Lucky Dip!

Only one match to report on this weekend, as I had to work again on Saturday, so it was Kiveton Waters for me and Matt on Sunday, and after a good result on the venue a couple of weeks previous we were back and looking for more of the same!

A hearty breakfast at Fullers Café set us up for the day, and we were at the venue in good time, but we were messing about with our pellets, and before we knew it we were the last two to draw again, but as it stood us in such good stead the previous week we weren’t that bothered!

It seemed to work for us again, as Matt pulled out 34, end peg in the bowl, and I pulled out peg one, end peg on the island, and to make it even better it was the golden peg!

Peg one has loads of room and also loads of options, with a nice feeder chuck across to the far bank, a long feeder chuck down in to the bay at the bottom of the lake, and a sloping bottom on the pole line meaning you can fish 13 metres at ten oclock and two oclock, and have 4 foot at 10 oclock, and 2 ½ foot at 2 oclock!

I opted to keep things simple, and set up just a ‘Thod rod to fish across and down into the bay, and two pole lines to fish at 13 metres, on the two lines I have just described. On the rod, I used a medium Fox Match In Line Feeder, running on 6lb Daiwa Sensor to an 0.18 line with an 18 PR36 hook, complete with Mosella Micro band.

On the pole, I opted for a 4X12 KC Carpa Chimp on the deeper line, and a 4×10 on the shallower line. I used J Range 8-10 elastic, matched to 0.14 Mosella Xedion to an 0.12 hook length, and an 18 B911 hook.

The best thing about Kiveton Waters is how cheap your bait bill is- me and Matt just take a bag of the venues micros, a few of our own expanders, half a pint of maggots between us, and a few hard 6mm’s for banding on the feeder- that’s it!

At the all in I cupped a nugget of micros on my deeper line, and then slung the thod over to the far bank. The tip pulled round pretty much straight away,and I was off the mark. I took four carp in the first half an hour, and from what I could see I was doing reasonably well, as there wasn’t a great deal being caught.

Inevitably, things slowed down on that tip line, and I was forced to chuck down into the bay to keep a few fish coming, after my pole line in the deep water failed to produce. I gave it a try for 15 minutes and never had a bite, so decided to stop feeding it and concentrate on a the shallower line, as this is the one that generally produces best on the peg, though it often takes a while to get going.

I managed to keep the odd fish coming on the tip, but not a great deal was happening, and I could see Matt and Jake Dye on the peg next to him catching well on the pole. I had to keep swapping between my line down in the bay, and the one across to the rock to keep fish coming. Swapping hook baits also seemed to work, it was one of those days when ringing the changes was key to keeping fish coming.

With an hour and a half to go, I had my first fish on the pole, and caught steady throughout the final stages of the match, but it was by no means hectic, with me feeding by kinder pot and having to wait perhaps 10 minutes for a bite.

I was first to weigh and reckoned I had between 35-40lb, but was sure I had been beaten as Jake and Matt both seemed to have been catching quicker than me. I was surprised when my fish went 45-9-0, catching slow and steady all day had obviously led me to think I had less than I actually did.

It was tense times as I followed the scales, but as I walked around it became clear that the venue hadn’t fished too well.  Nigel Shipman put 40lb on the scales to run me close, with Jake weighing 36lb. Matt was the last one to weigh and he said he thought it would be close, and with us sharing our winnings we were both praying he hadn’t beat me, as if he had we would have scooped £110 instead of £240.

Fortunately, his net went 38-12-0, which got him 3rd place and meant the golden peg was safely in our pockets! Phew!
A couple of pints and a stroll along the chesterfield canal, followed by a roast beef dinner rounded off a thoroughly enjoyable day for ’tug and snip’ as we are now called in these parts.

Next weekend is a big one as I have the last round of both my Winter Leagues, and the chance of a pick up in both of leagues with a good performance, so I need to hope that the drawing arm I seemed to have acquired keeps up. I will let you know how I get on next week.