Wednesday 30/06/2010 - Carps AC - Boyd Valley Lake

The Ronnie’s are a nuisance for the Carp Slayer at the moment on this venue. There are absolutely millions of them around the 1oz mark. Even I think they need thinning out! So I had a cunning plan to sort out the bigger Ronnie’s, so down to AA and I negotiated the purchased of a pint of Hemp and Tares.

I drew peg 8 which is a “Gap” peg and sought after by the feeder flingers. There was plenty of activity in the gap so I set up a 3AAA pellet waggler set to one foot deep for use with 8mm hard banded pellet. I also set up the usual Ronnie rig to use with either Tares or Caster. I couldn’t leave the paste out as it can be lethal on this venue (or use to be), so I set one up for the LH margin and one at 4 metres. Because of the Ronnie’s I also set up a 4x14 Jolly for the banded hard pellet. I started on the pellet waggler and soon realised that the water level of the Gap was down to about 6 inches! The level is down about one foot indicating that the leak is still there. So shallowed up as far a practical as the waggler was 4 inches long! Next cast I hooked and landed a 2lb Carp. Then they moved to the other side of the Gap so I fed it with 8mm pellet and went in after the Ronnie’s and didn't go back there. It was a difficult decision to make as whether to go back after the Carp or head down for the tiny Ronnie’s. I messed around with paste and hard pellet for half hour or so with only two small Tench to show for it. It’s becoming almost impossible to fish paste now on this venue. So with four hours to go I decided head down for the Ronnie’s and had one a bung for the rest of the match interrupted by seven accidental Carp. My accidentals weighed in at 18lb 8oz and my Ronnie’s 23lb 1oz for a combined weight of 41lb 9oz. This put me first in the Silvers and fourth overall. As for the cunning plan - the Tares were a bit too small, hence I caught the same size fish as with the caster, because of missed bires the caster was a tad quicker. I also was expecting the hemp to attract the Carp. If they did it was in small numbers!!

The match was won by John Thomson (picture right with half his catch) on peg 1 with 81lb 10oz all Carp catch. John caught half his fish on the method feeder and the other half in the RH margin. John used 10mm banded pellet on both methods.

Full Result:

1. John Thompson 81-10-0 peg 1
2. Bob Price 57.04-0 peg 3
3. Chris Davis 49-06-0 peg 5
4. Mike Nicholls 41-09-0 peg 8
5. Kevin Dicks 31-09-0 peg 12
6. Martin Alexander 29-08-0 peg 11

Top Silvers:

1. Mike Nicholls 23-01-0 peg 8
2. Chris Davis 17-12-0 peg 5
3. There were two more weights on 17lb!