I was a bit jaded this morning luckily I had a ride with Glenn Bailey aka Two Pots. A steady traffic free ride down got us there in plenty of time for the usual chats and piss takes, there was also a surprise arrival of Bela who had managed to fish as stand in.I don't think it really matters where you draw as you are going to catch a minimum of a 100 lb of Carp averaging 2 lb 8 oz - a days fishing! So into the draw box and out comes peg 60. Happy with this peg as I fished it in this match last year and got in the main frame with a near 200 lb. That said I drew peg 59 in the Float Only and had 132 lb but had severe trouble with foul hookers, which was subject to plenty of analysing. For company I had Dave Evans on end peg 61 and Glenn Bailey on 59!! Bela was also in our section. The venue can be wind affected but with a stiff wind affecting most of the pegs I thought this wouldn't be such an issue.
I had the baits for the Silvers but decided to focus on the Carp so only two rigs a MH 0.3 gram paste float set to the depth at top-set plus one and with 4 inches taken off fitted the depth on the top-set. I set up a margin paste float, but didn't expect to catch many on it.
So started on the top-set +1 potting in a big pot of micro in hope that this will keep the fish down longer. Out on the paste and was soon playing the "do or die" little common Carp. I kept them coming regularly by adding 5 or so wetted 4's in with the paste. However, there was a savage tow on against the wind plus the fish were small averaging 2 lb so thought I needed to fish quicker so after an hour I switch to the top-set out in front. Still caught some small ones but added the odd better fish. I change the feeding by hand with hard 4's and got the regularity right with help from the Silvers. I would catch a few Carp then the Silvers would start nibbling the paste so would start carefully loose feeding until I had Carp liners then stop - repeat. This really reduced the amount of foulers.
The margins on this fishery are very shallow to non-existent, which Glenn fishes 3 inches deep! I thought I would experiment with the margin by hand feeding a mix of maggot/micro and caster - particle baits. Within seconds there were big Carp over it. What I found interesting was there appeared to be a lead Carp about 8 lb which had its head against the bank strongly swishing its fins, totally uncatchable as were the ones behind it. I supposed that due to the feed being in such shallow water the Carp couldn't upend enough to feed properly so they were trying to wash the feed into deeper water. After feeding it took less than 5 minutes for them to disappear out of sight. I did drop the margin paste rig in for a minute but didn't want the issue of foul hooking these big fish. Rig retired.
Not long afterwards I started to catch some bigger Carp on the top-set +1 which I'm sure were earlier in the margin. All food for thought.
I finished with 232 lb 4 oz for a section win and 5th overall. So happy with this. However, well done to Bela who gave me a close run with 221 lb!
I had to assist the weigh in but by time I got to the next section my fingers had locked up with cramp and couldn't hold the weigh board. I think this was due to holding the top-set for so long playing fish. I would find it physically difficult to catch more than 300 lb at the moment until the average fish weight increases.
The Silvers once again was won by Ryan Shipp with 42 lb 13 oz from peg 45. Ryan caught on worm over loose fed maggot/caster, mostly fed by catty but due to the wind had to occasionally pot it. All the fish were caught on the deck. Ryan also came last in the money fourth overall.
Tony not unusually won the league. I came joint one out of the league money with Glenn Bailey, shame he didn't have the peg to win his section today. He might have bought the beers instead of me! Thats fishing.
Thanks to Tony (pictured top) and Steve Evans for the work they put into the two leagues they run, Where would we be without them.
Result:
League Overall:
Weigh Sheet:
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