Before I restart my long awaited return to Match fishing blogging, how about this for a bit of madness.
Some of you may know that I am now fortunate enough to work for Rainbow Trust Children's Charity (apart from the fact that I don't get to fish matches on Wednesdays anymore) ! With it being our 25th Anniversary, our CEO Heather Wood decided that she wanted to do something memorable to mark the occasion. Having completed the full range of fundraising activities over the years she finally settled on ..............Wing Walking ! Being the supportive colleague that I am I immediately agreed to do it as well, however I then discovered that you needed to be under 12 stone to take part and with my well muscled physique topping the scales at slightly more than that (!) I was unfortunately unable to join in.
Anyway, back to the fishing, this weekends match was the third in a series of Leather
head DAS club matches at their ponds just 150 yards from my house. Although the lakes haven't been fishing that well in matches this year, I have spent a few hours there recently and got bored catching as it was one a bung in whatever peg I tried, so it wasn't that the fish had gone, maybe just learning about match times etc like a lot of fish on Commercial fisheries do. For me, I'd taken the match very seriously and had even tied 3 rigs ! I'm happy to tie my paste rigs on the bank cos they only involve the use of a float, biggish hook (Size 10 Gamakatsu Pellett hook) and three number 8 shot. However, in some of the pegs you are fishing for smaller fish and I didn't fancy setting up silvers rigs on the bank.
Sunday morning arrived and a quick glimpse out of the bedroom window to check on the weather revealed... not a lot really, as I could hardly see as far as the road due to the heavy fog ! Having sorted all my bait the previous evening, all I had to do was prepare and consume my breakfast of two bacon rolls and a large mug of coffee, attach the wheels to my box grab the rest of my gear and make the short walk to the ponds. It seems really funny walking to a match but very welcome as I don't have to rely on anyone for a lift, especially as Plummers has now disappeared and Ross is off to live in Leicester.
The cold foggy weather and a few other local matches had limited the turnout to only 11 anglers which was actually quite welcome as with the ponds being quite small, the more room you have the better (like all lakes really). Having checked out the pegging, the pegs I really fancied were 4,5,7,11 and 15. Rather than wait until last, I decided to go for it and plunged my hand into the draw bag. After a quick rummage I grabbed a disc pulled it out truiumphantly to reveal ......Peg 5 was to be my home for the next 6 hours. I couldn't have been happier as this was one of my favourite pegs and one I'd been itching to draw for ages. The reason being a long bed of rushes that lay over the water for about 10 metres. I'd deliberately not fished it when pleasure fishing as it did require a bit of gardening (nothing drastic, just a few reeds needed lifting out of the way with my pole) to fish in what I think is the right place.
My tactics for the day were basically, two long pole lines at 12 and 10 O'clock (one at 12 and one at 14 metres as the depth was the same there) and an edge rig to fish in a lovely little bay in the rushes at about 7 metres along the bank. Last Sunday morning I couldn't get to a match as I have no transport so popped down the pond for a few hours to try a few different things out. The one thing I learnt was that the fish went mad for Marukyu 131 groundbait so my plan was to feed GB on both lines and keepan eye out for blows as once they found the feed they would blow like mad whilst trying to dig up the silt.
My bait list included :- Some 4 and 6mm expanders, micro pelletts and Groundbait for feed and one green paste made from Swim stim GB with some Garam masala spice added and a brown paste made from Marukyu 131 GB and some fine pellett powder. Oh yes I also had a pint of casters and a bit of hemp to try something different if all else failed !
I began the match by cupping in a ball of GB on both long lines and a few micros in the edge. The long lines in this peg were really only going to be throw away lines as every time I've fished the peg in the past I've ALWAYS caught by the rushes.
However, things didn't quite go to plan as after three hours I only had 3 carp for about 6lb in the net. Although to be fair only Pete Turnull opposite me on Peg 12 and Matt Jeffereys on Peg 3 in the corner were catching. I kept feeding GB on the long lines but with no blows to show on either line I only spent minutes trying each one as I was sure that there were no fish over the feed. As the fog cleared and the sun started to break through I began to get a few signs in the edge peg and fishing brown paste I started to pick up the odd fish although it was quite scary fishing as there were a few bits of old dead tree in the water just along the bank and if you didn't pull hard when you hooked a fish, they snagged you up. Although the bites were very finicky, I kept thinking that I would catch better on a pellett, either expanders or JPZ's although I never had a bite on either. At one time when I was really struggling I decided to give the casters a go so quickly tied on my proper silvers rig (0.10 hooklength and size 18 hook) and fed a new line on the edge of the rushes in front of me at about 7 metres. First put in I had a roach of about 4 ounces then managed to hook an overhanging reed when shipping out and ended up with the biggest birds nest in the world. As Strutty at the next peg caught 2 carp whilst I was pratting about with my silvers rig, that went up the bank and I decided to concentrate on the edge peg for the rest of the match.
With not a lot happening I thought that I'd cup in a ball of 131 in the edge to see if it made a difference. I'd been trying different parts of the peg but found a little hole right tight in to the corner of the rushes and started to pick up a few fish there, including two fish for 10lb at one stage which were much bigger than the usual 2lbers some of the others were catching. After each fish I cupped in another ball of GB and the fish kept coming, not exactly one a chuck but enough to start to move me up the field as from what I could hear and see (which was not a lot as the fog had now returned) only Matthew seemed to be catching now. With 15 minutes remaining I managed to trash my paste rig but luckily the fish had decided to eat my expanders now and I manage to add a further 4 fish before the final whistle. I did suffer one casualty though as when pulling hard to keep a fish away from the snag the 5th section on my power legion snapped ( I was waiting for it to happen sometime as I knew I had damaged it some time ago) luckily I managed to grab the section telescope the broken bit through the section, put it back on and still managed to net the fish - I think "lucky person" was the term my mate Ross used when he saw me do it !
Result
Matt Jeffereys..................Peg 3.....................51-0-0
Dave Pearson...................Peg 5.....................36-12-0
Brian Wharton.................Peg 14...................28-2-0
John Clifford....................Peg 11....................27-6-0
So that's it for my first match back, I'm not sure where I'm fishing next Sunday but if I don't fish I'll try and get a guest blogger as I intend to keep this blog updated weekly from now on.
