It’s that time of year again when
all the AAF Commercial matches start, there is always an air of expectation on
the first one as we are all back in the mix on the commercial knock out that we
are all trying to win. Todber was the venue for the day and we were split over
4 lakes again, one section on Ash, one on Hill View and a section split over
the two Whitepost lakes. I fancied
Whitepost for the individual win although Ash is a fair lake and Hillview was
my last choice as I had only managed a quick practice at the weekend but the
weather had been pants and I had not learnt a lot. John had helped me to peg
the match in advance so Craig and I had a pretty easy morning to be fair, a
nice brekkie at Skevvys and then the draw.
The draw was an interesting
affair with me having to remove pegs from the tins as people were again not
turning up after booking in, for my team Pez ended up on Whitpost, Pete Ash and
that left me with Hill view peg 40. Craig was on White post peg 6, I had pegged
it with pegs 5 and 9 left out but thyen due to people not turning up pegs 7 and
8 also were not drawn!!!! This gave him
most of the lake to himself so he was a very happy bunny.
I dropped him off and then got to
my peg, my plan was simple, a method and wagler to the island, a long pole line
at 13m because the depth was no different at 11 or 16m and finally I plumbed up
a couple of margin lines in 2 feet of water both to the left and right of my
swim, although I mainly planned to fish to the right as there was more room to
the next angler that way.
At the all-in I fed the long pole
line and started on the method, over the next 5 minutes or so I had no
indications so I started to loose feed with pellet, 6mm would not reach so it
had to be 8mm that I was not too happy about but a swap to the waggler soon saw
me landing carp number 1. The waggler
line became hard after this so a swap back to the method was called for but
that was cut short by Rikki catching shallow on the pole opposite me.
I decided to have a go on the pole
line, but on the deck I managed 2 small fish and I didn’t even have a bite
shallow so after 20-30 minutes of faffing about it was back onto the method as
I was well off the pace at the time.
Fortunately things started to happen
on the method and I was soon starting to put a few fish together, by loose
feeding pellet I was able to draw fish into the area that I was fishing the
method and I was able to pick up a few F1’s and small carp. I tried the waggler
intermittently and I also tried to mug some fish from time to time as there
were some decent sized fish cruising around, I failed for quite a while.
With a few hours left to go I
started to feed micros and meat down the edge to my right and I was soon having
the odd look down there with mixed results, it might have been the changeable
weather or the fact that I fed too much but I had a few runs of Carp mainly
around 3lb but with a couple of lumps thrown in for good measure and some
silvers and small carp.
As the last hour started I was struggling,
the margin had become iffy, I could get the odd bite but there was no size to
the fish, the method had also died off as the fish seemed to have moved up in
the water, but I did manage to mug a carp on the pole off to my right where
there were numbers held up and I also managed an F1 on the pellet wag.
I called the all-out and there
was a collective sigh, a quick pack up and then I had to wait for the scales,
Carl Dave and the lad to my left had all struggled with less than 10Kg each, my
2 nets went 36Kg and change so I thought that I was in with a chance of a frame
but I had been watching a few people catching well around the lake and it
sounded as though Docs had managed a few again.
As it turned out it was enough for second, Docs on peg 55 had managed to
line some of the better carp up down the edge to his left for an impressive
51Kg weight. As for the team, we had two
seconds and a third I believe that gave us second on the day….again, I am off
to Larford At the weekend for a 48Hr Carp match so tha should be fun…watch this
space J
I did manage to get a bit of video and it can be found here:
I did manage to get a bit of video and it can be found here:
What would I do differently?
I fished a hard pellet on the
pole line, perhaps a worm line would have been a better option for the middle
period when I was struggling on other lines.
Not a lot else to be honest, I
think it went ok.
Tackle used:
Pellet Waggler:
Rod: Team Daiwa 11ft pellet wag
Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012
Line: 4lb sensor to 0.18mm
hooklength
Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag
Float: 4g Drennan stumpy pellet
wag
Pellet Waggler:
Rod: Drennen Ultralight 12ft
Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012
Line: 0.18mm reel line
0.11mm hooklength
Hook: 20 Guru Pellet wag
Float: 5BB Dave Harrell insert
Method:
Rod: Drennan Series 7 10ft carp
feeder
Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012
Line: 8lb Sensor and 0.19mm
hooklength
Hook: 14 QM1
Weight: Various Guru feeders
Long Pole Deck:
Elastic: White Hydro
Line: 0.17mm to 0.12mm
Hook: 20 Guru Pellet wag with
Bait band
Float: 0.4g AS5
Long Pole Shallow 3ft:
Elastic: White Hydro
Line: 0.17mm to 0.12mm
Hook: 20 Guru Pellet wag with
Bait band
Float: 0.3g Crystal dibber
Long Pole Shallow 1ft:
Elastic: Pink Vespe
Line: 0.17mm to 0.12mm
Hook: 20 Guru Pellet wag with
Bait band
Float: MW pea
Long Pole mugging:
Elastic: Blue Colmic
Line: 0.17mm to 0.16mm
Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag with
Bait stop
Float: 0.4g Crystal Dibber
Pole Margin:
Elastic: Blue Colmic Hollow (17H
later)
Line: 0.19mm to 0.18mm
Hook: 3 T175
Float: 0.3g Drennan Carp 4
