Upon arriving at my peg I realised that I had a very nice island peg with a short chuck and the wind behind me. This was crying out for the pellet waggler and I’m afraid my previous plans went out the window as I changed my mind and decided to start on the waggler to put some fish in the net, then feed the short line with pellets and also dump in a load of meat down either margin. The other reason I decided to start on the waggler was because I had recently bought 2 new 11’ Milo rods that I was dying to try out and had one of them set up shallow with a styro waggler. Along with this I also set up a meat rig for tight to the left margin and a meat rig for fishing down the shelf to my right. I then set up a shallow rig with a Scone float that I wanted to try out.
With my kit all sorted out and a few familiar faces around the lake I decided to go for a walk and found Mike explaining his floating feeder set-up to Jay. Nick and I decided to leave him to it as we walked back contemplating the wind direction and how it might effect the match.
When the whistle went I dumped in the meat and catapulted some pellets over to the island. As I rested the rod on my net to pick up the catty again, the tip flew round and fish number 1 was in the net within a minute of the match starting. After fish number 2 I called over to Nick that I was now in love with my Milo rod as the action was so soft it was a dream to use. About 20 minutes into the match Nick shouted over “how many you got now then?” and I replied “6”. Then after 30 minutes it was “9” and so it went on until I had 20 fish inside the first hour. This catch rate is typical with the wag on this lake so I wasn’t hammering it but at least I seemed to be ahead of everyone else.
During the second hour the wind picked up and started to push my float around when I was casting. Several times it ended up in a bush that was poking right out of the island and several times I snapped my hook length pulling for a break. After about 5 or 6 hooks I realised that I was in trouble because I had run out of hair rigs tied to my new Drennan Carp match hooks. I had begun to use these recently due to problems with hook holds using the PR27 pattern and my mind was definitely made up now as I lost about 5 fish in the second hour. I had made up for this however as a switch from 6mm to 8mm pellet brought me some slightly bigger fish.
As the third hour came around I had about 54 fish in the net and was probably ahead of everyone else. I mentioned to Nick that I hadn’t seen any activity on my pole line and he pointed out that although he was catching, the fish were only at half depth and his catch rate was the same as it was on the waggler which he also started on. My original plan was to drop the waggler and go out on the short line to put fish in the net faster but I was reluctant to do this as I was doing well on the wag and the fish didn’t seem to be coming quicker for Nick closer in. I continued on the waggler while I tried to make my mind up and was also dying to see if there were any lumps on the inside meat swims. Fate made my mind up though as once again a gust of wind grabbed my waggler and chucked it into the bush. I lost the whole rig on the pull and couldn’t make up my mind whether to rig it up again. I decided to pluck up the courage to throw the rod up the bank and picked up my cupping kit to top up the meat swims.
First put in and the float started to dip up and down which I put down to line bites. I wasn’t worried though because I was fishing about 4” over depth to allow for this and just waited for the float to sail away and soon it did just that. A nice 4lb fish came in after a short battle and I then dropped back in but didn’t get a sniff for a while. It turned out that the dips were also being caused by silver fish as I lifted a 1 ounce Roach out that had it’s lips glued onto my 10mm cube of meat! It fell off and I cupped in another large pot of meat and this was followed shortly by another 4lb Carp.
This sport continued but it was all too slow. I was hooking about 1 fish every 20 minutes and my weight was not increasing as much as it would have on the waggler. During the last hour I hooked a proper lump which decided to charge off and stretch my 13 hollow to an alarming length. After 10 minutes the 8lb fish was in the net and for the second time today I had decided to change something about my tackle………..to chuck away the 13 hollow and put something else in my 2 strongest power kits!
By now I knew that I had blown the match because Nick had put about 30 fish in his net in the final hour but at least I had worked out something on the day. I think that fishing for lumps down the edge should be done for 5 or 10 minutes at a time when you are resting a shallow line and it should be your shallow line that provides the bulk of your weight.
At the weigh-in Rusty put around 125lb on the scales from Bramley taken on shallow pole and Nick notched up 117lb. Trevor Little did well on paste though with 90lb and surprisingly I came 4th overall and 2nd on the lake with 88lb………….if only I had stayed on the waggler I might have stood a chance! Never mind, I would rather try out something new at a small match and be better prepared for the bigger ones!
So off I went with another £20 in my pocket and as I was waiting for the bath to run at home I emptied about £50 worth of PR27s into the bin and got out the 2 power kits fitted with the 13 hollow ready to be stripped down and rigged up with something a bit less stretchy! I will have a few busy evenings getting ready for my next match on the Reservoir!
During the second hour the wind picked up and started to push my float around when I was casting. Several times it ended up in a bush that was poking right out of the island and several times I snapped my hook length pulling for a break. After about 5 or 6 hooks I realised that I was in trouble because I had run out of hair rigs tied to my new Drennan Carp match hooks. I had begun to use these recently due to problems with hook holds using the PR27 pattern and my mind was definitely made up now as I lost about 5 fish in the second hour. I had made up for this however as a switch from 6mm to 8mm pellet brought me some slightly bigger fish.
As the third hour came around I had about 54 fish in the net and was probably ahead of everyone else. I mentioned to Nick that I hadn’t seen any activity on my pole line and he pointed out that although he was catching, the fish were only at half depth and his catch rate was the same as it was on the waggler which he also started on. My original plan was to drop the waggler and go out on the short line to put fish in the net faster but I was reluctant to do this as I was doing well on the wag and the fish didn’t seem to be coming quicker for Nick closer in. I continued on the waggler while I tried to make my mind up and was also dying to see if there were any lumps on the inside meat swims. Fate made my mind up though as once again a gust of wind grabbed my waggler and chucked it into the bush. I lost the whole rig on the pull and couldn’t make up my mind whether to rig it up again. I decided to pluck up the courage to throw the rod up the bank and picked up my cupping kit to top up the meat swims.
First put in and the float started to dip up and down which I put down to line bites. I wasn’t worried though because I was fishing about 4” over depth to allow for this and just waited for the float to sail away and soon it did just that. A nice 4lb fish came in after a short battle and I then dropped back in but didn’t get a sniff for a while. It turned out that the dips were also being caused by silver fish as I lifted a 1 ounce Roach out that had it’s lips glued onto my 10mm cube of meat! It fell off and I cupped in another large pot of meat and this was followed shortly by another 4lb Carp.
This sport continued but it was all too slow. I was hooking about 1 fish every 20 minutes and my weight was not increasing as much as it would have on the waggler. During the last hour I hooked a proper lump which decided to charge off and stretch my 13 hollow to an alarming length. After 10 minutes the 8lb fish was in the net and for the second time today I had decided to change something about my tackle………..to chuck away the 13 hollow and put something else in my 2 strongest power kits!
By now I knew that I had blown the match because Nick had put about 30 fish in his net in the final hour but at least I had worked out something on the day. I think that fishing for lumps down the edge should be done for 5 or 10 minutes at a time when you are resting a shallow line and it should be your shallow line that provides the bulk of your weight.
At the weigh-in Rusty put around 125lb on the scales from Bramley taken on shallow pole and Nick notched up 117lb. Trevor Little did well on paste though with 90lb and surprisingly I came 4th overall and 2nd on the lake with 88lb………….if only I had stayed on the waggler I might have stood a chance! Never mind, I would rather try out something new at a small match and be better prepared for the bigger ones!
So off I went with another £20 in my pocket and as I was waiting for the bath to run at home I emptied about £50 worth of PR27s into the bin and got out the 2 power kits fitted with the 13 hollow ready to be stripped down and rigged up with something a bit less stretchy! I will have a few busy evenings getting ready for my next match on the Reservoir!
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