I had taken leave for today so there was no surprise when
the weather man predicted rain all day, I stopped off at the Golden Arches for
breakfast and had a trouble free run down to the lake, so I was around 45
minutes early! I started to bump into
some friendly faces including my old mate John from Blandford, and as we were
catching up Mark collared us to peg the road bank….again. On the bright side we
did find the peg that was left behind last week on the army match, oh and a new
feeder for me.
As ever it was soon time for the draw and there were more
than a few known faces within the draw queue, I managed to get my grubby mit
into the box and pulled out peg 22 and this put me onto the peg to the right
from where I was last week on the lawns. Coincidently John had pulled out peg
23, so a quid side bet was waged and banter was guaranteed.
As you can see it is a popular swim so there was tons of mud so with that and the
weather forecast I decided to only take kit out of the van if it was going to
get used to try and keep some of my kit a little dryer and cleaner. I set up 3 feeder
rods and prepped some pellet, dead maggot and groundbait and then faffed around
for the next 30 minutes so I was just ready for the all in.
As it was a 6 hour match the plan was to catch a carp
long and then put a hit of bait in on the shorter line and then empty the lake
of fish, the reality was a bit different with no indications on the long line
for the first 15 minutes, then I fed 6 feeders on the short line and went long
for another pointless 15 minutes. By
this time John on my right had managed a roach and now a skimmer, so I came in
on my short line and proceeded to have a frustrating hour with only a missed
rattle to show for it. Then about an hour and a half in the tip rocked and I
pulled into fish number one, but a couple of seconds later it dropped off and I
was left cursing my luck, fortunately a few minutes later I had a positive drop
back and Bream number 1 was soon nestled in the landing net.
John by this time was on number 4, and I was struggling
to be fair, I had another spell of missed bites and liners so I decided to put
the method out onto the short line, this resulted in 3 fish in about a 45
minute spell, but then I decided to put some bait in and then fish long for a
while as I needed a miracle to get back up on the fish count.
I cracked off the topping up feeder on my third cast so
went long for thirty minutes with no indications. During this time I had set
the open end feeder rod back up and run it back out the 12 wraps to be in line
with where John was fishing, by this time he was motoring and on around 20
bream!
Back on it I tried with the standard feeder again for 30
minutes and I managed a fish on it with a positive pull round, and a swap to
the method in the last 30 got me another and I dropped one with 5 minutes to go
so that was the end of my day.
It had been miserable, the guy on the end peg to my right
had managed a carp and a handful of skimmers for 21lb, then there was a 20lb
weight, then John with 58lb, I had 6 bream for 14lb?ish and then Gary the dark
horse on the next peg had managed 5 bream but some clonking great roach for
another 20lb bag, all on the feeder and bomb.
John won the match and Ben from the road bank had 2nd
with 57lb, then there were a few 30lb bags and the rest, the dam wall fished
hard with 18lb winning that section.
So I owe John a quid as I didn’t have one in my pocket, fortunately
we are going double or quits next week, lets hope I don’t blow another flyer.
What would I do different?
Next time If I draw there I will pick a line and
concentrate on the one line as the fish seem to be concentrated in that area
anyway so trying to cast to the horizon is casting over the majority of them.
Tackle used:
Feeder Long:
Rod: Browning Black Viper 14ft Feeder rod, 4oz quiver.
Reel: Shimano CI4 Ultegra 5500
Line: 0.205mm Colmic feeder line 0.18mm hooklength
Hook: 14 QM1
Feeder: Large 42g Guru Hybrid feeder with Black elastic
Feeder Short standard:
Rod: Drennan Medium feeder at 12.5ft, 2oz tip.
Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012
Line: 6lb Maxima 0.13mm hooklength
Hook: 16 QM1
Feeder: 30g small Kevin Leech feeder, used a large to top
up still 30g
Feeder short Method:
Rod: Drennan Medium feeder at 12.5ft, 2oz tip.
Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012
Line: 6lb Maxima 0.19mm hooklength
Hook: 14 QM1
Feeder: Small Guru Hybrid feeder, Black elastic
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