Personally I don't mind a tough venue, for me it's all about the competition and whether that's measured in pounds or hundreds of pounds makes no odds to me.
Today every ounce was going to be important and the object was to make every bite count and hope for a bonus fish or two.
Things didn't start off too well though as we were due to have pegs 6~11 and 21~30 but on arrival, despite the notice at the entrance, there were encampments set up in pegs 7 and 8 and (as seems to be the way of the carp angler) their lines were spread out covering most of that end of the lake .... they like to get value for money from their peg fees!
Anyway, it wasn't the end of the world as the roadside bank was free and there were signs of fish down there so rather than turf the carp anglers out of their camouflaged temporary accommodation we settled on 9 pegs along here and 4 on the end of the spit (26,28,29 & 30) which are usually good for a few fish.
A quick call to Misha and this was ok'd although under the circumstances I think she would have agreed to anything as she was nursing an hangover from the previous night due to celebrating her hen night ....
But anyway, on to the match, and after pulling out 62 on the road bank and dumping Derek off on the golden peg (26) I set up a 0.3g rig for silvers (hopefully big skimmers) which would do for 2 spots at 14m (using Lee Williams and the Gimp as markers) and another at 11m plus a rig for roach on the edge of the lillys at 5m where there was a depth of about 3 feet.
And after a slightly delayed start of about 3 minutes I fed the long lines with combinations of groundbait, stunned red maggots and micros and fed the short line with caster.
Unfortunately though all this careful plan of attack was wasted as it took a good hour or more to get a bite of any description and despite rotating all three long lines with various baits this came from a 2oz roach on the inside caster line.
The long lines seemed to be completely devoid of fish and not just for me but all three anglers to my left were in the same boat.
The Gimp had gotten off to a much better start and was catching silvers at a reasonable rate on maggot over groundbait at 7/8m.
Lee next door was eventually doing similar, after a fruitless few chucks on the tip, but wasn't keeping up with Mr Bradford.
Next to me on 61, Adam Caswell was getting odd skimmers by fishing 3 maggots over huge amounts of groundbait (??)
and the rumour mill was indicating that Brian Shanks was catching well on the end peg (58).
Elsewhere, Darren North was catching silvers on peg 30 but 2 hours in and everyone else were struggling for bites.
In fact (misfiring) Rocket Ron Hardiman, on my left, had not had the merest tremble on anything and was moaning his way to a possible bl**k which is worrying for an angler of Ron's calibre!
Derek had also had nothing on the golden peg but he did manage a couple of roach later after scrounging some mags off Lee Williams.
Ron was not so fortunate and packed up after five hours with one bite (a tiny skimmer) to show for his efforts.
I did eventually manage a handful of skimmers plus a "bonus" skimmer of about a pound from the 14m line but Adam had well and truly done me from the next peg which cost me a pound.
As it turned out Brian Shanks came out clear winner with a total of 31-9 having caught the only two carp to make an appearance.
They didn't matter though as he also also topped the silvers with the help of some good crucians and a proper skimmer of a couple of pounds.
Brian caught on caster over micros.
Brian caught on caster over micros.
The Gimp was second with 15-10 of mainly small skimmers caught on maggot over groundbait, boosted by a bonus tench and crucian so he was happy as he has struggled to catch anything of consequence here in previous matches.
Third and fourth places were separated by an ounce!
Darren edged it with a last gasp big skimmer taking his total to 11-12 ahead of Lee Williams' 11-11 click here
Full Result:
Full Result:
- Brian Shanks (58) ......... 31-9 (24-2 Silvers)
- John Bradford (29) ........ 15-10
- Darren North (30) ......... 11-12
- Lee Williams (28) .......... 11-11
- Adam Caswell (61) ........ 5-8
- Ryan Radford (59) ........ 4-12
- Mark Radford (65) ........ 4-10
- Steve Burgess (62) ....... 3-0
- Alan Healey (64) .......... 2-9
- and 2 dnw's
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