Nice to get a ride up today with Tony, a nice straight forward drive up and a decent breakfast in the Premier Inn. The draw queue formed and then another formed and it was the secondary queue that got it right and we had to tag on near the back, I could see most of the 50's still undrawn, so was really hopeful of being there, but no, 16 presented itself to me and Tony opposite on 109, reasonably fair sections, but not, we thought likely to win. That said, you are only fishing for section money, so no real disadvantage.
I was given plenty of advice by the two Mark's (Poppleton & Wynne) and this had me changing my plan of fishing for skimmers, to fishing for carp. So two wagglers set up, one shallow one at depth, a lead rod to fish the bomb on the line I could ping pellets and a method set up at 55 turns.
3 topkits, a shallow rig, a 0.5g homemade diamond float for skimmers and a Malman Roob set up heavier in case the carp moved in. Starting on the waggler I gave it nearly an hour without a bite, swapping between shallow and full depth, before trying the bomb where I had been pinging 8mm feed pellets. Chocolate orange 8mm on the hook and it didn't take long to go round, a 3 1/2lb carp was soon netted, but that was it, not so much as another indication. The guys to my left had had a carp or two on the method, so out to the clipped up 55 turns it went, this was where I had found a harder patch of lake bed, within 2 minutes it went round and a 7/8lber was welcomed into the net. This again on chocolate orange 8mm, with 50/50 chocolate orange micros and GB on the feeder.
I stuck this out for another hour, timing casts at 5 mins and increasing to 10 minutes, but never had so much as a liner. Back onto the waggler and whilst there was surface tow taking the float from L to R I managed to get the depth waggler to sit reasonably still, by putting 12" of line on the deck along with the 8m pellet, I was switching between plain feed pellets and chocolate orange, both on the hook and feeding, just to try and get a reaction. The float never moved, to have a waggler sat in the 'pnging zone' and not get so much as a liner would suggest there aren't any fish there.
I finally succumbed to the boredom of not getting any bites and had a look on the pole line, with about 2 hours to go, I'd been feeding chocolate orange micros, 6mm choc orange pellets and corn at 7 joints. Going in with a 6mm pellet on the hook, I was getting lots of indication, but with nothing to show for it, I then had a roach and after, a razorblade skimmer, so I think the indications were small fish pecking at the pellet. I switched to corn on the hook and waited longer for a bite, but when it cam there was a better fish on the end.
I had to keep topping up to get bites and had an enjoyable last 90 minutes catching skimmers, although it was too little too late, had I fished 'properly' for them and fished two lines, I am sure I would have been in with a chance of some section coin. Frustrating, but I would rather understand where I went wrong, unlike some matches earlier this year when I was no wiser after as to why I hadn't caught. If only this were available in tackle shops....
So 33lb and thanks for coming, that doesn't detract from the enjoyable day, beautiful weather, I find the while Barston experience to be fairly unique and much prefer these big lakes to snake lakes. The main point of the day was to raise some money to help the England Ladies get to this years World Champs and that was done, there was a match at the Glebe the day before and I believe it was about £1600 over the two days. Well done to Julie Abbott for the organisation and administration of the event, there was a raffle at the end and my luck - or lack of it - continued in the raffle, although Tony won a tin of hemp and snails.... I guess we had one bit of luck, we managed to get an ice cream from the club shop before they sold out.
Well done to Pete Bailey on taking it out with 242.04 from 54, there was also a 140 and a 132 from the 50's so it appears the fish had followed the wind down the lake.
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