Monday, 26 August 2013

26 August 2013, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

Today’s match was the third annual August bank holiday Monday charity match at Marsh Farm – this is a regular event so if you fancy fishing at Marsh Farm and doing your bit for charity then pencil next year’s date (25/08/2014) into your diary now!

Some could hardly contain the pre-draw excitement!


Despite living locally to Marsh Farm I’d not actually fished on Richardson’s Lake since the previous bank holiday at the end of May so it would be interesting to see if my usual approaches were still working.

My dip into the bag of dreams produced peg 27 – this is a good looking peg on the Johnson’s Lake bank with a nice gap between the overhanging trees on the far bank and some interesting looking lily pads close in to the left. For company I had Dave Carter on (end) peg 25 and venue expert Russ Berryman to my left on peg 29 – superstar angler Dave Johnson was also within earshot (I think he was on 31 but he was probably audible to the majority of angler’s fishing today).

All the gear …

After assessing my peg I came-up with the following pre-match plan:
  • Pellet feeder tight over
  • 4mm expanders over micros at top kit plus 5 to the left at 10 o’clock
  • Chopped worm and caster at TK+5 to the right at 2 o’clock
  • Chopped worm and caster at the back of the pads

Hopefully this would cover a few options and help me build towards my target weight of 35-40lb. The corresponding rods/rigs were:
  • 10’ tip rod, 8lb Daiwa Sensor mainline, small 20g Preston Innovations pellet feeder to a 10cm hooklength of 0.19 N-Gauge with a size 16 QM1 and a hair-rigged pellet band
  • Pink Hydro top kit, 0.11 mainline a 15cm hooklength of 0.10 to a size 22 Tubertini 808, the float being a 0.1g Mo Brown Slim’o
  • As above but a blue Hydro top kit, 0.13 mainline a 15cm hooklength of 0.11 to a size 20 Tubertini 808
  • Blue Hydro top kit, 0.13 mainline a 15cm hooklength of 0.11 to a size 18 Tubertini 808, the float being a 4x14 KC Carpa Chimp
  • Black Hydro top kit, 0.15 mainline a 15cm hooklength of 0.13 to a size 16 Kamasan B911, the float being a 4x12 KC Carpa Chimp

Pellet feeder to the far bank trees

The first quarter of the match (1000-1130) was steady if not spectacular with three small tench and two crucians falling to the pellet feeder with a 6mm pellet hookbait – bites on the feeder taking on average six to eight mins to develop.

I also started regularly feeding the pellet line at top kit plus 5 to the left with micro pellets after forty five minutes – I did try it once or twice with a 4mm expander pellet on the lighter Slim’o rig but no bites materialised.

Peg 27 today

The second ninety minutes started badly when I lost the lot when a good fish took me into a snag on the pellet feeder, but finished well with two nice skimmers on the same method. In between I had a good run of tench, crucians and skimmers on 4mm expander or red 6mm Marukyu JPz over micros on pole – as per usual there was lots of fizzing and dragging the float slowly from one side to the other over the baited area seemed a reliable way of inducing a bite.

Perfect weather for it!!!


As per usual sport started to slow from about 1 o’clock and the period between 1300 and 1430 only produced two tench and a surprise carp on the feeder, plus one further small skimmer on the pole line where I’d been feeding micro pellets.

During this spell I had started feeding the top kit plus 5 line to the right with chopped worm and caster but no bites were produced on the 4x14 KC Carpa Chimp rig.

Lily pads to the left

The final part of any summer match can often be the most productive and the final 90 minutes (1430 to 1600) today were pretty decent with four further tench and one decent skimmer falling to the pellet feeder tight over. Interestingly most of these fish came when I’d added a squirt of Tutti Frutti Goo between the initial loading of pellets and the hookbait/final amount of pellets.

Unfortunately none of the three pole lines produced any bites (during the final hour I started feeding chopped worm and caster just beyond the very fishy looking lily pads to my left).

Bagger continued her good form with fourth overall

In the end my 20lb of tench/carp and 8lb of skimmers/crucians gave me a total of 28-6-0 – I didn’t manage to get a photo of the final board but this was probably just about in the top half, 4lb behind Russ Berryman who picked-up the double-default section.

In terms of the frame Bagger continued her good form with 35lb for fourth overall, no more than 10lb behind the winner – I think the weights were 43lb, 41lb and 38lb but don’t quote me!!!

Overall top four:
  1. Phil Worrell
  2. Ian Dixon
  3. Mark Harrington
  4. Claire Hollis

Please go ‘round!!!

Conclusion: Unlike yesterday I do have a few ideas as to where I went wrong today and with hindsight (a beautiful thing) I should have squeezed enough from the peg to pick-up some money. Looking back I should’ve simplified my approach and stuck to the pellet feeder and a single Slim’o pole rig (the lighter one), sticking with micro and 4mm expander pellets only, starting new pole line when the current one died – typically rotating from 11 o’clock to 1 to 10 to 2. Having bought a pint of casters and some worms I felt obliged to use them, even though pellets were already producing!

Until next time …
Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, 25 August 2013

25 August 2013, Gold Lake (Gold Valley)

In the blink of an eye we are onto round four of the Guildford Angling Centre summer league and a return to the canal bank of Gold Lake at Gold Valley – a venue that has been fishing it’s rocks off lately. This is a six match series where your best five scores count towards your final total – however as I’ll be missing the next round because of a holiday I was really looking for a good result today to cement my position in the top four places.

The parallel bank to the side of peg 1



Since returning from White Acres at the end of June I’ve had my fair share of luck and I’ve enjoyed some good results so I can’t really complain – but unfortunately the bag of dreams handed me a tough assignment when peg 3 bubbled to the surface!

This is not a noted peg and it was going to be a big ask to get a result against peg one (which had the parallel bank to fish along) and pegs five and nine (which both had access to one of the central islands). However the peg did give plenty of open water go at, the vacant platform of peg 2 to fish to and it had produced a big weight (120-10-0) in Wednesday’s open match so perhaps things weren’t too bad after all …

Terminal tackle for the pellet waggler

As ever my basic Gold Valley summer plan consists of four tactics and three lines – the method feeder to the rope, the straight lead/pellet waggler at 25m and a strong pole rig for the edge. As a result, before the start I set-up the following rods/rigs:
  • 11’ tip rod, 8lb Daiwa Sensor mainline, small 30g Preston Innovations pellet feeder to a 10cm hooklength of 0.19 N-Gauge with a size 14 QM1 and a hair-rigged bayonet (for an 8mm pop-up boilie). I also added two number 8 stotz an inch from the hook to stop the boilie popping-up too far
  • As above but with a 1/3 ounce Guru square bomb free running to a 30cm hooklength with a hair-rigged pellet band (for an 8mm pellet or a Ringers Banded Allsort)
  • 11’ pellet waggler rod, 6lb Daiwa Sensor mainline, 6g Preston Innovations Dura pellet waggler (the slim version with a disk) to a 25cm hooklength of 0.19 N-Gauge with a size 16 Guru Pellet Waggler hook and a hair-rigged band
  • Red Hydro top kit, 0.21 Reflo Power direct to a size 12 MWG, the float being a 4x12 KC Carpa Power with a stem trimmed to 65mm

(The water in front of the adjacent platform of peg 2 was about two feet deep, hence the decision to use the Carpa Power with a 65mm stem.)

The island accessible to pegs 5 and 9

To cut a long and very boring story short I could only muster three carp and three eight ounce skimmers for a level 17lb – as a result I was absolutely battered by Mark Cane on peg 5 (59-10-0), Paul Williamson on peg 1 (81-4-0) and Pete Franklin on peg 9 (83-12-0) for a rock bottom last in section!!!

For the record this is how my match went: no bites for an hour then a carp out of the blue on the pellet waggler and three skimmers on the straight lead (on 8mm pellet hookbaits); no bites for two and a half hours then two carp in a row on the straight lead; no bites in the final forty five minutes – happy days!!!

Paul Williamson weighing-in on peg 1

Overall top 4:
  1. Paul Taylor, peg 28, 85-2-0
  2. Richard Hicks, peg 24, 84-1-0
  3. Pete Franklin, peg 9, 83-12-0
  4. Paul Willamson, peg 1, 81-4-0

Today’s section winners:
  • Pete Franklin, peg 9, 83-12-0
  • Ryan Seymour, peg 15, 60-4-0
  • Luke Sheriff, peg 18, 59-10-0
  • Paul Taylor, peg 28, 85-2-0

League standing after round 4:
  1. Pete Franklin, 5 points, 414lb
  2. Phil Morris, 8 points, 326lb
  3. Luke Sheriff, 9 points, 192lb
  4. Mick Keeper, 10 points, 275lb
  5. Shaun Sylvester, 10 points, 272lb
  6. Paul Williamson, 10 points, 267lb

The only good thing about today was that I found myself in a section of four as opposed to a section of five – this meant I was somehow able to cling onto second place in the league, just ahead of Luke Sheriff who has leapt-up the table following his second section win in as many matches. Pete now seems odds on to win the league but it is mighty close behind with the next seven anglers only separated by two points.

Ouch!!!

Conclusions: Normally when I’ve fished a bad match I have a few ideas as to where I went wrong and I’m able to put together a plan for how I’d fish the peg differently next time ‘round. However in this case I’m going to have to put it down to experience because if I drew the same peg tomorrow I’d fish it in exactly the same way as today – and probably get the same result!!!

Until next time …


Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, 18 August 2013

18 August 2013, Middle Lake (Gold Valley)

After last week’s debut for Team Bagger at Marsh Farm it was back to the Guildford Angling Centre summer league today – round three (of six) on the Middle Lake at Gold Valley.

All the gear ...



My draw saw me on permanent peg 80, 5 pegs from the far corner in a reasonable but fairly narrow area. Today’s match was supposed to feature 20 anglers but two failed to turn-up (despite confirming during the week) leaving us with only 18 – this meant a last minute reduction to the pay-out, but was something I benefited from greatly as one of the pegs left in the bag of dreams was permanent peg 79, giving me a bit of extra room and an all important vacant platform to fish to on the pole!!!

(It is also worth noting that whilst our match was on the causeway bank there was an open match on the far side and as a result virtually every peg on the lake was taken today. This can have both a positive and a negative effect: on the downside this can mean the fish feel highly pressured and switch off; or on the plus side it can prevent the fish backing-off to the other side of the central rope never to be seen again!!!)

Prior to the all-in I set-up my usual 3 rod attack of pellet feeder (to be fished tight to the central rope), pellet waggler and straight lead (for up and down at 25m over loose fed 8mm pellets).

Different edge floats for different depths

I also set-up a rig for fishing in front of the vacant platform to my left at 10m – given the variable margin depths at Gold Valley I’ve taken to using the same line and hooks (0.21 Reflo Power straight through to a size 12 MWG), but selecting a float based on the depth and amount of wind/undertow.

My current choices are:
  • 0.2g SconeZone V6 (for depths up to 18”)
  • 4x12 KC Carpa Power with stem trimmed to 65mm (18” to 2.5’)
  • 4x12 KC Carpa Power with stem trimmed to 85mm (anything over 2’ and/or strong winds)

Both of these patterns are super strong with line through body designs and very strong eyes – the SconeZone V6 has a lovely short stem ideal for shallow water, whereas the KC Carpa Power takes a little more shot and has a longer stem more suited for deeper water. (Out of the box the stem on the Power is 110mm and hence too long for typical margin work, but trimming with a pair of pliers makes them perfect for the deeper margins at Gold Valley.)

As the depth in front of peg 79’s platform was a good 2.5’ I selected the 85mm Power – this float choice also give me good stability given the fairly strong wind today. I’d normally fish with red Hydro for margin munter hunting at Gold Valley – however as I was fishing fairly long I opted for black Hydro instead, giving a little more leeway when shipping back and not putting too much pressure on my number 7 section (which has already been repaired once and has a nasty crack at the male end from a incident of extremely bad angling at Trewaters earlier in the season).

Looking right from peg 80 to the far side

The first part of the match (1100-1215) went reasonably well with four carp and four skimmers falling to the pellet feeder to rope for about 20lb. These fish fell to a variety of hookbaits with 6mm pellets and brightly coloured 8mm pop-up boilies all scoring – as did a dash of Tutti Frutti Goo which resulted in a carp and a skimmer as things started to slow.

Whilst fishing the pellet feeder I’d also started to feed the 25m line heavily with 8mm pellets – however despite trying the straight lead on several occasions the only action was a single aborted take (I think carp anglers refer to it as ‘getting done’ when a carp sucks in then rejects your hookbait).

At least the sun shone for a bit!

The middle portion of the match (1215-1400) can only be described as desperate as I never had a bite!!! I tried swapping the pellet feeder to a groundbait method feeder (in order to try and tempt more skimmers) and swapped back as it didn’t work! I kept feeding the 25m line but nothing was doing on the bomb or pellet waggler. I even set-up a perch rig for close to an old tree stump and fed chopped worms and dead maggots to try and tempt some silvers – and that failed as well!

The vacant platform to my left

Luckily the final two hours (1400-1600) got off to a flying start with two carp in a row on the straight lead over the 25m line – however normal service soon resumed as I didn’t have so much as a liner in the next half an hour!

As per usual I’d been holding back my edge line for as long as possible but by 1430 it was clear my 25m wasn’t going to spring to life so it was time to feed four full cups of Sonubaits 50:50 groundbait, dead maggots and to corn to the spare platform to my left. This line got off to a slow start with just one lost foul-hooker and some serious wild fowl issues early on!!! (Its not only carp that have wised-up to the idea of a free meal at the end of a match – who’d have thought that swans would’ve evolved to recognise an angler’s cupping kit?) As a result I kept feeding the 25m line and trying the bomb plus the pellet feeder to rope but no further bites materialised from either of these lines. Luckily with more feed and the constant shooing of the local bird population my margin line came good in the final forty five minutes with four decent carp landed (plus another foul-hooker lost). (The only hookbait I used down the edge was 8 dead red maggots.)

Bagger being weighed-in by Gareth Phillips

Being in the section furthest from the clubhouse I was one of the last to weigh and by the time the scales reached my peg Luke Sheriff was winning the match with a hard earned but surprisingly low (given the venue and time of year) 56-12-0, with back-up weights of 53-14-0, 53-4-0 and 51-4-0. Having clicked 45lb of carp and allowing 4lb for the four skimmers I was expecting to come nowhere in the overall standings and second in section behind Richard Hicks on the end peg. As a result I was amazed when my 5lb of skimmers and 56lb of carp totalled 61-4-0 for a surprising section and match win!!! (Richard’s fish went 46-0-0 and I need to work on my estimating!)

Overall top 4:
  1. Phil Morris, 61-4-0
  2. Luke Sheriff, 56-12-0
  3. Shaun Sylvester, 53-14-0
  4. Pete Franklin, 53-4-0

Today’s section winners:
  • Shaun Sylvester, 53-14-0
  • Luke Sheriff, 56-12-0
  • Mick Keeper, 51-4-0
  • Phil Morris, 61-4-0

League standing after round 3:
  1. Pete Franklin, 4 points, 330-13-0
  2. Phil Morris, 4 points, 309-10-0
  3. Shaun Sylvester, 5 points, 272-4-0
  4. Mick Keeper, 6 points, 204-3-0
  5. Dan Cooper, 7 points, 173-0-0
  6. Martin Johnson, 8 points, 254-1-0

(Don’t forget that the final league position is based on the best 5 results from 6, so those that have already missed a match but will fish each of the final three are in something of a false position at the moment.)

The final reckoning …

Conclusions: I remember writing the other week (after drawing the ‘best peg in Surrey’ at Willinghurst) that it is ‘better to be lucky than good’ and the same applies today. Whilst I feel I fished a decent enough match the deciding factor was almost certainly the undrawn peg to my left. On a day when virtually every peg on the lake was taken this was a massive advantage as 1) it gave me more water from which to pull fish onto my long and 25m lines; 2) it gave me one of the best features to fish to on any commercial fishery – the water right in front of a vacant platform!!!

Until next time …


Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, 11 August 2013

11 August 2013, Harris Lake (Marsh Farm)

First match of the 2013 Godalming AS teams of 4 and a first outing for the newly named Team Bagger (Dave, Debs, Claire and me). Traditionally this 6 match league has taken place during October, November and December across a number of local venues – however a poor series of results (partly down to the weather) last year has seen a switch to August, September and October with all 6 matches taking place at Marsh Farm (three on Harris Lake, three on Richardson’s Lake).

Form an orderly queue!



Today’s match was on Harris Lake and my draw put me on peg 30, in the section on the railway bank towards Johnson’s Lake. (There were 4 sections of 8 in total, 2 sections on each side of the lake). The foliage around the lakes has really grown since my last visit and the gap between the reeds in my peg was actually quite narrow and there were some naughty looking lily pads on either side – however peg 30 is in a decent area opposite the middle of the three central islands so no problemo!

For company I had Lee Simmons (Guildford Angling Centre); Dave Lewis and Mark Wells (normally both Milo Bordon); and Marsh Farm regulars Dave Lake, Gordon Stevenson and Chris Kampa – all-in-all a pretty tough section!

Cage and pellet feeders today

My pre-match plan had involved fishing the pole left and right at top kit plus 4 (one swim with chopped worm and caster, the other with groundbait) – however given the fairly tight pegging and my general lack of ever catching anything on the pole on Harris Lake I decided to leave it in the bag at the start and instead just set-up two feeder rods. The first featured a 20g small Preston Innovations pellet feeder with a 10cm hooklength of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge to a size 16 QM1 with a band, the second a medium-sized 20g Drennan cage feeder with an 18 inch hooklength of 0.17 to a size 16 QM1 tied ‘hook in the loop’ style.

Not much room to manoeuvre!

The first 35 minutes went amazingly well with two tench, two crucians and a skimmer all hitting the net after falling to a 6mm pellet hookbait on the pellet feeder tight to the margin of the central island under the overhanging trees.

However after a biteless 20 minutes it was time for a change so I opened the cage feeder line (8m from far bank at the bottom of the shelf) with five lots of chopped worms, casters and Sounbaits 50:50 groundbait. Unfortunately this initial spell only lead to a sucked maggot (probably from a roach), but a switch back to the pellet feeder tight over saw another tench on the second cast after returning to this line.

A switch back to the cage feeder did though lead to a tench on 3 dead maggots and another on the pellet feeder meant that after two hours I was doing well with 5 tench, two crucians and a skimmer.

A switch to the groundbait method initially failed

As ever at Marsh Farm the middle of a normal 1000 to 1500/1600 match can be incredibly tough and today was no exception with only one further tench falling to the pellet feeder during hours 3 and 4. (To keep myself amused I swapped the cage feeder rod over to a method feeder used in conjunction with neat groundbait and dead read maggots on the hook – this is the approach successfully adopted by Lee Simmons next door.) Whilst I only put one tench in the net in this period I also managed to lose another that I pulled-out of as it dived towards the lily pads on my right (both were hooked on the pellet feeder).

Plenty of time to admire the cloud formations!

The final 2 hours were also excruciatingly slow with only three bites to show for my efforts – one tench on the groundbait and dead maggot method feeder, another on the pellet feeder (this time with the addition of some Tutti Frutti Goo) and a final crucian five minutes from the end (after the pellet feeder had been in the water for over fifteen minutes).

Team Bagger weighing-in

In the end my 30-0-0 to was just enough to win the section from Lee Simmons (who had 27-6-0) and was also good enough for second overall behind Ian Dixon (33-10-0). On the team front Team Bagger tied on points with Guildford AC but were knocked-back to third on weight! Congratulations to matchangler.com (Dave Johnson, Ian Dixon, Dave Lewis and Simon Duke) who won the day.

Overall top 4:
  1. Ian Dixon (matchangler.com), peg 19, 33-10-0
  2. Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 30, 30-0-0
  3. Lee Simmons (Guildford AC), peg 31, 27-6-0
  4. Eddie Rippon (Guildford AC), peg, 24-8-0

Section winners:
  • Paul Chudyk (Brian’s Team), peg 4, 16-8-0
  • Ian Dixon (matchangler.com), peg 19, 33-10-0
  • Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 30, 30-0-0
  • Trevor Haskell (Trev’s Tornadoes) , peg 40, 24-3-0

Top 4 teams:
  1. matchangler.com, 10 point
  2. Guildford AC, 13 points (71-3-0)
  3. Team Bagger, 13 points (56-11-0)
  4. Trev's Tornadoes, 19 points

Mark Wells and Dave Lake gearing-up before the start

Conclusions: focusing on the feeder only worked well again, with very little being caught on the pole today (the exception was Ian Dixon who could nearly reach the island with 16m on peg 19). The groundbait method with dead maggot seems to be a good alternative to the pellet feeder at this time of year (high summer), though the pellet feeder is still king in my eyes! A cage feeder into the deeper water is also something to work on and may have led to more fish if I’d have fished it more.

Until next time …


Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, 4 August 2013

04 August 2013, Gold Lake (Gold Valley)

Today’s match was the second round of the Guildford Angling Centre 2013 summer league on the canal bank of Gold Lake at Gold Valley – an event I’d been really looking forward to following my usual working week stuck in an office and commuting up and down to London every day!
 
Gold Lake has been on fire lately

Regular followers of the Gold Valley Facebook page and the angling weeklies will know that the venue has been producing some really big weights over recent weeks, with Gold Lake itself producing numerous 200lb weights. All-in-all everything looked sock-on – as we sat in the clubhouse waiting for the draw the weather was perfect (warm, but sunny with broken cloud and a southerly breeze) and there were big fishing showing themselves all over the lake!
 
Looking right from peg 13


 
Today’s dip into the bag of dreams put me on peg 13 – pretty much in the middle of the bank, and right in the middle of my 5 peg section. In front of me was basically open water – the two islands on the canal bank side of the rope being at least 5 pegs away on either side. It has to be said that the right margin looked extremely fishy, with some tasty overhanging brambles and some very inviting looking reeds!

All the gear ...

My basic Gold Valley summer plan consists of four tactics and three lines – the method feeder to the rope, the straight lead/pellet waggler at 25m and a strong pole rig for the edge. I’d use this combination of approaches on virtually every peg as it gives the best chance of catching the big, wily carp needed to put together a decent weight and make an impression on the match. (Quite often in the angling press you’ll see features on catching bags of skimmers and other silvers at Gold Valley, but for my money such tactics are a waste of time and it’s always carp that win the matches!)

As a result, before the start I set-up the following rods/rigs:
  • 10’ tip rod, 8lb Daiwa Sensor mainline, small 30g Preston Innovations banjo feeder to a 10cm hooklength of 0.19 N-Gauge with a size 14 QM1 and a hair-rigged bayonet (for an 8mm pop-up boilie). I also added two number 8 stotz an inch from the hook to stop the boilie popping-up too far
  • As above but with a 1/3 ounce Guru square bomb free running to a 30cm hooklength with a hair-rigged pellet band (for an 8mm pellet or a Ringers Banded Allsort)
  • 11’ pellet waggler rod, 6lb Daiwa Sensor mainline, 6g Preston Innovations Dura pellet waggler (the slim version with a disk) to a 25cm hooklength of 0.19 N-Gauge with a size 14 Drennan Eyed Barbless Carp Feeder hook and a hair-rigged band
  • Red Hydro top kit, 0.21 Reflo Power direct to a size 12 MWG, the float being a 0.2g SconeZone V6
 
Duck and cover!

The first hour started badly – mainly due to my difficulty in casting reasonable distances with a short rod (the central rope was about 45m away) and pellets not sticking on the banjo when giving it the ‘big one’! During this opening 20 minutes I’d already fallen three carp behind Shaun Sylvester on the peg to my right but I had been heavily loose-feeding with 8mm pellets to 25m.

This seemed to draw every duck on the venue into my peg, but four bites on the bomb at least saw me finish the first hour on four small carp for about 15lb. After a slight lull more heavy feeding saw two good carp (probably 10 and 8lb) in the net – so after 90 minutes I was finally getting into the swing of things with 40-45lb.

The Preston Innovations Dura pellet waggler

Thankfully by now the ducks had moved away (no doubt full after gorging themselves on my pellets), and as those around me were doing likewise it was time for the pellet waggler! (Is there are better phrase in fishing than ‘time for the pellet waggler’? I think not!!!)

To cut a long story short I basically spent the remaining three and a half hours of the match on the pellet waggler and caught decent carp at regular intervals through to the end – the best feeding pattern on the day seemed to be to feed heavily with 3 or 4 pouches of 8-10 8mm pellets then have 5 casts with no feed. The majority of bites came within 3 seconds of the waggler landing with the fish generally self hooking themselves against the weight of the float and then trying to pull the rod in!

A tasty looking margin swim to the right
  
I did feed my right-hand edge swim with groundbait (Sonubaits 50:50), dead maggots and corm regularly from about 90 minutes to the end, but only actually fished it for two very short periods (two minutes or less) as the main 25m line simply kept on producing. (Even though I knew that the only way I could catch Shaun was with a good run of bigger (12-15lb) carp from the margin, I knew from experience that I couldn’t afford to ignore the smaller (5-8lb) fish I was catching on a fairly regular basis from the 25m line.)
 
Winner Shaun Sylvester weighing part of his haul

In the end my four nets went 140-6-0, second in section behind Shaun’s 178-10-0 but just in front of Paul Taylor’s 135-8-0 and Ryan Coates’ 124-0-0. I was also fourth overall – and picked-up £30 for a triple default section win!

So once again I’d sat next to the winner again, but as you can see it was a close run thing with Shaun really benefiting from an 18-20lb beast hooked with two minutes to go and landed ten minutes after the whistle!!!

Overall top 4:
  1. Shaun Sylvester, peg 15, 178-10-0
  2. Pete Franklin, peg 5, 177-2-0
  3. Martin Johnson, peg 9, 166-12-0
  4. Phil Morris, peg 13, 140-6-0

Today’s section winners:
  • Pete Franklin, peg 5, 177-2-0
  • Shaun Sylvester, peg 15, 178-10-0
  • Giovanni Barbato, peg 22, 92-6-0
  • Gareth Phillips, peg 23, 84-6-0

League standing after round 2:
  1. Pete Franklin, 2 points, 277-9-0
  2. Phil Morris, 3 points, 248-6-0
  3. Dan Cooper, 3 points, 156-12-0
  4. Martin Johnson, 4 points, 226-7-0
  5. Shaun Sylvester, 4 points, 218-6-0
  6. Giovanni Barbato, 4 points, 193-6-0

The final reckoning …

Conclusions: a great day with my biggest weight of the season so far and new personal best for Gold Valley. A valuable second in section has also helped to maintain a decent league position going into the next round (two weeks time, again at Gold Valley but this time on Middle Lake). The most pleasing aspect of today’s match was probably my time management – despite getting-off to a bad start I managed to claw my way back into the match and by not gambling/wasting too much time on a cracking looking edge swim I was able to just about stay in front of Paul and Ryan (who were only a fish or two behind).

Until next time …


Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)