Monday 23 June 2014

Maver Match This Qualifier, Viaduct, Saturday 21st June 2014

With 120 fishing this and my recent dismal performances on this venue, I knew I would need an exceptional draw and get everything right to win this one.  I had been trying a bit of reverse psychology, trying to convince myself and anyone who would listen, that I would be sat on Match lake 39.  Well this worked, as I drew a corner and I had predicted the winner would come from a corner, sadly it wasn't a corner I fancied.  123, that's the first time I have ever drawn the peg with a prestige silvers pedigree and there was no point in targeting them, as I tended to agree with pre match discussion, that 150lb would be a good weight and might win it.

The way recent matches had gone, I left the meat in the tins and had 8 and 11mm pellet on my side tray, along with a bag of paste, made the way Mike Nicholls  kindly told me about on Wednesday.  A fairly single minded approach would be needed to qualify, so I set up 4 pole rigs, one for down the margin on 0.20 with a 16 hook on 0.18 line. A paste rig, a depth pellet rig and a shallow pellet rig, both pellet rigs with 0.16 hooklengths and B960 hooks with bait bands. The paste rig was 0.18 straight through to a 12 B911XS and a waggler rod with a short pellet waggler along with a lead rod completed the set up.

The waggler rod didn't produce a bite, I had one fish on the margin rig and the paste rig didn't produce a bite either, so nothing much to say about them.  The guy next door on 124 was fishing meat and being pestered by shit fish, they weren't pestering the 8mm pellet, but then neither were the carp.

I spent some time trying to mug the cruisers, but even those that stayed put to have two or three goes at, were totally uninterested in feeding, not even a reaction snap at something dropping right on their nose. I managed to catch a couple on the lead, but it was such a long wait for a bite, I got bored, even though I could see Roy Worth on 121catching on the lead. He seems to have a loose set clutch and when the fish grab the pellet they run off and he picks the rod up, fish on. fair play to him, he weighed 120lb for 3rd.

I managed a dismal 7 fish, one of which looked spawn bound and very poorly, I put it in a separate net, as I didn't think it fair to have the others (even though there weren't many) on top of it when lifting them out.

I didn't weigh in, I guess including my hospital case, I had 35lb and I knew that wouldn't trouble the top couple of weights in he section and so it proved, with 78lb winning the section. 124 DNW'd as well, there didn't seem to be many fish at all in our pegs, as I wasn't getting liners or indications at any point in the match.

Result can be found here:

http://www.mavermatchthis.co.uk/match-results.php

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