Tuesday 02/06/2020 - Acorn Costcutter - Paddocks

With weekend matches fully booked I have decided to concentrate on week day matches and save the weekends for Tony Rixon and Windmill matches. So today I was off to Acorn which was sensibly limited to 28 anglers. All the matches so far including this one has been run in accordance with the current guidelines. However, in doing so reduces the social side which is a big element for me. No gossip and limited piss taking. Some social distancing photography though.

It was a rolling draw so no time to discuss with anyone their favoured draws, tactics, etc... That said I’m told you can get a days fishing from any peg, which is about right. Paid my £13 and sent to peg 25. Not a peg you would run to, but I wasn’t that concerned as plenty of Silvers have been showing all round so always a good fall back to keep me occupied. For company I had Granty Junior on peg 27 and Mark “No Pots” Bailey on peg 24. Plenty of time to set up and have a social distancing walk around.

Set up a 5x11 paste rig, 4x12 F1 and the Ronnie rig. Bait wise LR’s, 4 mm expander (not pumped), wetted micro, hard 4’s and ground expander GB – simple.

I started by feeding a small ball of GB laced with a few micros down the track (Snake Lake) and l started loose feeding LR’s on the Ronnie rig line. Started on the 4x12 rig with 4 mm expander and soon had a 12 oz Skimmer. However, far too soon the Carp disrupters moved in above the feed. So re-fed the GB and picked up the Ronnie rig with single LR on the hook started to catch more 12 oz Skimmers and Perch but the Ronnie’s weren’t showing. The line hit a brick wall and I persevered too much with this and after foul hooking a Carp which I lost, I looked at the watch and already two hours into the match. So picked up the F1 rig and had another Skimmer and a small Tench before the same happened. The penny made a big clunking sound as it dropped. Onto the paste rig set to fish down the inside shelf. The upshot was that in the next four hours I put 100 lb of Carp in the net. I caught over loose fed hard 4’s, feeding about ½ a pint.

Along came Mark Bartlett with the distancing weighing system (pictured upper right). Must say the cheapest and most effective system Iv'e seen yet. My Silvers weighed 7 lb 12 oz and my Carp 100 lb 1 oz for a third overall total of 107 lb 1 oz. the question is what would I have caught had I not spent two hours trying to catch Silvers? Does it matter - no, as it was a very enjoyable day but would have liked a visit to the pub on the way home.

The match was won by Dave Turberville from peg 28 (pictured right a safe distance from runner up Zac Williams) with 133 lb 6 oz. Dave caught on hard pellet over and down to the empty pallet on next peg 29 where he caught most of his Carp.

Matt Vowels won the Silvers from peg 22 with 25 lb 2 oz. Not sure how he caught but do know he disappeared for an hour during the match! Any Gard needed another 10 minutes!!

Result:

1. Dave Tuberville 133-06-0 peg 28

2. Zac Williams 131-15-0 peg 13

3. Mike Nicholls 107-01-0 peg 25

4. Tony Rixon 95-01-0 peg 39

Silvers:

1. Matt Vowles 25-02-0 peg 22

2. Andy Gard 23-04-0 peg 23

Weigh Sheets: