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.
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| 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 …
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| 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.)
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| 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!!!
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| Paul Williamson weighing-in on peg 1 |
Overall top 4:
- Paul Taylor, peg 28, 85-2-0
- Richard Hicks, peg 24, 84-1-0
- Pete Franklin, peg 9, 83-12-0
- 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:
- Pete Franklin, 5 points, 414lb
- Phil Morris, 8 points, 326lb
- Luke Sheriff, 9 points, 192lb
- Mick Keeper, 10 points, 275lb
- Shaun Sylvester, 10 points, 272lb
- 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.
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| 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 …
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