Topkits along the roost were: paste rig, which I use a middy paste float for with 5 x No8 18" from the hook. A shallow rig, a pellet rig, a rig with 0.14 and a 18 LWG to fish maggot over GB, in lieu of worms. Two edge rigs, similar, one with a banded hook, one plain.
Usual start, feed a few pellets and drop the paste rig straight down the hole. Float shot under and fish on, then off, probably a fouler. It's pretty normal to get a couple in the first 10 or 15 minutes, but not today, not even liners. I had fed some GB, caster and maggots off to my left at the full length of topkit + 3 sections and tried double maggot, then caster both to no avail.
Back over the initial line, this time with the banded pellet rig and a 8mm pellet, in the next hour or so I landed one fish and lost 5, including one I reckon was 15lb. I was at a loss to explain it, they weren't foulers, they all came off in roughly the same place. I was using all my tried and tested gear, elastic, line, hook, really unusual to lose so many properly hooked fish.
Next fish and in the place the other s came off it came up higher in the water, I could then see line hooked over the top of the float, the fish dived down and when I got it back up enough to see the float, the line had come off. Then this fish came off as well, I reckon that was the best part of 50lb lost in just over an hour. The line had styed on the hook this time and I managed to get hold of it. It was fixed solidly round the RH pallet leg and stretch right across the lake, I managed to wind the line in around my hand and snap it off near the pallet leg.
It seems that some carper had been chucking right across the lake with 15lb line, heavier than is allowed at the venue, what had been happening, was the my rig had been sliding up this line and then was sliding into the hook and disgorging it. Bloody frustrating.
The culprit, you can see how long it was before I coiled it up!!
The loss of so many fish obviously had a detrimental effect on the swim, especially given the constraints of it being a short pole match. I had been feeding pellet into the margin and after much time wasted I had one carp. The tiny fish wouldn't leave the 8mm pellet alone and I was wishing that I had some 11mm pellets.
I had been feeding a short line (topkit + 1) and this finally started to produce bites, I had a couple on pellet, before switching to paste and having 3 more including hooked seconds before the all-out.
I thought I had about 60lb and the scales gave me 63.12, including one skimmer and one perch, both taken on 8mm pellet - I think that's the first perch I have ever had on pellet.
It was frustrating as Tony won the match with 110lb and I feel that without the carper supplied auto-disgorger I could have beaten that. One small consolation was the default section win.
Next up, Viaduct on Sunday for Tony' s Float Only last round.
1 comment:
Ouch. Was the air blue? It would have been with me.
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