Watergate Farm, Open Match

Today I was off at Watergate Farm a small lake just 3 minutes from my house, the meet was at a local Toby Carvery and I am glad that I stopped in Mc Donalds as a few of the guys were complaining about the breakfast as I arrived… mine was fine.  It was good to see some friendly faces and it was easy to see that some of the best anglers in the area had decided to visit this little pond so my work was cut out from the star.  I had managed a quick practice session last week and the video can be found here:

Back to today, and peg 11 stuck into my eager mitt, ‘So what!’ I hear you say, well all I wanted today was the wind off my back as it was forecast to be gusting 50mph and with torrential rain also added to the mix the last thing that I wanted was a facing wind. That, however is exactly what I got as peg 11 turned out to be on the widest part of the lake at about 17m wide with the wind barrelling down my throat.

This made my plan of attack easy though and I set up a tip rod and two top kits to fish short to my left, I was ready for the all in and to cut a long story short although I caught in spells throughout the day, and I thought I was in the running with the guys around me.  It turned out that my stamp of fish must have been smaller than everyone else is, as I had caught as many if not more than some guys that I could see but I was well off the pace.

I had an early run on the feeder that can I set the action camera up for:

I also had three fish short in the last 30 minutes after I started to big pot maggot down there but it never really felt right, the wind was severely hampering presentation and I was having to fish 4 inches over depth and have a BB Back shot just to have a modicum of control over the rig.

I followed the scales around my half of the lake and bar a DNW I was second last on the board with 40lb 6oz (I had said I had 40lb), three 50lb plus weights were topped by Downer who scooped third overall with 56lb 3oz on my half of the lake.  On the other Gareth had made the most of a decent draw (and a bit of skill J) to catch 74lb odd for the win followed by Martin a bit further round with 57lb+.

What would I do different?

Speaking to a few guys at t eh end they caught closer to the bank than I had fished, but with the wind a 4 inch waves crashing over their heads I don’t know if it would have worked where I was, that’s it really apart from needing to find a way to select the bigger fish, if they were in front of me at all?

Tackle used:

Pole light:

Elastic: White Hydro

Line: 0.16mm to 0.12mm Cenex

Hook: 16 B911 F1

Float: 0.3g AS4

Pole WINDY:

Elastic: White Hydro

Line: 0.16mm to 0.12mm Cenex

Hook: 16 B911 F1

Float: 0.4g AS2

Feeder:

Rod: Drennan Ultralight 10ft bomb with 1oz tip section.

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 8lb sensor 0.16mm hooklength

Hook: 16 QM1

Feeder: Micro Guru Pellet feeder, started on white hydro X safe but swapped to inline as bites were easier to see in the wind