A match on the 15th June evoked memories of the close season, it was a magic time, waiting for the 16th, although with Devon and Cornwall not having a close season, I guess many of us made the trek down to the Exeter canal matches, which were tough going, unless you drew the Lime Kilns, of which I only ever got to see by bank walking.....
Back to today and I fancied a draw on Match or Specimen lakes, so obviously I drew lake 3, peg 54, it seems the only time I don't draw this lake is when it's not in, or when there is rotation in a series. So not aided by feeling shite - hayfever, not over indulgence - I trudged up to the peg disappointed yet again by my inability to pull a peg on a lake, let alone an area, I fancy.
I had a bit of space to my right but couldn't utilise it to fish the margin, as the bankside vegetation has grown so much, that even stood up and leaning as far forward as I dare, I could not get down the edge and the bush was far too substantial to cut back with a weed cutter. The LH margin was also over grown and has a tree drooping down into the water, I managed to clear some of the lower branches and bankside grass, but the water wasn't too coloured and I thought that the LH margin would be just too close to me to produce, as I could only go as far as the tree trunk, which was top 2 + 1 1/2 sections.
I made up a margin rig, more in hope than expectation and as predicted it was a non starter, producing just one perch to 6 dead maggots.
I had (for me) a simple side tray of bait, 6mm pellet and 6mm meat, 8mm pellet and a few cubes of 8mm meat for hookers, also a few soft pellets, so I set up three rigs, one to fish soft pellet in the open water at 14m, one to fish meat at 6m and a rig to fish across to the island. A similar depth all over the peg, so no need to mess about with rigs if I needed to start a new line elsewhere in the peg, even tight to the island was only 6" shallower than the open water, no shelf to fish on.
The match started very slowly for me, I began on the soft pellet at 14m and this produced a couple of missed bites, two silver fish that fell off on the way back in and a foul hooker that broke the 0.14 hooklength. With 45 minutes gone I was fishless and Dave Evans on 55 had two or three, so I went out to the island, I soon had my first fish in the net, a perfect fish, looked like it hadn't been caught before, but it was only about 1lb. Some consolation for my constantly running nose, itchy eyes and the itching at the back of my throat, which wasn't aiding my concentration.
Dick Bull opposite had started to catch a few shallow, so I shallowed up the island rig and this didn't produce any fish in the open water, but I did have a bit of a eureka moment with fishing tight to the island, as I had a run of fish that saw me over take Dave on 55 and get back on terms with Dick, as these were the only two anglers I could see. I had no idea how the rest of the lake was fishing. There were some fish still spawning, so the splashing noises weren't necessarily fish being landed.
The island line died off, so I had a look on the meat line, this didn't produce a bite, not so much as a tremor of the float and this was the same each occasion I tried it. I also started a pellet line at 7m off to my right, this produced one small skimmer and one small carp, so it was back to the island for the rest of the match, I had another spell where I had several fish and at 16.10, I thought I had 60lb in the net, so expecting the peg to get stronger in the last hour or so (17.30 finish) I started another net, this ended up with three fish in, the fish had gone from the island and I just picked up the three as they mooched along the island.
It was frustrating to watch Dick Bull go down his margin and get at least 4 decent fish, when I couldn't, he weighed 90lb to my 81.12, so the lack of late fish cost me, as the section was won from the peg next to dick, with 92lb, so third in the section for me and series over - a really frustrating way to be beaten, especially as I had the potential for a long margin if it weren't for the triffid like foliage. That said, it was satisfying to at last catch some fish at Landsend across to the island, something I have regularly failed to do before, even though all the framing weights came from the other two lakes.
Next up, a short pole match at Viaduct on Wednesday and then the Viaduct round of MMT next Saturday........ I may as well leave my gear on match lake in readiness!!!
I didn't get todays results, as I had to get away, but I'm sure they can be found on Tony's blog and probably pictures of the weigh sheets on Mike's (Silverfox).
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