Saturday 19th January. Open Match Rayne Lodge. 28 Pegs

This match was to be slightly different from the norm in that there were to be two pools, one for silvers and one for carp. Not a bad idea really as it means you have a plan B if you draw a crap carp peg and this was to be my exact thinking. The pay out was to be top 4 in the silvers and top 4 in the carp split 50/50. In fact it was possible to win both the carp and the silver fish pools if you achieved something approaching a miracle. However, I reckon I'd have more chance of a date with Kara Tointon than achieving this myself! The match was to be pegged on the top and middle lakes, with the top lake being the preferred draw for silvers, as experience told me they were a better stamp. My target weight was to be 20lb on the silvers and 70lb plus to win the carp. The other "feature" about the day was that it rained all day non stop.


Bait for the Day


2 Pints of shells
1/2 pint maggots
bag of dead worms
tin of meat
tin of corn
micro pellets
4mm pellets
1.5 kilos of gross gardons noire mixed the night before with warm water.


At the draw I pulled out peg 7 on the middle lake, which I knew gave me a good chance of competing in the carp pool on the straight lead, waggler or long pole. When I arrived at my peg it seemed that nearly everyone on the lake was going to target carp, this made me reconsider my approach. I figured that I'd let everyone else have the carp and have the silvers nearly all to myself. The only problem being I'd given 1/2 a pint of shells to Ricky Tomlinson "dead ringer" Bob Davis, however I still had 1.5 pints at my disposal.


Tactics for the Day


I decided to keep things dead simple as I knew I was going to have to catch a large quantity of fish to compete from this lake as the stamp was smaller than the top lake . Therefore, I plumbed up three lines, one on an elasticated top kit to hand, the other two were at 6 metres. One was to be 6 metres at 10 o'clock, where I would simply feed 8-10 castors every 30 seconds and the other again at six metres, but this time at 2 0'clock. On this line I would feed three balls of groundbait with chopped worm and castor, the only hitch being the worms I had bought "fresh" from the tackle shop the previous evening were all dead. I could not get to my normal worm supplier so got fobbed off with the deads (not for the first time). Anyway, so it was to be groundbait and castor on this line, in the hope of catching some larger stamp fish (skimmers/larger roach), I would not loosefeed this line initially.

Both my 6 metre lines were approximately 4.5 feet deep and I set up three rigs to cover my options on both. Two were set at dead depth and featured 4x12 and 4x14 Sarfix floats (almost identical to Colmic Jollys). Line was 0.09 to 0.07 Browning Cenitan to a size 22 Wide Gape Canal Seed initially. Shotting was with a spread bulk at 3/4's depth on both. Droppers on the 4x12 were number 12s and on the 4x14 were number 11s. The other rig was a 4x10 set at 2.5 foot deep just in case the fish came up shallow. Elastics were number 3s on the deep rigs and a 2 on the shallow one.


On the whistle I started on the to hand line and fed a couple of nuggets of groundbait and some maggots to try to nick some early fish, however a biteless couple of minutes signalled the fish were not this close to me yet. Straight out on the 4x12 rig with a single maggot on the loosefeed line saw me into small roach immediately, however despite changing rigs and going onto my groundbait line things were slow in the first hour. In fact judging by the lack of carp being caught it seemed that the whole lake had switched off.


The second hour was much better for me as fish started coming every put in on the loosefed line and despite them being mostly small 1/2-2 ounces they were now coming one a bung. There was even the odd bonus "Gusta" to contend with, which must have got washed down in the rain from the Kennet & Avon. The groundbait line remained slow and I started to loosefeed it as this was obvious the way to go. Already I had it in the back of my mind that I shouldn't have given away those shells!!


The third hour was again consistent and I had just over 100 fish in the net by the end of it. My best rig was the 4x12 and I was catching most of the fish in the bottom third of the swim, I couldn't catch on the shallow rig though. Despite the peg being solid, the fish wouldn't tolerate a bigger hook so I stuck with a 22 throughout.


The fourth hour saw me really bagging on these small fish and I also encountered a couple of 12 oz gustas which were the bonuses on the day. I also hit into a carp on the groundbait line and I just couldn't snap off on it what ever I did, I even tried handlining! Its amazing how much stick 0.07 will take on balanced tackle. A three pounder was put into my carp net. Near the end of the fourth hour I had to abandon loosefeeding the groundbait line as I was running dry on castors. However, at the end of the hour I was up to about 160 fish.


The final hour arrived and I knew I needed to keep up the catch rate to give me a chance of my target weight. Ideally I would have liked to up the feed to really entice them into having a proper chew, but kept up with the small amounts fed regularly. The 4x12 rig was still the best. Right up until the final whistle it was one a bung with my final tally coming to 225. At the weigh in I was pleased to record 20lb 4ozs, which I felt would be certain to frame with a chance of winning. Interestingly, the next "silvers" weight on my lake was 16lb of pellet caught skimmers. Next match on this lake I would defibnitely abandon the groundbait line and replace it with a pellet line.

Unfortunately, I didn't win the match with my mate Paul Connell (Oscar the Grouch) doing the business on the top lake weighing 21lb 4ozs of quality roach. Many of these were hemp caught "dogs". The carp match was won by Steve Tyler on flyer top lake peg 4, I caught remember his weight, but most of his fish were caught on the straight lead or a small feeder with maggot or luncheon meat ont hook.