| 10.55 am
and the all in given. Paul began to feed all three swims by hand flicking
out two lots of caster on each. " I'm going to start on
maggot on the 7 metre line feeding caster for the first half an hour before
trying the caster." The reason? " Well I've found that by doing so I can guarantee I will have a very early
fish. It seems that the carp will attack the maggot because of its movement.
The swim is being built up slowly with the caster and sooner or later the
carps attention will turn towards them, but for some reason the carp respond
quicker to the maggot. Watch." I did and seeing
is believing as they say. 10.59
First carp in the net, whilst other anglers were still feeding. " Psycologically they are playing catch up, especially if the fish do not
respond to their food straight away. "
Pauls first Carp of the Day
Out he went
again. The bait was still falling through the water and the float sailed
away. Another carp but a better fish, unfortunately the hook pulled out.
Undeterred he went out again, all the time feeding little and often, with
such perfection that he didn't have to take his eye off the float, Instinct
took over. It was not much longer before the bait was intercepted again on
the drop. Evo lifted into what you could see was a decent fish. A few
minutes later and what turned out to be a 10llb. 2oz common was in the net.
2-1 to Paul.
Paul
continued with his feeding pattern. " You have to feed to
your bites. If the bites are regular step up the feed. If not build your
swim, keep feeding whether the fish are coming or not. The constant trickle
of bait through the water may just trigger them to have a go."
Believe it
or not Paul was not happy catching fish so quickly! The reason?
" I like to build a swim slowly, get the confidence of the fish.
Once they move in they will stay and more will be caught. I've had big
weights in a match in the last hour with very little coming before."
The voice of 35 years match angling experience
was talking.
Twenty
minutes into the match and another fish on the drop, but alas, the hook
pulls again. " The fish are there but for how long I don't
know. " Score 2-2.
Pauls 10 lb 2oz common.
Another ten
minutes go by and Paul switches to caster on the 7 metre line, but nothing
doing. He decides to try the right hand swim, which had been constantly fed.
Shortly the float dips and he strikes into another fish. Again it is lost.
score 2-3. Paul looks for an explanation. " The carp suck and
blow at the hook bait several times before taking it properly. When we
register the bite and react we are doing so probably on the 2nd or 3rd blow,
and what's happening is I'm foul hooking the fish as it's blowed out the
bait . "
Again
undeterred he carries on with the feed, knowing that other anglers are
struggling to catch fish. Twenty are fishing the open, ten on Chestnut and
ten on Beech. Ed Turner, the gaffer, pays out the top three on each pool
with the overall winner and second place taking additional super pool money.
The winner is guaranteed £55 to-day. Not bad, 6 out of 20 anglers taking
home a brown envelope. The fifty years old caster maestro has very rarely
failed to pick up money on the venue over the summer.
The fishing
on Beech is extremely hard to-day and between us we look for a reason. We
decide that a lot of natural bait is preoccupying the fish, such as
bloodworm. Gudgeon are in plentiful supply on the pool and even they are not
responding to the maggot or caster. Are we right? Who knows. |
