Saturday saw Harry and I at White Acres for the Angling Times, Maver Pairs match. The match was fully booked with a very strong field including star pairings of Will Raison and Ben Leach and, Ritchie Hull and Adam Rooney there were a host of other star names in attendance. Our plan was simple get to the front of the queue and draw early! This would give us time to have a look at each of our pegs and formulate a plan. Drawmaster!
I kept well away from the draw bag and left that side of the proceedings to Harry! We had decided on which zones we were going to fish prior to the draw. I would be on one of three lakes Trelawney, Python or Jenny’s. I had everything crossed for a peg in the middle of the wides on Python! Harry really wanted any peg on Canal. The other lakes in his zone included both Twin Oaks and Acorn. Within a couple of minutes of the draw starting Harry was back with the news that I was on peg 19 Jenny’s and he had peg 29 Twin Oaks. First Thoughts We had a wander up to my peg and I was pleased to see that I was one peg out of the dreaded ‘layby’, we have both drawn 18 previously, Harry on a number of occasions. It doesn’t give you a lot of confidence when you are two metres behind the rest of the bank! Anyway, 19 has the end of the island and the peg narrows down quite significantly compared to those around it. Width wise, it is still about 30 metres to the island. We decided that I should look at three lines. Straight lead and pellet waggler to the island, chopped worm at 11 metres and pellet up in the water long at an angle towards the open water. Overall I was not too unhappy with this peg . Driving to Twin Oaks the thoughts are that peg 29 is not the best, we would have preferred to have been further up the lake. When I see the peg I remember drawing it once before and tell Harry that it can be a very good edge peg on both sides. He is left with the other option of feeder and waggler.
Back to Jenny’s
I did not not want to make things complicated so set up a minimal amount of tackle including: Two up in the water rigs both are Carpa Shelfs straight through on 0.14 line. Both with PR36 hooks an 18 and a 16. A chopped worm rig which was a .6gram Tamas Walter float on 0.16 line to a PR28 size 16 hook. I also assembled a straight lead and a 2 swan Carpa Silverback pellet waggler. Bait wise I had on the bank with me 2 pints of 6 and 8 mm pellets, 2 pints of casters some meat and a kilo of worms.
At the all in I put in a full 250ml cup of chopped worm and caster at 11 metres straight out in front of me. And immediately went on the straight lead to the island. I pinged 8 mm pellets at the island and also fed 6mm pellets at 14 ½ metres slightly to my right towards the open water. The chap on 18 started on the feeder towards the island and was into a carp fairly quickly. Jamie Wilde on end peg 21 was going for an up in the water attack on the pole. I was convinced I was going to get a couple of quick carp on the lead. After 15 or so minutes I still had not had a bite which was worrying. I changed to the waggler and stuck this out for another fishless 10 minutes. There was a big problem with this that I was trying to overcome. The Aerator was on full blast on peg 15 and causing a river effect! With the little wind that there was blowing the same way as the flow the bow in the line was a nightmare. I was getting bites but could not hit them. I should have sacked the method but when you are getting bites it’s difficult to stop. Jamie on the other hand was getting a nice rhythm catching Cornish F1’s, I had to change.
At the Races.
I wanted to have a look on my worm line and dropped in, the tow was unbelievable. I think because my peg narrowed it made it worse the float was at an horrible angle and I could’t run it through properly. I stuck with this for a few minutes hoping for a bonus tench or two but all I had was a couple of roach as the worm dropped through the water. I really could have done with a 20′ rod and a flat float! I threw this rig up the bank and picked up the shallow rig and put on a 6mm pellet. It was towing like mad but with this rig I could use it to good effect by holding the float back it kept everything tight, this made the F1 bites easier to hit. They are funny feeders, sometimes they will rip elastic out of the pole, and other times you have to strike at every bite. Today was a striking or lifting into the bite day! Anyway I was now at the races with Jamie, but he had that start and he has also has youth on his side!
We both had one bonus carp on this line and were surprised we didn’t get anymore amongst the F1’s but they were coming quite quickly. Going into the third hour I could feel the peg going away from me, Jamie was also slowing down. I had been feeding 8 mm to the island so decided to give it another go and keep feeding the pole line. This time I had some success I had a 3 pounder and a few small stockies. I’m sure it would have been better but I lost a good fish to trailing line. Doing this as well as shallow I managed to keep some fish coming until the end of the match. I was sure I was behind Jamie. He certainly was catching quicker at the start of the match. In hindsight I should have gone up in the water at the start, but Mr Hindsight is the best angler in the world without a doubt!
The Verdict
There was a 40lb leading our section and two 30lb weights with only Jamie and I to weigh. I knew in my heart that I was second in section but Jamie was convinced that I had beaten him. I always live in hope but the scales tell the truth. I weighed 70lb 4 oz to his 84lb it was a good match and I enjoyed it immensely. Now can you believe that Jamie’s partner had drawn next to Harry on Twin Oaks, amazing in a 50 peg section that two pairs draw next to each other! Jamie made a phone call to find out what had happened and I soon learnt that Harry had easily won the section with 76lb odd! Great news, now we had to wait in hope for a couple of hours for the result.
Harrys Game
Most people on Twin Oaks started the match on the meat feeder with the exception of a certain Mr Billing, who went immediately down the edge on corn. He was rewarded with 3 bigger edge carp in the first 20 minutes! Great start. He then tried the pellet waggler and straight lead against the far bank, this didn’t produce but it allowed him time to assess what was happening, and it was slow! Harry then went on the pellet feeder with an 8 mm pellet on the hook and caught steady until the end of the match.
Waiting Game
Back at the White Acres bar waiting for the result we could find one pair that had two section wins. There were a few others that had three points the same as us, but we had a greater weight. Several people told us that they were sure another pair had a perfect score but they didn’t know who! All we could do was wait for Clint to announce the result. It wasn’t long before he read out the results and we found out that we are on our way to Larford! We finished in second place behind Bob Giles and his partner well done to those two the only anglers with a perfect score.
http://www.matchangler.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=99&Itemid=179
Hi Stu……..I’m starting to write for Matchangler.com now , wish i was in Cornwall , i suppose i will have to suffer catching 100’s of pounds of Bream and roach for a few years until retirement and fishing 5 times a week in the golden triangle of Cornwall (Gwin-Boling-white).
Well done on the pairs !!
Cheers Phil, good write up, I have written a couple of articles for Dave years ago, please pass on my regards. Sounds a brilliant festival, would love to fish it. Best wishes Stewart
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