I knew after yesterday that today was going to be tough for many, but I was happy with that, I don't mind a days hard work for silvers. It was interesting before the draw, Trigger had written the 10 best pegs on a piece of paper and bet Tony that Paul Elms and Andrew Cranston would be on one of them, well he was right, how do some people consistently draw good pegs.
Myself, I drew peg 64, had I had my own transport, I may well have not even bothered going to it, its never going to compete with the pegs further down the lake. Pretty despondent with the way I am drawing lately, this series has been a disaster. Still, seeing as I was going to the peg, I'd give it my best shot.
Opposite on 66 was Nick Chedzoy, Chedz was also bemoaning his draw - I am of the opinion that 64 shouldn't be in, as you are limited for room and hemmed into the corner with 66 blocking you off. I don't think this is such an issue when the water is coloured and warmer, but once the colour drops out, its at a huge disadvantage.
I did get a waggler out of the bag, but there was little point, as I could reach the reasonable limits of my peg with the pole. 4 topkits, set up, 2 for open water, one 0.3g bulk and one dropper and a 0.2g with strung shot. A Chianti for roach at 2+2 and a Chimp style float for down the edge and down to the monk, looking for a perch or tench.
Fed two lines at the all in, one down in front of peg 63 out as far as I could get with 14m and 14m straight across to the tree. Little bit of chopped worm in the line to 63, just dead maggot out to the tree. Started on the 2+2 for roach and had one soon after the all-in, that was not the signal to start bagging, as bites were hard to come by. After 30 minutes I had 3 or 4 roach, so switched to the 14m lines and after about an hour had a skimmer just over a lb from out to the tree. These lines were painfully slow and my mood wasn't improved by seeing pegs 68 & 69 catching decent skimmers.
I did start to get some indications on caster, but couldn't hook whatever it was, same with maggot and I then put a pinkie on, that did the trick and a microscopic little fish was landed, I'm not sure if it was a rudd or a motherless minnow, whichever t was, it wasn't worth catching. On one rig I dropped to a 24 Gamma Green and 12oz hooklength, it made no difference at all.
It clouded over and with the reduced light I did start to catch roach on the 2+2 line, but far too slowly to make any in roads on the skimmers being caught further down the lake. Chedz was having the odd better fish, as he could fish further down the lake in front of 67. With about 40 minutes to go I had a hybrid nudging a lb and a with 20 minutes to go, hooked a decent fish, which I thought was a tench, it then ran straight into a snag and I couldn't get it out - not happy. 10 minutes later, I hooked another, this time I saw it, a tench about 2lb, smaller than the other, it then dived straight into the same snag and was gone.
That was it, I lost the plot a bit, started packing up with 10 minutes to go and chucked back about 6lb, fed up with the draw and then losing two fish in an unseen snag. Those two tench (and possibly a couple more roach might have seen me 3rd in the section, as Chedz took those honours and the section money by double default. 3rd was no good, I needed a section win to salvage anything from the league and that was never going to happen from that peg.
Well done to Paddy on the win, I would say it was nice to watch, but I'd be lying, I was pissed right off watching him catching decent fish when I was struggling to get a bite.
No comments:
Post a Comment