So after an unhappy match last week, I wished away all of last week waiting to put things right this week. The weather said rain, but no hurricane force winds, the results from the match lake in the AT have been OK, so I was hoping the old match lake would be similar and also Wales won on Saturday (however Wigan did throw away a 16 point lead in 15 minutes against the scouse shite!!!) so all in all life was rosy. What a match it would be, I couldn't wait, nothing could go wrong and surely I was about to set a new match record for the lake...or so everything went in my head. In reality, I woke up to hurricane strength winds, driving rain (in Wigan anyway) and after 3 hours shut eye due to watching said Wigan game after a night out things hadn't started as planned!
I arrived at the complex with around 2minutes to spare to draw time and had a look at the lake. We had 18 pegs and I would have taken any from 1 - 13 with the win at my back. The other 5 I really wanted to avoid, as it would either be a strong left to right wind (14 - 16) or a gale straight in my face (17 - 18) and a surface ripple akin to the Bay of Biscay in the depths of winter! After a draw I didn't want at all last week, surely the gods would be looking down on me this. I put my hand in the bag and it turned out they were looking down on me...doing evil laughs and a little dance as I drew peg 15! A force 10 left to right wind and only 13m of water to fish at to the island which would make presentation a bit of a challenge.
I got to my peg (20 feet from my car), setup my station and decided on my game plan. I would choose a swim near the island on the far shelf, a swim at around 8m at the bottom of the far shelf, I would feed short under the trees to my left and right if the weather got too bad, and would also setup a small bomb rod where I could try to the head of the island however casting would be difficult due to the trees. I plumbed my chosen swims and found around 3' on the far shelf at 13m(swim 1) which I would fish with a 4x12 margin float to 0.16 main, an 0.12 hooklink and a size 19 B711. I found just shy of 6' where the shelf dropped off at 8m (swim 2) and this was flat all the way in to around 6' from the bank. For this I chose a 4x12 pencil float with the same line and hook. I also used the same for swim 3 as swim 1 as there was only around 4" difference in depth. My plan was to feed a small cup of wetted micros, corn and caster into swim 2 at the all in, then spend 30 minutes dobbing around swim 1 with corn and pellet and also trying a small pellet cone to the head of the island trying to mug an early fish whilst swim 2 settled down. I also decided to target small silvers close in and so decided to loose feed pinkie and maggot throughout the match just throwing in a few now and then and only try it after a few hours.
The all in sounded and I began executing my plan. After 30 minutes, I had had no indications on the long pole in swim 1 or on the bomb rod so baited up with a small 4mm micro and shipped out to swim 2. One thing I had noticed with swim 1 was that the water close to the island was quite calm and sheltered, however the wind was really blowing through the middle of the peg and holding the pole straight was hard enough. Immediately I thought I had a knock, but missed it if it was one so dropped it back in and within 30 seconds the float dipped and I was into a nice skimmer of around 1lb 10oz. I was pleased with this, as I had only seen 2 fish caught at this point, both small carp from pegs 14 and 12 to the rushes. I was buoyed by the early skimmer and decided to cup in around 6 micros before shipping out again. The wind was that strong, I wasn't convinced I would get my pole out using a cad pot and have anything left in so cupped in via my main cupping kit. Baited my hook again and started to ship back out when CRACK!!! Not for the first time since I bought it in August, another pole section cleanly snapped in 2 just above where the insert from the section below finished. It happened on number 5 section and my heart sank! I tried to make it telescopic, but it wouldn't go, so I trimmed it down a little got it through, taped it up but it was just too weak - the wind was bending it like crazy so immediately I thought my chance had gone!
I spent the next hour on the bomb rod and had one liner but no proper takes - accurate casting was an absolute nightmare due to the trees overhanging my peg. I decided to switch to the waggler for an hour but that brought nothing, even when fishing swim 2 where I had thoughts of a hug shoal of skimmers just waiting for my bait (they are my thoughts - they are hurting nobody). I tried close in to no avail and noticed that nobody in my eye line was catching either. Martin had taken a couple of small carp and Dave Matty had taken a small carp from peg 13 whilst the 2 unlucky sods on pegs 17 and 18 were only taking small silvers I was beginning to be thankful for my skimmer! I wandered round the lake to see what was happening and also to pass a bit of time to the all out as I was pretty p****d off to say the least! A few carp had come almost all against the stick ups, and a few had been lost but beyond the reeds it was mainly silvers - oh and a pretty goldfish for Breamy!
I went back to my peg with 90 minutes to go, and decided to stick my top 5 on (I could fish up to half way on my number 5) and fish 3 swims at 10 o'clock, 12 o'clock and 2 o'clock close in and hope to add to my bag. It was slow and I could get nothing on pellet, corn or caster but did manage to add 3 roach and what looked suspiciously like a bitterling - no weight in it but still counts more than Norman's crayfish which would had made a nice snack!
At 2:15 the whistle blew and I knew it was a second consecutive 10 point match for me! And still no sign of a carp in 2011! Stuart took the match with 13lb 12oz from the Dolly Peg, Matt took a good second place with 10lb 14oz in open water (I think he was beyond the stick ups from memory anyway) and 3rd went to Martin with 8lb 5oz. I can't help wondering what could have been, and now have a week to either get Shimano to swap out my section FOC (AGAIN!!) or buy another before Hall Lane next week. Otherwise the Wokkster has very generously offered to loan me his Exage AX should I be struggling! Top man!
Anyway, as me and Breamy have forgotten what a carp looks like - here you go Dave:
Tight Lines.
And I thought I had a mare on Sunday! Roll on the better weather, thats all I can say!
ReplyDelete