Lighten the kit up as far I dare - just the margin pole and a few top sets, no rods or reels. A pleasant drive down with Glenn on a glorious Spring day. A bacon and egg bun from the Todber van and all set for the draw which Tony had arranged for me to avoid the spit so Glenn could unload my kit straight onto a peg, I couldn't have fished without this help - thanks also to Jason Pitman.
Tony sensibly had two sets of scales this year - pictured - the lads weighing the highest producing area which included a 27 lb carp caught by Mike West from peg 48. - PB apparently.
Into the draw bag and out comes peg 58. A good peg I'm told - is there a bad one on this venue? Nope! For company Jason on peg 57 and Rich Major peg 59. Glenn had drawn peg 53 top corner of the LH spit well out the the light breeze!
Finally got set up with some subsequent discomfort. The plan was to fish for silvers and if in the first 30 minutes the carp started to catch me I would start catching them. So the paste Bullet set up for the margin only. Interestingly, over a year the margins have totally changed along this bank. It was nothing to 12 inches 36 inches out from the bank. Now its nearly 24 inches right up to the bank. Natural wind erosion or have the carp been eating the bankside? For the silvers set up the short Ronnie rig and a 4x12 Winter Titan to fish at top set - no barrels involved. Simple.
Fed both lines with neat GB starting in the margin with single LR over loose fed same and was soon battering Ronnie's, Rudd, Gudgeon, Perch, Hybrid's, Skimmers and Tench. Nothing over 3 oz except one Tench of 2 lb. More importantly no sign of carp. Decision made to fish for the small silvers for the remainder of the match. I tried the Titan rig in case there was some better Skimmers about but just found the same size fish, so stayed on the short rig until the end. I did over do the GB in hope for some better Hybrids but attracted the carp and as Rich was fishing for carp I passed the GB to him to prevent me feeding anymore. It worked for him too. I foul hooked 3 and landed 6 carp to 3 lb which was a lot less than last year (100 lb) and that expected. Made the right decision as no way could I have bagged on the carp today - problem with lifting the landing net even with 3 lb fish.
My silvers weighed 26 lb 14 oz and the 6 carp 19 lb 2 oz for 46 lb and not quite last, however, first in the silvers - mission accomplished albeit leaving me with "Ronnie hand" - pictured.
The match was won by Martin Rayet (pictured with the silvers winner) with 241 lb 9 oz from peg 49. Martin caught about 40 lb in the first 30 minutes on pellet shallow. He switched to his LH margin with double large worm over micro feed to land carp to 19 lb. Well done matey - what no meat?
Double bubble van as Glenn picked up his section by double default - a pick up is a pick up.
Result:
1. Martin Rayet 241-09-0 peg 49
2. Bob Gullick 207-14-0 peg 34
3. Freddy Roberts 200-09-0 peg 50
4. Joe McMahon 178-14-0 peg 36
5. Ryan Shipp 177-09-0 peg 47
6. Glenn Bailey 174-04-0 peg 53
Silvers:
1. Mike Nicholls 26-14-0 peg 58
2. Ryan Shipp 14-08-0 peg 47
Weigh Sheets:
2 comments:
How are you doing, Mike? Hoping to see you back in action soon, and writing the blog again!
Thanks. Another couple of weeks.
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