After catching 8 roach in 10 hours in my last two matches, maybe Todber was just what I needed.... Going into this match I was 3rd in the league and needed a decent result to stay in the framing places.
Drew peg 41, looked OK, had peg 40 vacant to my left, so I was hopeful that would benefit me. I was basing my approach on pellets, but mindful of my last visit where I had to switch to corn to win the section, I had some tins of corn, along with 8mm meat.
Topkits for pellet at 2+2 and topkit, meat rig for topkit, margin rig for just of the bank on the 'second' shelf and a rig to fish in against the rush roots. Started at 2+2 and had a fish straight away, but I could see others had started catching on the topkit line, so I soon came in on that, it wasn't hectic and plugging away saw me put 29lb in the net in the first hour, too slow.
Next hour it improved and I had over 40lb, so I was somewhat surprised when the bites dried up, short long and an early look in the edge - two fish for 11lb in the third hour, I knew I was in trouble and had no idea how to get it back. Going into the penultimate hour I saw a swirl in the edge and couldn't wait any longer, so in there with 8mm pellet, the fish in the edge were a much better stamp but it was sit and wait for one to come in.
I kept feeding the topkit line, switching this to meat and had a few from there, but I knew I was miles off the pace, that middle hour had done for me. The weights proved that, with the top two weights in the section being 272lb, only separated by ounces, there was a 183lb and then I was equal weight with young Freddy on the next peg, we both had 176.03...
That cost me a framing place by one point, oh well always next year. Looking back on the match I think I should have been more aggressive with the feed, I am so used to fishing venues where feeding frugally seems to pay off, I seem to have forgotten how to 'pile' it in - and I used to be a master at that!
Well done to the framers on the day and overall. I didn't get a photo of the sheets.
1 comment:
I love your blogs, Chris. I sometimes think that I don't feed enough - I tend to fish for one fish at a time. Glad I'm not the only one who tends to do that.
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