Wednesday 03/11/2010 - Carps AC - Cider Farm - Yarlington Mill

I once again stopped at Budgens in Churchill and had my usual breakfast Baggett - £2.40 and scrummy. I think the BBC should stop spending millions on trying to predict the weather and use one of the free websites which are far better than they are. David Angwin tonight was presenting for the BBC local news that the temperature would struggle to reach 11 degrees tomorrow and behind him on the weather board it was declaring 14 degrees!! Come on what’s going on – covering all aspects?

It was a good turn out for the last match at Cider Farm until March 2011. There were signs of the home team being a bit demob happy. Mark is off to South Africa and Mum and Dad off to Cancun after getting the cider fermenting. Have a good one.

So the match was on Yarlington Mill instead of Dabinett. In to the draw bucket and out comes peg 4. Umm, not that happy with this one as it doesn’t have any Silvers history and little Carp framing history either. With Anton Page on peg 40, Rod Wotton on peg 41 and Leyton Palmer on peg 14, I guessed that was the Carp pools taken care of. So it would be an out and out Silvers attack. I set up a Skimmer rig to fish in the middle of the open water at 7 metres for 4 mm expander over 2 mm expander, a Ronnie rig for the RH margin and a corn rig for the same margin if the Carp swayed me from the Silvers. I cupped on some hard 4 mils and corn in the RH margin, fed some dead reds (DR’s) at 4 metres and some 2 mm expander at 7 metres. I started with the Ronnie rig over DR’s and had a Ronnie followed by a Carp – then nothing. Out at 7 metres with the 4 mm expander which could only produce tiny 1 -2 oz Skimmers (last year’s fish I reckon). I caught about 40 then the Carp moved in (I am sure Carp are attracted by feeding Silvers as much as they are by the feed itself). I decided to try the margin with single maggot and had a run of very small Ronnie’s, again until the Carp moved in. I had no choice but to stick with these tiny fish to the end swapping between the two lines – what a long 5 ¾ hours it was. The biggest Silver fish was about 3oz!! Towards the end I was giving up the will to live loosing a hook in the reeds and a tangle in the last ten minutes actually cost me some coin. My accidental Carp weighed in at 32lb 2oz and my Silvers 7lb 14 oz giving a total of 40lb. This put me joint third with Colin Golding in the Silvers (2oz away from coinage) and I think 7th overall.

Peg 4 is dead opposite peg 11 which I think is an average Carp peg – certainly not a flyer. Nick Collier drew this peg and I had to look at him all day (see picture right with Nick grimacing - I think this distracted me a tad) catching Carp. Similar to me, Nick fell one short of gaining coin. What I must say I thought he did extremely well from this peg breaking the ton – not many have done that this year from it – if anyone.

The match was won by Rod Wotton from peg 41 with 130lb. Rod caught on banded pellet fished short to his Left fished at 11 and 13 metres over 4 mm pellet. Rod would have weighed 138lb had he not missed alternating his fish to net, having 8lb disqualified. Further, had Layton Palmer (pictured right - in agony) not had 40 minutes or so not fishing due to pains in his chest he might have overhauled Rod – who knows!!

What I di know is that Bob Prices Power Walker dosn't walk over a bed of fallen apples!!

The Silvers was won by Andy Gard from peg 46 with 9lb 3oz. Andy, similar to me caught tiny fish on maggot.

Full Result:
1. Rod Wotton 130-0-0 peg 41
2. Leyton Palmer 124-0-0 peg 14
3. Nick Collier 104-14-0 peg 11
4. Anton Page 95-03-0 peg 40
5. Martin Alexander 68-03-0 peg 32
6. Andy Hempstead 63-07-0 peg 36

Top Silvers:

1. Andy Gard 9-03-0 peg 46
2. Steve Jefferies 8-0-0 peg 25
3. Colin Golding 7-14-0 and Mike Nicholls 7-14-0 peg 4