After coming close last Thursday I was itching to get back for another go so booked in for this week’s evening match. There were 11 fishing this week including venue expert Alvin, Scott and Roger Russell, Martin Heard and Bruce Hunt. After a cup of coffee and paying my pools, it was time to draw. I fancied another go at 23 but pulled out peg 8, apparently it’s not used much and a quick check of previous evening results and I couldn’t see it figuring in the frame – great!
Scotty gave me some expanders (star man) and I was off to my peg, it looked ok and the island was reachable with 13 metres of pole, which was a bonus. There were loads of carp moving all along our side and it looked set to be a good match. Scott had drawn peg 2 which hasn’t got a lot of form and he wasn’t happy. I decided on two lines, at 10 metres just past the middle and tight across at 13 metres. The start time soon arrived and I cupped in half a pole pot of micros and corn across and the same at 10 metres. I started with corn on the size 16 808 and was getting bites straight away and I was soon safely netting carp number one.
Next put in, I was emptying my toss pot when I hooked a fish on the drop, it felt like it was foulhooked and as I was shipping back, the hook pinged out and left the rig in a right mess around the pole tip. Adrian Bishop on peg 6 was now on two carp as I tried to untangle the bird’s nest. I spent ages and was getting nowhere and I was aware of time ticking away. In the end I’ve cut the rig off and as I didn’t have a replacement (piss poor preparation), I’ve gone out with the deep rig, down the track with 6mm soft pellet on the hook. I had a few indications but nothing positive and with loads of carp moving across I was worried about falling too far behind and had to set up another shallow rig.
By now nearly an hour had gone and I was starting to worry and it was bloody raining again, a decent roach and then carp number two settled my nerves but I was still going nowhere fast. I tried different spots along the far side but by the halfway point I hadn’t added any more fish. I hadn’t seen Scott on peg 2, Pete on 4 or Adrian on 6 have much and the next angler to my left seemed to be struggling too so I came back down the track with soft pellet on the hook. It still wasn’t happening so I switched to a 4mm pellet and all of a sudden I was getting bites.
I had a 1lb tench followed by a 4oz skimmer and thought I could at least have a go for the silverfish pool. I was feeding micros with a few expanders each put in and the peg was really starting to fizz and then I started catching carp. I had five more carp, with one going about 5lb and a couple of rudd in the next hour, I also lost four foulhookers. Adrian was now fishing down by the lilies to his right for silvers and I hadn’t seen Scott land anymore. In the last hour I had another four carp, landing one on the whistle to end with 11 carp, 1 tench, 1 roach and 2 rudd for around 20lb.
I packed up and took half my kit back to the car, Scotty had thrown his 3 carp and bits back, Pete said he hadn’t done that well and Adrian said he’d only had a couple of carp but had fished for silvers for most of the match so I thought I’d probably beaten the anglers around me. By the car I saw Alvin who said he’d had 8 or 9 carp but that Heardy had bagged up on silvers. The weigh in started at Pete (as Scott had thrown back) and he had just under 10lb, Adrian had 7lb 9oz of silvers and his couple of carp giving him 14lb odd. My silvers went 2lb 2oz and with my carp weighing 19lb 14oz, I ended with a level 22lb.
I took the rest of my kit back to the car and walked round the other side of the pond to watch the remainder of the weigh in, I got there just as Alvin weighed in and he had over 29lb (and he reckoned he hadn’t done very well!) and when Heardy said he’d had 22lb 3oz, I thought I’d been ‘ounced’ out of it again. But then Scott said they were paying three tonight – phew. Back at the results and I was indeed called out in third place and picked up £20. I enjoyed it again but that hour ‘faffing about’ had really cost me and I should have had second if not first. So more lessons learnt, next time I will definately have duplicate rigs set up and I won’t spend too long on a line if I’m not getting bites.
1 – Alvin Jones (Enterprise Angling) – 29lb+
2 – Martin Heard (Tiverton) – 22lb 3oz
3 – Jamie Rich (Against Men and Fish) – 22lb
Silvers – Adrian Bishop (Summerhayes) – 7lb 9oz
Still at least I’d stopped the rot for now, next up is Dillington on Sunday and I’m not hopeful of a result out there.
