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!
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| 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).
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| 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
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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).
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| 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:
- Phil Worrell
- Ian Dixon
- Mark Harrington
- Claire Hollis
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| 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 …
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