Ping Pong 37 was the one I withdrew from the bag, wasn't exactly doing cartweels round the car park when I saw it, but I was hopeful of catching a few, I had Mark Broomsgrove on 39 for company, he'd been on 37 a couple of weeks ago and struggled. It looks like the peg isn't fished too often as I had to virtually cut out a whole far bank 'bay' to fish into as the bankside grasses had got a little wild. Aso to get down the RH margin and get close in, again, this needed a trim before I could get very far down the edge or close in.
Started across, pinging 6mm pellets, I think this works better than using 4mm in these 3 hour matches, an immediate reaction and a lovely looking F1 about 2lb was in the net within a couple of minutes, I had another and thought maybe I had assessed the potential of the peg incorrectly, but after a little carp, it went really quiet and I only had one more fish in the first hour. It was a nice little bay I'd cut out, the depth was OK, not sure why the fish didn't want to be in there.
I had been feeding 8mm Skretting pellets at topkit + 1 to my left, in about 2'6" of water, I was hoping that would be shallow enough for the fish to come in over and deep enough to stop them spooking, as the fish have been very wary here for a while now. I had a look on this line, but had no indication, I had also fed pellets in the LH edge, then GB down the RH edge. I did try shallow off the far bank, but never had a touch. There was some indication down the RH edge now, so I tried worm down there on the 18" deep rig and had a small perch, one more try I thought with worm and next fish was a carp nearer 4lb.
It wasn't hectic action, but by swapping to the rig set at 10" I managed to put a few fish in the net, paste was better than worm, but there was never a lot of fish in the peg competing, I knew there were 3 there at one time and I never saw any signs of more than that, it was more a case of waiting for a fish to patrol along. I had nearly an hour of this and then it died off, so a look in the LH margin, but to no avail. Whilst doing this I saw movement of water where I had kept feeding the 8mm pellets, out with the paste rig and first drop in I had a 4lber. I stayed with it for the final 45 minutes and added between 25 and 30lb to my net.
Last 20 minutes when the sun went in and the Northerly wind got up a bit, it went quite chilly, so I wasn't upset when the all out was called and I could put a jumper on, but I was having my best spell of the match, so for me it did come when I'd have liked another half hour.
I had 57lb on my clicker and thought I wouldn't have much chance of doing any good, walking round with the scales seeing a couple of 70lb+ and a 90lb+ weighed in from the island and back straight, I was a bit surprised to see my fish go 70.04 and frustratingly for the second evening match, one out of the money.
Did I leave it too late to go on the paste, did I stay too long trying to make the far bank work, not sure but probably, is the best answer. I can't say I'm too disappointed as I didn't think I'd get 4th from there. Shame work is getting in the way of the next two weeks evening matches, as they are an enjoyable way to round off the day. Well done to Martin Rayet on the win and Vic's lucky arm rub even paid off with a 3rd place for him!! But I am not expecting queues of anglers looking to replicate his actions,...….
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