To be honest, I had seemed to hit a mental block regarding fishing. I had fished the Stafford Moor festival in October and although it is one of my favourite venues in the country, albeit a long way from home, I just could not seem to get motivated to fish my local, more regular haunts. I don't know why, the fishing at Stafford Moor was ok, my local venues were fishing well. I just could not get interested in going. This had to stop, so I thought get Xmas and the New Year out of the way and the first opportunity to fish I will. This came in the way of a knock up at Alders Farm on the Specimen Lake.
This lake has a lot of small carp up to a pound with a lot of doubles to 30+lb. Mix in a good head of proper bream and skimmers and you can have a good day. A couple of sharp frosts leading up to the match did not help but it was the same for everyone and with a winning weight in the region of 60lb required it should prove a good days fishing, if nothing else.
I planned to fish corn, expanders and maggot over a couple of lines feeding fishery micros, initially with a cup then kindered every couple of fish. I had around 8ft at 12.5m and around 6ft at 6m so armed myself with a couple of MW Diamonds and dotted them down to a dimple. A size 16 PR36 hook length would easily cope with a single grain of corn or expander. A size 18 PR36 would be used with maggot. Elastic was black hydro, only because it was the lowest grade in my pole sleeve. Should have checked before going I suppose, but as I said my mind and heart was not into fishing. A soft white would have been better suited.
I had for company Vic on the peg I fancied, and done well from in the past. Polish Chris the other side of me. Terry Lancaster was on the second peg on the café bank side with Bernie Fraser a couple of pegs further up. Charlie Lancaster was next to him and Trevor Price in the top corner in the shallower water.
At the all in I cupped in a half pot of micros and around 12 grains of corn onto the 12.5m line and a half pot of micros onto the 6m line. I would feed another half pot at hour intervals onto this line. After around 5 minutes I started getting a few bites and small carp around 6oz were coming quite regularly although I was bumping a few on black hydro. This continued for around an hour. 6oz fish all taken on stinky corn. I reckoned on having around 5lb. A look onto the expander line at 6m hoping for a few larger fish never materialised so I refed and went back out. I was feeding micros with a couple of grains of corn and a pinch of maggot and tried to eliminate the maggot to see if this made a difference to the fish I was catching, but with no obvious signs it was a case of plugging away. Vic was catching 2 to my one on expander at 13m on the next peg and Chris the other side was catching well in spells. Although he suffered dry spells as I did.
Terry was starting to catch a few fish after a slow start. Charlie was getting a few on the tip over to the island and Trevor had snared a couple of decent carp. Bernie was getting a few bites but was struggling.
I tried expander on the corn line and although it caught me a few fish it was slower than the stinky corn. However even after slacking off the black hydro as much as I could I was still bumping a few fish. I suspect that the hook was too large for 6oz fish and coupled with the hydro I was not connecting properly. 6m line only produced a couple of fish.
Vic had by now connected with a proper carp and was playing it very gingerly for around 10minutes before slipping his net under a nice double figure common. Couple that with two out of season Tench and plenty of small carp and he duly won out right. Charlie had an excellent 4th hour where everytime I looked up his rod was bent round and he was playing a carp. Trevor had snagged a few more from alongside the bushes on the far bank.
1st Vic Nugent 70-06
2nd Charlie Lancaster 62-04
3rd Trevor Price 56-02
4th Chris 43-01
5th Keith Ashby 34-02
6th Terry Lancaster 30-11
7th Bernie Fraser DNW
Overall, it fished well, nigh on 50lb a man on the Specimen lake. Personally I was glad to be back on the bank. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Plenty of bites. However it did show a complete and utter lack of preparation on my part. I will be better next time around.
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