Just when we thought spring was here someone in Welsh Wales left the back door open! and it was a freezing cold North wind that greeted us at Gwinear in the latest Tuesday open. The pegging was arranged so that as far as possible most anglers were out of the biting wind. I drew peg 10 and was a bit surprised as I didn’t realise it had been put in! Talking to Andy Dare after the draw he reckoned it was worth about 80lb, great the matches have been won recently with 150lb and you will need 100lb plus to frame! Still 80lb is a good days fishing. I asked Andy where he had drawn, oh peg 25 was the nonchalant reply.
Mark Lazell had won from that peg on Sunday with 152lb; he said it was absolutely solid! And on Sunday, unlike today there were more anglers around Mark, looked like three on the bounce for Mr Dare. He is a brilliant angler and at the moment he is drawing better than Rolf Harris – A very dangerous situation for the rest of us..
When I got to my peg I was not that unhappy, I have fished it before and had a good idea of the features which is a big help. I assembled two half gram Cralusso Capri floats to .16 hook length and a PR36 size 16 hook these were to fish the 5 metre line and also the ‘shallow bar’ at 12 ½ metres which is slightly to my right towards peg 9 which was not in. I also set up a ¾ gram Capri to fish the deepest part of my swim at 11metres directly in front of me, same terminal tackle on this rig. The edge rig comprised of a 4 x 10 KC Carpa 2 to a 16 PR28 hook. I also set up a straight lead just in case I needed it. There is another shallow bar in this peg slightly to the left of the peg but it is at 16 metres I ignored it because of the swirling wind, it would have made presentation on the pole difficult. However, it was in the memory bank in case it was needed.
Food for Thought The bait table contained 1 ½ pints of 6 mm pellets and 1 ½ pints of 8 mm pellets and a tin of corn that I had ‘borrowed’ from Harry. At the all in I cupped a handful in on my 5 metre line and the same on my long line. I had decided not to feed the bar and my reasoning was simple, if there were any fish there it was because they wanted to be there and I was unlikely to attract them if there were not! Plus at my age I find it difficult to keep feeding 4 pole lines all match, especially when they are all at different lengths!
I started on the 5 metre line and was pleased to see the float go under on the first drop it was a good start a 4lb fish. I had 12 in the first 90 minutes all from this line. Fish were been caught but no one was really sacking I could see Andy and it looked like we were matching each other. A change to the long line saw some more carp make an appearance, when this line slowed after a further hour I introduced a small pot of 6 mm pellets on the bar, came back on the inside line for 10 minutes without a bite then went long on the bar. It was solid, just what I needed, I had about 10 more pretty quickly before they backed off. It was then a case of taking a couple from the deep water and back to the bar and so on until the end of the match, which I have to say, came all too soon.
Agony I never had the need to use the straight lead. I had fed the inside line all match but only had a couple of looks I didn’t want to make the same mistake as last week and spend too much time ‘munter hunting’ for nothing. I am not 100% sure on the number of carp I had but know it was in the region of 50 some of them were in the 1 ½ - 2lb range. The scales came and I recorded 124lb 5oz a really enjoyable match. I was winning until the scales got to Andy who put 124lb 12oz on the scales! Beaten by 7 oz, Oh man, never mind. He is not here next week as he is off to the ‘Excited States of America’ for three weeks, so someone else has a chance to take the spoils, I reckon Andy has paid for his holiday in the last month with his match winnings. Very well done and enjoy your break.
We have been putting an extra quid in the pot for the biggest carp caught in the match and this week Mark Lazell took the honours with a 14lb 5oz Mirror, well done to him he has had the second largest for the last two weeks. Third individually this week was Nigel Taylor with 91lb form peg 21. Backing weights were 88lb and 70lb and some 50’s a couple struggled this week but the weather has been very changeable.
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Tom
