I hadn’t been fishing for a whole seven days and I was really desperate to get back on the bank. I woke early Sunday morning in anticipation, trouble was the draw was not until 10am and looking at the clock told me there was still six and a half hours to go! I just could not sleep I got up and messed around until it was time to go by then I had been up for a day and was dog tired! I have been match fishing for over 35 years you would think that I had got over the excited stage by now.
There were more new faces at the draw as anglers come down to Cornwall on holiday it was good to see some ‘old regulars’ including an old mate of mine Jim Smith, who has just arrived down in the South West for six weeks whilst he is working in Penzance. He is going to get a few matches under his belt including the Dynamite Baits festival next week, nice work if you can get it.
Pirate of Penzance.
Into the bag I went and pulled out peg 7 my heart sank, I was really looking for a goods days fishing and I just didn’t fancy my draw. I had also just taken delivery of two brand new SPRO pellet waggler rods and I desperately wanted a peg where I could try them out! Unfortunately, I could reach everywhere that I was allowed to fish on this peg with my pole. The rods will have to remain unused for the time being. I was told that I had a load of room and looking at the section plan I could see that I had no one anywhere near me, it was like pleasure fishing.
Unfortunately I noticed that flyer peg 53 had been put in my section and the new ‘Pirate of Penzance’ had drawn it, I really was up against it. I had to laugh on my way to my peg Steve Prouse was telling us before the draw how proud he was of his new electric all singing and dancing 250 quid trolley and there he was on peg one. I hope it worked ok for his 10 yard hike!I set up my usual pole tackle for the swim which consisted of a .75 gram Cralusso Capri for the deep water to a .16 hook length and a PR 36 size 18. A half gram Capri for 6 metres and I also set up two of the brand new .2 Capri’s to fish shallow and for my edge line. I am really impressed with these new little floats they really complete the range.
Well the match started and I fed a few 6 mm pellets on the 14 ½ metre line and started on the 6 metre line again loose feeding a couple of pellets. Hook bait was an 8 mm and 6 mm pellet that I was alternating. In the first 20 minutes I had one very fast bite that I missed, probably a liner.
Moving out onto the long line and dripping in a few pellets proved not much better. I did manage two small stockies by the end of the first hour. The lake was showing its grim side. Harry Billing was drawn on peg 31 and was also struggling. Bob Rand on peg 32 was taking some small carp and skimmers from the bar on his peg. The Pirate had a couple of fish from 53 including a double. It was very slow all-round the lake though.
Early Bath
The second hour dragged by without me putting another fish in the net! I tried all my lines but couldn’t buy a bite. I picked another line and put some dampened micros in and even went back to the van for some worms. I fed these on my long line and gave it 15 minutes again without a bite. A look over where I fed the micros produced nothing and with that I decided that I really didn’t want to struggle for a couple more fish so I packed up.
Skip McCabe on peg 15 also decided that he had enough as well and the football was a better prospect! Just as I was leaving I could see a few more fish were been caught around the lake but you couldn’t call it prolific. A phone call later gave me the news that the ‘pirate’ had stolen the booty with 63lb including two doubles for about 25lb, huge fish for a roach angler!
Well done Jim lad, a big confidence booster for the coming festival. Andy Dare was second with 53lb and the other section was won with 45lb. Overall the lake fished very poorly, it may have been down to the weather which had been pretty nasty overnight. I am going for a change of scenery midweek and going to the ‘Fish and Chip’ open at Andy Seery’s Stafford Moor on Wednesday hopefully my waggler rods will get out of the bag.
Notify me of followup comments via e-mail
Home
Contact
Forums
RSS Feed
Tom
