4 section next to the branches on my left, 5 carp in 5 puts saw me going up the bank for keepnet number 3 as I had put all my F1’s in 1 net and carp in the other and at 3-6lb I was amassing a weight quickly now.  The last 2 hours went well with me taking a few fish from the short line and then trying for a couple from the other lines for 10 minutes before plundering the bush swim again.
I had just netted a fish as the all out was called an I had enjoyed this one, I guessed at about 150lb as I had what I guessed to be 50-60lb of F1’s and around 30 ish carp although they had got smaller as the day went on.  The scales started from Graham and he had 45kg (100lb ish)  I was the next ton with 76kg (167lb ish), 22kg of F1's and the rest carp, Pez had 50Kg(110lb) but the top lake had not fished as well again and Docs had top weight off there with 35kg I think.  So a section win for me and back for the results where it transpired that Daz had a second off Park with 40kg I think and Ben on the new lake had 4 points for 20kg of stockies and bits.  This put us 2nd as a team on the day so it was a good job all round there, I now know that I cannot win the league as I am unable to go to the last match  and Docs has pretty much wrapped it up, so well done Docs.
Thanks to Craig and Pez for another well run match (although I did moan when I got to my peg, but it was about the foliage rather than anything else)  I am off on Interservices duty next week and then the corp champs so lets hope for a few more trophies.
Here’s part of my catch from today:


What would I have done differently?

Not a lot really, I tried a few things to catch quicker shallow like paste shallow and feeding slop but I wish that I could balance my gear for F1’s and mental Carp. Next time it will be a case of ship and hope on the carp to get them away from the far bank.

Maybe a second paste line at the same depth as the tree swim to the right as the backup swim.

I fed Old Ghost specimen carp and maggot meal down the edge, I will never buy it again as even though I had mixed it the night before and soaked it again in the morning I had loads of floaters coming off it, next time pellet and hemp down the edge.


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