The weather seems to be playing havoc with a lot of fisheries up and down the country of late. One minute venues are fishing well, then the next below par. I suppose when the weather is consistent we have consistent fishing but because its it is changing one day to the next, so does the fishing.
I had booked into the Sunday Open at Alders Farm and with a healthy turnout expected I was looking forward to it. Mick had decided to fish a rare weekend match so at least the MK Nugget was back on. I was leading 3-0 so far, and Mick was saying he has never gone 4-0 behind. Time would tell.
After dipping my nets and grabbing a bag of fishery micro pellets I loaded the barrow and strolled down to the café for the draw. With monies paid and a cup of tea in hand I followed Mick into the draw bag. He had drawn peg 5 a good peg and one that he could do well from. My hand stuck to peg 4, another good peg which had a bit of form and on its day could win the match. I had for company Warren Downing on peg 3 and Josh Blavins on 2, both could do some damage. Matt Grant was on 38, a peg which has not been fished for a while, whilst Steve Potter was on 32 another of the form pegs. Terry Lancaster was getting his mail directed to peg 28, he seems to have been on this pegs for as long as he has had grey hair. Others worth noting were Martin Greene on peg 19, Richard Brain on 21 and Carpet Roy on 16.
I set up three pole rigs today, 1 for fishing 12.5m with corn in 3ft of water, a MW.4g diamond to .17 Colmic Stream, .15 hook-length to a size 16PR36. The second swim was at 7m with a similar set up to 12.5. I also set up a margin rig with a NG Ghandi to fish in a foot of water, but did not expect to use it as the water was relatively clear, but if I saw a sign would have a look.
Bait was corn treated with stinky stuff original, some standard corn for feed, a bag of fishery micros and some pumped expanders for the hook and occasional feed. I also had a tub of GOT Rippers and some glugged corn as a change bait.
At the all in, I cupped in a pot of micros with around 20 grains of corn onto 12.5 and another pot at 7m. I threw some corn down the edge.
Starting off at 12.5m I would like to say it was a bite every put in, but alas it was not. It took 45 minutes to get my first bite on expander. A small Rudd around 2oz. Another 30 minutes passed before bite number two and his brother must have taken the long way round to find him. I was switching baits in the attempt to find one that would give me more bites and it seemed that glugged corn was doing the trick. I started getting a few carp and by 12.30 I had put 4 in the net. Mick was struggling as was Josh and Warren, although the latter had snared a double figure carp on the tip. Matt Grant was getting a few on 38, along with lads on the far bank over to the island, elsewhere it was very quiet.
The wind was now increasing and I found that by laying on around 6inches I was able to hold the float relatively steady, however it was gusting and every now and again blew the pole round to the right.
Unfortunately as I was laying on, I was also getting a few foul hookers and the disturbance would kill the swim for around 10 minutes afterwards. I was still getting a few positive bites and landing a few fish but was going nowhere fast. I had a look on the 7m line for around 10 minutes but without a bite was soon back out to 12.5. Josh and Warren were now catching a few carp, having fed heavier. I started to up the feed but I was still having to wait for a bite. Some of the bites were minute. I had to have a bite of bristle showing and could not dimple it down due to the wind, and maybe I was missing a few bites because of this.
I had changed my focus, instead of thinking of a section win or even the match win, I focused on beating Mick and sticking another nugget in my back pocket. We were quite close, and although I thought I would sneak it was still not 100% sure going into the last hour. I had reverted back to fishing dead depth despite the wind, to try to cut out the foul hookers, this seemed to work as I managed another 4 fish in this last hour to Mick's two.
At the all out I felt like I had been beaten up by the conditions, my arms felt like Popeye's and my back was aching. But It was all worth it as my 40lb beat Mick's 26lb and another MK Nugget was heading my way. Elsewhere there were plenty of 50lb weights and everyone seemed to be of the same opinion that it had fished below par. I think the wind had played a major role with not being able to present the bait correctly. I also think I should have fished more positively from the off.
Overall
1st Matt Grant 92-74 Peg 38
2nd Martin Greene 81-65 Peg 19
3rd Josh Blavins 66-26 Peg 2
4th Steve Potter 65-12 Peg 32
5th Del Smith 64-24 Peg 34
6th Warren Downing 63-75 Peg 3
Apologies for what seems strange weights but the ounces column is a percentage of a pound, due to the scales used on the day. .50 is half a pound so 8oz. .25 is a quarter of a pound hence 4oz etc.
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