I was lured to this one by the weights in recent matches, only last Sunday it took a ton + to frame and 46lb to win the silvers, also the promise of bites, lots of them from every peg......
Decided to try the Bridge Inn for breakfast, I thought it was OK, with the exception of the sausages, they weren't the best. A few in there so the usual pre match chat and banter.
I had an early night the night before, strongest drink was cocoa, so that wasn't the cause of me getting to the car park, unloading the van only to find my rods not in the van. I had my pole, but felt that rods would play a part, so had to arrange to get them brought to Cadbury Garden Centre. I took my gear to my peg, set up 3 pole rigs and then went off to get my rods.
Getting back to the lakes and my second senior moment of the day, I obviously had my keys in the van when I drove back, I got the stuff out the van and then could not find them to lock the van, searched my pockets 3 times, took my bib and brace off, searched the muddy puddles near the van and was totally bemused where they'd gone. I had got a new battery for my radio out of the glovebox, so went in there and that's where they were, right at the bottom.......
So back to my peg, which was permanent peg 27 and I had the Silverfox himself, Mike Nicholls on 28. I set up a small pellet feeder and a waggler and was still sorting my bait when the all-in went round the lake. Starting on the pellet feeder with micros and a 6mm pellet on the hook, I was expecting some indication, but nothing. 40 minutes later I had tried a chocolate orange wafter, dead maggots and switched to GB in the feeder, all with the same result. Mike was faring no better not having had a bite.
I switched to a line at 11m where I had been pinging a few casters, great start here, 3 skimmers and a big roach, when the lakes resident Canade Geese decided to have a very vocal, wing flapping and peg disrupting domestic through several of the pegs on this side of the lake. That put the mockers on any more bites, that and the lack of any ripple on the surface that myself and mike were suffering from. We were nice and sheltered, but so were our pegs, no so good when the target is skimmers and the sun is out.
I fed some GB and went back out on the pellet feeder to let it settle, this time I did have two bites on dead maggot, but didn't connect with either of them. A switch to the waggler was equally as barren, although I did mainly fish 6mm pellet on the hook, although I did try a couple of dead maggots in the band.
Back on the pole and a couple of roach and then another skimmer, but that was that again. Time for plan C, off the box and set up another rod, this time to fish bread along the island, seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was as unproductive as every other cast to the island. Back onto the pole and I added a section, this brought a couple more fish, but as every other time, they disappeared. The pegging here is tight, so a line at 10 o'clock and another at 2 o'clock weren't really an option, so lines at different distances straight in front were the only option. I fed a line at 14.5m with pellet and fished and expander over it, but that only brought one bite and one small skimmer. I had a Chianti set up with strung No11's, but the best rig was a wire stemmed NG Gimp 0.4g with a bulk and two droppers.
There was a bit of ripple out towards the island, so I changed the bread rig for a small cage feeder, to try and catch some skimmers out a couple of metres short of the island. Second cast, the tip went round and a decent skimmer was on, halfway back it got entwined in a branch and the branch was all that ended up on the bank.... This was like every other line, a bite or two, maybe a fish or two and then nothing. I did manage another couple of roach and a skimmer on the pole and then one last skimmer on the feeder before the all-out, but I felt it would not be enough to bother the framers.
The scalesman called 16.08 which was far from the worst weight, but less than half that needed for some coin...... or so I thought, there is a equal split payout on these matches, overall and silvers, this meant that somehow, I picked up joint second in silvers money...... I'm still not sure how!!!
Well done to those who managed to put better weights on the scales, I'm sure we all expected better fishing today after the recent results. Back there again in a couple of weeks, hopefully the conditions will see more fish caught.
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