The next match in Robin Hood A.C.'s calendar was to take place on Maple Lake at The Oaks Lakes, Thirsk.
As I was en-route with Frontrow, I said that 40lb would win today and 20lb would be a good weight. How far out in my guesstimation, would I be? This was based on an estimation following the Fishomania qualifier held last week at the venue.
As we were driving past the weather sock at Dishforth, I said to Frontrow 'Look, no wind'. To which he replied 'Let me just check'. At this point, he licked his finger, lowered the car window and stuck his finger out of the car and said 'Mick, it is windy, very windy, about 80mph winds'. THE PLUM!!!
As you may recall, a couple of weeks ago when I was pegged next to Chris 'Lurch' Moorhead a pound side bet was struck and I had to dig deep into my pockets to give him one of my well earned pounds. When I arrived today, Lurch came up to me and said, 'Mick, shall we have a pound, no, why not make it two pounds?'. I said 'Yeah, why not'. The side bet was struck, there was a lot to play for.
In addition, you may have read previously that Lurchio was having one or two problems with his landing net. Whilst waiting for the draw, Frontrow shouted him over and said to Lurchio that he had just signed for a parcel from UPS and it was addressed to Lurchio. When he opened it, he found that he had received a new landing net....
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| Chris 'Lurchio' Moorheads new landing net. |
The Draw
We had pegs 1 - 27 and there were 22 on the match, so there would not be many empty pegs. I wanted to draw between pegs 1 - 10 and did not want to be on the long straight (pegs 11 - 23). I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 22. CRAP!!! On Peg 21, I had Gary Jowitt. Peg 23 was empty (that was a bonus), Paul 'Woofer' Clough was on peg 24, Frank
The Peg
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| 14m across to the island. |
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| The Margin swim - Peg 23's platform at 10m - Woofer on peg 24 didn't have just one aerator to fish to, he had two!! |
The Rigs
I set up 4 rigs today...
Rig 1 - 4 x 10 Bauja float on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength to a size 18 Kamasan B911 hook. The rig was attached to Daiwa White Hydro Elastic This rig was set up to fish shallow, if the fish decide to come up in the water.
Rig 2 - 4 x 12 Carpa Chimp on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength to a size 18 B911 eyed hook with a hair-rigged bait-band. I plumped up across to the island to the right of the peg, under the tree and found that I had about 12 - 18". This was attached to Preston 13h green hollow elastic.
Rig 3 - 4 x 10 Bauja on .17 Preston Powerline to a .12 Trabucco T1 hooklength to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook. I plumbed up across to find that I had 12" depth between the sedges. This rig was attached to Daiwa White Hydro Elastic.
Rig 4 - .3g Garbolino DC6 on .17 Preston Powerline to a .13 Preston Powerline hooklength to a size 16 Colmic B501 hook. I plumbed up to the next platform and found that I had about 3ft of depth. This rig was attached to Preston 13h green hollow elastic. As I was plumbing up, Woofer was guiding me so that I do not fish past the platform. 'Left a bit, back a bit, back a bit more, keep going'. If I had left it to Woofer, I would have been fishing to the platform to my left, not right. Back a bit, my backside. He wanted all of the corner to himself. LOL.
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| Top Rig - 4 x 10 Bauja Middle Top - 4 x 12 Carpa Chimp Middle Bottom - 4 x 10 Bauja Bottom - .3g DC6 |
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At the all in, I got rig 2 and baited up with a piece of meat, and put 6-8 pcs of 6mm meat in a toss-pot with a splash of groundbait and shipped out to the right of the peg across to the island under the tree. I must of waited for all of 1 minute, the float dipped, shot under and 10ft of white hydro elastic was trying to get out of the pole. I pulled back some of the white hydro via my side pulla kit, and after a couple of attempts, I managed to get the fish in the net. It was about 7lb. :-)
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| The first fish of the day for your truly. |
I re-baited and shipped back out and waited and waited and waited. Nothing. Zilch, Zip, Nada.
I put a piece of meat on Rig 4 and put a few bits of meat and groundbait in a tosspot and shipped out down the edge to the next platform. I lowered the rig in and waited. A couple of minutes later, the float went under and I struck. 1ft of green 13h elastic came out and an F1 about 12oz was soon in the net. No more bites came on this line for now.
I proceeded to swap lines, trying (being the definitive word) to sneak a fish off each line. I tried maggot and caught a roach and lost a carp. I tried hard pellet and caught 1 carp and pulled out of a skimmer. I tried expander and caught a gudgeon and a carp. I tried meat and caught a couple of barbel and a couple of carp.
Lurch had taken a visitor with him as the visitor had not fished for a while and wanted to see how to catch fish, so sat with Lurch. After a couple of hours, Lurch as sent the visitor on a recce to see how I was doing. As the visitor stood behind me, watching, I caught a little carp about 1lb, I told him to tell Lurch that I had not caught anything. There was pride, honour and £2.00 at stake. It was serious.
At one point during the match, a car went past on the lakes on the main road and some young ASBO shouted out of the car window 'You F......g Wa......r' to which I asked Woofer if they were his friends. :-!
That was it. The match was over. I had 2 barbel, 1 roach and about 1doz carp and was not sure what I had weight wise. I thought that I had about 22/23lb ish.
Barry 'Alan do you want a sandwich' Hunter was on peg 1 and weighed in 19lb odd. Frontrow was on peg 2 and had 20lb odd. Paul 'Pid' Farley was on peg 3 and I am not sure if he did not weigh. Craig 'Shrek' Thompson was on peg 4 and DNW'd. Peg 5 (Charlie Colefax) DNW'd. It had fished hard. Dave 'Mr Soft' Horsfall, put 22lb odd on the scales from peg 10. Lurchio was next to weigh from peg 12 on the straight. He wasn't there!! Where had he gone with my 2 quid??? Apparently he had gone about an hour ago as he had blanked. Where was my 2 quid?? Relief, he had given my £2 to Dave Webster. It is obvious that he had gone as he didn't want to hang about to get some well deserved abuse due to blanking. I wonder how much his visitor had learned today. Hehe. Michelle put 4lb odd on the scales, maybe next time she will have £2 with Lurch as he is easy money :-). There were a few empty nets up the long straight until it got to Ian 'Sooty' Waddell on peg 19, he put 24lb odd on the scales and was winning it.
Gary put 13lb odd on the scales. Now it was my turn. I lifted my net out, put the fish on the scales and watched as the needle swung round to.....
21lb odd. damn. I was now in 3rd place with three more anglers to weigh. Woofer put 15lb on the scales, Frank tipped back and Alan weighed in about 13lb odd.
I had managed to come 3rd and my predictions were not a million miles out as although 40lb did not win, I did say that 20lb would be a good weight.
The Results
1. Ian Waddell (Peg 19) - 24lb odd
2. Dave Horsfall (Peg 10) - 22lb odd
3. Mick Herrington (Peg 23) - 21lb odd
4. Daz Harrison (Peg 2) - 20lb odd
5. Barry Hunter (Peg 1) - 19lb odd.
Oh well, onwards and upwards. There is always next week.
Tightlines.
Mick
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