Guesting once more, for MFS in this well supported
league. Standing in for Fred Roberts, that
somehow meant the team wanted me to take on his drawing responsibility, I did
try to warn them and even posted this on MFS on 24/2 after some banter on the
subject.
“In all seriousness, if you want me to do the draw, what
draw will give everyone except the poor sod on Campbell a flyer, cos that’s
what I’ll draw”
The poor sod on Campbell was me and my prophecy was fairly
well borne out by the draw slip presented to me by Paul Greenwood after drawing.
Chris Fox – Campbell 113
Mike Walker – Cary 79
Ken Rayner – Lodge 73
Rich Wyatt – Match/Spring 3
Martin Fisher – Spring 9
I had spent all week using PMA, imagining myself sat on 115,
116, 124 or 125, I’m not convinced this PMA stuff works, as if I expect to get
a shit draw I do and if I concentrate hard on a decent draw, I still get a shit
one…..
So onto the fishing, it transpires that the fish have
started to move around a little, as some weights have been coming from the top
end of Campbell, so without being too convinced, I tackled up determined to
give it a go. For those that don’t know
Campbell, 113 is set back in a small bay, putting you 8-10m behind 112 and 114,
its often left out in matches, but on all the big matches, necessity sees it in
the hat. In the summer the carp do
frequent the margins and will come into the bay on a meat line, this was pretty
unlikely today.
The first two things set up were a waggler rod to fish
caster as far as I could catapult it, then another waggler rod to fish meat
past the caster and out to the middle, last rod was a 10’ Daiwa Tournament I
recently bought secondhand and had yet to catch a fish on, this was set up with
a straight lead and initially a 0.16 hooklength, as I feared it would be tough
going.
I set up two pole rigs, one to fish caster over groundbait,
but that was always going to be a real long shot, done more in extreme hope,
rather than any sort of sensible plan, the other to fish down to a tree
dangling in the water to my left, again I wasn’t too sure they’d come in that
close but needed a couple of options.
On the all in my lead joined in the volley of leads heading
towards the centre of the lake and within seconds Matt Parsons on 112 was
playing a carp and then so was Bob Gullick on 114, by this time 115 had had two
fish!! Popped up bread didn’t work,
neither did meat and for about 15 minutes after the all in I had a couple of
little twtches and two liners on the tip, before it fell motionless. As often seems to happen, the carp in this
area move down into the wider part of the lake, as soon as angling pressure
starts.
It had gone quiet for those around and opposite me and Bob
Gullick fished a tidy match catching small skimmers, with the odd better stamp
fish (and ended with one 11lb carp and 19lb silvers), whilst I had two small roach on the waggler and caster, nothing on the
waggler and meat. I tried down the edge
where I had been very sparingly feeding dead maggot and the odd caster, a small
carp took a liking to the 3 maggots on the hook and then proceeded to get the
rig tangled up in a submerged branch.
Much cursing and gentle nursing
later, I managed to net the carp and temporarily repair the broken float. The edge produced a couple of roach, a perch
and another, better carp, before the bites dried up completely.
A try over the groundbait line at 14m produced two small
roach to double caster, the waggler lines were devoid of action and that was a
similar picture for Matt to my left and those opposite, for a lake so full of
fish, it’s hard to believe that this area is so consistently hard during the
winter.
A switch back to the lead and a increase in bait size to
double 10mm punched meat saw carp No3 netted and not too long after No4, but
that was it, no more bites from any of the lines. I will admit to being more than a little
pissed off watching the guys on 115 and 116 bagging, whilst a few of us
struggled to get a bite.
I ended the match with my four carp and 4 or 5 small silvers going 21.05, which was well short of the
needed target, although nearly doubling the best weight from the peg do far
this series, giving me 7 points, the middle section of the lake fished hard
again, I managed to beat two pegs to my left and those opposite, I’m not sure
there was much more to be had from the peg.
The rest of the team fared somewhat better, with Mike Walker
on Cary weighing 18.08 for 11 points, Ken on Lodge with 74.09 for 16 points, Rich
on Match/Spring with 35.14 for 14 points and Martin on Spring had 15.07 for 9 points.
And we haven't seen the last of the rain, it certainly came down at the end, so a shit day and everything soaked through (except me, thanks to Halkon Hunt Goretex, what would we do without it).
Roll on the summer……..
Overall
1)
Chris Sandford 166.08 peg 115
2)
Mark Williams 160.00 peg 116
3)
Dave Romain 113.02 peg 64
4)
Tony Rixon 101.11 peg 58
5)
Adrian
Jefferies 101.02 peg 86
6)
Dick Bull 93.08 peg 80
Silvers
1)
Clint Wojtyle 25.06 peg 12
2)
John Harvey 24.09 peg 11
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