Business was slow and a chat with Harry convinced me that I really should go to Mawgan Porth for the Friday open! I was supposed to pick him up at 9.15 but was late as I had a load to do before I left home. You would think the whole world was conspiring to make us miss the match, I have never come across so many slow drivers and ditherers in one day, there must have been a convention somewhere in Mid Cornwall! We arrived just as Janet was about to start the draw, and joined the end of the queue, there was two pegs left when I had my dip and out came peg 38. Not bad, I have fished this one at least three times before but never in the summer.
Harry was handed peg 42 by Bernie as it was the last one in the bag it’s on the end of the island and is probably the shallowest peg on the venue.I had been thinking about my rigs and made a slight change for this match. All had been made up on .20 line as it is more robust and less likely to tangle than thinner diameters, if it does the thicker line makes it quicker to sort out. The last thing you need is to be is wasting time unnecessarily. The floats remain the same, doctored .2 Cralusso Capri’s to size 16’s PR28’s. Today it was pellet or bust, I had some 4mm fishery pellet for feed and some Yorkshire Bait Kopy Kat 4mm soft hookers.
The platform on peg 38 puts you away from the edge so you are fishing back on yourself slightly to fish towards the bank. I plumbed up just off the edge of the platform and a second swim into the edge just in case I needed two swims. I set up four rigs to cope with my choices all set at dead depth. If the fish came up in the water I would use the edge rigs as it was a little shallower there.I had Anthony Daley to my left of peg 41, I had christened him the Carling Kid, as every time I saw him he was sipping from a beer can! Well, he is on holiday and was clearly enjoying himself in Cornwall.
He had confidently predicted to all his mates before the draw that he was going to pull 41 out today, amazing, he must be related to Harry! The match started and I fed some pellets and dropped in, I had to wait all of 30 seconds for the first fish, after this they just kept coming. I did tried to count them but after I have lost 2 or 3 it always goes to pot, but I do know that on 45 minutes I had around 40 fish, so if it kept up I was on for a good weight. I seemed to have my elastic about right, I would hook a fish and it would run out away from the bank, as the elastic tensioned it came back to the waiting landing net. To me it seemed a quick operation, the down side to it was that once the fish was in the net they were still ‘angry’ and wanting to fight some more! They were difficult to unhook and I was really annoyed when one of a pound plus just wriggled out of my hands and back into the lake.
Quiet spell
I was experiencing the odd quiet spell, five minutes without a bite, but at this place when it’s fishing it’s crucial to keep catching and five minutes seems like an eternity. I had half an eye on Harry and the Carling Kid plus the guy on 9 who were all catching so it’s important to keep the fish coming. In view of this I fed my edge line and watched for the tell tale signs of carp feeding. Before long I saw the edge colour up so it was time to change. I was also going to feed my original swim just in case. First drop in and I had a good carp about 1 ½ pound, second drop in I had another which was in the landing net within seconds, I unhooked it and it turned into an acrobatic Olympian diver doing a back flip and triple twist straight out of my hands, it hit the rim of the net and bounced the wrong way back into the lake! I was mortified its one thing losing them in the water, but when you have landed them it’s another thing entirely. The match continued but I had to change swims a couple of times to keep the fish coming until the end. Unfortunately I had one last disaster, I hooked another better fish down the edge and it managed to get around the platform leg and snap me above the bulk shot with about 15 minutes to go. It took a couple of minutes to get back in the routine but I then had 20 with no more losses!
Oh Man, how close was that!
The match ended and I was pleased to have one in the landing net on the whistle. Janet was soon around with the scales. Harry recorded an impressive 189lb 6oz this was followed by a 180lb from the bridge peg 9. The scales came around to peg 41 and it took two people to lift out the Carling Kids first net and his first weigh was 167lb! If it was an even split the record was in jeopardy. Nobody could quite believe it when he pulled his second net and weighed 23lb he did get a warning from Janet though about splitting his fish evenly in future.
He said he had lost track of time, thinking there was two hours left. I did suggest to him that one less beer maybe the answer next time! Anyway he took the lead with 190lb 6oz. My turn, and my first net weighed 101lb I was really hoping for an even split. I use one net for the first 2 ½ hours then use the second. I couldn’t quite believe it when the second weigh came to 87lb leaving me agonisingly close on 188lb 10oz! Anyone of those fish I threw back would have won me the match. I cannot say that I wasn’t disappointed, I was really mad with myself. And probably was not the best company on the drive home, sorry about that H!
On Sunday I went to Kernow Match Groups match at Gunnabarn Fishery. This was only my second visit. This really is a nice little lake nestled in a remote valley, they really have it sorted here with a little club house where breakfast is available. I arrived early and tucked into some eggs and bacon, great way to start the day. There are only 16 pegs on the lake and the talk over breakfast was of drawing a high number as the bigger fish seemed to be down that end of the lake.I had my dip and out came peg 4 not that I know anything about the lake but I knew I was at the wrong end! Never mind the section was worth going for. I had organiser John Forster to my left and Billy Arch to my right so was in good company. Chris Hancock was two away to my left he looked exhausted and was suffering from jet lag.
Not that he had been anywhere exotic, but he had fished Lindholme the day before in the Maver pairs and did the 800 mile round trip in a day! No wonder he looked shattered.I really didn’t have much of a plan for this match. I did fancy fishing the waggler with balls of sticky maggots but my swim was only about 25 metres wide so I could spray maggots that distance. I set up the waggler to fish the far bank and had a look on the pole. I knew from my last visit that the depths could be all over the place so when I found a reasonable depth of 5 ½ foot at 12 metres and it was the same depth at a slight angle at 7 metres I stopped plumbing that would do for me! I used a .5 gram Cralusso Capri with a .16 hook length to a 18’s PR28.
I decided that I was going to fish the longer line with pellet and dump maggots heavily on my shorter line. I didn’t know whether or not feeding heavily with maggot would work but it was worth a chance, and I was prepared to have it as a ‘throwaway line’ so at the whistle it got a full 250 ml pot of them. I fed a few pellets long and started there on double maggot, whilst I was spraying maggots towards the far bank. Before long I had my first bite and a little tinca was on the way to the net. This was followed by the odd small carp but it was not going berserk. John to my left was catching at the same rate as me he was on the pellet long. I had a look with triple maggot on the shorter line and realised immediately that they liked lots of maggots as my elastic shot out of the pole, I guess that was a bite then! I had a nice little run and took an early lead in the section.
I could see Stuart Bratt catching well on the feeder three to my left, I felt I was doing ok at this time. I started getting plagued with small Rudd so I potted in another big pot of maggots and looked elsewhere for a few more small carp.When I came back on the short line I had another good run including some big Perch I really enjoyed catching those, I had four of them in total and they were all well over a pound. John meanwhile went out on the feeder and also had a good run of fish. I realised that lack of water knowledge was showing as everyone that I could see who had set up a feeder was catching on it. Shame mine was still in the van! I spent some time on the waggler but that proved fruitless with maggot as the Rudd were queuing up. I started feeding pellet on this line and eventually had five small carp on this method.
Swopping around my lines kept some fish coming to the end but I really was getting pestered with small fish. John on the other hand was now catching well on the pole and was rapidly catching up fishing the maggot over pellet. It looked like my maggot approach had attracted all the bits in the lake! I did have a decent Tench though that I landed on the whistle and thought that might be enough to nick the section.At the scales I weighed 41lb 8oz but that was surpassed by John Forster with 42lb 08oz! Beaten for the section by a pound again! John was over the moon, I actually felt pleased for him, he puts a lot of effort into running matches for us and it was good to see him get some reward for his effort. Well done mate, just don’t make a habit of beating me off the next peg! Overall the match was won by Harry Billing from peg 15 with 76lb 05oz he fished long with pellet on the deck. This was his first visit to the ‘Barns’, I don’t think it will be his last.
1st Harry Billing (Garbolino Mosella) 76lb 05oz peg 15 2nd Alan Hurley ( Kenow MG) 63lb10oz peg 11 3rd Mark Venton (Marazion ) 50lb 11oz peg 10 4th John Forster ( Kernow M.G) 42lb 08oz peg 5 5th Stewart Lister (SPRO) 41lb 08oz peg 4 6th Stu Bratt 37lb 07oz peg 7 7th Boz Philips (Kernow M.G ) 32lb 09oz peg 1
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