Duck Do…

I have had a couple of close matches recently and the trend continued with a blinder at Mawgan Porth last Wednesday, the sun was shining and the lake looked terrific, there was not as much fish movement around the lake as last time I was there, the thinking was that it might not be as prolific as we all hoped for. I found myself at the front of the queue and was first to draw. Peg 38 stuck to my hand and to be honest it was not the one I wanted. It is a very good peg and later in the year becomes one of the strongest on the lake but it is one of the deeper pegs, especially in the margins. I wanted to be opposite in the lower numbers as the shallower water seems to be holding those slightly bigger carp.

My feeling was that if I was to compete I would have to catch up in the water, hopefully find a few better samples amongst the smaller fish. The margin could not be ignored so I set up rigs to fish at 4m on the deck and shallow and the obligatory down the edge rig. My up in the water rigs comprised of 0.3g J13 floats on 0.20 line to a .18 hook length and an 18 PR36 hook. The edge rig and the deep rigs were Cralusso Capri .2 gram, main line and hook was the same as the other rigs. I had plenty of 4mm fishery pellets with me for feed, a few 6mm hook pellets and some Yorkshire bait garlic pellets.

Where are you?

The match started and it was not going my way! I could see Wayne Panting on peg 6 opposite catching well as was Gary on peg 5. I was struggling as was Harry Billing who was on the next peg to me on the left 41. It was probably 10 minutes before I had my first fish which believe me seems like an eternity at Mawgan Porth! I started on the 4m line hoping to get them up in the water quickly but they were not having it at all on that line. I had to change to the edge swim that I had been feeding since the start.

Twenty-five minutes into the match and I only had five fish in the net, my float was been towed around in the edge swim but I suspected those pesky skimmers were to blame, I was getting bites but could not hit them! It is the most frustrating feeling as you feel yourself getting further and further behind in the race. I was throwing pellets out onto the 4m line in the hope that I would draw some fish. I was getting the odd carp and to make matters worse Harry was now catching well on paste and with none in my armoury I felt completely snookered.

On the hour mark I went shallow for the third time but on this occasion a dip of the float resulted in a small carp followed by another they were there now but would they last the duration? I needed them fast and furious to the end to do any good in this match. The wind was a nightmare it was right to left and gusting very strong at time. No problem holding such a short pole but feeding was unbelievably difficult. On occasions my pellets were landing all over the place sometime over a yard to the left!

The swim was solid though and I had a very enjoyable last four hours with a bite every put in within seconds of the rig hitting the water. I lost a few trying to be too quick and even had a rig fly back and hit me on the chin after a carp made an escape bid! I mention this as warning as the consequences could be dreadful if it was to hit you in the eye. I had no more mishaps in the rest of the match; I even played the fish a little slower which in the end was faster!

All out no more fun today!

The whistle sounded and the match ended both Wayne and Harry were saying that I had won the match my feelings were that I was not sure as I remembered the very slow start but I felt it was going to be close between the three of us . I was first to weigh and my 212 fish went 215lb 6oz I was really pleased with that after the start I had. Moving down to Harry and he had me worried when he heaved his first net out of the water and recorded just under 90lb if the contents of the other two were similar he would add another notch to his pole! Fortunately for me it was not an even split, his total went 197lb 15oz. We moved around to Wayne Pantings swim and the contents of his three nets were unbelievably 197lb 12oz what a match that was! There were other weights over a ton and the lowest weight on the day was a whisker under a 100lb!

Old Macdonald had a farm

Saturday saw us back down the Farm and I was pleased to see a better turnout today. We were on the bottom lake today. The water a brown colour due to all the rain that we have had recently in this neck of the woods in fact it looked like a river in flood without the current!

I held out the bag for someone to draw my peg and was slightly disappointed to see 45 handed back to me; it seems to be a bogey peg for me as this is now at least the third time that I have drawn it. I remember failing miserably off the peg in the spring festival and also struggled a couple of weeks ago when it was home for the day. Never mind this is another day and with two payouts in the section it was time to get rid of those negative thoughts!

Oh for a bit of wind

The lake was once again calm but ever the optimist I set up a shallow rig along with bottom rigs to fish close and at 5m. With the colour of the water I felt confident in my normal groundbait approach and felt sure that it would work even better today. At the start I put two balls containing a few micros and went immediately over the top with a soft pellet on the hook, I started pinging pellets onto the 11m line as I fancied catching a few shallow.

It was a slow start but I could see the whole section and with the exception of nobody was catching and to be honest Andy wasn’t running away with it. He was on his normal short pole approach. Eventually I had a couple of fish on my 5m line on pellet a change to paste didn’t really improve things so I tried my shallow rig. After a couple of minutes I had a slow bite which resulted in a nice sized F1 two more followed with equally unusual slow bites! But I’m afraid that was it up in the water I couldn’t get another touch.

Duck Shoot!

Boz Phillips on peg 43 couldn’t believe his eyes when suddenly half a dozen ducks appeared in his swim seemingly out of thin air! He called over to me and I looked up just as another shot out of the 12’’ overflow pipe from the lake some 30’ above Boz. Unbelievable those ducks had entered the overflow on the top lake and had ridden down like it was an amusement ride in a water park, come to think of it that is what it is to them a duck chute! Now if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I would have thought someone had been on the wacky baccy!

Back on the 5m line and I was struggling for bites and wondering where to go next. I noticed some fizzing on the 11m line where I had been pinging pellets so shipped out to that line on the deck the float shot under and an F1 was soon in the net. Unbelievably in my book the fish didn’t want the groundbait today but wanted to feed on the deck with loose offerings so that is what I did until the end. To be honest it was a great match, not as manic as normal just good fishing. It was like fishing the match in winter mode, come to think of it the fish felt a lot cooler today. I better start getting that thermometer out and taking notice of the readings.

Tight again

I knew this was going to be a tight section as Boz Phillips to my left had fished a real tidy match and caught well on his first visit to the water. That old sea dog Andy Partridge had caught well on his favoured short pole on peg 41 especially in the last hour and was probably going to win the section. The scales revealed that to be the case with him recording 39lb, Boz had a nice net of fish that went 32lbplus including some good skimmers, I managed sneaked second in section with 36lb which I have to say was more by good luck than good judgement!

The other section was won by Harry who recorded the top weight of the day with 45lb from peg 51 followed by Rob Fuller who actually called his weight correctly within 3 ounces before putting them on the scales, he had 43lb 3oz from peg 54vwell done, nice to see someone been honest!

See ya soon

I have to take a break for a few weeks as my wife is away on a well deserved holiday and I am left holding the baby so to speak! She is going to see our eldest son Daniel who lives down under. Viv is under strict instructions to remind our friends down there about the Ashes, as long as we are winning that is!

My next venture will be at Maver Larford in the Angling Times Maver pairs final and with not much fishing until then I expect my gear to be in pristine condition, in the meantime keep those strings tight.