Pole Only Series R3, Acorn, Sunday 14th April 2013

First thing of note today, was the good feeling of waving the ice breaker cheerio as it stayed in the garage. With temperatures now into double figures °C I had considered making today a pellet only attack, but its tricky to go fishing without any casters, so a pint of Tony's freshly turned caster and 1/2 a pint of maggot also graced my bait bag.

After his recent run, Bob Gullick has now earned the name Bob 'The Bridge' Gullick, (or The Troll) as his run of drawing bridge pegs continues, this time the sheltered side of the far bridge, peg 21. Another drawing arm to note is that of series newcomer Pete Bartlett, who has now drawn peg 9, 8 and 12 (10 and 11 aren't in).

As this was one of the rotation rounds, we drew one section at a time, I waited and took the last peg in C section and wasn't too happy to see peg 18, not the favoured 12 or one of the two bridge pegs in the section.  C section was the only section where all the pegs offered no respite from the gusting wind, which necessitated pegging down my pole rollers to stop them blowing away. It was fairly obvious that I wasn't going to be able to fish the far shelf, but in the hope that at some time I could get over there I set up a MW Slim that takes 4x10 stotz on 0.14 with a 16 63.13 hook. The same rig would do for the near margin, down to the pallet of 17.

The main line of attack would have to be down the track at about 8m, as that was all I could hold and hope to achieve any sort of presentation. A .8 MW Diamond with a 0.12 hooklength and 18 Silverfish match hook was put on the top kit and with some line on the bottom and two back shot, I could get it to sit still, but a much heavier float than I'd usually use in these depths.  I also set one up with a band on a hair rig, just in case they went mad, that rig never got used.

A 4x18 Jolly to fish at the bottom of the near shelf completed the set up, by the time I sorted out my bait and had a chat with Bob 'The Bridge' - who kindly gave me the groundbait he'd prepared, as he was going to catch so many carp on the bridge, he wouldn't need it - before it was time for the all in.

Very difficult to present a static bait and get the float dotted down to see finicky bites, but I did have a bite first drop in and that resulted in a perch which probably weighed about double the maggot it took.  I then lost a couple of small fish, as the wind buffeted the pole, before a couple more of the micro perch joined their mate in the net. A switch to the 2+1 line at the bottom of the near shelf, with caster, resulted in a twitch of the float and a 6oz roach joined the perch, next drop in a 6oz skimmer and next a small carp, again on caster, that was to be it, not another bite from that line.

I was struggling to get a bite anywhere in the peg and in desperation, went across the far shelf, but it was physically impossible to hold the pole at that length, so back down the track, where I had fed two lines, one with Bob's groundbait and one with a few micro's - I never had a bite on pellet on any line, so a good job I hadn't gambled on it being a pellet dominated match.

I managed a couple of skimmers and another roach from the groundbait line, a small carp from the margin and with nearly 4 hours gone I must have been last or last but one in the section with not even 3lb in the net.  Thankfully, the wind dropped and I quickly put the sections on to get the MW Slim to the far shelf, feeding caster, with a couple of maggots in and double maggot on the hook saw me start to get a few bites. For the second match running I had Ken Rayner for company on the next peg and he had snuck out a couple of skimmers before landing a decent tench, he followed this with another tench and a few carp and was thinking of silvers money.

Initially going over to the far shelf brought me a rudd, a couple of roach and a skimmer, before a tench and a 2lb perch boosted my own silvers, I also managed a few carp on the maggot over caster, all up the shelf and this turned my dire weight with 4 hours gone into a section second and second silvers section, with 9.13 of silvers and 27.12 of carp for 37.09, Ken did manage his silvers money, by triple default with 9.03.  An enjoyable last 2 hours, just a shame the first four were ruined by the wind.

1) Mike Owens 83.08 peg 7
2) Pete Bartlett 75.14 peg 12
3) Lewis Jones 70.12 peg 8
4) Tim Ford 60.01 peg 30
=5) Tom Thick 54.03 peg 40
=5) Andy France 54.03 peg 9

Silvers

1) John Bradford 16.12 peg A6
2) Lance Tucker 14.15 peg A3
3) Mark Broomsgrove 12.14 peg 36

A section:

1) Joe McMahon 36.06 peg A4
2) Mike Nicholls 22.00 peg A8
Silvers: John Bradford 16.12 peg A6

B Section:

1) Mike Owens 83.08 peg 7
2) Lewis Jones 70.12 peg 8
Silvers: Mike Owens 5.03 peg 8

C Section:

1) Pete Bartlett 75.14 peg 12
2) Chris Fox 37.09 peg 18
Silvers: Pete Bartlett 10.08 peg 12

D Section:

1) Tim Ford 60.01 peg 30
2) John Osborne 53.09 peg 38
Silvers: Mark Broomsgrove 12.14 peg 36

Pole Only 2013 Overall Table
After Three Matches
Name			Points		Weight
1	Pete Bartlett		24		209	4
2	Mike Nicholls		22		76	4
3	Lance Tucker		21		67	13
4	Tim Ford		20		93	12
5	Chris Fox		19		106	8
6	Bob Gullick		19		104	8
7	Lewis Jones		17		157	5
8	Mike Owens		17		150	0
9	Tom Thick		17		106	1
10	Paul Faiers		17		94	1
11	Dave Wride		16		47	8
12	Bela Bakos		15		91	6
13	Tony Rixon		15		55	8
14	Nigel Vigus		15		44	1
15	John Osborne		14		84	10
16	Matt Tomes		14		72	13
17	Joe McMahon		14		54	8
18	Mark Broomsgrove		13		74	9
19	Andy France		11		87	5
20	Glenn Calvert		11		40	1
21	R Peck		10		69	9
22	Kev Perry		10		41	2
23	John Bradford		10		34	14
24	Paul Lasson		9		33	13
25	Eddie Wynne		8		66	15
26	Glenn Bailey		8		62	0
27	Brian Slipper		8		56	9
28	Gordon Canning		8		33	1
29	Dave Poole		8		18	6
30	Nick Harvey		7		14	6
31	Ken Rayner		6		51	7
32	Phil Harding		4		44	11

Pole Only 2013 Silvers Table
After Three Matches
Name			Points		Weight
1	Mark Broomsgrove		24		31	6
2	Glenn Calvert		20		14	5
3	Nigel Vigus		19		25	0
4	Kev Perry		18		18	8
5	Pete Bartlett		18		15	2
6	Tony Rixon		17		10	14
7	R Peck		16		13	4
8	Dave Wride		16		11	11
9	Andy France		15		24	14
10	John Bradford		15		23	12
11	Chris Fox		15		14	1
12	Mike Owens		14		7	4
13	Eddie Wynne		14		7	0
14	Tom Thick		13		45	10
15	Glenn Bailey		13		38	0
16	Lance Tucker		13		23	15
17	Paul Faiers		13		15	4
18	Joe McMahon		13		8	8
19	Dave Poole		12		15	15
20	Tim Ford		12		14	13
21	Matt Tomes		12		11	6
22	Ken Rayner		11		14	15
23	Paul Lasson		11		12	2
24	Brian Slipper		11		8	13
25	Phil Harding		9		9	3
26	Bob Gullick		9		3	11
27	Mike Nicholls		8		11	10
28	John Osborne		7		4	11
29	Bela Bakos		6		7	2
30	Gordon Canning		5		2	6
31	Lewis Jones		5		1	11
32	Nick Harvey		2		2	4