Looking at the guy two pegs down playing another carp, which was his third, made me think are they going to feed now? With almost 3 hours into our match without having a carp.................
30lb of skimmers on pellet (4mm) and red maggot.
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http://www.matchfishing-scene.co.uk/showthread.php?t=9283
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The Match
On arrival to the lake, it was flat clam, which was unbelievable especially after a wet and wild day, today couldn’t any more different. It was a beautiful day, with a very gentle breeze and bright sunshine. Unfortunately these conditions don’t normally suit fishing and with almost every peg in, it’s going to be very tough. Anyway, as always, I was hungry, so went to the cafe on site with Andy. After “filling my boots” with a good full English breakfast, I said that I would like to draw in the early sixties or twenties. But I had to settle for peg 81, which isn’t the best of areas. I wanted to be in the middle of the lake, not sure why but this seems to be normally a little more consistent.
Woody was on the end peg next to me and Telboy the other side, so I was going to be in for a tough day. I said to Andy that I am going to fish a “tidy match” as I knew that it was going to be hard. I am normally very aggressive and positive, but I think this would blow the peg. So to I made things simple:
Paste at 8 meters (didn’t expect to catch on it......... and didn’t!!)
13 meters pellet, feeding fisheries 4mm pellet (nothing else)
25 meters with a bomb and pellet waggler
60 yards method feeder (catch an early carp......... didn’t)
Before the match started I cast a bomb at 60 yards, to discover that it was about 7 foot and at 30 yards it was about 12 foot. Now I thought the fish would come to that shallower water.......... they so didn’t. I had four quickish casts and then the fifth I left for 7 minutes, which resulted in a knock. So after thirty fruitless minutes I decided to try the pole at 13 meters, which I cupped in quarter of a pint of 4mms at the start and had been loose feeding 4mm over the top, I was hoping for a bite quickly. After kinder potting a full fox toss top of pellet in and lifting and dropping the rig for a few minutes, finally resulted in a bite..... thank god, this match is going to be more harder than I thought. A 6oz skimmer, now these are normally a shoal fish. So on went another Miracle Bait 4mm white jelly pellet and another bite after 4 minutes. I thought the fish were backing off the bait, as bites should be coming more quickly than this and I needed them too, otherwise I won’t do any good. So I decided to maintain a positive approach by feeding a full toss pot once I hooked the fish. So I took the lid off my cup and with my slightly damped pellet I would push these into the cup so they would stick in. I shipped out to the marker on my pole, which was Z (Zircon Pole), and lowered my rig and had a bite almost instantly. Awesome! I lifted the fish slowly to about two foot off the bottom and twisted the pole over, I light tap and the pellets fell neatly into the water. I done this for an hour and put a steady amount of fish in the net. But they were lacking in size, with the fish only been 6 -8oz, I felt I wasn’t going anywhere and with one hour 30 minutes gone, I need to do something.
I cast the bomb out at 25 meters, after feeding 8mm pellet throughout the match, hoping for a luckily carp. I’m not lucky. No liners. Hmmmmm, back on the pole. I had a 1lb skimmer, things looking up? Nope, the fish were backing off. 2 hours gone, got to do something to catch and impress Andy, Andy travelled a long way to see me. So I big ball of pellet, this full my Vespe Dumper pot (1/2 pt). Now I know this could kill the swim, but I planned to leave it for twenty minutes and cast the method again at 60 yards. Nothing. Bugger. Back on the pole, which resulted in a bream of 3lb. But the guy two pegs down was playing carp number three! No more positive bites, so I decided to mould some 4mm pellet around my method feeder (8mm banded hard pellet on the hook) and cast it 25 yards over my 8mm pellet. Bang! 4lb carp, welcome, but not a famous Larford beast! So cast again, nothing. Back on the pole, after some very frustrating bites, that I could hit on any of my four rigs. Andy suggested a red maggot, I said “I bet you this doesn’t work” and after moving the rig result in a 4oz skimmer. Gosh, a fluke? I had another bite which was 1lb skimmer. Loose fed 10 red maggot on the top via catapult, another bite, roach. At least I was putting something in the net.
Red maggot did bring me some extra fish, so a learning curve, but 4mm pellet was the best bait on the day. But the next time I go fishing on pellet, I will try red maggot over the top. I didn’t feed any, until I had a few bites on them and I only fed about 100 maggots in total after that. I put fish into the net for the rest of the match. I admitted that I would have between 18lb -20lb. I had a sneaky look in my net before the weigh in and was shocked I thought that I would have 25lb! Wrong, 34lb, a lot more than I thought and was even more surprised that I won my section.
My Pole Rig
Jonny Walker 0.7gram Diamond, with a cane tip
I did really enjoy the day, and had some good banter, which is what fishing is all about.
