I have been thinking about my fishing and trying to assess how I can simplyfy things, one thing I am doing is trying to settle on a small selection of floats that will suit nearly all situations on the venues I normally fish. A while back I bought some Nick Gilbert XT Gimps, they have passed the test of time and they are a very durable replacememt for Carpa Chimps, which I find break or bend very easily. I have only damaged one Gimp, when a foul hooked carp came off at full pelt and the line cut the bristle off at the base.
I ordered some more last week, in readiness for the Bait Tech festival and a conversation with Nick led to me order a few of his handmade Gimps, wire and glass stem to try, also a margin float pattern. Nick also kindly sent me three patterns to try out, one of which, the Power Finesse put most of the fish in my net today. I'll be ordering a few more of this these and can recommend Nicks service and quality.
On to the match and a convivial drive to the cafe with Tony Rixon passed the time, we went into the draw bucket close to each other but ended up on different lakes, Tony on match lake, peg 15, myself on peg 41 on lake 3. Frustratingly there were three no shows on this lake, reducing the section on my side by one and two the other side, this gives plenty of space to some lucky anglers, Mark Poppleton on 55 and Mike Duckett on 68, with 66 and 70 empty were the fortunate ones today.
My peg looked like it should hold a few fish with an end bank, the spit and some open water to go at. I intended to kep it simple and set up the usual 0.3 XT Gimp with a 0.12 hooklength and a 18 hook. As the wind was promised to get up, I also set up the Power Finesse that Nick Gilbert had sent for me to try, this was to fish soft pellet or maggot out towards the aerator, in about 41/2' of water. Another new float to try was a NG Springer Sampson, this for maggot, caster, corn or pellet across to the spit or down the edge.
At the start I cupped in some softened micros at 13m, loose fed caster at 6m off to the left and short straight in front. The catapult was used to put a few maggots across to the spit. Starting over the micros at 13m, with a 4mm soft pellet, I landed a small crucian, then a F1, quickly followed by a skimmer. A switch to double maggot resulted in a positive bite and after a tussle, a 9lb carp graced the net. A couple more F1's, another skimmer and two more carp, along with 3 lost carp, followed and all seemed to be going Ok. Resting the 13m line saw another small F1 come from the spit, a skimmer, a perch and a 6oz roach from the short caster line.
Then the mini storm hit, torrential rain and gale force winds, it only lasted 5 minutes or so, but then the wind turned through nearly 180 degrees and increased. This was less than halfway into the match. No matter what I did, the wind wrecked any sort of pole presentation in my fed swims, so I had no option but to come short and to fish the RH margin - I may have well as gone to the pub, I suffered wind induced tourettes and had a couple of small roach, before managing to present the power finesse at 13m, just long enough to add a last F1 to the net. Within 10 minutes of the all out, the lake was becalmed, the wind reduced to the gentlest of breezes and my frustration was complete.
I had managed 3 section seconds in the last three rounds and three section silvers wins, it looked like a decent section result was unlikely, but the silvers had fished hard. My 3 carp went 18.08 and the silvers 12.08 for a section silvers and lake win, with my 31.00 total coming third in section.
I now lead the silvers and await Ken Rayners blog to see how far I've fallen ( from 4th) in the overall.
On the day.
1) Dave Hodgson 119.15 peg 34 specimen lake
2) Mike Duckett 90.14 peg 68 lake 3
3) Mark Poppleton 62.14 peg 55 lake 3
4) Ken Rayner 62.02 peg 32 specimen lake
5) Steve Seager 57.14 peg 11 match lake
6) Bob Gullick 53.11 peg 62 lake 3
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