Lurch, Tattoo, Shrek, Talking Donkey and I all met up for a breakfast, then as they had not been before, we all set off in convoy with yours truly leading the way to Wholesea Grange Fishery.
I have fished pond 2 twice before over recent years. The first time, I drew peg 3 and won the section with 5lb (47lb won) and last year I was in peg 11 or 12 and weighed in 33lb odd for 4th.
Before the start of the match I was saying that I did not want to be low numbers (1-5) or high (30-35) as usually the weights come from the other part of the lake.
Paul 'Woofer' Clough was running the match today and asked me if I could peg the lake. There were 20 of us on the match. As I was pegging out, I got to pegs 3 and 4, there were carp and ide crashing everywhere in the lillies and reeds that were in the peg.
Within our entry fee, we chip a £1 into a raffle to raise a few extra quid for the club. New recruit, Shrek Thompson won the raffle and in addition, the winner of the raffle always gets to draw first. He is a lucky so and so. He put his hand in the draw-bag first and ended up with peg 7 stuck to his fingers. The rush was then on to draw. I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 3. BAUBLES!!!. Tattoo Harrison was on peg 31, I was not sure where Talking Donkey or Lurch had drawn.
I arrived at my peg to find that I had Barry 'Alan do you want a sandwich' Hunter to my right on peg 1, peg 2 was empty and Lurchio (wasn't he a character played by Frankie 'oooo errrrrr' Howard in Up Pompeii??) Moorhead to my left on peg 4.
The Peg
Peg 3 had a tree to my right that had branches touching the water and looked very fishy. I had some lily pads at 16m at about 11 o'clock and a smaller patch of lily pads to my right at about 2 o'clock. There was a gap between two islands at about 23/24m away.
The Rigs
I set up a method rod and given that the fish were crashing and rolling at the back of some lily pads near to the reeds, the GURU Drag line was going to get severely tested today.
I then set up 4 pole rigs as follows:
Rig 1 was the margin rig under the tree. This compromised a .2g Sensas Power Pencil on .17 Preston Powerline to a .15 Preston Powerline hooklength with a size 14 hook. I plumbed up and had 2.5ft. This rig was tied to some Middy Whopper Stopper hollow elastic.
Rig 2 was a rig set up to fish in open water at 11m and was a .3g Preston Power Pencil on .17 Preston Powerline to a .11 Preston Powerline Hooklength and size 16 hook attached to Daiwa white hydro elastic. On this line I had approx 4ft depth.
Rigs 3 and 4 were Cralusso floats set up on .17 Powerline to .15 Powerline hooklengths. One was set to fish to the lily pads to the right where I had about 2ft and the other was set up to fish to the lily pads to my left where it was about 2.5ft. Both of these rigs were attached to Preston 15h hollow elastic.
Bait
For bait i had 1pt maggots, 2 pts casters, 1pt 4mm expanders, some 6mm hard pellets (for the method), some 8mm hard pellets (for the method), some micro's with a dusting of Sonubaits green supercrush groundbait and 1kg of worm. Basically it was going to be worm for ide or pellet for carp.
Due to having Lurchio to my left, I struck up a quid side bet. Lurchio said to me 'Hey Mick, were you bullied by everyone at school?'. I replied ' Not by everyone, just by big dumb ugly people like you' or words to that effect.
The Match
At the start of the match, I fed a pot of pellet and corn to my right under the bush. I put a 6mm hard pellet on the baitband, loaded up the method and lauched it towards the island where the fish were crashing. I put the rod down and started to take up the slack line and whoooosshh!! fish on. 15 seconds later I was snagged in some lillies and the fish was gone. 1 - 0 to the fish. At least there was some fish there.
I did the same again and re-cast. Whooosh, fish on. About 10 seconds later, I was snagged and had to pull for a break and ended up straightening a Preston C1 method hook. 2 - 0 to the fish. I rebaited and cast slightly off to one side, trying to find a clean spot. I managed to get this one out. It was a carp about 2lb. 2 - 1 now to the fish. Over the next hour, I proceeded to plug away with the method and the score after the first hour was 7 - 4 to the fish. I had by now put on a .21 Preston Powerline hooklength with a baitband to a size 14 Kamasan Animal hook. The fish had stopped crashing now. I wonder if the method had spooked them.
I swapped over to the pole and baited up with a 6mm Bait-Tech expander pellet, shipped it out to 16m to the lily's to the right, the float settled, dipped a little, went to the left, then shot under. A carp of about 1.5lb was soon subdued and was in the keepnet. I re-baited and dropped back in the same spot. The float dipped, shot under and a gudgeon was soon in the net. It didn't have much of a fight on yellow Preston 17h elastic. LOL.
I went back out and caught a couple of roach and another gudgeon, so I put in a pot of pellets and corn and switched to fish under the tree.
I baited up with a 6mm expander and dropped it under the tree. The float dipped, I struck. About 2 yards of Middy elastic came out, then shot back into the pole and a barbel about 12oz was soon in the net. I dropped in again and pricked a carp.
The fish were back crashing about on the method line, so I went back onto the method rod. The only way that I was having a fighting chance with getting the carp out was to strike, get the rod high and do not give an inch. The fish were only about 1lb - 2lb, but if they got 1ft of line back, they were straight in the reeds and lilys.
Over the next couple of hours, I swapped between my lines and had managed to snare about 15 little carp, and I had lost about a dozen.
With about 1.5hr to go, I baited up the margin rig with a pellet and went down the edge under the tree. I waited about 5 mins, the float shot under and the elastic was doing it's best to get out of the pole. I landed the carp, it was the biggest one yet at about 4lb. I managed to get another 3 carp, before that line went quite.
I went out to the clump of lilys at 16m at 11 o'clock with a pellet on the hook. I lowered the bait in, and waited. a couple of minutes later, the float dipped, I struck and a carp was soon in....... the lily's.
I managed to get another couple of fish from the 16m lines and down the edge and that was it, the match was over, how had I faired? I could see that Lurch had caught a few, and Barry had been splashing about all day. Front-row was starting to get a few at the end of the match. Reports were coming back that Macca had emptied it and lost about 100lb also.
I was 2nd to weigh, Barry weighed in 47lb 4oz. I put 47lb 10oz on the scales. Lurch weighed in just over 70lb made up of about 40lb of ide and 30lb of carp. He had also lost a few carp. Shrek Thompson weighed 53lb ish, then there was a mid 50 by Ray Dix who had apparently fished top 2 + 2 all day. The scales arrived at Macca's peg and Lurch was leading with 70lb followed by Craig with 69lb. Two weighs later and Macca had 77lb odd. Woofer Clough was next to weigh and upon lifting his net out, this was going to be close. He plonked 76lb on the scales. There were a couple more 30 - 45lb weighed in. Front-row weighed in 37lb, most of which had been caught on a whip and last to weigh was Paul Wilson who plonked 60lb odd on the scales.
When we last fished this lake, the weights were primarily made up of ide, ide and more ide. Where the flip had all the carp come from?!
Just about everyone in attendance had thoroughly enjoyed today. Everyone had had plenty of bites and although there were a couple of DNW's, the lowest weight weighed in was about 30/35lb ish. The average weight was just over 50lb. I really enjoyed it today as did a few others.
The GURU line had stood up to the test today, I had lost two or three hooklengths, but I had not lost any method feeders.
Lurchio never stopped twittering and yacking all day. Maybe I should rename him 'Talking Donkey' instead.
The result:
1. John 'Macca' McCall - 77lb odd
2. Paul 'Woofer' Clough - 76lb odd
3. Chris 'Talking Donkey' Moorhead - 70lb odd
4. Craig McKenny - 69lb odd
5. Paul Wilson - 60lb odd
Well done all. Great days fishing, nice weather, good banter and a few fish too.
No comments:
Post a Comment