No picture this week as although I believe this water has been open for almost 3 years, neither Google Maps or Bing Maps currently have the venue on their maps, just fields. But it's down Hall Lane between Parbold and Rufford on the left hand side (coming from Parbold) and consists of 3 (it may even be 4) match lakes all in the new commercial style of islands at 14m or just a canal length.
Well after last week's debacle, this week couldn't be any worse surely, an so it proved not to be and for me was definitely a match of 2 halves, or more realistically two thirds and a third!
I arrived at Hall Lane to be greeted by relatively calm conditions, with a slight tow (it was at this point) toward the car park, and the site of a Barn Owl flying low across the complex. Owing to last weeks broken pole, Wokkie brought his spare Exage AX as surely my BX tops would fit it...not a chance. The BX number 3 section is about the same diameter as the AX number 2 section - luckily Ray had been feeling generous the day before and elasticated some tops for me (cheers for that) which would prove crucial later on...or maybe not! Anyway, The draw was made and I drew out peg 2 - at that point not having a clue which peg this was. I carted my gear off and was really pleased to have drawn a peg right between the islands with a bit of open water to fish to. A bomb rod was definitely going to be an option today. As I began to setup, the anglers opposite arrived and I discovered I would be fishing opposite Laurel and Hardy (Wokkie and Breamy) so a quiet, peaceful match was never on the cards :-)
The peg I had gave me the point of the island at 14.5m to the front left and open water dead centre with rushes to the right between the islands. I decided to plumb up 3 pole swims, swim 1 would be to the point of the island in 3' of water to a 4x10 homemade float, 0.14 mainline and a 0.12 hooklink with size 19 B711. Swim 2 would be 14.5m out into open water between the islands at 6' deep with a 4x10 homemade pencil float to the same line and hook. This rig would also suffice for swim 3 which would be between 9 and 11m dead centre down the track. I would also set up a 1/4oz running lead to fish between the islands to the rushes. By this point I had got all my bait out my bag to a little oversight, I thought I had maggots left from last week so didn't buy any...then remembered I threw them in as there was only a few left - major faux pas it turned out to be!
The all in sounded at 9:16, it would have been 9:15 had Dave not tried to signal the all in by blowing into a matchman hook tyer instead of his whistle - surprisingly there was no noise so back into the box to find the whistle! By now the wind had picked up, especially on the side opposite me however it was still bloody freezing! I potted in a small cup of corn and wetted micros to the island, and a small cup of wetted micro and caster to swims 2 and 3 with 1 or 2 grains of corn on and decided to sit out the first 30 minutes on the bomb. Now I must confess, having not done much fishing at all over the past 3 years (until October last 2010) and then mainly fishing pole it has been around 4 years since I really attempted some accurate casting (give or take the brief stints I have done over the past few weeks). So it took me a fair few casts to get where I wanted, but after 30 minutes I hadn't had even a liner. I could hear from across the way that Dave Matty was into them from the start on the same peg Norman bagged up last time...not a good sign, especially as more than one person had claimed I had drawn the winning peg.
After 30 minutes I went to swim 1 with a 4mm expander pellet and waited...i lifted and dropped and waited...then waited some more but not a touch! By now Dave across had started to catch one or two, and I believe Wokkie had something in the net (hard to know really as he seemed to be claiming only 4 fish in the net from about ten past 9 to ten past 2!). So I decided to switch to swim 2 (dead opposite where Dave was catching steadily - funny how this started to happen about 15 minutes after he 'borrowed' some pinkies off Wokkie, not that I'm suggesting anything...) and started on caster - nothing. I stuck it out on caster for around an hour, trying to tempt the fish with little helpings here and there. Changing shotting, raising the rig, going overdepth, lifting and dropping but I couldn't buy a bite and was now getting concerned. Further down I could see Matt and Martin had both had a carp and I knew something had to change but here was my mistake. I went to swim 3 when in hindsight, I should have gone straight on the bomb rod and searched around as there was clearly nothing in front of me. To my left, neither Chippy Dave nor Arky had had a touch and Don to my right had a couple of small roach in the net. It was now approaching 12:30 and Arky got a carp followed by Chippy Dave at around 1. Shit. I was blanking and it appeared everyone else had a fish when Tel came down to say him, Noah and Stewart were also biteless so maybe I wasn't doing THAT bad (but I was!).
At 1:30 after far too long wasted on the pole I decided to spend the remainder of the match on the bomb rod. After a fair few casts to get exactly where I wanted I put the rod on the rest and relaxed when the tip moved slightly. Was it a liner?? It moved again and I thought it wa sseeing things as it rattled round and I was into a fish. As I netted it, I could see it was a better stamp than any others I had seen come out around 4lb, and whilst I knew Dave had at least 15lb or so, had images of a mighty shoal of carp just waiting to be plucked out one by one over the next hour and a half. Next cast in at 1:45 and I got too lcose to the reeds, I pulled on the rod and the line was singing when it finally came free of the reeds...followed by that jerking thud thud motion. How had I got a fish on?? And in true Wokkie style, I hadn't hooked it through its mouth! Must have lnaded right on top of it and had it through the dorsal but hey, they all count and at around a pound and half it boosted my weight. My spirits had lifted now (as noted by Chippy Dave) and I was hopeful of more but it wasn't to be. Save for a liner just on the all out. The last hour was the strangest I have known, as by 1:45, almost all my bank had packed up or were in the process of packing up, and across the way people seemed to be packing up early but I had kept going just in case.
At the weigh in, I was hopefull of a top 5 finish to help my points, but my 5lb 13oz got me 6th, as Ray finished 5th, with Mick C in 4th with Mark the Chub (way to go Partner!!!) in 3rd, Dave Matty 2nd with 8lb 15oz and a brilliant 26lb 8oz first for Breamy!
Off to Croft in Adlington next week, a totally new venue for me and I have no idea what to expect - other than to take maggots!
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