29 August 2015, Syndicate Lake (Gold Valley)

After averaging over 100lb across my last three matches I was looking forward to drawing yet another corner/flyer peg on today’s open match at Gold Valley – however all good things must come to an end and it was certainly back down to earth with a bump after a couple of framing places in a row!

  

No corner peg today!!!

  

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

   

On paper today’s draw (peg 113 on the near bank of Syndicate Lake at Gold Valley) wasn’t too bad and this area has recently thrown-up some good weights – however as this lake is essentially a large rectangle split into two by a central dividing rope with no obvious features the fish often congregate along the parallel bank of the corner pegs, leaving the majority of swims (those with open water only) seemingly devoid of fish. Having drawn three corner pegs in my previous three matches I have of course reaped the rewards of such draws, though that didn’t make today’s match summary any easier to swallow – in essence two of the corner pegs (118 and 121) annihilated the match with a fish a bung whilst everybody else struggled to bites!!!

  

The view to the left

  

I spent most of the day on the bomb and pellet and could only manage six carp for 42-8-0 – two in the first four hours followed by four more in the final hour. Annoyingly I also lost three further carp that seemingly fell-off on the way in for no good reason – though it reality this was probably down to an issue with the way I was presenting my hookbait or feeding as opposed to some grand conspiracy! As well as the straight lead I also tried the margins (nothing) and had a rig for targeting skimmers at 5m with 6mm meat (which only led to one roach and one perch).

  

An effective combination

  

Despite not threatening the frame I did manage to learn something today – namely that a small handful of Ringers ‘donkey choker’ pellets can be fired a long, long way via a Drennan Feedapult catapult!!! However in future matches I personally need to focus on accuracy rather that distance as in an effort to reach as close as possible to the central rope my feed pellets were spreading-out too much, giving any feeding carp too big an area to graze over before encountering the pellet attached to my hook.

  

Scales!

  

I nearly forgot to mention – today saw me on the scales for a fourth match in a row, so as well as suffering the indignity of not catching a lot I also had to weigh in the 200lb plus winning weight from peg 118. Happy days!!!

  

Until next time …

  

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22 August 2015, Middle Lake (Gold Valley)

Another day, another flyer!!! Today saw the draw bag cough-up a third corner peg in a row, this time at Gold Valley, the peg in question (61) being the nearest peg to the clubhouse on the Causeway Bank of Middle Lake. Unusually this swim has a large set of lily pads to the left (not always ideal when you’re doing battle with hard fighting carp) and on arrival I was greeted by a thick layer of scum that extended 3 or 4 meters from the bank. However today was a lovely sunny day and I really couldn’t have asked for a better draw - so who am I to complain!!!

  

Lights, camera, action!

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

  

I once again left the pole in the bag and went with two tip rods – both with 8lb Daiwa Sensor main line and both with 3’ leaders of 10lb (0.30) Drennan Supplex fluorocarbon. (The idea behind the use of flurocarbon leaders is that being super-heavy they keep the line behind the feeder/bomb pinned to the deck, making things a little less obtrusive to weary fish.) Both were set-up for using various Guru X-Safe gadgets (so each fluorocarbon leader was finished with a simple loop), but one rod was clipped-up for casting fairly tight to the central dividing rope straight in front, the other for casting towards the funny man-made mini island thing that formed part of the parallel bank to the left.

End Peg Billy - yet again!!!

  

The first hour of the match was pretty good with 5 carp and 3 skimmers, all but one of which falling to a 24g Guru mini Hybrid feeder loaded with soaked micros and a 6mm hard pellet hookbait from the open water to the rope swim – the other falling to a straight lead set-up from the same area. Despite this good start the second hour was rubbish – biteless in fact – leaving me wondering if I wasn’t about to ruin yet another flyer!!!

  

That's more like it

  

Luckily things picked-up from 1300 with a barrage of 8mm pellets fed via a catapult to the rope eventually leading to steady bites through to the end, 95% from the open water swim and just the odd pull from tight to the parallel bank to the left. Despite landing twenty-odd carp I did though lose a disappointingly high total of five: one simply fell-off on the way in, one straightened a size 14 QM1, one broke the elastic running through the feeder and two broke my 0.22 hooklength – all mainly as a result of needing to clip-up to the rope but the fish being able to swim under it before I could remove said clip.

  

On the scales again!

  

Luckily those losses didn't cost me too much as my 121-8-0 was enough for second overall - a mere three pounds ahead of a rather disappointed Linus Neale, but tantalisingly close to the winning 140-8-0!!!

  

Until next time ...

  

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16 August 2015, Old Lake (Willinghurst)

There are two aspects of match fishing that never cease to amaze me - firstly is how often I end-up being pegged next to the same angler time after time (I'm sure Colin Underwood is sick of the sight of me on Godalming AS club matches); and secondly is how often I seem to draw the same pegs again and again - I've only fished the Old Lake at Willinghurst three times but I've now managed to draw peg one twice in a row!

  

Fun in the sun!

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

With the benefit of having fished the peg before (and not managing a bite on the pole) I decided to stick to a two swim, two rod approach - the first line being into the deeper water straight in front at 25-30m, the second being into the rushes along the parallel bank to my right at about 20m where there was a nice looking indent.

Guru X-Safe in-line weights

In terms of the first set-up I went for my usual Daiwa Tournament Pro 10' tip rod and a Daiwa TDR 3012 reel (loaded with 8lb Daiwa Sensor) - the arrangement being completed with simple loop in the end of mainline to take the variety of Guru X-Safe weights and feeders I planned to try. The second set-up consisted of a Daiwa Tournament Pro 11' waggler rod and another Daiwa TDR 3012 reel, this time loaded with 4lb Daiwa Sensor - relatively light line but as I wanted to use the lightest floats I could get away with the drop in breaking strain seemed worthwhile. (Hooklength for the waggler was 25cm of 0.17 N-Gauge to a size 18 Guru Pellet Waggler hook and a hair-rigged pellet band.)

 

I was End Peg Billy again today!

  

The first 90 minutes (1030-1200) of the match were OK with six carp hitting the net - one first chuck on a Hybrid feeder into the rushes and a total of 5 into the open water with a two thirds of an ounce Guru X-Safe in-line lead and a 30cm hooklength of 0.17 Guru N-Gauge to a size 14 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band.

   

Mainly pellets again today

 

Unfortunately the next two hours (1200-1400) were rather slow because as far as I can remember I didn't have a single bite on bomb, feeder or waggler!!!

  

The Guru Hybrid feeder that did the damage

   

Fortunately the final three hours of the match (1400-1700) just kepy on getting better and better with a total of twenty carp hitting the net - the action started to improve via the straight lead but some heavy feeding of 8mm pellets into the indent in the rushes along the parallel back eventually paid-off and towards the end it was literally one a bung on the pellet feeder, with most bites coming really quickly and the rod doubling-up within seconds. This good run of fished allowed me to weigh a total of 127-8-0 - enough for second on the lake and fourth overall in the match (which was won by England legend Stevie Gardener from a peg on the Top Lake).

  
Until next time ...
   

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02 August 2015, Old Lake (Willinghurst)

Today's outing was another another visit to Willinghurst for a cheeky open match on the Old Lake - and I've only gone and drawn myself a nice corner swim in peg one! In all fairness this peg didn't really produce on my previous visit to the venue in July, but it certainly looked inviting today with a lovely set of overhanging rushes running up and down the margin of the parallel bank to my right!!!

Welcome to the jungle!

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

As a result I decided to set-up two rods for fishing into the open water straight in front (a two thirds of an ounce Guru in-line lead mounted on an X-Safe arm and a pellet waggler) and a pellet feeder arrangement for chucking into the rushes.

Where's End Peg Billy?!?

 

I did also have the option of fishing the long pole across to a spot on the parallel bank but chose to ignore it as I thought that fishing the pellet feeder further along the bank would be more effective - though I did fish meat at top kit plus two in front at the bottom of the shelf, but never had a bite on it!!!

  

The joys of a corner peg!!!

   

In the end I managed 17 carp for 87 pounds exactly - 1 on the waggler, 5 on the pellet feeder into the rushes and the rest on the bomb into open water - and came nowhere!!!

  

Scaling down from 0.22 to 0.17 made a big difference

  

Despite not making the grade today I did uncover something rather interesting - whilst fishing the bomb I could hardly muster a bite on my first choice 0.22 hooklength but when I dropped down to 0.17 the tip kept on going 'round, something I still can't understand given the highly coloured water!!!

 

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