Considering the time of year it was another good turn out for the Coffin Dodgers match with 26 booked in. This speaks volumes of the venue, cost of pools and the short distance to travel (for most). The BBC once again promised us rain until 15.00 and luckily there was none, in fact it was exceptionally mild for the time of year, I am not sure the fish were going to be appreciative of this.
In to the draw container and out comes peg 16 – not again – no, I had torn the draw ticket and the number two in half so on second look it was in fact peg 26 – great, a Skimmer peg.
With the electronic gates being lock out at 16.30 the match was reduced to five hours 15 minutes. Apparently BAA imposes a fine of £25 for releasing anglers after this time – surely Mike Jones can afford this? It was going to be a question of pacing myself.
Rig wise it was easy. One 4x16 Jolly even though the swim is one of the deepest on the lake (next time I intend to try a 4x18) for the Skimmers. My usual Ronnie rig, which yielded nothing in the short time I used it – they weren’t feeding in any numbers. Finally a paste rig which will now be put on the back burner in favour of a corn rig as I think the season for it is nearly over. As I still had some worms left from Stafford Moor albeit them being a bit worse for wear I thought I would use another ten of them. So on the whistle I fed a pot of casters with five chopped worms mixed in on the five metre line at 12 o clock (the deepest part of the swim, it shallows up slightly the further you go out). I started with a piece of worm on the hook with a dead red to prevent the worm wriggling off. It took 15 minutes to get my first Skimmer, which heralded am excellent run of the species – no smaller than 6oz and no bigger than 2lb – excellent. At the half way stage the swim died by which time I reckon I had 12lb. It was time to stretch my back and eat the banana. Back in the saddle and I decided to drop the worm and switch to double caster feeding caser every fish through the kinder pot. This worked well until the end – well I thought was the end of the match but soon discovered that I had accidently put my watch back to British Summertime – another hour then which proved to be painful only adding another three pound of Silvers, however, one was a sizeable Perch, but alas not quite as big as the one Mike Jones landed - 2lb 8oz Lake record. Finally the whistle sounded putting me out of my misery. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my Silvers weighed in at 27lb 8oz, with no Carp. This put me first in the Silvers and fifth overall. What a memorable days fishing.
John Smith on the peg 25 next and behind me (need to know the pegs) was giving Paul Haines (pictured right) some stick throughout the match until on the whistle Paul hooked a double figure Carp which pushed him up from nowhere in the match to coin position third. John was teasing whilst he was playing it but Paul had the last laugh, managing to land it with two minutes overtime left!
The match was won by Ian Sheppard (pictured lower right with the Silvers winner) with 81lb 10oz from peg 11. Ian initially caught on double red maggot fished over kinder potted micro. Ian later switched to soft pellet over the same feed. His catch also included 22lb of Silvers. Ian fed a kinder cup full of micro after every fish.
Finally Mike jones has published the dates for next byears Coffin Dodgers Matches, which are pictured lower centre - just double click on the frame then put on the reading glasses!
Full Result:
1. Ian Sheppard 81-10-0 peg 11
2. Mike Key 77-15-0 peg 19
3. Paul Haines 36-02-0 peg 16
4. Ray Bazeley 33-06-0 peg 29
5. Mike Nicholls 27-08-0 peg 26
6. Bob Warren 26-13-0 peg 3
Top Silvers:
1. Mike Nicholls 27-08-0 peg 26
2. Ian Sheppard 22-08-0 peg 11
3. Mike Jones 15-08-0 peg 32
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