First match of the year for me on this venue and one I was looking forward to until the weathermen started forecasting the easterly winds. Speaking to match organiser, Tony Rixon, he told me there were 29 fishing, I did wonder if that might be too many on this lake, as some of the pegs need a space for the margins to produce.
Looking at the lake lake before the draw, the easterly wind was coming into the car park bank (pegs 22-34) and that looked to be an unpleasant place to draw. I definitely fancied a peg on the far bank (6-15). I followed Rod Wotten into the draw bucket, he drew 29, I drew 28 and Paul Faiers behind me drew 27, not sure of the odds on that sequence happening!! We were all a bit disappointed to draw with that cold wind in our faces and I said to Paul that catching some skimmers could be important come the end.
Tackling up was cold, bloody cold, whilst the assembled line-up on the opposite bank sat in T shirts taking the piss - fair enough, if I ever draw a peg that allows me to be in that position, I'll do the same. 4 Rigs, a long stable float because of the wind to fish banded pellet, the same model set up without a band that would cover soft pellet and meat, a paste rig and an margin rig, although I wasn't too confident that the carp would venture into the margin, due to the close pegging and the cold wind into the bank.
Plumbing up showed that topkit +3 sections was a section too short on my peg, Paul found the same, we just couldn't get to the bottom of the slope, by a short distance, with the wind blowing at us, flicking it out with a longer line was pointless as it was blowing back.
I started feeding slightly short of full distance and fishing past it to allow for the slope, starting on 6mm banded pellet, I had a couple of indications and then a skimmer was netted, but that was it for the banded pellet, I just couldn't get it to work, so switched to a soft pellet fished overdepth and that brought a run of skimmers and a solitary tench, before the peg went quiet and I landed a 4lb carp. A little wait for a bite after that and another skimmer netted, but the liners, dinks and knocks on the float had stopped, it was if the skimmers had vacated the peg, I guess they had moved out, but unable to follow them I was a bit stumped.
I tried worm, in various sizes, to no avail and then picked up the paste rig hoping a bigger target bait might attract some of the bigger carp than hang around these pegs. A 8lb fish straight away and i thought that was it sussed, but no, a long, long wait between bites for two more fish in the last couple of hours, I tried a 5m meat line, margins fed left and right, one with meat, one with maggot, not a sign of a carp or a bite on any of the three lines, so back to sitting it out on the paste, which did, as mentioned, produce another 8lb fish and a 10lber. I wasn't sure what my silvers went and at the end whilst waiting for the scales, Paul and I had a look at his net and mine, both concluding he'd beaten me.
The scales proved us both wrong, Paul's silvers going 15.13 and mine 16.05, which gave me second in the silvers and a pickup and my 4 carp for 30lb gave me second in section with 46.11, I wasn't too disappointed with that result from there, as I really didn't fancy the draw. At least the series isn't blown on the first match, thankfully....
1: Mike Nicholls 117.09 peg 15
2: Tim Ford 96.05 peg 32
3: Paul Elmes 94.13 peg 10
4: Bela Bakos 88.00 peg 12
5: Trigger 84.03 peg 20
6: Tony Rixon 77.00 peg 30
Silvers
1: Dave Evans 18.04 peg 19
2: Chris Fox 16.05 peg 28
3: Paul Faiers 15.13 peg 27
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