At one time I thought I would have to miss this match due to
issues with the car. Luckily my friendly tackle dealer (pictured right) came to
the rescue. The last time we travelled together was to the semi final of the Shakespeare 2000 match at Arrow Valley Lake. Thanks matey.
After weeks of warm overcast weather the fishing Gods were
against us as we were faced with an over night frost and bright clear skies and
a bitterly cold North wind. Not conducive for a Silver match where Skimmers
would be the main target.
Tony and I were joined at breakfast in Woody’s by Des Shipp.
As per usual the discussions turned to which pegs would be the preference –
Tony went for pegs 70 or 78 as did Des. I stayed quiet as have this recent habit
of drawing pegs that I say I didn’t want. In to the draw tin and Tony pulls peg
70 and Des peg 78 – and that’s how it’s done!
I pulled peg 88. As I wanted to be on Carey I was reasonably
happy with this draw especially as the cold wind would be off my right
shoulder, but sun in the face. This has been a fair section when it was pegs 81
to 90 but not so, since peg 96 have been included. For company I had trigger on
peg 90, who kept me amused and bewildered throughout the match. Every time Trig
tried to net a fish his landing net would become detached from his handle, falling
in the water. So it was fish around with the handle, retrieve the net, and then
use the net without the handle to net the fish. OK if you do this the once but
Trig followed the same process for every fish! I guess you don’t keep a nick
name for 20 years without good reason – do you Dave!
I set up a 4x14 Jolly to be fished for Skimmers at 10 meters.
A Ronnie rig which I fish short but was apprehensive as to whether this would
work as the water had gone clear. This peg does respond to the GB feeder so I
set this up to be fished at 25 metres.
I started by feeding two balls of GB laced with a few
casters and started to loose feed the Ronnie line. Out went the Jolly with
double dead red maggot. I must say the presentation was spot on picking up the
tow against the wind. Interestingly I didn’t get a bite until I was a metre
away from where I fed the GB which shows how strong the tow was. It was soon
clear that the fishing was going to be really hard as in the first hour I had only
two small Perch, a Ruffe and six Ronnie’s. There were plenty of Anglers still
bites less at his stage. So after re-feeding the Skimmer line I tried the short
Ronnie rig and as expected this produced nothing. So back on the Skimmer line
and I foul hooked a big Skimmer which I lost. I did have a couple of the 4oz
specimens that live in this swim before I hooked one of two Carp, which decided
me to try the feeder. So again with double red maggot on the hook I had a bite
first cast which was a 6oz Skimmer, out again and again a bite straight away
which resulted in a lost 1lb Hybrid at the net – bugger. Not to worry as I had
it sorted - not. Out again and luckily I had hold of the rod as A Carey Carp
took it on the drop and that was another lost hook. After 15 minutes bite less
and had to decide whether to sit on it for the remaining three hours. Instead
as the sun was now glittering over my Skimmer line I fed a whole pot of caster
in to an area that the sun had already visited. One last visit over the GB line
and I hooked and lost a Bream at the net – another bugger. So it was out went
the Jolly with double caster over the new line and I had an 8oz Perch first put
in – the sought after species. I then proceeded to bump small Ronnie’s. So I
decided to set up the 4 metre whip which would nearly reach the caster swim. I
then had a run of small Ronnie until the last 15 minutes when everything went
dead.
I weighed 10lb dead and with 13lb framing I rued not
starting and finishing the match on the 4 metre whip as I am sure that with
some hard work I could have got a low framing weight – of course I would have
to have known it was going to fish as hard as it did. Lack of hindsight me
thinks?
The match was won by Andy Power (pictured right being
presented with the winning purse of £750 by fishery owner Steve Long) with 23lb
13oz from peg 114. Andy caught a mix of small Skimmers and Tench fishing at 14
metres fishing caster over caster (no GB). Andy fed about two pints which no
doubt contributed to the high number of Carp that Andy hooked. Well done matey.
Full Result:
1. Andy
Power 23-13-0 peg 114
2. An-Ton
Page 21-02-0 peg 125
3. Paul
Greenwood 17-12-0 peg 96
4. Gary
O’Shea 14-04-0 peg 112
5. Tony
Rixon 14-02-0 peg 70 (2 Ronnie’s more)
6. Dave
White 13-14-0 peg 69
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