At least the wind was favourable to fish a waggler today, so that was soon out of the bag, along with the obligatory lead rod, in fact I set up two!! I had a thought on the way down that bread might be worth a go, so called into the shop and picked up a loaf.
3 topkits out of the bag, but after plumbing along the margin that turned into 4, as the margin was two different depths, there is a nice flat area where the bush used to be, but deeper water by the empty pallet of 87. Shame the bush is gone, that was always a banker for a couple of lumps later in the match. I decided to fish GB and maggot on the flat area and meat down to the pallet.
Two other topkits were simple, a Malman Roob to fish meat at 6 sections and a NG slim to fish pellet at 14m. On the all in I started on bread, schoolboy error, I hadn't taken the clip off from Tuesday, oops, clip removed, new bread on and cast towards a fish that had topped. When sinking the line I always hold the line in my fingertips to feel for any bites or liners and I felt the typical repeated gentle plucks of a bread bite. A few minutes later, a 10lb common was netted, great start and I was patting myself on the back for sussing out they'd want bread.
20 biteless minutes later and the self congratulations were a distant memory, it appeared that bread wasn't to be the master tactic and I'd have to rely on something else. I switched to the waggler and that usually produces a few indications but was worryingly motionless for another 15 minutes. I did strike at a small dip and had a fouler, I got it to the net, messed up the first chance to net it and then the hook pulled - typical.
I had been feeding the short meat line and a quick look on this before picking up the waggler had been bite free, but after feeding it for 50 minutes I dropped back on it and had a skimmer straight away. Next drop in a carp of about 13lb, then a few more skimmers, but they would come in shorts bursts of one or two and then a quiet spell. Another 13lb carp joined the party and I kept at this line, whilst pinging 6mm pellets to 14m. To rest it, I went out to 14m and tried 8mm & 6mm pellet on the hook, there was a little activity in the way of a few bubbles over the pellet, but no bites.
Jon Gray on 85 was having a similar day, finding it hard to put a run of fish together and also struggling to catch on pellet, maybe having no ripple on our short lines was a hindrance to fishes confidence. The sun came out and a couple of fish came straight up, but they weren't real 'cruisers' and before I could get a mugging rig out, the wind was rippling the water from about 11m out and they were all past this. Jon had tried to mug a couple, but they weren't interested.
I didn't feed the margins until 2 1/2 hours to go, as given the lack of feeding fish I didn't want to over do them. Back on the meat line and it really was hard work to get a couple more skimmers, very tricky to work out the feeding, too little and you wouldn't get a bite at all, a bit heavier and you get an immediate response, but then nothing again. I had one more carp from the meat line, about 8lb and by now was trying the margins. The meat by the pallet of 87 was a non starter, never had a bite on it, the maggot/GB line did produce a small hybrid and a big carp spooked out after touching the line.
Refed the GB line with just GB and left it whilst trying to catch on the meat line, that did have a couple of carp come in over it, but just liners, I couldn't get them to go down on the deck and feed and they wouldn't take anything shallow.
Back onto the GB line for the last 20 minutes and straight after dropping the float in tight to the bank, saw the slight movement of water that gives away the presence of a big fish, float shot under and a big fish was heading towards peg 94 at a rate of knots.... After a nervy tussle, at times the fish was at the end of bottomed out orange Vespe and determined not to come in, I saw it, a long solid common, the last nail biting bit was getting it into the 20" landing net, it had to go in head first, I have tried to net these big commons tail first before and they can jump back out.
18lb of prime Cary beast.... fell to 6 maggots on a Guru XS 16 to 0.18 Stroft, my tried and tested combination for big fish,
That was the end of the action and I put 22.11 of skimmers on the scales for top silvers weight on the lake and a total of 86.14 for third on lake, beaten by 74 & 77 both had the wind and ripple, I'm sure that was a benefit on the day. Well done to Ben Hagg on winning the match and the silvers from Cambell, that handed me the first in silvers money by default!!
The weather really needs to hurry up and warm the water up to carp spawning temperature, to allow them to get on with it and get back to feeding properly.
Overall
1. Ben Hagg - 179lb 2oz - peg 115
2. Steve Shaw - 142lb 9oz - peg 77...
3. Colin Dyer - 131lb 2oz - peg 114
4. Jon Darby - 123lb - peg 74
5. Dave White - 122lb 8oz - peg 129
6. Jim Butcher - 119lb 11oz - peg 132
7. John Young - 102lb 9oz - peg 125
8. Paul Morris - 94lb - peg 119
Silvers
1. Ben Hagg - 27lb - peg 115
2. Chris Fox - 22lb 11oz - peg 86
3. Lee Pistachio - 21lb 7oz - peg 94
4. Jon Gray - 20lb 8oz - peg 85
1. Ben Hagg - 27lb - peg 115
2. Chris Fox - 22lb 11oz - peg 86
3. Lee Pistachio - 21lb 7oz - peg 94
4. Jon Gray - 20lb 8oz - peg 85
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