Once at my peg I started getting the gear out rigged with various weapons of mass destruction:
2 Milo 11’ Light Waggler rods both with 3lb line on TD-R2058 reels and rigged with 4AAA Nick Gilbert balsa wagglers and hair rigged pellet band to a 14 Drennan Carp Match on 0.16 Fox Micro.
A Milo New Era 11’ bomb rod with a ½ oz flat bomb to 6lb line on a TD-R3012 reel and a 3’ tail with a hair rigged pellet band onto a size 10 Drennan Carp Match on 0.18 Fox Micro.
A top kit with one of the dibbers I designed and made by Nick Gilbert on 0.20 Fox Micro and with a hair rigged pellet band to a 14 Drennan Carp match on 0.16 Fox Micro.
A top kit with a KC Carpa Cocker on 0.20 Fox Micro set at 3’ to fish paste down the margin, with a size 10 Drennan Carp Match on 0.18 Fox Micro.
Both kits had doubled Slip in them as I wanted to try the system out and I had doubled 6 in the dibber kit and doubled 8 in the paste kit.
I also brought a method rod with me but it stayed in the rod bag as I doubted I would need it. I did however bring with me a new piece of kit that I thought would make feeding easier and help keep my catapult safe. It was a Preston bowl that sits in a frame off a box leg and the bowl is deep and can be angled to sit closer to my leg and hand.
I thought this would make life a bit easier and also save the odd catty from taking a swim. I also bought 2 new Drennan catapults to try out. I’m not sure what they are called but they have a black conventional frame, strong black elastic and a stiff mesh pouch. They looked like they would survive easier and tangle less.
Given the good weather we have been having and the fact that the air was humid although not exactly warm, I was convinced that a shallow approach would do well and so my plan would be to feed 3 lines. Firstly the waggler up to the island which always produces from the first chuck, then a shallow line at 8.5m and finally a paste swim down the right hand margin among a clump of reeds.
Bait for the day would be a bag of paste mixed with Pineapple Atomic Cloud along with 15 pints of 6mm hard sinking pellets and a few red maggots. I like the bright fluorescent colour that the yellow Atomic Cloud gives and if there were any lumps down the edge I felt that they would easily find the paste!
So I was ready for the whistle and had a few new things to try out, the Preston bowl, the doubled Slip and the Drennan catapults.
At the sound of the whistle I fed 3 pouches of 6mm pellets up to the island, a small handful on the pole line and 4 hand fulls down the margin at 4m. Another pouch went out to the island followed by my waggler and as I reached for more pellets the tip went round and Carp no.1 was in the net. A good first half hour followed with another 7 fish in the net and on target for the 15 per hour average I had set myself to win the section and maybe even frame.
The second half hour went much the same as the first with another 8 fish in the net and I was constantly feeding the shallow pole line so my work rate was high and I was pleased that the sun was not too warm. My back was aching a bit though as the Preston bowl was slipping down the leg of my box and I was bending down to reach the pellets. Although I had the correct attachment inside the clamp, the clamp just wouldn’t tighten enough to grip the leg so a bit of a re-think will be needed here!
During the 2nd hour things became a little erratic, picking up a fish close to the island then needing to drop away, going deeper, shallowing up, holding off the feed, feeding heavier and so on. It seemed that there weren’t the volume of fish there that I had hoped but I was still catching and wanted to carry on feeding the pole line a bit longer before going over it. By the end of hour 2 I had only 26 fish in the net and was falling behind my target so I decided to rest the waggler swim and go over the 8.5m line. First put in and the float went under and the doubled 6 came peeling out of the top kit. Within seconds I realised I had hooked a big fish but it took the Carp a bit longer to realise this, the Slip was soft and began to act a bit like hollow where it just keeps going and you cannot control the fish. Off it charged and the Slip just kept going. I know my top kits are long but I thought there would be more power in the system than this! 15 minutes later and an 8lb Common was netted, hooked perfectly in the lip. I re-fed both swims and immediately swapped the rig over to my trusty 14 solid! Note to self: try using less Slip and make up the distance with something like Dacron that doesn’t stretch!
Back out on the 8.5m line and not a sniff, I think the Common had probably swam through the swim several times holding a sign saying “get the hell out of here”!
More pellets went out to the island then and out went the waggler and another 2 fish were in the net within as many minutes. This didn’t continue though as once again I had to mess around with accuracy, depth and feeding pattern to string some bites together. By the end of hour 3 I had 35 fish and decided that it was time to have a look down the edge while I rested the waggler line yet again. Out went the paste and I sat quietly expecting a nice big lump to come along for some dinner……………but no, not a sniff!
Back out on the waggler then and a few more fish came to the net but it was still slower than I was use to. It is only mid-April though and I had noticed that the general size of fish was bigger than last year so maybe I wasn’t doing too bad. I couldn’t see anyone else on the lake catching much although Nick Gilbert was lurking somewhere down the bank behind a bush and was probably winkling out a few fish.
With the fish seeming to be a bit cleverer than last year or just not in the mood for a proper nosh up, I ended hour 4 on about 42 fish and still couldn’t get a sniff down the edge or at 8.5m so it was all about the waggler line now. I picked up the bomb rod and it suddenly dawned on me that I forgot to mix up any stiff paste to fish the conker so all I could do was fish a banded pellet. The tip flew round but again I could only pick up odd fish here and there. This was very frustrating as I felt that the conker could have saved the day and I was extremely angry with myself! So my last hour consisted of picking up fish on the waggler or bomb and I ended with 48 in the net for what I felt would be 70lb-80lb.
The scales came round and Nick had whooped me putting 103lb on the board. I registered 79lb and won my section. The other lake fished even worse and left me with a 2nd overall but with a very welcome 5 points in the bag. Seeing as I have to miss 1 round, the points are extremely valuable.
Today was quite interesting for me as I managed to learn a few more things about this place, the fish and also the new tackle I was trying out. I still have a bit of work to do before I am really happy with the way I fish this place but maybe next time I will be better prepared and the winter cobwebs would have been swept away.
Results:
1 Nick Gilbert 103-13
2 Matt Love 79-9
3 Ian Carley 78-14
4 Jonny Watt 73-14
5 Jeff Driscoll 63-6
6 Russ Evans 50-9
League Placing
1 Nick Gilbert 5 103-13
2 Matt Love 5 79-9
3 Ian Carley 5 78-14
4 Jonny Watt 5 73-14
5 Jeff Driscoll 4 63-6
6 Russ Evans 4 50-9
7 Dennis Price 4 47-3
8 Mark Hathway 4 44-8
9 Collin Wood 3 49-13
10 Nick Allen 3 43-10
11 Paul Slater 3 39-7
12 Chris Jones 3 16-14
13 Trevor Little 2 48-8
4 Pete Allen 2 23-3
15 John Haige 2 19-5
16 Brian Pink 2 9-11
17 Rusty (on Holiday) 0
18 Alan Loader (forgot about the match!) 0
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