Monday 10 August 2015

Sunday 09/08/2015 - Tony Rixon's Short Pole Match - Final Round - Chiltern Trinity - Woddlands


Today was the final match in Tony Rixon’s short pole match for which I was winning the league with three section wins, two match wins and a third, so all I had to do was win my section again to win the league! I did have Trigger who has been winning everything this term right up my ass just one point behind so wanted to avoid his section. I was also in the final four in the knockout.

Bela and I stopped in the usual Hilltops café where half the anglers fishing had gathered.

When we arrived at the fishery we couldn’t park in our usual space, so parked as close as we could – Umm would this be a bad omen? I had a walk around Woodlands Lake there was plenty of pegs I wouldn’t mind drawing; however, most of the fish appeared to be feeding in the middle pegs. In to the draw coffee tin and out came peg 22. I was happy with this as I have won the section and coming third overall from the peg. Peg 22 is a corners peg and end of section peg so some room even though peg 21 no longer exists. Trigger drew peg 14 which was the first peg in my section. For close company I had Tony Rixon on peg 23 and Jason Radford peg 20.

Since the first match I have been fishing the venue differently in that I have focussed solely on Carp which was the plan again today. I set up two 0.4 gram paste rigs identical except the lines were 0.18 and 0.2 straight through. The first time I fished the peg I tried to catch at the full match limit and caught just fresh fizzing air!! So I concentrated on the RH margin which needed clearing out so I could see further down the peg. The margins are quite deep on the peg so set both rigs at 3 ½ foot, which was OK because the water looked very clear in comparison to previous matches. It was always going to be a paste and pellet attack, but had the usual caster back up. 

I started initially on the top-set loose feeding a few hard 4’s where the hook bait was piranhaed by Ronnie’s. They soon went quiet indicating a Carp wasn’t far away which I was soon playing and a decent one at that. Now last visit to the peg I lost my first Carp in a snag, will I ever learn as I did exactly the same again. The snag is near peg centre and about 4 metres out – bugger. The Piranhas were back and it took a while for a Carp to return a fouler which was soon waving its tail goodbye. I now was struggling with every one in the section having at least one Carp and Trigger seven! No panic this is a late peg and would again today - hopefully.

After two hours I decided to set up the Ronnie rig to add some weight to the weightless four keepnets. This required more adjustments to the RH tree. I caught Ronnie’s, Hybrids ad Skimmers to 4oz. This lasted about ¾ hour when the bites got iffy so time to plop the paste in and a bite straight off. Lesson learnt so I shipped on full permitted pole and played it out away from the snag and top-setted it on the right of the peg where it was netted, a 10 lb Mirror. The next two put-ins brought two more big Carp played out in the same fashion avoiding the snag. I was just thinking I might catch Trigger and Kevin Moulton also bagging in my section, the struggle recommenced until ¾ hour to go I landed my fourth and last Carp. If I had known it was to be my last I would have gone back on the Ronnie rig to get the extra 1lb I needed to win the section by double default, because Trigger had easily won the match and section overhauling my weight near 100lb weight advantage and Kev Moulton coming second.

I finished up the bridesmaid coming second in the knockout and second in the league whilst Trigger won the League, knockout, heaviest weight. I don’t know why he didn’t try and win the highest silvers weight because he had the match sown up halfway through.

Trigger (pictured upper right with some quality Carp) caught 135lb 4oz from peg 14 on 8mm hard hair-rigged banded pellet from both margins and some thrashing around shallow out in front. Trigger fed 8mmm pellets four or so at a time.

The Silvers was won by Paul Faiers (pictured right - has he fallen a sleep!) with 22lb 10oz from peg 12. Paul caught on caster at full length who also won the leagues highest Silvers weight.

The top three league winners Trigger, Me and Paul Elms pictured below centre.



Bela had a surprise as he came in 5th in the overall league picking up last in the money so the van went home more the richer. However, due to the motorway being closed due to an accident and the A38 being jammed we went on the scenic route – Glastonbury Tor, Wells Cathedral arriving in Bar- Gar-Age at 19-45 for a few Pinky Ponks.Another memorial day.

Full Results on the Day:
































League Results (started to rain):





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