27/06/13 - Leechpool

Weight - 57lb
Catch - 43 Carp, 6 Skimmers
Weather - Rain, rain, rain
Match - Wiltshire Angling Evening Float Only - 4th out of 5

After not being able to fish for nearly 2 weeks I was looking forward to this evenings sprint match at Leechpool. However the weather had other ideas, following a week or so of settled dry weather, it rained. In fact the rain front couldn’t have timed it better, starting an hour before the 5pm draw and finishing around the time the match finished at 9.15pm.

 

For various reasons there was only 5 of us tonight so plenty of room. I drew the cattle drink which is a peg I have never drawn and with the wind blowing into the bank I was hopefully of a few fish, although the rain didn’t make for a comfortable nights fishing. To my right was Tony Gilbert in his new Thatcher’s branded kit, but he was left regretting selling his Diawa Gore-Tex by the end of the night.

 

A text from Mark who was looking after the kids since his missus was enjoying herself at Glastonbury, confirmed what I needed to do. The peg itself is very shallow close in so the margins were out and I ended up setting up my box 3m out in the water. Even then you are set back, with the left bank running about 11m before the corner where there is a large tree. Under the tree the water depth is only 6-8in, but plumbing around I found where the bottom started to slope up at 11m and fished here – as instructed.

 

Initially I started on the paste, but it didn’t seem right, plus my paste was just getting wetter and wetter. So a quick change to 6mm expander (HB Chump > .14 > 16 B911) and I was soon catching, finding it best to catapult a pouch of 6s before shipping out. In the first 60mnins I had 18 carp and doing well, however Tony after a slow start was catching well short on small pieces of paste, a trick he picked up from fishing at White Acres.

 

The 2^nd hour slowed down and I was falling behind Tony. The issue I had was wasting time having to ship out to 11m, because the peg was so shallow close in. I had decided against setting up a back up swim, since  the intention was to stay focused on the 11m line and continue feed pellet, hoping for a good last hour or so when the bigger fish would turn up. Well that was the plan.

 

Half way though the match the skimmers started to show which is never a good thing, but I kept firing in the pellet and the carp did return.

 

Come the end of the match, it became obvious I was off the pace of those who fish here regularly. I think I did the right thing sticking to the one swim, however hindsight is a wonderful thing and I should have moved up the slope, because I was getting quite a few liners, so fishing in shallower water may have been a good idea. I did try to catch proper shallow, however without success.

 

Although I was off the pace, it was interesting watching those who do well here and the key seems to be fishing short to get the bait in the water as quickly as possible.

 

1^st 87lb – Tony Gilbert – p4

2^nd 82lb – Ian Willetts – p3

3^rd 75lb – Pete Neate – p2

4^th 57lb – Ken Rayner – p5

5^th 53lb – Darren – p1