Another match at Willinghurst again today and the weather forecast was an interesting one – nice and sunny but with a strong north-easterly wind blowing. Not unusual for the time of year but the pre-match talk was that this would no doubt this would knock-down the weights when compared to last weekend, especially as the number of anglers to fit around the same lakes (Top and Old) had increased from 16 to 22/23.
After last week’s taste of success I had hoped for another go on Old Lake but I ended-up with peg 12 on Top Lake, not a known flyer but one that looked pretty inviting and with the change in wind direction who know where the fish might turn-up? The peg was an end peg on the day as peg 13 (which sits diagonally opposite to the left) wasn’t in and casting to the grassy bank to side of peg 13’s platform with a mini hybrid feeder was to be part of my plan of attack, as were pole lines at 13m to the left just past some marginal rushes, 13m straight in front and at the bottom of the near shelf (top kit plus three sections).
I spent the first forty-five minutes of the mach trying to sneak a fish or two from any of my three pole lines, though rather worryingly the only bites came from small roach (that are becoming an increasingly common sight when fishing with hard pellets). Luckily a switch to the feeder to the far bank led to three carp in three casts – when the following three casts were biteless I rested that line for 15 minutes and when I returned I had carp on casts 1, 3 and 4 meaning I ended the first two hours of the match with 6 carp for about 30lb.
Unfortunately the third hour was biteless so I also ended the first three hours of the match with 6 carp for about 30lb!!!
The fourth hour was also very, very tough but a trip to the cafe for a coffee did the trick and on my return I managed to sneak-out a carp from my short pole line on an over-sized Ringers 6mm hard pellet. The start of the fifth hour saw a lost foul-hooker on the same tactics, though I did eventually manage to hook another in the mouth that ended-up in the net.
So going into the final hour I had 8 carp for about 40lb, not a bad total as far as I could tell and still in with a shout with a good last hour. Unfortunately things continued to be hard and I was absolutely gutted to lose the best fish of the day (what looked like a double-figure fish snapped my 0.13 hooklength after going on a second run whilst I only had my top kit in my hand) and I could only manage one more carp in that final hour.
In the end I put those 9 carp on the scales for 44-8-0, a reasonable score but somewhat off the pace when compared to Martin Johnson’s winning 79lb from Top Lake peg 6 – to be frank Martin fished a great match and I got my feeding all wrong! I was far too aggressive, feeding my margin line via a big pot, feeding my 13m line via a catapult and feeding my 5m line by hand being three massive mistakes – tapping in a few pellets or a few pieces of meat via a pole mounted pot and waiting patiently for a bite being the order of the day!!!
Until next time ...
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| All the gear ... |
After last week’s taste of success I had hoped for another go on Old Lake but I ended-up with peg 12 on Top Lake, not a known flyer but one that looked pretty inviting and with the change in wind direction who know where the fish might turn-up? The peg was an end peg on the day as peg 13 (which sits diagonally opposite to the left) wasn’t in and casting to the grassy bank to side of peg 13’s platform with a mini hybrid feeder was to be part of my plan of attack, as were pole lines at 13m to the left just past some marginal rushes, 13m straight in front and at the bottom of the near shelf (top kit plus three sections).
 |
| The Guru hybrid feeder |
I spent the first forty-five minutes of the mach trying to sneak a fish or two from any of my three pole lines, though rather worryingly the only bites came from small roach (that are becoming an increasingly common sight when fishing with hard pellets). Luckily a switch to the feeder to the far bank led to three carp in three casts – when the following three casts were biteless I rested that line for 15 minutes and when I returned I had carp on casts 1, 3 and 4 meaning I ended the first two hours of the match with 6 carp for about 30lb.
Unfortunately the third hour was biteless so I also ended the first three hours of the match with 6 carp for about 30lb!!!
 |
| Looks fishy! |
The fourth hour was also very, very tough but a trip to the cafe for a coffee did the trick and on my return I managed to sneak-out a carp from my short pole line on an over-sized Ringers 6mm hard pellet. The start of the fifth hour saw a lost foul-hooker on the same tactics, though I did eventually manage to hook another in the mouth that ended-up in the net.
So going into the final hour I had 8 carp for about 40lb, not a bad total as far as I could tell and still in with a shout with a good last hour. Unfortunately things continued to be hard and I was absolutely gutted to lose the best fish of the day (what looked like a double-figure fish snapped my 0.13 hooklength after going on a second run whilst I only had my top kit in my hand) and I could only manage one more carp in that final hour.
 |
| The mighty Roob Titan |
In the end I put those 9 carp on the scales for 44-8-0, a reasonable score but somewhat off the pace when compared to Martin Johnson’s winning 79lb from Top Lake peg 6 – to be frank Martin fished a great match and I got my feeding all wrong! I was far too aggressive, feeding my margin line via a big pot, feeding my 13m line via a catapult and feeding my 5m line by hand being three massive mistakes – tapping in a few pellets or a few pieces of meat via a pole mounted pot and waiting patiently for a bite being the order of the day!!!
Until next time ...
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