Peg wise, based on previous matches you really wanted to draw an end peg so I wasn't that happy to draw peg 3, although when I arrived at my peg it looked ok with rushes all along the far bank and a decent looking inside line as well. The only downside was that as we started to tackle up the rain came and the wind started to get up making fishing across to the far bank with paste not easy, even though it was only about 11.5 metres away.
Having caught well last year only fishing paste, this time it was going to be my only plan of attack so I set up two paste lines, one to fish across against the rushes in 3 foot of water and one to fish in the edge in about the same depth of water.
I started the match by feeding a couple of pots of hemp and paste in the edge but had decided to just let the paste coming off the hook feed the peg across. First put in, I went too far across and the whole of the float bristle sat proud of the water as I'd gone too far up the slope. I was just going to edge it down a bit when it suddenly disappeared from view and I soon had my first fish of the day - a carp of about 3lb in the net. I continued to catch for the next hour or so but the wind was getting stronger and making it harder and harder to fish across and whilst I had tried the inside line a few times I'd had no signs at all
I was still catching across but if you didn't get a bite within 20 seconds of the paste settling on the bottom that was it as the wind usually whipped the pole round and you had to rebait again.
Halfway through I noticed some movement in my edge peg and picked up the other rig - Hillbilly Paste float on 0.20 G Line with a size 12 B911, all attached to the red hydro in my H10 pole.
The first fish I hooked in the edge was about 4lb and whilst it managed to get into the rushes, I managed to drag it back out but wasn't so lucky with the next one or the one after that as they seemed to be in the middle of the rushes before I'd even struck. To make matters worse, the second one snapped me up completely and took my Hillbilly Paste float - infact I was so upset I did contemplate packing up !!!! Fortunately I managed a successfull salvage mission after the match and managed to get it back !
I did try fishing a further metre away from the rushes but the first fish I hooked there almost got in the rushes as well, so I decided to concentrate on fishing across. After 40 years of match fishing it is unusual for anything new to happen but I then caught my first ever catfish, a little kitten of about 3lb but with a very big toothy mouth. Tony Plumbridge also caught one which was slightly bigger from the next peg and we giggled like a couple of school girls when we tried to unhook them as neither of us really wanted to touch them ! Isn't he an ugly bugger.......and the fish doesn't look much better !
I carried on catching across, catching more when the wind dropped and I could fish properly but did struggle in the last hour and I was actually quite relieved to hear the "All Out" at 5 o'clock.
Wrestling with my pole all day was hard work but it was all worthwhile as Ross weighed in 66lb and although I had no idea what weight I had I knew I had beaten that. After a couple of weighs, my final total added up to 111-4-0 with Ross second and Plummers 3rd thanks to his catfish.
Result
Dave Pearson..........Peg 3..................111-4-0
Ross Nursey............Peg 9...................66-4-0
Tony Plumbridge...Peg 1...................46-8-0
John Swann............Peg 17..................45-12-0
So next time you hear rumours about fisheries then don't always believe them all. Wednesday sees me at Bury Hill Lake for an open on the Long bank and hopefully a bit of bream bagging - come back Thursday to see if I catch a few.
