27/07/11 - Glebe - pool 1

Weight – 111lb 4oz
Catch – 25 Carp
Weather – Mostly sunny and light breeze
Match – MFS Float only – 7th out of 16

24hrs before this match it was fully booked with 20 anglers. However, on Monday 1 dropped out due to a bad back and the other because the first was his lift. Mark was unable to fill the spaces, so 18 for the match. Uh no, after managing to track down 1 non attendee who forgot!! The 4th drop out however with the best (and genuine?) excuse. 5 miles from the fishery he had a car accident…. with a police car – ouch!

With a north/north easterly breeze, I really fancied a draw in the middle of the lake, since there was more likely to be ripple on the water. I was last to draw, with only 18 & 26 left in the bucket, I really wanted Herbie to draw 26, but he didn’t, which meant I was on 26 for 2nd time.

Whilst setting up I was concerned about the flat calm condition, with the ripple starting in front of Nick Merry on p24. As for p18 it looked spot on and I was a touch envious.

Today was all about keeping it simple concentrating on catching shallow, feeding caster. Unfortunately the day was anything but simple. As well as 2 shallow rigs, 2 rigs to fish the 5m line (1x paste and 1x corn) and 1x paste margin rig were set up. I really didn’t fancy the margin today, because the water looked a touch clearer than last time. I did give it a few minutes, but was soon binned. The 5m also failed to produce, so all fish came shallow at 13-14m.

The opening 2 hours was a case finding something that worked. There was plenty of fish coming to the feed, but getting them to take the bait was turning into a mare. I tried various shallow rigs, from only a couple inches to 2ft. I was thankful I brought my pellet waggler rod and fished a loaded puddle chucker, finding it best to fish with a 12” hooklength with 3 or 4 floating maggot to create a really slow fall. In the flat conditions the waggler definitely seemed to be best.

The 1 thing I will say about the Glebe carp is they are fit. I’ve never come across fish that run so hard, I had 1 that managed to straighten a B960 and Mark had a couple straighten a carp feeder hook.

After 3 hours I had 15 fish and after the initial slow start was pleased with my progress, but the following 3 hours became difficult again. The main issue was the Puddle Chucker floats I was using. I had 2 were the clear plastic body popped off the loaded weight attached to the line. The 3rd puddle chucker used had a longer body and wasn’t right for the job. I also went through a period where I lost a few fish, which didn’t improve my mood.

I was disappointed to finish with only 25 fish, but surprised to weigh over a ton. Mark drew the end peg 30, but also had the same problem catching shallow, but his 29 fish weighed 163-0, included 50lb from the margin so obviously some bigger stamp fish.

Nick won from p24, mostly shallow taking advantage of the ripple. As for peg 18, Herbie weighed 111-8 pipping me to the section money by 4oz – gutted!

This was the 6th match in as many days on the lake and the weights still remained impressive and with a more favourable wind, I’m sure there would have some bigger weights.

Immediately after the match I was pretty p****d off, not only because I missed out on a pick up by 4oz, but I knew hadn’t my waggler’s failed I would have caught more. Now is the next day and putting everything in perspective that’s 2 visits to the Glebe and 2 tons, whilst I was disappointed, I was unlucky not to have the ripple and I know I would have caught more. So despite the difficult condition, I think the method was right. Ben on peg 28 fished the pellet waggler, as well as fishing on the deck, but struggled for 51lb.

1st 198-12 – Nick Merry – peg 24
2nd 163- 0 – Mark Poppleton – peg 30
3rd 159- 4 – Holwell – peg 1
3rd 159- 4 – Pete Bailey – peg 4
5th 113- 8 – Tim Suttle – peg 14
6th 111- 8 – Herbie – peg 18
7th 111- 4 – Ken Rayner – peg 26
8th 107- 0 – Clive Pritchard – peg 20