Sunday 12th November 2006

I persuaded my one time halves partner to go today, as he needs to get his 4 matches in to qualify for the Xmas Cheer. Bram had also booked on and arranged to come to my gaff and pick us up. Bram arrived at 7:15 in his speed demon and good headway was made and we arrived in plenty of time for me to have a brekkie before I start to get everyone organised.

I had been turning people down all week as I had been booked up and I also had a few names in reserve in case anyone cancelled off. By the time of the draw, I had 74 names on the match and that included the people that had turned up to try to get on the match. If people are not there but the time of the draw, I give their places to other people waiting to get on, so it was still a good turn out none the less. Saturdays are also starting to fill up now as they had 57 on the match yesterday.

In view of Polecrusher Payton not paying me my quid from last week, as he arrived today he handed me a £20 note. I asked him for a quid, implying that I was going to give him a fiver change. He gave me a quid and I then said ‘that’s me paid, give us another quid and I will give you a fiver’. Quid’s were also set up with John ‘Silverback’ Chapman, Bedpan, Nightie, Polecrusher, and a new recruit Anthony ‘Jasper’ Scarlett. Byron ‘Fullstop’ Dell (have you seen the height comparison between Byron and a Fullstop, not a lot in it if you ask me), had booked on the match and quickly set up the quid from last winter’s matches. Ian ‘Exman’ Exley also asked me if I want to have a quid with him, I quickly turned him down, have you seen his results of late?

I put my hand in the bag and managed to pull out peg 2. Peg 3 had won yesterdays match with 50 odd lb’s. Rosie and Jim look-alike, Andy Stonner, had won the section off my peg with 28lb odd.

Upon arriving at my peg, Billy ‘Split Shot’ Brierley, who had drawn scales help peg 1, offered me out for a quid, doesn’t he know of my result last week? I also roped Steve ‘Ena’ Sharples into a quid who was to my right on yesterdays winning peg. Call me a glutton for punishment.

I set up 4 rigs as follows:

2 rigs across. Both of them were Garbolino DC6 floats, one taking .05g and the other .2g. I shotted both of them shirt button style. They were both made up using .10 Novotech line. One of them had a size 18 Preston Pr23 and the other had a Size 20 Preston Pr23 hook attached. The .05g rig was attached to white hydro and the other rig was attached to the yellow 6-10 Maver Dual Core elastic. I plumbed up across and after finding the depth, I added a floats length to the depth.

On the subject of line diameter, I have just been reading an article by Giles Cochrane in one of the magazines. I usually get comments from people with regards to the line diameter that I fish as I tend to fish slightly heavier than most. A couple of Giles’ comments are along the lines of ‘fish do not swim towards .08mm line’, ‘scaling down to .08mm may get you the extra bite, but you still have to get the fish in the net’ and ‘Matches are decided on what you have in the net and not what line diameter you are using’.

I also had 2 rigs down the middle.

Deep rig one was a .4g Paste Corn float attached to .12 Fox Match Plus line straight through to a size 18 Preston Pr 23 hook. I was planning on fishing with corn on this rig and after plumbing up; I found that I had about 5ft of depth. I added a floats length of depth to my rig. I was using the Maver Dual Core Yellow with this rig.
Deep rig No. 2 was a 4 x 12 Drennan Roach float attached to .10 Novotech straight through to a size 18 Preston PR23 hook. I planned on fishing with double maggot down the middle with this rig. Again, I plumbed up and added a floats length of depth to my rig. White Hydro completed the set up.

For bait, I had a small tin of corn and 1pt of red maggots. That was all. In view of the way that I intended to feed, I got my catapult only out of my box.

At the start of the match, I catapulted a few maggots down the middle and put the same number across. I baited up the Drennan Roach rig with a couple of red maggots, dropped in down the middle and waited. Both Ena and Split Shot went across to the far side.

After a couple of minutes, Ena was into a fish. But, alas, it came off (thank you God!!!). I waited a couple more minutes, the float trembled and I struck. I was up for it, but the fish wasn’t. I dropped back in. The float settled and carried on going. A skimmer of about 8oz was doing its best impression of a carp, but it lost. I catapulted some more bait out, and shipped back out again.

Ena had by now managed to snare a couple more carp, both of which he managed to get out. Split Shot on the other hand was getting a bite a chuck and was putting a fish in his net every put in. Unfortunately, the skimmer that I had caught weighed more than all of his fish put together.

I persevered down the middle for the next 1 hour and 20 minutes. By now, Split Shot was starting to catch carp from the edge of the sedges to his right (about 2 yards from the start of my swim) and Ena was starting to string a few fish together. Ena has got to be one of the funniest people around when there is a fishing match on. With every fish lost, a tirade of expletives would erupt from his cesspit of a mouth. He would get very annoyed and start swearing at himself and the fish. The more that it happened, the more irate he got. At one point, I thought that the Incredible Hulk had better go into hiding because Ena Sharples was about.

Throughout my time down the middle, I had been flicking a few maggots over to the far side and also down the middle. Split Shot was also flicking a few maggots around his peg. Ena hadn’t fed anything to my knowledge!!!

Having lovingly primed my swim, it was now time to go over and have a look across.

I baited up the .05g rig with double red maggot, shipped across, dropped (or should that be laid) the rig in, catapulted a few of maggots over the top and waited, or at least I would have done had the pole not been dragged to the right. The white hydro was getting a good seeing to as I tried my best to control the fish. Whilst shipping back, at one stage all I was getting was slow nods as the fish made it’s best impression of a bream, but I knew it was a good carp that was using its weight to fight me. After a 5 minute battle a carp of about 5lb was in the net. Caught them all up with one fish, never mind with the other fish in my net.

I re-baited, catapulted a few maggots across, and went back out with the same rig. I dropped in the same hole and this time I had to wait about 5 minutes before the float buried again. A mirror carp of about 1lb was running all around my peg, it was soon in the net. Why is it that smaller carp give you more a run around than larger carp? I was flying.

Split Shot was shipping across to the far side and was catching the gudgeon and roach that I was desperately trying to catch, NOT!!!!! In the time that I caught a 2lb+ carp, Split Shot had about 6oz of roach and gudgeon, things were not looking good for him. Ena on the other hand was still managing to hook the carp, but failed to get them out. I commented to Split Shot that by the end of the match Ena would have less hair than Haircut, and he’s nearly bald.

2 hours into the match, the float dipped. I waited. It dipped again, and then shot under. I struck and the float stayed where it was a metre of white hydro extruded from the pole tip. The ‘bottom’ then decided to start moving. After a long battle and 4 sections of pole in the air (which I never do) the fish came up off the bottom, it rolled and went back down sulking. I shouted to Split Shot that it was bigger than the 5lb ‘er that I had caught earlier. The task of getting the fish into the net was made more difficult due to my using a small landing net head and also the fact that the fish had been hooked in it’s anal fin. Oh hum. I tried to shake the fish off and prod it with my landing net, but it wouldn't come off. Oh well, best net it and put it in my net then. I was trying to wind up Ena more than he already was as I gave a running commentary of my netting prowess and the size of the fish.

I had by now got an estimated 20lb and most of that was made up with 2 fish. I re-baited the same rig and went back out. I let the float settle, put a few maggots over the top. The float settled, then dipped sideways, then shot under. I managed to squeeze the 5lb ‘ers twin brother into my already bulging keepnet.

Split Shot asked me what bait I was using, what hook size and also, what line. I told him that I was on .13 Preston Powerline direct to a size 16 Colmic WN501 hook. I asked him what he was using, his reply was .08 to a .07 hooklength and a size 22 hook. He quickly rang Haircut to say that I was using 3 maggots on a size 14 to .15 Preston Powerline straight through and that he couldn’t get a bite off a carp. It goes to prove Giles’ point above in that if you are on them, it doesn’t matter what line, etc, that you are using.

Going into the last hour, I would estimate that I had 6 carp for about 28lb and about another 10lb of smaller carp for about 38/39lb.

The last hour was the slowest part of the match. Ena was still managing to pick up the odd carp by searching all over his peg and I was having to wait twice as long for a bite. I had been flicking a couple of maggots down the middle all the while, whilst I had been fishing across. I decided to have a look. I dropped in with the deep rig and waited. After some 10 minutes, I had had enough and quickly went back over to the far side.

Over the remaining 50 minutes, I managed to snare a couple more carp and half a dozen roach and gudgeon. See, I can catch them when I try. By the end of the match, I would estimate that I had about 45lb and that it would be close between Ena and I, but I had a feeling that it would just go in my favour.

The scales quickly arrived and Split Shot set the mark. He plonked 15lb 8oz on the scales. I lifted my net out and managed to put 43lb 6oz on the scales (my 2nd 40lb+ weight in two weeks). Ena lifted his net out. It was going to be close. He weighed in 40lb 2oz. £2 up already and there was a few more victims to weigh in yet. Polecrusher - 29-12, Bedpan – DNW, Chappy - 21-11, Nightie 15-2 and Jasper 28-08. Not a bad day at the office thus far, £7 up!!!!

Fullstop managed to spoil a clean sweep as he was pegged next to the winner and managed to snare 44-14. I should have had a quid with Exman as he only managed
25-10. In view of The Pacifier and Macca not being present either last week or this week, I was now down £8. Come back, please, I will pay your petrol.

Ooooppss, nearly forgot (as if). I managed to sneak 3rd overall and another brown envelope.

Full result:

Matt Lord (KL Tackle) 45-02. Peg 64
Byron Dell (Bob-Co) 44-14. Peg 63
Me (Bob-Co/Oaks) 43-06. Peg 2
Dave Pimlott (Garbolino Elton) 41-04. Peg 66
Adam Richards (Garbolino Elton) 40-06.
Steve Sharples (Bob-Co) 40-02. Peg 3

Tightlines.