First time out for three weeks due to shifts and a holiday so was looking forward to it. After the scortching weather for the last two weeks it was forcast for much lower temperatures and a possibility of some rain. Perfect. The draw was done and Adrian pulled out minature snookerball 62 on the top lake for me. The usual quid bet was placed with Compo Peck and off for a long walk. Got to the peg and was surprised with what I saw. A boat tied up in the peg and a tree that was so overgrown that it was close to covering half the peg.
A bit of gerdening was required and I dragged the boat out and put it up on the pathway. Its a very shallow area and I had just about the same depth all over. 18 inches was all that was needed to be on the bottom. Rigs were a slapper as there were plenty cruising. A rig for tight across on pellet. An edge rig for 8mm pellet, A rig for meat at 8m. A rig for silvers at 6m but was not used. For company I had dave Ings without an E to my left on 66, Smokin Joe Massey opposit on 51 and Dave Hodgeson on 58. I could only see joe but I could hear the others lol. I started across against the island but it was very slow. Only a couple of crusians. Came into the right edge as I did see a swirl, but again crusians. Tried the meat line but no bites. Not looking good so I just kept swapping lines. 90 minutes in and I had managed one carp across and a few more silvers. Then I got the slapper out and persivered for a bit, then they switched on and I got half a dozen chasing fish and slpping a 6mm pellet on their noses. They soon moved off so it was back to the left edge and it was hectic after that. Plenty of small carp to about 4lb. Not huge but the clicker was going up quickly. I went back to the island to give the edge a rest and managed to hook ten in as many drop ins landing 9. But I got snagged up a couple of times after and trashed rigs. The middle three hours were realy strong and I put about 125lb in the net switching lines. The last 90 minutes slowed right up and I only managed another 3. Around the middle of the match I managed to dislodge one of my nets and it fell in. And Im sure I lost a few as my other two nets were clicked spot on but that net was about 16lb under. At the end I was admiting to 150 to 160lb. |I did the weigh in with Dave and the best weight on the far side was Pete Nurse with 78-15. I put my silvers back as I only had about 2lb max and wanted to dry the net, but my carp went 145-3. That got me top weight on the day and a nice shinny gold coin from Compo. A nice days fishing and my best weight for a while. Match lake wasnt up to its usual standard and top weight was The Silverback Rod Wootton with 76lb. Top silvers today over the two lakes was Nigel Bartlet again with 23-7, so they didnt feed as well as they have lately. full results below.
