By Patrick | No Comments
Last updated: Friday, August 21, 2009

It was Wednesday again and it was my chance again to see if I and the other 14 anglers booked in to see if we could break the monopoly Steve Liston and Jon Tilley have on Theale Pits, yes this venue is dominated by these 2 as they are generally in the first 2 in each match.

There was only one peg I wanted today, and that was peg 60, as I was holding the bag with the balls in, it was decided that Mick who runs the matches and myself would have the last 2 balls in the hat. As each angler drew I had quick look to see what they’d drawn and when it come to mine and Mick’s draw, unbelievably the one ball was still in the bag. Quite unlike me I managed to draw it, and before he could utter the words ‘where you going Pat’ I was making myself comfortable on peg 60.

As I started to set up, I thought this would be my best chance of winning an open at Theale this season, though as with all things in life, nothing is ever that easy, though I was at least prepared as I had tied about 20 hook lengths for fishing the method the night before.

Peg 60 is an out and out method peg, and you have to fish at an 45 degree angle to yourself to reach the far bank. I also set up 2 pole lines, one for either side of me and for this I was going to concentrate on fishing paste over pellet, though I hoped it wouldn’t come to this as I was banking on fishing the method for 5 hours.

On the whistle I but a small amount of pellet and a bit of paste on each line, and it was out on the method. It was very slow to start with, infact I was getting no indications whatsoever but I put this down to the searing heat and hoped that the fish would have a munch the more the match progresed. Stuart on peg 1, another potential winning peg was starting to catch a few and come the end of the first hour he was starting to build a sizeable lead over me, and I was still to catch a fish. Before the first hour was up, I lost 3 and then finally landed one which eased the pressure I had put myself under.

A quick text from Andy confirmed that it was fishing hard, probably due to the bright conditions and searing heat, though I was confident that if I stuck on the method they would come. Come they did, I would get 2 or 3 in a quick burst, then I wouldn’t get another touch for half an hour. I tried all the tricks I had been taught, plus I kept alternating hook baits, and hook sizes to see if this would make any difference. The only thing I didn’t do was alter the diamter of my hook length, but as the fish fight so ferociously at Theale especially when you are fishing in shallow water, I didn’t want to risk getting broken on any, hence my decision to stay fishing 0.21.

This was pretty much the same for the next 2 hours, but at least I had caught a few, now I was banking on the fourth hour to really start catching as the last two hours are usually the best. I didn’t get a bite, I even tried down either edge but only managed to foul hook a gudgeon.

The last hour was do or die, I now thought my best hope was the margin line as I still couldn’t persuade the fish to come to the method, which was very frustating as they were clearly there. On the pole line, the first 3 put ins, I lost 3 fish, one was foul hooked but the other 2 I just seamed to pull out of. Back on the method, I had another one, and with still little to show for my efforts on this I threw it up the bank to concentate on the pole. I managed 3 fish on the pole in the last half hour but deep down I knew my chance had gone.

Come the weigh in, after 2 weighs I recorded 85lb, which was only good enough for 6th overall but only 10lb  out of the money. No prises for guessing who was 1st and 2nd, Steve Liston won again from peg 50, out of the 2o matches at Theale this season, he has only finished out of the top 2 once, Steve recorded 118lb, and Jon Tilley on peg 40 was second with 115lb. Even though I wasn’t a million miles away, whilst I type this I still can’t think what I did wrong, though I think it was going to be the best chance I had to win this year.

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