Around the first weekend in November a strange phenomenon happens in the Duchy, local match anglers that have seemingly hibernated
Seconds away, round 2
It had been over 5 months since I last fished Theale Pits, this was our christmas match which ended in a blank for myself, plus quite a few others may I add, but now the warm weather had arrived, I hoped the carp had woken up from there winter slumbers, infact this was the first Wednesday match since the one I mentioned because for some reason the fish completely shut up shop during winter.
Theale pits is a natural water, it’s probably about 8 acres in size and similar to Rolfs in that it consists of 2 lakes, but Peg 1 joins them together. The water is full of carp between 1 and 16lb, the match record stands at 276lb, though the average winning weight is 150lb with over 100lb needed to frame. The venue responds mainly to 2 methods, the method itself and margin fishing, though on the few pegs where you have cover you can catch shallow.
Last year all the matches were ‘pegged down’, the format was different to this year in that they were going to be rovers. There were 13 of us booked in and I was hoping to be able to go to peg 1 or 40 as I would consider these the best pegs, but there are probably another 8 more pegs you could win of. Come the draw I picked number 5 out, so at least I was guranteed a half decent peg. When the 3rd angler picked his peg, peg 40 was still available, this was the one I was going to I thought until the angler in front of me chose this for himself, this left me completely stumped so I opted for peg 12 which would be at least sheltered from the strong wind.
If you were to look at Peg 12 you would think it would scream fish, it’s an end peg where it’s about a 25 yard chuck to the far bank, you have a tree hanging in the water at 13 metres plus you have 2 good margin lines though the water level for the lake was still a bit high so depthwise the margins were probably to deep. As this was my first visit this season to Theale, I planned to cover all my options and fish all lines available to me. This was the method to the far bank, a couple of rigs shallow against the overhanging tree, and a margin line left and right of me. Before the all in, I had a good cast round the far bank trying to find any potential snags, and the bottom appeared clear, or so I thought. Baitwise I had 10 tins of corn, 3 tins of meat, some 6mm pellet, some maggots for the method and my method mix was a equal mix of natural and green swimstim.
On the all in, I fed a full pot of corn on each margin line, and flicked a few pellets towards the tree hanging in the water with a view to catching shallow. Out on the method, first put in I had a roach. Next put in I had found a snag which was solid and ended up snapping the line at my reel clip, so I had to completely reset up. It went from bad to worse as I cast out again but 3ft to the right of the thought snag. It would appear the snag run the whole length of the far bank and I ended up loosing the lot again, this wasn’t the start I was looking for. I decided to start on the shallow line, this was earlier than I planned but I was wasting my time with the method.
Out onto the shallow line, I had 5 fish in succession, then as I thought might happen, the line slowed. By constantly changing the depth, over the next hour I caught another 2 fish, and the bankside walkers told me I was leading the match with the next best being 5 fish. By now this line had completely died so rather than plunder my margin line to early, I set the method back up but would fish it short of the far bank in the slightly deeper water. This was as fruitless as it was at the start, so with 2 hours left, I hoped the fish would of moved onto the margin lines, but due to the depth, I hadn’t seen any indications that they had. First put in and by working the bait we were in, but amazingly this was the only fish I caught on this line. Eventually on the shallow line, the fish comes back with a vengance, infact the bites were savage, the hardest part was trying to steer the fish away from all the trees hanging in the water.
Come the all out, I ended up with 20 fish, 16 were caught shallow, and the last 4 between the left and right margin, normally the margins are more of a banker than this. I estimated I had between 60 and 70lb, the scales registered 76lb, this was good enough for fourth with 81lb third, so I wasn’t a million miles out of the frame. Overall Jon Tilley (venue expert) peg 40 won the match with 125lb, caught on the method and down the edge.
Round 2 Cheriton Farm
Tonight was the second round of our evening series with my brief to myself was to stop Andy winning the second sucessive evening match on the bounce. I had restructured my approach from the first round in that I was going to fish a little heavier as the fish had give me to much of a run around last week, plus with having to tie new rigs last week during the match last week, I didn’t spend enough time fishing. All my top kits had black hydro in them this week, and I also set up some duplicate rigs incase I trashed rigs, plus I had plenty of spare hook lengths should I need them. For bait I had 3pts of 6mm pellet, tin of diced meat and some corn, plus a few expanders.
With it blowing a gale, I fancied a peg with the wind of my back, Andy told me he fancied peg 2 and promptly drew it. Not only can he fish a bit, he can also draw the peg he wants !!!. I was to have the last ball in the bag and wasn’t disappointed when I was left with peg 3. This was the same peg as I drew last week, and for the second week running I had drawn next to Andy so a quick side bet was set up.
Come the all in, I was straight out to 13 metres fishing pellet shallow, pinging pellets over the top. I didn’t get a bite for the first fifteeen minutes, and it looked like I was already on a hiding to nothing as I could hear regular splashing from peg 2. I tried switching from pellet to meat, but all this did was bring a sucession of rudd into the peg, this wasn’t the start I wanted. Eventually the carp arrived, and for the next 2 hours, I caught steadily even drawing the fish closer in, in the hope I could catch faster but they didn’t really want to settle, so I had to keep rotating the distance at which I was fishing at to keep the fish coming.
Come the last half hour, I only caught another 3 fish, so come the all out I wasn’t sure what I had. I thought I had less than last week, I knew Andy had beat me but in true fashion he was admitting to less than last week. Come the weigh in, Andy recorded 117lb, myself 85lb and the next best weight was 29lb, so it looks like it’s all to play for next week as if Andy wins again, he will win the series as he will have the maximum score, plus I can’t afford to be giving away any more pound coins.Has no one told him we are in a recession !!!!
