10/03/12 - Witherington - Outer Snake

Weight – 36lb 2oz (23lb 0oz – silvers)
Catch – 33 Goldfish/Brown Goldfish, 29 Skimmers, 6 Carp, 2 Roach
Weather – Mostly sunny, slight breeze.
Water Temp – 10.3c – 11.3c
Match – Match Fishing Scene – 3^rd out of 17 overall (2^nd out of 9 section)

Another new venue for me. Witherington is one of those venues I have heard a lot about, which had been very popular, although recent reports suggest its best years are behind it and the snake lake had been fishing hard.

Sue was due to meet an old school friend in Christchurch, so on Friday Sue dropped me off at the fishery so I could at least see the venue, whilst she went off to see her friend. I fished peg 91 on the Inner Snake and actually had a good days fishing, catching about 44lb, which included carp up to 8lb 9oz, goldfish and skimmers. Casters seemed to be a waste of time and maggot just brought the attentions of small roach, so I caught mostly on 4 & 6mm expander over micros.

The next day was the match, which I took over the running of, since the original organiser is hopefully banged up for fraud. The pegging of the match caused a few issues, since 1 side of the triangle on the outer snake is nicknamed cyanide straight due to its lack of fish (although there seemed to plenty topping), whilst putting everyone on the inner snake, it was suggested the fish would disappear through the gaps back out into the outer lake. In the end I managed to secure the whole lake so spread out everyone, with 1 section of 8 on inner and a section of 9 on the outer lake.

I found myself on p48 which was halfway down the outer snake on the right hand side. Pete Newman who is a regular was the next peg down near the interconnecting gap, suggested we were in the best part of the lake, however I thought I would up against it since I was told the corners were usually the best pegs.

Plumbing around I found the outer lake is slighter deeper than the inner, as well as being a metre or 2 wider. Based on my experience yesterday, I decided to ignore the inside line and started off sprinkling a pinch of micros about a metre off the far bank slightly to my right. I also put a big toss pot of bait to my left, plus a big pot of caster & pellet 13m to my right down the track, where it was slightly deeper.

Only 3 rigs today, all of them were HB frosties. A 0.2g float, .10 bottom and 18 silverfish pellet for fishing across, another 0.2g with .13 bottom and 18 B911 for the margin and fishing across if the carp moved in on mass. Finally a 0.3g for down the track with .10 bottom and 18 silverfish pellet.

The first 90mins of the match I got off to flyer catching from the off, mostly from the right hand swim on 4mm expander. I had nothing over a pound, but 20 fish was a great start. With so few carp showing I stuck with it. Steve Martin to my left had managed a couple of 2 & 3lb carp down the track and was probably winning from the pegs I could see. I had kept my down the track swim topped up, but only had small fish all match.

I concentrated on the far right hand swim, only swapping to the left when it needed a rest. With regards the left hand swim, I switched from feeding it a big toss pot every 15/20mins to catapulting 4mms every 5 hoping to pull in a few carp.

Half way into the match, Steve was still catching and Pete had a few carp dobbin bread tight across, so all very tight. I started to feed my margins under the pallets, caster & 4mm to my left and micros and 4mms to my right.

I had thus far resisted the temptation to go tight across next to the reeds and it was only slightly shallower and since my main swim was waning with fish getting smaller thought it was time to get tight, however after 3 initial decent fish I was back to the small stuff again.

With 2 hours to go I knew I needed a few carp and decided to completely rest the far side and switched to my margins. The next 30mins produced 2 carp and 3 1lb skimmers on 6mm expander. All from the right hand margin and about 8-9lb in the net.

Back out to my long line, the rest seemed to had done it some good and I started feeding again with a pinch of pellet, landing some better goldfish and skimmers, plus a couple of carp.

Pete to my right in the meantime had landed a couple of carp, including a better fish of 6lb and I thought both he and Steve were ahead of me. With 15mins to go I hooked a lump on my long line, played it for 5mins or so, before the hook pulled. I went straight out again and soon landed a black/gold koi. With very little time left, it was quicker to go down the margin, when I hooked another carp on the whistle, unfortunately as I was shipping back I bumped the pole on the roller and pulled the hook. I suspected that would cost me.

I was convinced Steve had beaten me, however my silvers (& gold) net was much more than expected with 23lb (the next best silvers weight was 14lb), so ended up with 36-2. Pete had a few late carp to beat me with 38-7, so yes that last carp did cost me. Steve managed 34-12, so very close.

The inner snake fished about the same as the outer, Richard Wyatt winning with 50-6, which included 40lb of carp down the edge in the last hour or so.

Overall pretty pleased with how the match went, except for the last 15mins and today was my 5^th pick up on the bounce, my 6^th out of the last 7 and I don’t think it’s any co-incidence that it has co-incided with me sorting out my soft pellet fishing.

It was good to put a few faces to names from the site. No fishing for me next week, since it’s my birthday and I need finalise some revision for an exam on the Monday. So my next match will be at Greenridge Farm, yet another new venue!

1^st 50-6 – Richard Wyatt (inner snake)
2^nd 38- 7 – Pete Newman (outer)
3^rd 36- 2 – Ken Rayner (outer)
4^th 35- 3 – Bryan Jackson (inner)
5^th 34-12 – Steve Martin (outer)
6^th 26- 2 – Craig ? (inner)