Today's match should have been on Tuesday, however with a low turnout expected it was switched to the Wednesday to allow both Mick Wright (who suggested it) and myself the chance to fish.
Tuesday was a glorious winter's day, the sun was in the sky and although it was patchy you could see it. Temperatures were around 6 degrees and everything was rosy. What a difference 24 hours makes. Rain, rain and even more rain getting progressively heavier. Temperatures had plummeted to around 3 degrees although the combination of wind and rain meant it felt like -1.
I do not know whether the day change affected the turnout but we had a healthy 12 anglers turn up today and I hope this continues. This meant that giving people an option to fish an island was important, so with this in mind it was pegged giving most the choice. However the draw gods were not kind to me and peg 16 stuck to my mitt. The corner of death. Mick had drawn peg 3 and would be hard to beat from there. Nick Wooding had for the third match on the trot drawn 32 and won each time, so was on a hat-trick. Terry Lancaster on 28 where he had a ton from a couple of weeks ago. However with Charlie Lancaster on 5, Pete Archer on 6, Steve Wroe on 7, Trevor Price on 21 and Steve Potter on 23 he would not have it all his own way.
I decided to keep it simple today, one line at 11m and another towards 15 but about a metre from the bank. Bait would be Stinky Corn and 6mm GOT expanders over fishery 4mm sinkers. I was fortunate that I had the wind and rain off my back so could fish comfortably. I opted for a .4g MW Diamond at 11m in case the wind picked up and to combat any tow. Down the side I fished a NG Edger float in .2g as it was well sheltered.
I started off potting in half a cup of 4mm sinkers with around a dozen grains of standard corn and half a dozen expanders onto both lines and started at 11m with a grain of stinky corn on the hook. After around 10 minutes I had my first bite which was promptly missed, another go and another 10 minutes and a small common around 2lb was in the net. I was having to wait for bites and even lifting and dropping made little difference. A change to expander saw a couple of 1lb and after an hour I had around 5lb. A look down to the side produced nothing after 5 minutes so I was back fishing 11m. I re-fed the line and had a couple of decent 3lb fish on stinky corn before again the line went quiet. It was now decision time and after toss potting the 11m line every put in with no difference to the catch/bite rate I decided to re-feed again this time leaving out the corn. Another look down the side produced no indications so back out. It was now 3 hours in and I was starting to get a few fish, 2lb to 3lb fish but during this spell put another 8 fish in the net before again going quiet. I had another look down the side, as margin fish are normally a better stamp, this time it bobbed and a healthy 5lb fish was in the net. Another look and again I was into another fish, only to lose it at the net. I persevered on this line until the last half hour and managed 4 from this line, losing 3 more. A final look at 11m got me another 2 fish around 2lb each before the all out was called.
It had fished well considering the conditions. I could see people catching well in bursts and thought 130lb would be required to win. The café bank had suffered the worst of the weather with no respite from the wind and rain.
Mick was first to weigh in, 23-3 to start the ball rolling. A MK Nugget was on its way to me, as I knew I had that beat. And to make matters worse he managed to break his no4 section when his brolly went for a walk. Keith R had 50-10, only to be beaten by Charlie Lancaster's 87-0 who in turn got done by Pete Archer on 6 with 92-14. Steve Wroe had 80-3 from 7 before I had 54-0.
Trevor Price on 21 did not weigh in, but estimated he tipped back 40lb. Steve Potter took the overall lead with 125-9 from in form peg 23, whilst Lee Cox (27) had 78-0 fishing long towards 26. Terry Lancaster had 58-11 of tip caught fish before Nick Wooding on 32 placed 154-5 to secure the win. His third win on the trot from 32, however this time he had 60lb from his left hand edge and the rest on the tip.
1st Nick Wooding 154-5
2nd Steve Potter 125-9
3rd Pete Archer 92-14
4th Charlie Lancaster 87-0
5th Steve Wroe 80-3
6th Lee Cox 78-0
No comments:
Post a Comment