Having not fished the venue in a few years it was nice to re-visit the venue, the surroundings and the up keep and maintenance is top notch and has always been a good place to go to have some friendly banter.
Having about remembered how to get there it was straight in the cafe for a breakfast and a coffee. Today saw the match taking part on Willow which wasn't a lake that I had fished before. With winter in full swing I had a lot prior to coming down for info on the Internet and leaned that a 100lb+ bag had been taken a week before from the one of the pegs in the 20's. Sounds like the fish had shoaled up and someone had found them in one of the matches.
With the clock hitting 0900hrs it was time for the draw in went my left hand and out came peg 26 an end peg (come on I thought bound to be a few fish there!!!) so out came the kit and a quick run from the car park to my peg found me sat on my box looking at the lake and where to fish. With me having an end peg and a bank running to my right first port of call would be to set up a margin rig and find some depth down the edge where the fish might be hiding. After carefully plumbing up down the edge I had managed to find a hole 11 meters down the edge where the depth was a 1ft deeper than the rest of the edge.
Setup for this line was a double Number 8 elastic set on a pulla bung. Line was the new Browning Hybrid Mono line 0.12mm to a 6 inch 0.10mm hook length hook of choice was a B911 size 18. Float choice was a Sackup Silver back 4x10. The plan was to fed very little and just drip feed in a few 3mm dampened down pellets and one or two pieces of corn that would also be used as hook bait, switching between that and a 4mm expander.
My other line saw me 11 meters straight out to the front where I had found 4 ft of water which was at the bottom of a sloping ledge that came of a underwater bar that ran left to right then gradually sloping off flat.
Set up choice was a double 6 elastic set on a pulla same main line and hook dia to a B911 size 18 hook. Float choice again was a Sackup Silverback 4x12 with strung out bulk setup. Same as the margin swim feed would be 3mm dampened down pellet fed sparingly with a few pieces of corn. Hook baits would be corn, 4mm expander or if it got really hard then a double maggot.
These were the only 2 lines I set up for the match. With the all in being called it was off to work.
With no movement on the float for the first 15 minutes I sat and watched the angler to the left on me catch 2-3 fish in quick succession. To be honest it didn't concern me due to the fact that we had just started and there was along way to go. With myself fishing pellet on the hook I made a change over to double red maggot as he the lad to the left had had them on that. After another 20-30 minutes the float shot under and carp number one was in the net after a nice little scrap.
The float went out again and then came a run of roach to about 1 lb each. With no body really bagging on the lake and the lad to my left slowing right down I was happy with my progress so far.
Just on the 2 hour mark the float shot under again and in came a 5lb carp, now I was happy with the way my match was going I knew it wasn't going to be full on action and that every bite counted. At this point I had started to take notice of one of the other lads a few pegs down who had now increased his pole length to 16 meters towards the island and was now starting to catch a steady run of carp to 5lb a piece. By the talk on the bank the fish were shoaled up by the island in the middle of the lake and a piece of corn was enough to tempt them into a bite. My bites had now started to slow down on my 11 meter line so into the left hand edge I went for the float to bury and a 2lb carp in the net. the next hour or so saw me adjusting the depth of my margin rig and searching for any carp that might be sat tight to my margin bank further up the bank. This brought a few more carp but were only to about 1lb a piece.
By this time the lad that had sat at 16 meters on his pole to the island was putting a steady bag of carp together and was clearly out in front leading the match by a clear 20-30lb at this point.
With the margin swim not producing it was back onto my 11 meter swim to see if any carp had got there heads down and would be tempted by a piece of corn or a 4mm expander.
With the all out being called I knew I hadn't wont the match due to the lad a few pegs down putting at least 20 carp in his keep net. With the weighing in coming round I felt I may have done enough for 2nd in the match and put 22lb odd onto the scales only to be beaten by 27lb and the winner that had 68lb, so I was going to have to settle for a 3rd place over all which I was happy with due to the fact that it was the first time in a few years I had fished the place. After talking to some of the other lads about how the peg just dried up I learnt that it was common place for my peg and had done the same in the last 2-3 matches catching steady for the first few hours only to just die of half way through the match.
Well done to the winner with a fine bag of carp and a weight of 68lb its always nice to draw on the fish but you also got to have the angling skill to catch um and get um in the net which is what the winner clearly did adding a section to his pole and ringing changes to his pole rig which brought him his rewards.
At the time of writing this the weather is not at its best with snow falling and settling up to about 4 inches my next match sees me back down Shearsby Valley lake trying to qualify for the final in March tomorrow (must be made to go out in this weather!!!)
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