Spanner in the works

Apologies to everyone for my delay in updating my blog but the matches have come thick and fast lately, much to my better halfs disgust plus I have also been really busy with work.

Round 3 Cheriton Farm

This was the 3rd round of our summer series and I badly needed a win to stand any chance of winning the series and hope that Andy who was already on 2 victories suffers a blow out. My hopes of this rapidly faded as he was left with the flyer, peg 7 which is the only peg on the venue where you can reach the island with a 16 metre pole.

I set up identical rigs as the week before but planned to fish 2 shallow lines as I had a spare peg next to me, one at 10 oclock and one at 2 o clock. It was a slow start for me, Andy on the flyer was catching well straight away but I could only get a couple of fish before they would disappear. Even rotating lines didn’t mean I could keep the bites coming. To cut a long story short, Andy once again slaughtered the match with 111lb to my 69lb. This also meant he won the series with 3 straight victories as opposed to my 3 straight seconds. Well done mate.

Theale Pits

The next day I was at Theale Pits for our regular Wednesday opens, there were 13 of us fishing and for the first time in 4 years of fishing the rovers here I pulled number 1 out of the bag. My first choice would of been peg 40 but as this was out of bounds as a tree had fallen in the peg, so I decided on peg 1 as I would consider this the next best peg.

For this I set up the method to fish into the bay against the far bank, and a left and right margin line. Anyone who fishes Theale will tell you Peg 1 is a banker margin line and when they turn up they are big fish. As a last resort, I also set up the long pole to fish shallow against the overhanging bushes in the water.

Come the all in, I fed a large pot of meat in either margin, I flicked a few pellets towards to overhanging tree, and went out on the method. After half an hour on the method without a touch, I went out on the long pole shallow, and started to get the odd couple of fish before they would disappear and then come back again. This was pretty much the routine for the next couple of hours but I felt as I was in touch as I couldn’t really see anyone catching well.

Despite trying the method in my quiet spells and only having one pull round which I managed to pull out of, with only 2 hours left, I was banking on the margins producing. Unbelievably I didn’t get a touch, not even a bite from a roach, and despite trying both margin lines every fifteen minutes over the next couple of hours  I failed to get an indication. I was just glad I set up the long line shallow and this was the only place where I’d caught and I finished with 17 fish for just over 70lb.  This was only good enough for 5th overall with the winner on his first visit to the venue being Andy on peg 12 with 127lb.

Timsbury Manor

I was asked by a friend who was fishing the series to cover for him as he was going away on holiday, so with Timsbury being a venue which had twice been kind to me before, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse. There were quite a few of my mates fishing the series down there, and one of them joint leader of the series overall. There were 20 anglers fishing and these were split into 4 sections of 5 anglers. Come the day of the match, I got a lift with one of my other mates who was fishing it, and the discusssion on the way down there was we would hope to avoid his section as we didn’t want to be the one who could potentially throw a spanner in the works and  jepordise his chances of winning the series overall and the £250 to go with it.

True to form I went and drew his section, and infact I drew the next peg to him. I also had the other joint leader to my left. I was disappointed I had drawn next to my mate but I was determined to give it my best shot as it wouldn’t be fair on the other anglers who had a chance of winning the series.

Rig wise as I had a bit of open water in front of me, I set up the pole to fish shallow, a rig on the deck at 6 metres, and a left and right margin line. Baitwise I had some 6mm pellets, corn, and some expanders. Come the all in I fed a pot of corn and pellet on  each margin and 6 metre line and went out on the shallow line. I lost one on my first put in but looking round the lake it was slow going. I didn’t get another bite on the shallow line, so come in on the 6 metre line and had one and then foul hooked another. Down the inside I didn’t get a touch so I was now starting to scratch my head as what to do next.

I decided to stick at what I was doing as and this proved wise, as I caught a sucession of fish up in the water and in my left hand margin for a total of 69lb. This was good enough to win the section, and good enough to relegate my mate to second in the section. Consequently this means he is no further up the leader board than he wanted to be and there is now a three way tie for first postition, though I won’t be able to fish the final match next week as I am heading back to Whiteacres.