Cursing at Kiveton!!!

I didn’t know what to expect after all the warm weather, but im not complaining, its reyt nice! On sunday we decided to stop local and visit BW Kiveton Waters. I’m on a mission to get my dad back into it properly, so I swept the dust of his gear, and dragged him down with us. There were 4 of us, me, my dad, Tom and his mate Paul Gorman so we decided on a 4-way-share if we won anything and a forefit for the worst performer. It was a PVA bag in the mouth last week, and the dirtiest grey pork scratching in the pub after. I drew peg 24, which is OK, at the right end with a bit of ripple on it.

I didn’t have many options, as there was someone either size, and set up just two lines, a short one at 7 sections, with a 0.2g Crallusso Capri, and a 14.5m line, with a 0.3g version. All were on 0.15 lines, to a 0.13 powerine hooklength and an 18 B911, with the usual 9 hollo. My bait tray was simple…micros, 4mms, and some hookers.

To start off I fed a quarter of a pot of mixed micros and 4mms on both lines, and started short with an expander. In the first hour I had a tench and 4 stocky carp, but nobody was doing much. I then had a real quiet spell. I thought I had cracked it when I had one shallow straight away, but then nothing, and the fish weren’t in the deeper water at 14m, something to do with the warm weather I think.

I tried not feeding for an hour, which brought a few small carp, and felt that the best line by far was at 7 sections. To cut the story short, I stayed on this line for the remainder of the match, using a kinder pot to feed every time with micros, using a 4mm expander on the hook. It gradually built it up, getting stronger and stronger as the sesion progressed.

The carp are only small, 12oz-1lb, and I could see that Sir Tom in the corner peg was sacking on a top 4!!!

I had a real good last hour, but didn’t think it was enough. When the scales arrived, best was 28lb. I put 43lb 05oz on the scales. I followed round the corner, and the guy next to Tom had caught steady all day, putting 44lb 09oz on!!! ONE BLOOOOMIN FISH OFF!!! What made it worse, Sir Tom didn’t have as much as I thought he did, but beat both of us with 45lb!!!! He did fish a brilliant match though, nice one! I was cursing myself again!!! Still, 3rd was a decent result I suppose, and my Dad, well, you can certainly tell he hasn’t been fishing for a millennium! Paul did OK, 12lb in a rubbish section though, so it was captain dad to get the drinks in!