Sunday 19/04/2015 - Tony's Short Pole Match - Round One - Woodlands

First round of Tony’s Short Pole matches at Chiltern Trinity – Woodlands Lake. So it was breakfast at Hilltops Café where “Two Chews” Bakos went for the Belly Buster – it’s huge and cost £8! Andy Neal and Lee Werret were in the Café on their way to Viaduct. Apparently Andy’s is on a diet and has lost a stone last week and was eating a skinny breakfast (The Frenzee advertising hording didn’t look any smaller to me). When Andy seen “Two Chew’s” breakfast he started so salivate, at one time I thought Andy was going to start eating it. Bela said after that he’d bet Andy’s has a Belly Buster next time he in the Café.

Bela ate all his breakfast before I was half way through my small one. On the way to the draw Bela said he was going on a diet in the week, so get out quick to the shops, as the prices of Bacon, Sausages and Steak are sure to fall!

Twenty Eight in the league so four sections of seven. There was a concern that this might be too many but the results tell a different story. That said there were two or three pegs that had more room that the others.

There was a nasty could NW wind blowing into the near bank pegs so was hoping to draw the opposite side. Luckily I pulled peg 15 and was delighted with it because it can be a good Silvers peg, plus with peg 16 not in because of repairs to the bank slide it made the peg all the better.

When we all had settled in to our swims in was a line up of the Silverfox Winter League team – me 15, Leon 14, Gordon 13 and Bela 12 – amazing how theses things work out. Bela was happy to have drawn the far bank I think it’s his first time because he had to get instructions how to get there. On peg 17 was Clint “Loose Lips” Wojtyle – No secrets in match angling!!

I decided to target the Silvers as there was £50 for the Silvers winner. I set initially set up two rigs – The Ronnie rig for caster over caster and a paste rig both to be fished on my top set. However, as I had 30 minutes left before the “all in” I set up a 4x16 Jolly to be fished at 4 metres. Neither the pole nor the rig got used wasting half a pot of hard 4’s in the process.

Starting on the Ronnie rig I caught right away 2-4oz Ronnie’s and Hybrids. I then added two Tench, a big Skimmer and a decent Hybrid. Clint landed a “F1” and asked Tony if it was a Silver, The answer of course is no. I know Genetic modifications are advancing all the time, but how can combining two Carp make a Roach or Skimmer? With an hour of the match gone and 14lb of Silvers in the net everything was going to plan and I was enjoying myself. The swim then went iffy and all but died – bugger.

Gordon Cannings started off like a train catching three Carp in his first three put ins at full depth on meat. Bela was thrashing around shallow at 6 metres, working off his breakfast, with a few Carp catching him. Leon was struggling a bit but kept adding a few Carp to his net.

So with the sole intention of ridding the swim of these predators I went over with the paste and within seconds I was playing my first Carp. I went straight back on the Ronnie rig but it was obvious there were some more Carp about, so decision time – a switch to feeding hard fours and paste it was. Over the rest of the match I caught 14 Carp in the last 45 minutes I added two better Carp boosting my weight by another 30lb. In any case during the match I knock over the rest of my casters so I was now committed to the Carp.

I reckoned I had 50lb in each net plus my Silvers net. I wasn’t far out as both nets gave me 103lb (pictured upper right) and my Silvers 14lb 9oz for first in the match and fourth in the Silvers.

The Silvers was won by Dave Evans (pictured right with the match winner) from peg 19 with 18lb 4oz of Skimmers. Dave caught on soft 4 mm pellet fished over loose fed soaked 4’s at 4 ½ metres. Good Skimmers weight on the day.

Bela thrashed himself into fourth place with 88lb and a section by default, so the van went home happy with another double pick-up.

Full Result:

Weight Sheets: