| Well after my last diary I found results hard to come by for a few weeks, mainly due to the fact that I left my job to concentrate on running my business full time. After several weeks of severely disjointed angling trips I eventually got my work life sorted out and was raring to go again.
What better way to get yourself back into full swing than by having a week away at Witeacres with eleven of your mates? That's exactly what I did and what a great time was had by all. I won't divulge some of the non fishing things that happened to save certain individuals embarrassment, however, if anyone sees me on the bank and wants to know I will be only to happy to dish the dirt!!!!
None of us had visited any of the venues before so we knew money was likely to be hard to come by up against the locals and resident stars. We were also told that everywhere was fishing really hard. Our first match saw us at Gwinear and it was a very hung over bunch that assembled. I drew peg 52 which I was assured was a reasonable draw and a peg that I could certainly expect to catch some fish on. This match was also to introduce me to the delights of cat meat fishing for the first time..uurggghhh. Not very pleasant after a dozen beers the night before!!
It was very slow going although there appeared to be fish in my peg right from the word go, with foul hooking being a problem. With no one I could see catching I stuck at it knowing that a little run of fish could do well on what appeared to be a hard day. The last hour was my best seeing me bag 6 carp giving me a total of 10. My 4 commons weighed 10lb while my 6 mirrors were much larger and weighed 32lb to me a 42lb total. Pleasingly this was enough to win me the section and leave me first out of the main money with just 60lb odd winning the match. A decent enough start.
Our next match saw us back again at Gwinear and this time I drew peg 1. It looked really nice being in a corner and there were one or two carp rolling about. I hooked and lost a carp down the edge after about half and hour, then..roach topping everywhere and not a carp to be seen. To cut a horribly boring story short, I blanked. Everyone in my end of the lake caught either one carp or blanked. Oh dear, not what I travelled all the way to Cornwall for.
The following day we fished the residents match and I drew Pollawyn lake. Knowing it was fishing hard I decided to feed a Roach/Skimmer line as well as a carp line. Over my Roach line which I fed with a nice soft crumb and pinkies, not a bite. Yet over my cat meat line Roach bites galore! What on earth is going on, have I discovered a new secret Roach bait that is going to take the canals apart this winter?!
I dropped my Roach rig over this new Roach line (!) with Caster on the hook and started to catch dumpy Roach quite well loose feeding a few casters. Well I couldn't well feed cat meat could I!!! During the remaing 3 hours I put together 9lb 12oz of Roach to finish 4th on the lake and 2nd in the section, beaten by just 2oz.
Our last match saw me choose Trelawny in the Thursday Rover. Loose feeding pellets at 11metres I soon had plenty of small carp in the swim and fishing shallow had 4 in the first hour. The next three and a half-hours were a nightmare though as I missed bite after bite and had liner after liner for only 4 more carp. Drastic action was called for, I just had to get a proper positive bite so with half an hour left I went a bit deeper with a heavier more positive rig and impaled a whole worm on the hook. I also decided to stop feeding pellets which although they had drawn the carp into the peg were driving them stupid so I switched to feeding Casters and I cut right back on the feed. I waited a little while for bite but it was a proper sail away bite that saw me connect. It just got better and better and only feeding a pouchfull of casters after every fish I caught 11 carp in the last 30 minutes. I was sort of pleased I had sorted it out but so angry with myself for not sorting it out earlier, it was the old problem of getting carried away with getting bites even though I wasn't actually putting a great deal in the net. I really should know better. Still my 31lb 3oz saw me sneak into the overall frame, a frame which incidentally contained 4 of my holiday mob. Star man was Russell 'Gusset' winning the match with 66lb while my travelling partner Graham West and Graham Dack also framed up. A satisfying end to a brilliant week.
After returning I fished the first round of our winter league for MK Sensas at Castle Ashby and unfortunately drew the roadside on the brickyard pond. You will understand why I say unfortunately when I tell you that I came halfway in the section with 79 fish for just 1lb 5oz with last in the section one side and second from last the other. With just 1lb 10oz needed for third in the section you will see why I don't want to draw this section again. However, the rest of the match fished brilliantly, including the other section on the Brickyard Pond opposite us and I couldn't wait to get back and hopefully avoid a bad draw.
Well this Sunday I drew peg 14 on the Grendon Pond and had a lovely days fishing catching 296 fish (200 gudgeon and 96 Roach) for just under 10lb.Unfortunately I was beaten into 2nd in the section by some late Skimmers but still had an excellent days sport and really enjoyed myself.
That's me up to date for now, keep catching..
Lee |
