Thursday, 12 February 2015

Thursday 12/02/2015 - Veals Open - Emerald Fishery - Rudy and Sapphire

The now keen winter match angler Glenn Bailey arrived 15 minutes early. We had a stress free ride around the ring road and down the M5 to Hilltop Café. We were surprised to see Tony Rixon arrive in the café; apparently every other café from Bristol to Bridgwater was closed!

Dave Bacon arrived at the café but had to go back home as he had just heard his Mum had passed away – our condolences matey.

As usual by the time we arrived at the match Mike Jones had pegged everyone on Ruby. I was reasonably happy with this (I had my silvers head on). However, Tony Rixon wanted to re-peg putting three on Sapphire. Mike announced before the draw that “any complaints with the pegging see Nixon and Richolls” – this is why we let Mike run these matches – priceless.

In to the draw bag and out comes peg 7 which is the top end last peg on the near side. Second time on this peg so expected to catch Silvers with a few accidental Carp.

I set up a 4x12 Jolly to fish at 6 metres, the Ronnie rig a 4 metres whip with a tiny wagglers. On the bait tray was a pint of casters and the occasional sneaky Robin.

I confidently started on the Ronnie rig with single caster and second cast I lost a foul hooked Carp.  Next I landed a 2lb Common Carp, not what I wanted or expected. After 30 minutes I hadn’t had a Ronnie! However, Mike Jones on the next peg was catching them regularly. I’m too old to panic aren’t I? In to the bait bag and I get out some hard 4’s to feed down the RH side to try and concentrate the Carp away from the Ronnie’s (something I got from the Carp anglers feeding casters to get rid of the Ronnie’s). This coincided with using the 4 metre whip. It all worked well as I started to catch some decent Ronnie’s on the single caster and remained “relatively” Carp free for the remainder of the match. It was hard work to keep the Ronnie’s coming as the bigger they get the harder they are to catch.

I ended the match with six accidentals for 16lb 7oz 9 (pictured upper right) and a very satisfying first in the Silvers net of all Ronnie’s for 19lb giving a total of 35lb 7oz.

Considering the venue had been frozen for the previous 5 days it fish extremely well. An island to fish up to was the most productive areas for Carp.

Travelling partner Glenn Bailey (pictured right with his catch) did it again on the Carp from peg 11 (permanent peg 2), one of the three pegs on Sapphire winning the match with 99lb 10oz. Glenn caught over to the opposite island using 4mm soft pellet over kindered micro and hard 4’s. The average weight of is fish was 1 ½ lb so a busy day.

Full Result:

  1. Glenn Bailey 99-10-0 peg 11 (Sapphire)
  2. Tony Nixon 88-06-0 peg 3
  3. Scott Puddy 69-13-0 peg 9
  4. Adrian Jeffrey 66-0-0 peg 10
  5. Mike Jones 64-10-0 peg 8
  6. Norman Huggett 47-05-0 peg 5
Top Silvers:

  1. Mike Richolls 19-0-0 peg 7
  2. Andy Smith 8-050 peg 12 (Sapphire)
Weigh Sheet:


1 comment:

Mike Jones said...

I would like to thank Mr Richolls and Mr Nixon for rearranging my pegging. In fact they did such a good job they can peg the next match. Mr Richolls will be £5 better off not having breakfast (his wallet will be even fatter) Mr Nixon may be 5lbs lighter then his new Veals shirt may fit!