Leading up to me fishing I had kept an eye on the open results and noticed due to a few cold nights and frosts had knocked the fishery slightly in regards to weights with the fish not wanting to play game, but with a chance to fish somewhere new and pit my skills against the venue locals I thought it was worth a shot.
I arrived nice and early for the draw and sat down ears to the ground to find out how the match fished the day before and where the fish were appearing. With sketchy info my hand went into the draw bag and out came peg 46 which meant nothing to me at this stage other than it was on the strip/canal part of the lake and hadn't been fishing that well.
Having arrived at the peg I noticed I had a spare peg to my right with another angler being on the left so had space to play with.
To my left I had around about 8 meters to the far bank with it getting wider the further right I went, opening up into a small bay before splitting off further down towards the island and the next angler pegged.
With the wind blowing down the lake from right to left the plan would be to set up 2 lines to the left where the bank was 8 meters out then off to the right where I had space I would set up another line 13 meters out before deploying the bomb and pellet towards the far bank which was out of pole reach that way if the fish backed off I might be able to keep in touch with them.
Rigs for the day were as follows
Pole Browning Xitain Z9
Top 2 plus 2 left swim
Browning yellow hollow 8-10 rating on a preston pulla. Hillbilly Frostie 0.20gr 0.12mm main line, 0.10m, size 18 B911F1 hook.
8 meter swim on the far bank
Browning blue hollow 10-12 rating on a preston pulla. Hillbilly Oliver 0.1gr 0.14mm main line, 0.12mm, size 18 B911F1 hook.
13 meter swim
Browning yellow hollow 8-10 rating on a preston pulla. Hillbilly Frostie 0.30gr 0.12mm main line, 0.10m, size 18 B911F1 hook.
Bomb setup
Browning Commerical King 10ft Bomb rod, Browning Ultimatch reel loaded with 5lb line to a running bomb setup to 1ft 0.16mm hooklength, PR 36 size 18 hook pellet band.
With the fish not wanting to play i chose a light setup so that I could land every fish and make them count, understandably there are large carp in the lake and bags of over 100lb are recorded in the warmer months. But with yet another frost I didn't think this would be the case today and with the average fish being 3-4lb I could land these with ease on the setup above.
With the all in being called all lines were fed from left to right with 3mm dampened down pellets and 5-10 pieces of meat. The plan was to feed light and ease into the the match. I started on my short line (2 plus 2) of to the left first half way from the far bank to see if I could get the fish to get there heads down and catch a few as the came down the lake from the top. After 15 minutes and a few indications the float went under and fish number 1 was in the net with a weight of 4lbs, result ! so went straight back on the line to see if I could get another. After a fruitless 30 minutes and no more indications I swapped swims and went for the 8 far bank line to see if the fish had backed off and were moving tight to the bank, this wasn't the case and after 30 odd minutes it was time for a change.
With the bomb out about 2ft of the far bank It was time to sit it out and wait. After a few re casts and another 60 minutes it was time to shift back onto the pole lines (I had noticed I had a few liners whilst the bomb was out so there were fish passing through)
On moving back onto my left lines and spending a hour back on them it produced no more fish, slightly surprised as this was the narrowest part of the peg and with me having 2 lines I thought it would catch a few fish moving through with the less space and more chance they would feed.
Back on the 13 meter line saw me land another carp to 4lb and with 12lb in the net was slightly worried as the peg to my right was now catching and losing a few.
The next 45 odd minutes saw me land another carp and approx 15-16lb in the net and no indications that other anglers were doing well other than the lad to my right who was now starting to catch carp at a steady rate I re feed all my pole line and went back out on the bomb. With another fruitless 30 minutes and time fast running out it was now make or break.
However the "make" didn't come into it and the "break" did with me not catching any more fish throughout the rest of the match.
On the all out I had been soundly beaten by the angler on the peg to my left who had put in a good display (taking 3rd in the match) With word that a few anglers out of sight had caught steady I made the choice to throw back to save time with the weigh in and to hide my blushes.
What had started well turned into a crash and burn match with me not being able i believe to keep the fish in the peg with there heads down.
1st Andy Swift, peg 26 - 63lb 8oz pole/corn
2nd Steve Brindley, peg 2 - 42lb 11oz pole/corn
3rd John Waples peg 72 - 40lb 15oz pole/pellet
4th Mick Smith peg 68 - 39lb 11oz pole/maggot
5th Albert Bray, peg 12 - 28lb 7oz pole/meat
Overall I enjoyed my visit to the fishery and found the lads to be friendly. Having a bad match has deterred me and I plan on fishing the venue again once back in the midlands to see if I can improve my results.
Next match sees me at Gold Valley for my last Fish O Mania qualifier of the year. Just hope the drawbag gods are on my side for that one.
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