It was finally upon us and to be honest after coming
second in the carp champs earlier in the year I really wanted a good showing on
this to get another trophy, the weather again was forecast to be a scorcher and
the section rotation saw me on Lake 4 with Pez, Jenks, Jimmy and DJ, to name a
few for company.
I had drawn peg 7 which was on the opposite bank to where
I had won the Corp champs a few years ago, but I had a nice breeze coming
across the lake towards me at the start so I was more than happy, that and an
island chuck off to my right and a nice margin at 11m to my left saw me setting
up a fair bit of kit hoping for good things.
I started on the method to the island and in the first
hour I managed a skimmer, crucian and a couple of carp for about 20lb so I was
on course for my target weight of a ton plus.
It was however at this pointy that the wheels started to fall off as
Craig on peg 13 started to catch well down his left hand edge, and I started to
force things to try and keep up. I had
been feeding a pellet waggler line since the start so I had a quick look and on
the second cast the float disappeared and another carp was on his way to the
keepnet, as I was playing it though a large ghosty decided to start malingering
in the area. As soon as I got the first
fish in the net I spotted the ghosty again and flicked my pellet wag just in
front of it, it swam slowly towards where my hookbait had roughly landed and
then spooked off. My pellet wag followed it at Mach 10 and it was fish on, a
few minutes later 8lb of annoyed ghosty were in the keepnet. That was it however for the pellet wag and it
was back onto the method for a few more carp and bits.
It was about 2 hours in and the wind decided to change
direction and start blowing strongly to my left, this had the effect of making
it harder to get my method tight in under the boards on the island, and Jenks,
Jimmy and Craig all started to catch quite well on a variety of tactics.
It was status quo until the last couple of hours when I
started to feed the left hand edge hoping for a comeback hour, I actually
though it was going to happen when after 20 minutes I had 3 fish down the edge
in 15 minutes and another one that I mugged.
However the fish had other ideas and I only managed 1 fish in the last
half hour of the match and not a lot more before that, again I had overfed my
margin, I am starting to spot a trend.
Jenks had had a blinding last half of the match catching steady
on paste around a 6mm pellet fished at 5m just in front of a small bush to the
left of his swim, and he thought I hadn’t noticed, Jimmy had caught well on the
method and pellet wag cast along the windward bank and Craig slowed but still
had a few in the last hour from his edges.
The all out was well received and the tale of the tape
was that Jenks had won the section with 47KG, Jimmy was second with 41kg, Craig
had 37kg but as he was a guest his weight only counted for the pools so I was
third in section with 34Kg and bits.
Well third saw me well out of it going into day 2 so it
would be fishing for pools…..
What would I do differently?
The wind was wrong for the pellet wag and it took me too
long to realise that, I should have saved my bait from that line and fished a positive
paste line at 6-11m. I overfed the
margins again, but if the fish had turned on I would not have fed enough so that’s
a tricky one.
I should have focussed on the method for longer and concentrated
my feed as much as possible.
Tackle used:
Pole short:
Elastic: 17H yellow
Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm
Hook: 5 T175
Float: 4X10 Big H paste
Pole dobbing:
Elastic: blue Colmic
Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm
Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag with baitstop
Float: 0.4g Crystal dibber
Pole Margin:
Elastic: 17H yellow
Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm
Hook: 5 T175
Float: KC Carpa Margin 4X10
Method:
Rod: Drennan 11.5ft medium feeder rod
Reel: Daiwa TDM 4012
Line: 8lb sensor to 0.19mm
Hook: 14 QM1
Feeder: 24g large guru method feeder
Pellet Waggler:
Rod: Drennan 12ft Acolyte Carp waggler
Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012
Line: 4lb sensor to 0.19mm
Hook: 16 Guru Pellet wag
Float: 6g Preston thin pellet wag
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