Thursday 16/01/2020 - Tony Rixon's Silvers Only Open - Plantation Fishery - Main Lake

First of this winter's Silvers float only matches at the very popular but match restricted Plantation Fishery. Travelled with Glenn Bailey in his glimmering white van, I was afraid to put my feet on the floor mat. We both had a decent breakfast in the Bridge Inn. Arrived in time for a quick look at the Lake, it was apparent that some tree felling has been done recently - vast improvement.

It was no good complaining about the weather as the forecast was unfortunately spot on - gusting winds and heavy rain. So a peg out of the wind would be OK then. Last two in the landing net Tony snatched the one I was going for - more pensioner abuse, so had the last one then - peg 16 which turned out to be permanent peg 4 and in the bloody wind which was coming at me from, well everywhere. Tony was on next peg 17 perm peg 3. On the the other side was Mark Broomsgrove who was accidental married again recently on Facebook - Technology in the wrong hands me thinks.

I set up the Ronnie rig, a 4x12 Winter Titan to fish top-set plus three barrels - would have liked to have fish longer but the wind would not permit this. I also set up a 4 metre whip in case the Ronnie's showed up in numbers.

The trial run through proved the tow against the wind to be horrendous and due to the wind it was difficult to control the float.

I chose to start on the Ronnie rig using caster over caster and after 10 minutes had one missed bite, not good news for me as it meant fishing the long line taking on the bloody wind. So I thought I would try the 4mm expander over kindered micro. It wasn't long before I started to catch Skimmers and had a decent hour kindering micro after every fish. I then hooked my first Carp. It wasn't unexpected due to fishing pellet. The Carp was a low double and as often happens when they don't count I couldn't lose it, resulting in me catching hold of the line/elastic. The fishing started to slow but still had a couple of better Skimmers to 2 lb. Come halfway and one more Carp the Skimmers disappeared. Did I make the wrong decision by switching to GB and maggot - will never know. Whilst that rested I had a go again on the Ronnie rig and had  six or so before it died so out on the GB line with double DR's and had a 1 lb Skimmer before I started to catch Ronnie's. I kept topping up with GB but couldn't get the Skimmers back. So spent the last 40 minutes on the Ronnie rig this time with maggot over maggot. It started slowly but picked up near the end - time of day. Whilst packing up the pole we had a strong gust of wind which blew all my pole sections around with one going in the lake luckily the fishery owner was close by and retrieved it. As least the rain stopped for a while.

Even though Tony Rixon kept saying I beaten him I knew differently albeit it close. I weighed 19 lb 8 oz for fourth overall in a very close match. Considering the conditions the weights were excellent. I don't think the Ronnie's like either the rain of the strong tow - summer time would be different.

The match was won by Dave Wride (pictured right - grimacing) with 24 lb 10 oz of Skimmers from becalmed peg 11. No need to ask, but Dave would have caught on expander's over micro with some 4's.

Finally, when is the rain and wind going to do one? 

Result:

1. Dave Wride 24-10-0 peg 11
2. Tony Rixon 22-06-0 peg 3
3. Paul Faiers 20-06-0 peg 27
4. Mike Nicholls 19-08-0 peg 4
5. Dave Willmott 17-08-0 peg 14
6. Glenn Bailey 13-08-0 peg 19 

Weigh Sheet: