32 anglers, 8 teams of 4. Five and a half hours (330 minutes). Two torrential downpours and one rumble of thunder. 1 rod, 9 bites. 5 tench, 4 crucians. 23 pounds 13 ounces – job done!!!
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| About time we drew the scales … |
Today’s event was the third in this year’s Godalming AS teams of four, a six match series held at Marsh Farm with the first three on Harris Lake, the final three on Richardson’s. It was my turn to be ‘captain du jour’ and my first action was to fail miserably at my main objective of the day – to avoid drawing the scales!!! Putting this small fact to one side I’d managed to put us on the same set of pegs as round one with Debs on 9, Bagger on 17, Dave on 30 and myself on 38.
My draw put me on what is generally seen as the best side of the lake (that nearest the railway line), but in the section nearest the shop (the area nearest to the adjacent Johnson’s Lake is normally the most productive). However the wind was blowing from the south/southwest, hopefully pushing the fish to my end of the lake.
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| Looking left from peg 38 on Harris Lake |
I’ve written before regarding my lack of confidence of catching on the pole on Harris Lake, so I once again plumped for ledgering only tactics. In fact unlike my last match on this pond (where I set-up two tip rods, one for a pellet feeder and one for a cage feeder) I decided to put all of my faith in the pellet feeder and went with a single tip rod approach!
I initially set-up with a 20g small Preston Innovations pellet feeder – however after eventually clipping-up just short of the central island the right to left crosswind rose considerably so before the all-in I swapped to a 30g version. (Whilst I would’ve preferred to use a 20g version as it makes less of a disturbance on casting, in my book accuracy is the single most important factor when fishing to an island/far margin so I was willing to sacrifice a little subtlety for extra precision.)
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| The view to the right |
Regular All the Gear, No Idea readers will have spotted that I normally have the scene-setting ‘view from my peg’ video a little nearer the top of my blogs – however if you take a look at the clip above you’ll see that I was able to induce a very subtle bite from a 4lb tench first cast!
This was a great start, but something of a false dawn as I didn’t get another bite until 45 minutes later – though two tench for 7lb is a pretty decent first hour return for any match at Marsh Farm!!!
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| Micros treated with Almond Supreme Goo |
During the second hour of the match (1100-1200) I decided to keep myself amused by experimenting further with some Kiana Goo. I quite often squirt some Tutti Frutti power smoke directly into a pellet feeder, but today I decided to colour/flavour a portion of my soaked 2mm feed pellets with some Almond Supreme bait smoke. (It seems that the power smoke Goos are really thick and hence better for applying to PVA bags or method feeders, whereas bait smokes are much thinner and hence better for applying to feed pellets or groundbait.)
You can see from the photo above that the Goo certainly coloured the pellets nicely – however what you can’t get a sense of here is the amazing almond smell! First cast with the flavoured pellets led to a big liner, but no indications on the second drop in saw me switch back to unflavoured pellets next cast and a third (but smaller) tench in the net. So the question is: did the Goo pull the tench into the swim or was that fish already there and in fact put off by it? Answers on a postcard or sealed down envelope please …
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| Just pellets and Goo today! |
Midday brought the forecasted rain and our first soaking of the day, though during this torrential downpour I was able to pick-up a small crucian that boosted my weight to about 10lb.
A lull in activity of about an hour was then followed but what can only be termed ‘spectacular sport’ by Marsh Farm standards – three fish in three casts!!! The first (a nice crucian) came after the feeder had been in the water for nearly 20 minutes – a second crucian fell next cast after 3 or 4 minutes and the third fish (a decent tench) grabbed the bait as I was sinking the line!!!
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| Time for a second soaking! |
Normal service was soon resumed and the final two hours (1330-1530) only saw two more bites – one from a small crucian at about 2 o’clock and another from a good tench 2 minutes from the final whistle (after the feeder had been in the water for well over half an hour). In fact the final tench nearly pulled my rod in as I’d started to pack-up and I had it balanced beach caster style on my keepnet with the butt on the ground!!!
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| Results for A and B section |
By the time the scales (which were in my hands) arrived at my peg Ian Dixon had already secured C section with 18-13-0 and Mick Mahoney was winning D section with 19-1-0. As a result I was rather pleased to see my 5 tench and 4 crucians go 23-13-0, enough to win the section and secure individual top spot on the day!
Overall top 4:
- Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 38, 23-13-0
- Mick Mahoney (Chertsey Baits), peg 36, 19-1-0
- Ian Dixon (matchangler.com), peg 27, 18-13-0
- Max Calverly (Guildford AC), peg 26, 15-10-0
Section winners:
- Darren Dodge (matchangler.com), peg 3, 13-15-0
- Brian Ward (Team Rog), peg 19, 10-0-0
- Ian Dixon (matchangler.com), peg 27, 18-13-0
- Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 38, 23-13-0
Top 3 teams on the day:
- Matchangler.com, 12 points
- Chertsey Bait, 16 points (on overall weight countback)
- Guildford Angling Centre, 16 points
League standing after round 3:
- Matchangler.com, 26 points
- Guildford Angling Centre, 41 points
- Trev’s Tornadoes, 54 points
- Chertsey Bait, 54 points
- Brian’s Bandits, 54 points
- Team Bagger, 58 points
- Team Rog, 67 points
- Buster’s Bandits, 77 points
Unfortunately whilst Bagger (second in section) and myself had secured good points on the day for Team Bagger, Dave and Debs had both struggled with poor draws leaving us in fifth place on the day. In terms of the league Team Bagger are now sitting in sixth – too far behind to be aiming for first or second, but still in with a chance of third with three rounds to go.
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| Scores on the doors for C and D |
Conclusions: once again my single minded, feeder only tactics seemed to pay-off on Harris Lake. For my money chopping and changing between the feeder and the pole/waggler on this lake can see the match winning fish move through your island swim without a bait in the right place – a fatal mistake given the light stocking levels and the type of fish present. It might be boring, but unlike your typical match carp venue the old fashioned approach of setting trap and be patient seems to be the way to go!
Until next time …
Hi Phil..I won two matches in a row on this lake in Sept either 2013 or 2012 fishing very light on the pole.. I had 27 and 29 poundish..Worm on the hook and contant feeding a little and often with choppie and groundbait..Cupped in every ten minutes .Geoff.
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