One for the Pot

With the shortage of decent matches in our area, and the fact that I’ve had a couple of quiet months work wise, I decided to fish a couple of club matches with my local club South Reading as generally they are cheaper matches to fish

First up was a match on New Barlows, this is part of a complex of lakes, owned by Stacey’s group near Tadley which is probably about 10 miles from Reading. New Barlows is a commercial fishery full of mainly tench and bream and the odd carp, though since the last time I was there about 2 years ago, the fishery has certainly matured. A local club to me had a match here on the previous Sunday, and this was won with 50lb, and several good back up weights between 30 and 40lb. As it was my first visit here for 2 years, I went and had a sneaky practice on here the Friday before with Fluff, it was quite hard to say the least, so my optimism for a good match on the Sunday was slightly wavering.

Come the Sunday, I was really looking forward to this match, as it was nice to fish a match on a different venue for a change. I wasn’t to bothered where I drew as all pegs have an island within pole reach, though we were also allowed to fish the feeder or waggler should we wish. At the draw, I drew peg 1 which is a peg on one of the islands, though you do have a foot bridge to access it.  I decided to fish 4 lines, which was a top 3 margin line either side of me, a line to the opposite island at about 11 metres, and one to the aerator at 13 metres at a slight angle to my left.  Based on my sneaky practice, I was pinning my hopes on pellet and soft pellet, though I had some corn and meat as back up.

Expecting a tough match, it was now a 6 hour match as the match had been extended to coinicide to finish with the other matches on the complex, I decided to kinder pot a bit of soaked hard pellet onto each line and play it by ear. To say it was hard was an understatement.

To cut a long story short, I had 4 bites, three of them, two tench and a skimmer I managed to land, plus I managed to pull out of a carp. All was not lost as I finished third with 6lb, only 4lb behind the leader, though it brought some welcome funds to my fishing pot !!!!

Next stop was the clubs ‘away day’ at Bury Hill near Dorking. Come the Sunday I was picking both Dave and George up from Reading and we were on our way to Bury Hill for the 8am draw. We had fished the same venue last year on our away day and I had managed to comfortably win it with 80lb, I was just hoping history repeats itself as the pick ups are generally good on these matches as the club pays for the lake so that the anglers don’t incur the cost of the peg so the anglers involved generally go in the main and super pool.

History repeated itself as I drew the same peg as last year, so in my head I was pretty set on what my attack was going to be. On arriving at my peg there looked like there could be some shortcomings in my plan as the bare bank I had cast to last year island was a little over grown. To add to my woes the bull rushes either side of the gap, some had died blocking the entrance to the gap in the over growth.

Not to be disuaded, I still pinned my hope on the pellet method to the island, a line at 14.5 metres on the deck and a left and right margin line where I had found the same depth of water. Baitwise I had some soaked micros for the feeder and I also planned to fish over a bed of micros on my pole lines with either corn or paste.

On the all in, I fed each pole line with a kinder pot full of micros and then it was out on the method. As with a lot of heavily fished waters like Whitreacres, the key here was to fish as tight as possible to the island. This was more difficult than I first thought as I had managed to snag some discarded line on the bottom where I was fishing. I managed 3 fish in the first hour, all caught on dead red maggot, this seamed a good start as the anglers either side of me were still biteless.

The next four hours were non eventful, I was starting to wish I’d brought a good book with me, as whatever I did failed to produce a bite. The match was now going into it’s sixth hour, yes I am a glutton for punishment, but miraculously I managed 5 bites, four I managed to land, and that was it match over.

 Come the weigh in, my 7 carp went 31 1/2lb, this was good enough for second place overall with Dave the guy who had travelled down with me recording a near 60lb. Big well done to Dave !! On the plus side despite sitting there for 6 hours, I had managed to add a bit more to my fishing pot.

Next stop was my usual Wednesday jaunt to Theale, I was still licking my wounds from not performing on the ‘flyer’ last week, but hopefully today would go some way to putting it right. My drawing arm was with me again and I drew second away in the rover. Steve the venue expert drew 1st away, and opted for peg 60. I did consider going next to him in peg 1, but rather than sit there watching him catch, I opted for peg 40, which is a particualar favourite of mine as it’s an end peg with several features to hold fish. My optimism was slightly dampened when I found that Jon, the other venue and method expert had gone in peg 41. For those who have never seen him fish the method, you would be amazed at how accurate and how quickly he can catch fish, infact it’s not nice when your next to him when he can’t put his feeder rod down.

Anyway back to the match, I was going to give this my best go, I was going to cover all the options here as I wanted to maximise my chances of winning this plus I desperately wanted to beat Jon on the next peg plus Steve on peg 60 who I considered the dangers in this match plus there good record at Theale.

 My main attack was going to be the method, though I set up the pole to fish shallow against the tree hanging in the water, I also set up a margin line to fish paste over pellet. On the all in, I put some hemp with a bit of paste onto my margin line, and then it was out on the method. I had one straightaway, and over the next hour, I added another 5.  Jon on the next peg wasn’t having the start he wanted much to my relief.

Whilst fishing the method, I kept pinging half a dozen pellets towards the tree, my plan was that I was going to try mug an occasional fish in between resting the method and fingers crossed I would of left the margin line long enough for it to be solid for the last hour. However catching the fish shallow on this peg is the easy bit, landing them is another matter as pegs 40 to 47 have a really high bank behind them and trying to ship the pole back quickly with an angry carp is completely a different ball game, particularly if you have any respect for your pole plus the added bonus of a huge tree hanging in the water.

First put in on the shallow line, I lost one before it got to the tree, so it was back on the method. In between I managed to snare a few more on the method. Back on the shallow line, I had 2, then hooked another zoo creature which promptly took me through the tree and out the other side before I could start shipping back. This was the end of this rig, and despite having more rigs tied in my box, rather than risk breaking my pole, I decided to sack it and concentrate on my other lines, in hindsight I think this decision cost me second place. Over the next couple of hours I added a few more, they were a decent stamp with some of the fish going 8lb and I felt confident I was well in front of Jon on the next peg. However this was when the wheels fell of the wagon.

Jon shouted along the bank, to estimate the total weight of what I caught in the last hour, I knew this was the kiss of death, as Jon went into bagging mode, and all I could hear, that’s 8lb, that’s 4lb. Unbelievably I only managed 2 fish in the last hour, one on the method and one on my margin line and despite loosing a couple of lumps, I felt the match had slipped from my grasp, plus I wasn’t sure how Steve had got on on peg 60 or anyone else for that matter.

Come the weigh in, my fish went 132lb, Jon on the next peg had emptied it in the last hour and his weight went 175lb, he had overtook me in the last hour. Unfortunately my weight was only good enough for 3rd place as I finished 10lb behind Steve who weighed in 142lb. In hindsight I wish I had tried to catch a couple of more fish shallow, as this would of been good enough for 2nd place and a welcome £100 to the pot rather than the £50 I ended up with plus it would of been nice to break the monopoly that Steve and Jon have on Theale Pits. Lastly a big well done to Jon.