The tides on the River Kenn were not right for a bit of local river fishing so it was back to Acorn Fishery for this friendly match.
I booked in with Mike Chapman the evening before as I believe its always best to let organisers know in advance if you can.
I was there nice and early (07:45) for the draw which takes place around 08:15. There was a fine drizzle but it was mild and most were expecting it to fish well. Most of the regulars were there and I soon got talking to a chap who reads my blog and who also knows "Turtle" who travels with me to Ireland fishing.
As we were talking the draw was done and I was informed I was on Island peg 1. Judging by past form it was not great but I though with the mild weather it would still produce a few bites.
There were only 3 of the 5 Island pegs in, 1 (me), 3 Kev Perry and 5 Bob Smith. With Bob fishing here most weeks (sometimes twice) I thought he would at least beat Kev and myself. Last time I fished here I was on 5 and won the match with 70lb.
The fishery had been well used of late with a couple of matches over the Christmas period plus every Sunday and Tuesday. There has also been a bit of wet weather so the pegs were a bit muddy despite the substantial platforms.
I have never been on this peg before but knew carp are caught on the nearside point to my right so plumbed up down this edge which was about 2 foot deep.
Right across at 13 metres against the rushes I had just over 2 foot which would be my bread sobbing area.
At 2 plus 3 it was around 3 foot plus to my right in the bowl area so planned to fish 2 area's here for silvers as no one was on 35.
So ... bread and corn for dobbing across and pinkie in ground bait for silvers and maggot for nearside edge, simples.
On the all in I fed my silvers lines with Sweet Fishmeal and a bit of Thatchers Original plus dead pinkie and finely chopped worm.
I went straight across with the bread fishing about 4 inches off bottom. I got indications within minutes and soon had a foul hooker on which at first seemed pretty placid but then took off around the corner to my right and came off.
Back out again dobbing and more liners. About another 20 minutes went by and I had another foul hooker on, how do they manage to get hooked in the tail ?.
I was just about loosing patience with the bloody thing when it started to give up and I eventually netted it. A good fish of around 7lbs.
Another 2 carp came and were more straight forward, one about 3lb and the other about 2lb. I estimated I had 12lb in the first hour so on target.
Glancing around I couldn't see much being caught.
I decided to rest the sobbing line and have a look for silvers, it didn't take long for the float to bury and net a 6oz roach, much prefer catching these. More roach followed plus a skimmer before the bites dried up so re-fed and went dobbing again.
No indications at all from carp on the bread or corn skin so after 20 minutes back to the silvers and fed a bit of maggot down my right hand edge for later.
I had a few more skimmers (not big) and roach fairly quickly but again they backed off. A couple of looks down the edge produced nothing.
I heard Graham Smith behind me talking to Paul Faiers and saying Bob on 5 was having a few. At this point I more or less decided to go for silvers the rest of the match.
I was happy getting a few bites and opened up another silvers line in front of me just feeding pinkie.
Come the end my carp went 11lb and my silvers just under 6lb, neither was any good.
Bob on 5 had the best silvers net with 14lb 11oz made up of a lot of Carasso which count as silvers. Paul was 2nd in the silvers with 11lb plus which included 3 tench off peg 40.
The best carp weight was Chris Gay who I believe caught late of peg 14. Chris won the match with 44lb 5oz.
Full results as follows ....
1. Chris Gay 44-05 p14
2. Paul Faiers 41-07 p40
3. Dave Wride 36-00 p31
4. Bob Smith 26-13 p5
5. John Thompson 23-05 p24
6. Graham Smith 22-07 p37
Silver's
1. Bob Smith 14-11 p5
2. Paul Faiers 11-12 p40
The 2 day River Tone Festival which was scheduled for this weekend has been put back again due to river levels and I can't make the new date in February. I am however going to a match on the Gloucester Canal instead with team mates Chris Hook and Sam Johnson.
Please let the draw gods be good to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment