Partridge Lakes, Open Match, 19.10.14

Weather: Sunny intervals, 13C, 25-35 mph SW wind, Air Pressure 1002

Peg: Covey 78

71 Fished

Having a couple of days holiday to use up before the end of the year I decided to take Friday off and have a pleasure session on Covey 5 and, in doing so, I would be able to prepare for one or two weekend opens at Partridge Lakes.  I wanted to pick a wind end peg for the pleasure session and I settled on peg 123 which is a corner peg and, on the day , had a strong wind blowing into it.  The session started off much like my match the week before, with a few F1’s coming off my top 2 line before they spooked a little.  They were however, not as spooked as on the match and would regroup much quicker (after a 5 min rest).  For the first 2 hours I didn’t really get into a rhythm as I was making up rigs and not really getting my head down and feeding consistently, so I only managed to catch about 20 in this time.  I had a break at 12.30pm and went to get a cup of tea and on returning at about 1pm I was good to go, all rigs ready and time to get my head down.  From this point onwards, for the next 4 hours, I managed over a hundred F1’s from both my top 2 and shallow at 7M, both on maggot.  After the session I told myself that my back could only take one other session this weekend so I chose to fish the Sunday open as I thought this would offer the best weather of the 2 days.  The weather, was in fact, similar on both days and my back was fine this weekend, so I am kicking myself a bit for not also going on the Saturday open.

The draw for the Sunday open was a little later than usual, about 9.15am and we were to fish from 10.30am to 3.30pm.  I was hoping to draw on Covey 5 as I would feel confident fishing this after the previous days pleasure session and I knew all my rigs would be spot on.  Unfortunately for me I pulled out peg 78, which is a peg I fished last winter in one of the only 2 opens I fished here and that time the guy on peg 77 caught much more than me.  Furthermore, the previous year I had fished peg 77 and had Paul Coyle on peg 78 and the same thing happened with me catching well and Paul packing up with an hour to go as he couldn’t muster a bite.  Now for those of you who don’t know Paul is a top angler and a past winner of the UK champs so it was just a case of the peg having not as many fish in it.  So taking these 2 things into consideration I was really disappointed with the draw.  Having said that, I’m not that clued up on the good/bad areas on this place at this time of year and F1’s could be sitting in one peg on one day and move to next the next day, so I tried to look at it positively.

On arriving at my peg I could see that I had a strong right to left wind and good presentation and reading  F1 bites on the far bank would be near impossible.  I decided, along with the angler on peg 77, not to get all my pole out as I didn’t fancy fishing across and I was also afraid of breakages in the strong wind.

Set up:

MW F1 slim 14 x 11, 6ft, .11 to .08 powerline, B911 F1 18, yellow middy shockcore – top 2 and track.

MW F1 slim 12 x 11, 4ft, as above – 7m to left

Malman ST Secret 4×14, 5ft, as above – top 2

Malman Elko, .3g, 2ft, .11 to .10 powerline, 808 18. grey hydro, margins 7M to left

Jigga – shallow 7M to left in mid channel.

The Malman Elko was used as it is a stable float that could cope with the wind and movement on the water

Bait:

3 pints maggots

2 pints casters

1 pint Sonubaits F1 dark

I did intend to bring a different ground bait ( margin mix) which I intended to use on Coveys 1-4, but like last week I didn’t put it in my bag.  Anyway, enough excuses and moans about the draw and on with how my match went.

At the all in and I went on my top 2 at 5ft on maggot and it took a good ten minutes before I got 2 on the trot and one of them was about 3lb and then as expected they backed off a little.  A switch to my top  at 6ft (2ft further out) and I managed another and it was apparent that the average size of about 1.5lb was a lot bigger than the last time I had fished here. For the first hour I alternated between the 2 top 2 lines and my track line and, along with 6 small perch from the track line, I managed about 6 or 7 F1’s.  I wasn’t too worried about this as I was doing as well, if not better, than anyone else in the section.  After an hour I switched to the shallow line, where I had been loose feeding casters from the off , and first put in resulted in an immediate take from an f1 of about 2lb.  Into the net with the fish and quickly back out anticipating a good run of fish and ……. nothing.  I managed a few more F1’s over the next hour and I was still probably ahead in the section at the half way point, albeit with a small weight of about 20lb, that was until the angler on peg 77 started to catch shallow and from this point onwards he put a steady stream of F1’s in the net to amass a final weight of over 91lb, for 3rd overall.  I tried to make my shallow line work but I just couldn’t seem to get them going and I only managed 4 fish from this line and if I had any hair I would have pulled out from watching the guy on peg 77 bag up.  In the end I conceded that my shallow line would not work and I concentrated on picking up what I could from my top 2 line.  I ended up with 39lb which was well beaten by peg 77, I did beat peg 80, I could see I had a similar weight to peg 81 and I am not sure what came from the other peg (83) in our section.

So mid-way in the section again and lots of room for improvement.  I will persevere and I am prepared to go all winter as poolsfodder, if that’s what it takes to learn and take the step up to compete at this level.

On reflection, I shouldn’t have spent too long trying to force my shallow line and I should have realised much sooner that I wasn’t able to compete from this line.  I did notice towards the end that my water to the left of the peg was more shaded than peg 77 and he had a lot more open water to his right,  so maybe instead of having a shallow line to my left I should have gone straight out where the sun, on occasions, would hit the water.  I should have gave more attention to the 4ft line and margin line both at 7m to my left, where the sun did hit most of the day and I should have changed to a more sensitive float for the margins as it was apparent that the odd F1 was present and carp would not be the target fish. I did manage a few F1’s from the margin line but I did miss a lot of F1 bites due the to the heavy, stable float and rather than change the float I would give up on the line on the 3 occasions I tried it throughout the match.

I am going to try and do both Saturday and Sunday for the next couple of weeks as after that I will be missing for a few weeks as I have to look after my dear wife and her chickens.

Tight Lines