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:
- Ian Dixon (matchangler.com), peg 19, 33-10-0
- Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 30, 30-0-0
- Lee Simmons (Guildford AC), peg 31, 27-6-0
- 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:
- matchangler.com, 10 point
- Guildford AC, 13 points (71-3-0)
- Team Bagger, 13 points (56-11-0)
- 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 …
No comments:
Post a Comment