Weight – 75lb 1oz
Catch – 17 Carp, 2 Roach, 1 Chub, 1 Rudd.
Weather – Mostly sunny, cludy later.
Match – Open – 3rd overall
I had quick word with myself on the drive down, to relax and enjoy the day (because I’m not at work!) although this was tempered when I drew p22, which has been poor recently. However, just when I was considering buying some more caster, there were shouts for a re-drew because Mike had forgotten to include himself, so only 13 pegs were drawn instead of 14! Peg 16 was removed and replaced by 15 & 17.
Mike had decided, as he sometimes does to change things around, so included 1 side of Speci (25-32) and 1 side of Match (13-24), which didn’t please everyone, but I was much happier with my re-draw on p15. I was quite pleased to see “Tom Thick” walking around to p13, because I knew he couldn’t reach the island, since his 14m section is lying at the bottom of peg 1. Unfortunately my joy was short lived when I realised it was Nick Duckett, and I doubted I would have the island to myself.
½ a cup micros & caster went in at 13m to my right and I started firing 4mms towards the island slightly to my left. Started off on paste (yes its starting to warm up!) by the bush to my right. 5mins later a 3lber was safely landed, but no more came. A quick look over the micros didn’t produce a bite on soft pellet, but a small roach on caster told me all I needed to know, so this swim was topped up with more micros & caster, hopefully for the skimmers.
It was nearly 45mins, before I tried the island, starting on soft pellet, but after a couple of missed bites, I changed my hooklength to a hair rigged 4mm pellet, which resulted in a carp 1st drop in. The fish drifted in and out of the swim, so it was just a case of keeping the pellet going in, lifting & dropping and waiting for the float to bury.
Nick had a good start fishing down his left hand margin, but felt obliged to fish to the point of the island after I started to catch. Unfortunately for me the fish preferred to be sat on the point, rather than in my swim.
After 2hours I had 6 carp, but Nick was flying, with a carp nearly every put in. The next 2 hours was frustrating and I was in danger of losing the plot a little. I kept the pellet going into the island, but suffered from quiet spells and then any bites resulted in foul hookers. At 1 point I lost 3 on the bounce, the 3rd catapulting my rig into the branches above me (Mike plans to do some more pruning this week, so perhaps I can get my rig back). The bush swim produced 2 more small carp on paste, but nothing on pellet or corn. The fish didn’t want to be on the deck.
My micro pellet swim only produced 1 carp on pellet early in the match, but nothing else. So I started a new swim further to my right in front of peg 16 feeding micros & 4mms, whilst I started to feed 4mms at the bottom of the shelf.
With 2 hours to go I was up to 8 carp. The island swim produced another 4 carp, but they continued to drift in & out of the swim. With an hour to go I tried the bottom of the shelf, but except for a couple of liners no fish. I kept the feed going in with a pouch of pellet every 5mins. With just over 30mins to go, I went back to the bottom of the shelf on soft pellet and the swim was solid. 6 put ins resulted in 5 fish landed, if only they turned up earlier!
Nick won with 110lb, Alan Oram had 99lb from peg 24 and I finished 3rd, just ahead of Garry Wall on peg 21 who had 68lb. The carp on Speci weren’t as active as Match, but the silvers were. John Bradford weighed 33lb from p25 of skimmers & F1, whilst Tom Thick had 26lb from peg32.
At least I halted a bad run, so fingers crossed for a good draw on Sydney’s.
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