A bittersweet day today, it’s
been just over 3 years since I last fished Avalon, which was the Xmas match
2011 and I managed a framing place, also its bee a couple of weeks since I
fished last, due to working over the Xmas and New Year period, so I was keen to
get out on the bank. I had spent quite a
while at home sorting through my gear as I emptied my faithful old Matchbox and
transferred my kit into my new Octbox.
One bright idea I had was to cut up all my rigs and retie them afresh…… I now don’t have so many rigs tied, it’s a
daunting task when you pick up the first float and look into the 3 empty winder
drawers in the box!! I have simplified
my rigs, reduced the numbers of line dia’s they are tied to and the same with
hooklengths.
Last year saw my results pick up
from the summer onwards, I had decided that I needed to finally rid myself of
my old ingrained ideas and attitudes, so spent the from the spring on
exclusively fishing for carp, not taking silvers gear or bait, thus not having
the temptation to switch to them.
Another part of last year was spent trying to learn a bit about method
feeder fishing, something I had avoided up until now, but when traveling away
from the usual haunts down here in Somerset, it’s a skill that is required.
This year will be the same, I may
fish silvers matches, for the winter period, I will take something to catch
them, as I seem to draw in all the pegs that the carp don’t want to be in now
the thermometer is nudging freezing.
With that in mind, I took a pint of casters today, a few wriggling
maggots, a few pinkies, some dead maggots, corn and bread. I had expected it to be a typical winter
match, where feeding nothing or minute amounts would be the order of the day,
more of this later……
I loaded up the Octbox in trolley
mode and found it really easy to push to the peg, albeit a short walk, to peg
4, but it was much better balanced than my shuttle with the Matchbox and
everything loaded on it. The trolley
mode is quickly dismantled and the box nice and easy to set up, I would have
liked to get out for a few hours to try it, but there was no problems, a comfy,
stable box that puts everything to hand, well-engineered and thought out.
I had brought a lead rod to fish
popped up bread, a waggler rod to fish corn and the pole to fish a line at
about 13m, I also set up a margin rig, as there was a good 4’ of water in front
of the next platform on peg 5. The
island has been well cut back, but there were a couple of branches sticking
out, which made casting tight to it not risk free, but I clipped up as tight as
I dare.
On the all-in I fed some groundbait
in on the 13m line, I had far too much time to think about this match over the
last couple of weeks and I brought some Bait Tech Pro Natural, thinking that
the fish wouldn’t want fishmeal. Leaving
that to settle I started on the bread, which, I should have left in the bag,
the water was really too coloured for it.
Nothing on the bread, I gave it half an hour and searched along the
island with it, taking the clip off to allow me to do so. A switch to the pole line brought a small
skimmer and a couple of micro roach to maggot, swapping to soft pellet saw
another skimmer about 4oz landed, but it was slow going.
I had been feeding two grains of
corn every now and again on the waggler line and switching to that brought some
false hope, as first cast I had a skimmer 1 1/2lb. I missed a bite on the next
cast and bumped a fish on the third cast, that was the end of bites on the
waggler. I could see John Bradford
opposite catching big skimmers, so I decided that persevering for carp would be
the way to go, especially as fishery owner, Vic Bush was catching fairly
regularly by switching between the feeder and the pole. I took off the straight lead and clipped a
feeder on, but I did not have a bite on this and in desperation, walked up to
have a chat with Vic who was battering me.
Vic had kept it simple, he was
using a groundbait that I normally use, plenty of fishmeal…. and dead
maggots, he was feeding the peg with a decent sized pot and using a medium
feeder, much more bait than I thought would be the way to go, how wrong can you
be? I went back and persevered until the
end, but I did not hook a carp all day and my meagre 4 skimmers and a few roach
went back before the scales arrived.
I was frustrated by the way I got
it so wrong, although I would have expected to hook a carp had there been on
there feeding, I wasn’t alone in struggling which is to be expected in winter,
but pleased with the new box and it was good to be fishing, rather than working.
Next up is somewhere Saturday, I
haven’t made my mind up yet, as the weather forecast is for severe storms and
100mph winds, so let’s see if that looks like coming true or not before booking
in anywhere and Sunday is the Landsend Loyalty match.
1: Vic Bush 66.12 Peg 6
2: Tom Mangnall 32.07 Peg 32
3: Craig Edmunds 27.08 Peg 20
4: Tony Rixon 24.13 Peg 29
5: Nigel Bartlett 21.13 Peg 24
6: Steve Seager 19.02 Peg 11
Silvers
1: Tony Rixon 20.01
2: John Bradford 18.10 Peg 44
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