21/04/13 - Todber - Park Lake

Weight - 122lb 0oz
Catch - 40 Carp, 21 F1s, 4 Roach
Weather - Bright sunny start, became cloudier and cooler
Match - Wests Tackle Open - 1st out of 26

With 26 booked in today the pegging would be a little tight in some areas and initialy I was disappointed to draw 23 which is at the very bottom end of the lake. Fortunately p24 was vacant, which was just as well because a tree prevented me from fishing to my left and it took me a few minutes to decide how I was going to attack the swim. Eventually I decided on 3 areas, the right margin with meat, 5m with pellet and the island.

Realistically I thought I would be fishing for my section, because the pegs further up the lake would be better with the wind blowing that way. Starting by the island on soft pellet, toss potting 6s, I soon caught a carp and couple of roach, but it didnt seem right. I had been catapulting 4s to the left of the island when I noticed a carp already slurpping in the sedges.

For the next 2.5hrs I caught consistantly fishing shallow with hair rigged pellet, mostly 8s which gave a nicer plop than the 6s. If I could swing the rig tight to the sedges, which wasnt easy with overhanging vegatation I would usually come back with carp. The F1s have grown on since I was last on this lake, from 6-8oz nuisances to 12oz handy weight builder, including a couple 1.5lbers.

After 2hr 45mins the island swim was fading, so I tried the margin which didnt produce and neither did the 5m line. I could see all my section so knew I was ahead and Hippy (p35) walked past to get his coat from the car, becuase the wind had picked up and apparantly it was quite cool up the top end of the lake. According to Hippy most were struggling and I began to believe that a framing position could be up for grabs, but I didnt know how the other side of the lake was fishing.

Despite not catching from my margin or 5m line, resting the island swim was a good move, becuase when I went back to it after 15mins I had a good hour catching more carp and F1s before it died again.

With 2hrs to go, I eventually caught in my margin on meat. I lost my first 2 fish, but a few rig adjustments and I was soon catching on 6mm cubes of meat. My 5m line however was still proving frustrating. I had kept feeding 4 & 6s, but couldnt get a proper bite on pellet. Curtis on p25 had caught a few fish on paste, so I quickly sorted a paste rig and I still had some paste left over from yesterdays match.

Fishing the paste proved to be a decisive move, catching a better stamp of fish including 2x 8-9lbers and in the last hour I rotated between the 5m line and margin.

Come the end I knew I had at least won my section. As is usally the case news started to filter around. Mark was admitting to 38 carp and 15lb of silvers and apparantly Nick on p1 had also caught well, so it looked like it would be close. I helped weigh in from peg 38 down and Hippy had the next best weigjt of 102lb. Checking the other weigh sheet, Nick had 112lb and I beat Mark by a 1lb (although he tried to tell me he had 170lb - funny lad, not!).

Really pleased with how the day went, fortunately I was mostly sheltered from an increasing wind which helped. It was also nice to actually feed some bait.

1st 122- 0 - Ken Rayner - p23
2nd 121- 0 - Mark Poppleton - p11
3rd 112- 0 - Nick Merry - p1
4th 102- 0 - Rich Whitmarsh - p35
5th 78- 0 - Tom Ince - p14
6th 64- 8 - Curtis Whitaker - p25