Sunday, 13 January 2013

Sunday 13/01/2013 - Avon Angling Open - Plantation Fishery - Match Lake

After breakfast Bela and I walked the Lake. Although the Lake had plenty of colour there wasn’t any sign of Ronnie’s – well at least it wasn’t frozen.
ily: Arial;"> 
In to the draw landing net and peg 1 stuck to my hand. It wasn’t one of the favoured pegs during the pre-match tittle-tattle. Bela thought I had talked myself in to this is peg during our walkabouts. Bela drew flyer peg 8, I think he should have fished more to his right!! The positives were that I had plenty of room, sun and biting wind off my back.
 
I was slightly disappointed with the peg as it doesn’t have much of a Silvers history. So it was a change of plan. It was to be GB and maggot for the Skimmers and caster for the Ronnie’s.  Instead the new plan was to start on the expander over micro hoping to catch a few early Carp then switch to the GB later. However, I couldn’t help myself, setting up two Ronnie rigs which stayed lying on the ground for the duration of the match. The two rigs that mattered were a 4x14 and a 4x12 Jolly. The latter to be fished in the RH margin at 9 metres up to the over hanging brambles (starting to sound like Darren “Brambles” Gillman) and the other out in front with pellet.
 
On the whistle I fed a few micros out at 9 metres and at the same length down to the right where I fed twice as much plus an ample helping of caster. Out with 3mm expander and first cast I had a 4lb Carp. Three more followed in consecutive put-ins. I had topped up between each fish and probably over done it as I sensed the fish had come up in the water. I eased back on the feed and put on a piece of corn (scrounged form Tony Rixon) and after adjusting the depth so that the corn shotted the float I hooked my fifth Carp, but interestingly it was the smallest so far. So it was back on the expander, which resulted in two Skimmers. I took this as a sign to switch to GB and maggot. So after feeding GB laced with Pinkies it was time to test the margin. So after kindering a few more micro and casters I went over it with corn, resulting in some indications but nothing to strike at. I decided to switch to triple maggot and soon netted a near 2lb Perch. I fed again and went over the GB with single dead red and landed another small Carp. It was then turn of the Ronnie’s catching a 2oz fish regularly. A decision had to be made Carp or Silvers and because the Ronnie’s weren’t coming as quick as I would have liked I went back in the margin catching another Perch and four more small Carp. I kept topping up the GB line which only encouraged even smaller Ronnie’s.
 
My Silvers weighed 6lb 3oz (in hindsight I think I could have framed in the Silvers if I focussed on the Ronnie’s) and my ten Carp weighed in at 34lb 14oz for a total of 41lb 1oz for fourth overall, picking up third overall pool by default.
 
The match was won by Alan Oram (pictured right with the match runner up) with 85lb 10oz from peg 27. Alan had a next peg battle with Martin Lenaghan who stormed ahead for first three hours of the match but Alan pulled back once the fish deserted Martin in the last two hours. Both caught on expander pellet over micro.
 
The Silvers was won by Tony Rixon (pictured lower right just before he slipped on his ass – need to wear your glasses to the toilet!) with 61lb 6oz from peg 7. Tony also caught on expander over micro.
 
Full Result:
 
1.      Alan Oram 85-10-0 peg 27
2.      Martin Lenaghan 75-02-0 peg 28
3.      Tony Rixon 61-06-0 peg 7
4.      Mike Nicholls 41-01-0 peg 1
5.      Paul Elmes 39-02-0 peg 37
6.      Bela Bakos 24-12-0 peg 8
 
Top Silvers:
 
1.      Tony Rixon 11-10-0 peg 7
2.      Martin McMahon 9-12-0 peg 3

No comments: