There are some people out there who believe that the £25k Parkdean Masters was the biggest fishing event this weekend - obviously they are wrong as the final round of the Godalming AS teams of four was clearly much more important!!! Could Team Bagger pull back 2 points on Trev's Tornadoes to claim 4th place? Could the unimaginable happen? Could they beat Chertsey Baits by 10 to snatch 3rd?!? Read on to find out …
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| All the gear? |
I’ve written many times about my exploits at Marsh Farm and regular readers of All the Gear, No Idea will know that today’s venue – Richardson’s Lake – is a pretty consistent venue where every peg has a central island at about 20-25m and the target species are skimmers, tench and crucians. Given the time of year and the number of anglers on the bank today (32) the fishing was expected to be challenging but fair with 15-20lb certain to be rewarded with excellent section points.
I was on draw bag duties for Team Bagger once again and managed to pull-out the same set of pegs as the previous round (which we’d managed to win with a convincing 9 penalty points) – however the sequence was slightly different with Dave on peg 11, Debs on 25, myself on 38 and Claire on 50.
Peg 38 was an end peg on the day (‘what a surprise’ I hear you say) and is situated towards the far corner of the lake where the bank opposite to Harris Lake meets that parallel to Johnson’s Lake – the reason it is normally an end peg is that there is an aerator to the right in peg 37. In terms of features I had some inviting looking reeds extending into the water from my left margin and a tree-lined island at about 22m – however a couple of branches reaching-out at awkward angles limited the spots I could cast to one or two fishable areas.
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| Pellets, pellets and more pellets! |
As ever on Richardson’s my pre-match plan of attack centred on two complementary tactics – a small pellet feeder fished towards the margin of the central island backed-up by a delicate pole rig for fishing at a slight angle to the left at top kit plus four sections. Experience has shown that the bigger, match winning fish normally fall to the feeder whereas the fish caught on the pole are often smaller but help to fill-in the gaps left when resting the feeder line.
In terms of bait I actually had some worms and casters with me today – however I have very little confidence in such baits on this venue and I only had them as they were left over from last week’s visit to MBK Baron’s Ponds! My major focus was on fishmeal-based products – soaked micro pellets for feed, hard 6mm and 4mm expanders for hookbaits on the feeder and pole (respectively) and some Sonubaits F1 sweet fishmeal groundbait as an option for feeding on the pole line. (Three different bottles of Kiana Goo, a tub of Sounbaits Stiki Pellet binder and some 8mm pop-up boilies completed the list.)
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| The pellet feeder is always my first choice for fishing to islands |
I started today’s match by feeding a reasonable amount of soaked micro pellet on the TK+4 pole line and casting my pellet feeder towards the central island (not too tight, but within the shadow of the overhanging trees) – by 1002 I was attached to an angry tench and by 1005 I had 3lb in the net! As I was only chasing a self-imposed target weight of 20lb this was clearly a great start and the ideal way to settle any pre-match nerves.
However the next five casts only led to some tiny line bites (no doubt induced by very small fish pecking at the feeder) so after half an hour it was off with the hooklength and in with 5 quick casts to get a bed of 2mm pellets over the far bank line. 15 minutes on the pole only produced a single ‘blade’ skimmer on a 4mm expander so I decided to feed a nugget of Sonubaits F1 groundbait on that line and get back on the feeder – three 10 minute casts only led to a solitary bite but as it was from a 3lb bream it was very welcome! (Interestingly this fish fell to a feeder full of 2mm pellets with an added squirt of Perfect Peach Goo.)
The rest of the second hour was spent swapping between the two approaches, with a crucian and another blade falling to the pole and a bonus common carp taking a fancy to my pellet feeder set-up. This saw me going into the third hour with about 10lb in the bag – I couldn’t really see many other anglers but at this point I felt I was probably up there with Mick Hall on the peg to my left in terms of leading the section.
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| Relatively light terminal tackle for the pole |
In a similar fashion to events in the match from two weeks ago the third hour kicked-off with an amazing run of four big fish in as many casts on the pellet feeder – two proper bream, a tench and a second surprise common carp boosted my weight by a further 10-12lb in a very productive 15 minute spell!!! An aborted take on cast number five however seemed to spook the shoal and bring an end to proceedings – I believe carp anglers use the phrase ‘getting done’ to describe the situation where a good fish has your hair-rigged bait in it’s mouth but manages to eject the hook (either way it is incredibly annoying).
After a few biteless chucks I decided to re-feed with 5 quick casts and as the existing pole line failed to produce any bites I set-up a second rig for fishing along the reeds to my left. Given the snaggy nature of these rushes I dug-out a heavy rig for Marsh Farm – a 4x12 KC Carpa Force on 0.15 Guru N-Gauge mainline to a hooklength of 0.13 with a size 18 Kamasan B911 and white Hydro. (My thinking is that whilst I may struggle to get bites on such thick line I’d rather not hook a fish as opposed to hooking one and losing it on light gear.) Whilst this new swim looked extremely fishy I failed to receive a single bite from it through to the end of the match, despite trying it quite a few times and keeping it topped-up with regular amounts of chopped worm and caster. (See my comment above about having no faith in ‘traditional’ baits at Marsh Farm!)
Luckily a return to the feeder led to another decent bream (this time a squirt of Tutti Frutti Goo did the business) and 3 more small skimmners from the original pole line (based on a 0.2g SconeZone V2 on 0.11 to a 0.10 hooklength with a size 20 Tubertini 808, pink Hydro) saw me enter the final 90 minutes with an estimated 25-26lb.
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| Looking right towards the aerator (before the downpour) |
Despite a torrential downpour on the way to the venue and a contradictory forecast today’s weather had actually been pretty decent so for – however that all changed at 2 o’clock when the heavens opened and what can only be described as a monsoon descended upon leafy Milford!!! This put paid to any hopes of a bag-up session towards the end of the match and all I could muster was one decent (1lb) skimmer and one better (3lb) bream on the tip before the final whistle was eventually blown.
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| Results from A and B sections … |
Following the scales from the top of D section back towards the lower numbers saw Simon Duke open proceedings with a creditable 16-13-0 from end peg 51, which was leading that section until Eddie Rippon put a stonking 26-7-0 of waggler and white maggot caught skimmers and tench on the scales from unfancied 44 to steal first place. (Claire had done well for Team Bagger by securing a valuable 3 points.)
Mick Hall was first to weigh in C section and put a superb 22-14-0 of pole caught bits and pieces on the scales – had I done enough to secure top section points for Team Bagger? Even though I had a lot less fish than Mick the quality I’d managed to catch on the feeder shone through and in the end my 30-12-0 was enough to win the section and the match as a whole.
Mick Hall was first to weigh in C section and put a superb 22-14-0 of pole caught bits and pieces on the scales – had I done enough to secure top section points for Team Bagger? Even though I had a lot less fish than Mick the quality I’d managed to catch on the feeder shone through and in the end my 30-12-0 was enough to win the section and the match as a whole.
Overall top 4:
- Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 38, 30-12-0
- Eddie Rippon (Guildford AC), peg 44, 26-7-0
- Mick Hall (matchangler.com), peg 39, 22-14-0
- Andy Rogers (Guildford AC), peg 16, 19-5-0
Section winners:
- John Wilkins, (Chertsey Baits), peg 2, 17-1-0
- Andy Rogers (Guildford AC), peg 16, 19-5-0
- Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 38, 30-12-0
- Eddie Rippon (Guildford AC), peg 44, 26-7-0
Top 3 teams on the day:
- Guildford AC, 9 points
- Matchangler.com, 10 points
- Chertsey Baits, 17 points
Unfortunately two good results combined with two not so good results had contrived to leave Team Bagger in joint fifth on the day with 20 points, but well done to Guildford Angling Centre who won the day by a single point from matchangler.com.
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| … and those from C and D |
So where had today’s results left the overall team and individual standings?
Final league standing:
- Matchangler.com, 63 points
- Guildford Angling Centre, 73 points
- Chertsey Bait, 97 points
- Trev’s Tornadoes, 106 points
- Team Bagger, 109 points
- Brian’s Bandits, 134 points
- Team Rog, 136 points
- Buster’s Bandits, 147 points
Individual top 10:
- John Wilkins, 13 points (2-3-4-1-2-1)
- Andy Rogers, 15 points (4-2-5-1-2-1)
- Eddie Rippon, 15 points (2-3-3-3-3-1)
- Phil Morris, 22 points (1-9-1-9-1-1)
- Darren Dodge, 24 points (9-1-1-9-1-3)
- Dave Johnson, 25 points (2-1-7-9-3-3)
- Max Calverley, 26 points (9-4-2-4-5-2)
- Chris Kampa, 26 points (5-3-6-5-4-3)
- Trevor Haskell, 27 points (1-2-7-1-9-7)
- Claire Hollis, 27 points (3-9-2-9-1-3)
(Note: 9 points indicates that the angler in question did not fish a particular round. No concept of dropping worst scores applies here.)
Congratulations to matchangler.com for taking the honours on the team side of things and to John Wilkins for bagging the individual title ahead of Andy Rogers and Eddie Rippon. A big thank you must also go to Godalming AS match secretary for organising another great event – see you next year!!!
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| I’m still chasing that elusive pot of gold!!! |
Conclusions: today once again proved that the quality, match winning fish are more often than not there to be caught on the feeder to the island – it is often a ‘bottle job’ but for the second match in a row at Marsh Farm a golden spell of a number of good fish one after another made a real difference to my final weight today. The pole with expanders over micros/sweet fishmeal groundbait is also proving to be a good back-up that serves two purposes – it allows the feeder to be rested whilst putting something in the net. (I only had five fish on the pole today but that 4-5lb made a difference.) I could’ve caught more on the pole if worked it harder at it and fished it for longer, but would I have caught more overall? I very much doubt it!!!
Until next time …
