Troy kindly picked me up today with Mick having to work. A clear journey down and a stop off for a Monk's Lake breakfast stick, we arrived with around 15 minutes to spare. With monies paid and keepnets collected from the fishery, it was draw time. Peg 7 stuck to my mitt, with Chris Withall one side and Tony Roberts the other. Completing our section was Simon Watkins on peg 10. Tony and Simon both had an inviting reed bed across at around 12m and bushes on the near bank. Both were decent pegs and highly fancied. Meanwhile Chris and I had some overhanging bushes but getting to the far bank would prove tricky. I had a decent depth at 4+2 with 5ft and 3ft at 10m and 18 inches tight to the far bank. Bait would be 4mm GOT Bait Sinkers for feeding, 6mm GOT sinkers for the hook, a small amount of 8mm pellets, a couple of tins of cubed 6mm meat and some left over corn from Tuesday's match.
Rigs were a MW Diamond .4g to cover the 5ft deep swim down the track which I would feed heavily with 4mm pellet, micros and a good helping of corn and meat. There are some decent bream in the lake and if I could connect to one of them it could be 10lb plus Across at 10m I fished a NG diamond in a .2g with a simple bulk shotting pattern. For across I started off fishing with a NG Ghandi .1g with a hair-rigged band. I also set up one of MW Styro foam margin floats just in case of a breakage.
Now I struggled last week fishing shallow in open water, now thinking about it I do not know why. I can fish in 12 inches to 18 inches of water at 12m with overhanging bushes and trees so why not in open water. Silly really when you think about it like that. Perhaps it's a mind set and it really affected me last time out, but you learn and realise that you can do things if you assess your performance and analyse it.
At the all in I potted two large pots of 4mm pellet and micros with another of corn and meat down the track. I potted another pot of pellet at 10m to my left and pinged a few 4mms regularly across to the far bank. I started off on this line for around 15 minutes with nothing to show for it. Both Tony and Simon were straight into fish across to the reeds. I noticed a few bubbles down the track but wanted them to settle for a bit longer, so switched to the 10m line with a single cube of meat. I had a few bites on this but missed them all leaving me trailing Tony by 5 fish before I switched to the 8m line down the track. I managed to nick a few f1's to around 2lb to close the gap slightly. After an hour it went quiet so I re-fed this line with another two pots of pellet and started pinging again at 12m. Baiting up with a 6mm pellet on a hair rig I edged the bait across. Ping ping and the float buries and a carp of around 3lb, ping ping again and another f1. I managed to steadily claw my way in front of both Tony and Simon, who unfortunately broke his 12m section in the process. Chris was picking up odd silver's (as he does) .
With 3 hours gone I reckoned on around 15 carp and f1's for around 25lb along with a couple of chub and an odd skimmer. Hour 4 was another good hour, putting around 20lb in the net. The lake was fishing hard but if I could maintain that catch rate I would be on for my target weight of 70lb. However, it looked as if the fishing would catch up with me as I seemed to lose my way in the fifth hour with only a couple of fish coming from the 12m line but away from the feed area. All my lines were now slowing down drastically and I was struggling for a bite, I tried different areas of the peg to try to change my fortunes but to no avail and I ended the match feeling I was short of the target.
Dave Collier was first to weigh, from peg 28, not the peg he drew but apparently he is the chairman and match organiser, to be fair it would have been awkward to fish the other peg as it was very close to Tony Watkins peg. Anyway Dave had 26-12 to Tony's 25-08. Clive Managed to put 11-0 on the scales before Gino who won the last match to place a single skimmer and a roach for a solitary 1-0 weight. Rod did not weigh in, At least Gino beat one side. Tom placed 6-04 before Terry started an upturn in weights and 14-04. I told you it fished hard. Troy had an enjoyable day with 23-12 to leap into 3rd place. Simon's weight of 14 -04 surprised me slightly as I thought he had more and was looking for another net from him but it was not to be. Tony had crept in front of Simon with 18 -04 before my estimate of 30lb ( Pinocchio is back) to the waiting audience sent the scales around one and settled of 56lb. Chris finished off the weigh in with 22-08.
Overall
1st Keith Ashby 56-00
2nd Dave Collier 26-12
3rd Tony Watkins 25-08
4th Troy Hillier 23-12
5th Chris Withall 22-08
6th Tony Roberts 18-04
So a good end to the week and a match win, Troy picked up a section win so the van trip home was enjoyable, especially as West Ham beat Man City 2-1 as well. A good day by anyones standards.
