With a good second place under my belt and my first ton plus weight of the year last week I was quite pleased that Trevor Price announced that we would be back on the match lake for this weeks match.
I wanted to try fishing micros with stinky corn and see if this would make a difference to my catch rate. The conditions were good leading up to the match, +degrees and no frosts. A lot of rain water kept the colour clear so I would be fishing at distance.
Unfortunately only 6 anglers turned up which is a shame as we get to fish all the better pegs and spread the anglers out so everyone gets a bit of room. Still I suppose most people work weekdays and cannot get time off, whereas I am the opposite, plenty of time off during week and very little at weekends.
With monies paid, the draw saw Nick Wooding on 32, a peg he won from on Sunday fishing the tip to the island. Mick was on 28 and again set his stall out to fish the island. Keith R was on 27, Charlie Lancaster on 23, myself on 7 and Trevor Price on peg 6.
Michael Buchwalder and Joe Carass were doing a feature for a magazine on pegs 19 and 20.
As stated earlier I wanted to fish stinky corn over micros and see if I could catch more consistently than last week. I was hoping the micros would hold the fish for longer. So I set up 3 rigs to fish 12.5m. All .3g MW diamonds to a size 16 PR36. The only difference being the shotting patterns. One had a bulk around 6inches from the hook. Another with a bulk around a foot from the hook and 2 droppers. The last a strung out shotting pattern to drop through the water slower.
At the all in I was the only person on the pole line. Everyone else was on the tip. I had cupped in a couple of small balls of micros and around 12 grains of corn. After 10 minutes I had my first bite and a small pound carp was in the net. A couple more followed before it went quiet. A change of rig to the strung out version accounted for another couple of small carp and after an hour I had around 12lb.
Things were not quite right, I was struggling for bites but by lifting and dropping I could induce odd bites to keep fish coming however I was having to wait between bites. Nick was off to a flyer and was catching well on 32. Trevor and Charlie had both come off their tips and were fishing the pole.
Mick and Keith R were both struggling.
I decided to fish around 4m to my left in the slightly deeper area of the swim, still with the same rigs and see what happened with no feed going in. I also added around a foot of line above the float in case the pole was spooking the fish. I had a good spell doing this and kept fish coming although I did lose a few. After 3 hours I reckoned on 35lb before again this line went quiet. I started toss potting micros and corn and although I had a few on this, it soon died as well.
I was still picking up odd fish over the original fed line, but was not setting the world alight. Trevor was catching on maggot on the pole but was chopping and changing between pole, feeder and waggler. Charlie was catching well and Nick was still bagging.
With an hour and a half to go I started getting a few better fish to 2lb and this was boosting an already lowish weight. It was strange, there was a slight ripple on the water and when it was there I was biteless, when the breeze died down I would get bites.
At the all out I reckoned on 60lb with Trevor admitting to 40lb. I knew he had more, why does he do that? We all know what he is like.
1st Nick Wooding 127lb 4oz
2nd Trevor Price 84lb 2oz
3rd Charlie Lancaster 69lb 15oz
4th Keith Ashby 67lb 0oz
5th Keith R 41lb 12oz
6th Mick Wright 17lb 6oz
Overall the lake had fished patchy, I really fancied it for a few fish today, but they were just not there in any numbers. Interestingly the lads on the dam wall doing the feature caught steadily throughout, perhaps the fish were in the deeper water.
Still I managed to pick up another MK Nugget off Mick to take the total to 2-0. A good start to the year.
Next weeks Tuesday Affordable Open is on Wednesday. Draw at 0900 fish 10 til 1530. If you can make it, I will see you there.
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