Mick was driving and as Puddledock is this side of the Thames we get a lie in. Mick arriving at 0615 to allow for breakfast opening times at the Puddledock cafe at 0730. A rather uneventful trip down and we were pulling into the car park at 0730. Bang on Time. The weather had changed from the previous few days of glorious sunshine and muggy weather to plenty of rain and thunder. It was on the turn and although the forecast was for better weather as the day wore on, it was hard to believe on the way down that after the rain a heatwave was predicted.
There were only 10 of us in attendance but we all had a bit of room with pegs 1 to 30 allocated to us. It allowed everyone a spare peg next to them either side.As is the norm, Mick dropped his paw into the hat nice and early and drew peg 6, me and peg 12. It meant nothing to either of us. On reaching my peg I noticed a few little cut outs on the far bank with sedges and reeds across. The same was on the near side bank making the margins a little difficult, especially not knowing the rules on gardening your peg.
Peg 12 and home for the day
I had read or seen a video of someone fishing Puddledock Snake before and had logged this in the memory bank for days like today. I planned to fish 6mm banded pellets across in around 18 inches of water tight to the bank, I set up another rig for fishing just in front of the sedges in 2ft of water and another rig for 11m line at the bottom of the shelf. I also set up a line at 2 plus 1 for fishing meat.For company I had the two Tony's. Tony Roberts on peg 10 with Tony Watkins on peg 14, although the latter was saying from the off the he has never used to coloured sections on his pole before.
With the all in sounded I decided to ping a few 4mms over to the far bank and leave it for a while, preferring to start off on the 2 plus 1 line and the meat. After a couple of minutes, a small stockie was in the net, tiny fish that were going 5 or 6 to the pound. At least I was putting a few fish in the net whilst I watched what was going on around me, both Tony's had started across with the same reaction, small stockies. A switch to a 6mm pellet saw my first "proper" carp around 2lb come to the net, Another few stockies and another 2lb fish saw me sitting on around 7lb after an hour's fishing.
The second and third hours were spent across starting off at 11m for a few stockies and gradually coming up the shelf towards the far bank. There were plenty of bites from the stockies but each time I lifted the pole tip I was snagged in the sedge grasses or the reeds across. Shortening the line from pole tip helped and changing to a light elastic worked better to reduce the snagging. I was now catching small stockies across and a few good roach but although beating those either side, I was nowhere near a decent weight expected from the lake. Both Tony's also were heard cursing the wind and snagging the far bank features.
It was at this point in the match that I made the decision to fish the 2 plus 1 line again with pellets, feeding 4s and fishing 6s. I was getting indications every put in, bumping a few fish on green KND, which again I thought in hindsight was wrong and should have approached the venue with the stockies in mind rather than the bigger 2lb fish. However, every now and again a better fish would muscle in and take the bait. Steadily I was putting a low weight together, but those around me were also struggling so I did not know how the lake was fishing, It was a case of heads down and catch what I can until the end. I spent 15 minutes down the edges in the last hour but getting the float right into the edge was difficult with the near side reeds and long grasses. A single small roach was to show for my efforts.
Chris Thomas fishing to the mud line
At the all out I thought I had fished it correctly, switching lines and rotating. My feeding was good considering the wind and breeze. A few tackle choices affected the fishing on the day, in hindsight I would have fished things a lot lighter, elastics, lines hooklengths etc.
Overall
1st Josh Donovan 65-00
2nd Clive Pritchard 56-12
3rd Chris Thomas 38-00
4th Keith Ashby 36-08
5th Tony Roberts 28-08
6th John Holdsworth 27-08
7th Tony Watkins 23-00
8th Mick Wright 22-00
9th Dave Collier 9-00
10th Rod Turner 5-00
Clive with part of his 56lb catch
Mick's catch of 22lb.
Well done to the Framers and to Josh and Clive for there section winning performances. Mick had to pass over a MK Nugget to take the score to 8-4. Not sure how long my run will continue but every run has to start with the first step. I must admit I think we all got it wrong on the day, expecting good fish and good weights, lack of local knowledge made it awkward to assess the lake. But we will be better prepared next time.
