Partridge Lakes, Open Match, 15.03.15

Weather: Cloudy, 5C, 15mph ENE wind, Air pressure 1031

Peg; Covey 38

53 fished

The weather was a lot cooler than that of last week and there had been an easterly wind leading up to this match, so unlike last week when I was confident the fish would follow the warmish 13C wind and want to sit shallow in it, I was guessing the opposite would be the case this week.

Peg 38, Covey 2

Today I drew peg 38 on Covey 2, which is an area I have never fished before and I was a little disappointed with this as I don’t recall it framing much and I also feared I would be in a wind end corner.  On arriving at my peg I was pleased to see that although I was towards the corner, the water in front of me would be sheltered from the cold wind.  My section today was 33,36,38,40,42 and I anticipated that the anglers to my left on 40 and 42 would be the anglers to beat.  We were in at 10.15am.

I have not been very successful with my track swim this winter, which has cost me several sections, with me leading the section on some matches only to lose it to an angler having a good last hour down the track.  So today, having sheltered calm water in front of me, I decided on a slight change to my track approach.  I would use a carbon stem Malman Secret float and string out number 8’s about 10 inches apart, but I would stick to my approach of feeding 20 maggots every 20 minutes and not go on to it until the final 90 minutes.

Set up:

Malman Secret 4X14, B510 18, yellow middy shock core – 5.5ft track

MW F1 Slim 10×11, B510 20, orange middy shockcore – 4.5ft top 2

MW F1 Slim 6×11, B510 20, orange middy shockcore – 3ft swims

All above on .10 to .09 powerline

Malman snake 4×10, B911 F1 18, white hydro – dobbing

Bait:

1 pints maggots

Micros

4ml ringers expanders

Sweetcorn and bread for dobbing.

On the all in went 10M at 1 O’clock at 3ft dobbing bread and within 10 seconds my float shot under and I had my first F1 of about 14oz. Encouraged by this great start I went back over the same spot but no more bites were forthcoming.  I proceeded to work my way to the left, dobbing bread and after an hour I had searched my entire swim, even going as long as 14M, but I could not muster another bite.  So an hour had gone and it was tough and at this point peg 40 started to catch by fishing tight against the far stick ups at 2.5ft towards peg 41 on maggot.  I had a quick go on pellet, but with me not getting a bite and with peg 40 doing well on maggot, I decided it was not a pellet day and I would concentrate on maggot.  I spent the next hour at 3ft on maggot and I started at 1 O’clock, feeding 6 maggots every 10 minutes.  I would give each swim about 15 minutes, feeding twice and when I didn’t get a bite I moved a couple of metres to the left and eventually I caught an F1 which was at 14M across in front of peg 39.  I was really struggling at the half way point, but besides peg 40 who really motoring and had about 15 F1’s, everyone else in the section was struggling too.  I hadn’t seen peg 36 catch anything and I actually felt a bit sorry for him as he had the fresh cold wind hitting his water and I hadn’t seen peg 42 and peg 33 catch much either, although they were slightly out of eyeshot. So although I was way behind peg 40 I wasn’t giving in and I was hoping his peg would die and mine would come alive.  For the next hour I did a bit of searching through the depths and concentrated my efforts to the left, where I thought the F1’s would be but I had no success and with 90 minutes to go I worked out I had only had 5 bites all day – this was bad! It was time to try the track, but before I did I thought I would give it one last feed before I went on it. I got my 3 ft rig out and put about 25 maggots in the toss pot and as I was shipping across I emptied most of these down the track line and continued across to 3ft, where I would empty the remaining 3 or 4 maggots at 1 O’clock across. I kept my bait static and after a couple of minutes my float shot under and I had my 3rd F1 – whoo-hoo only 20 behind peg 40!  That must have been a solitary F1 as I couldn’t get another bite on this line, so I picked up my track rig and baited it with double white maggot.  I put a dozen maggots in the toss pot and laid in by holding the float a bout 18 inches out of the water for about 20 seconds and then slowly lowered the rig down, hopefully through the falling maggots.  After a couple of minutes I had a missed bite which was closely followed by another and an F1 nicely hooked in the lips and in the next half hour I had another 8 F1’s and an Ide.    If I could keep up this catch rate I could possibly pull it back and catch up to peg 40.  With there being Ide present and the fish now seeming to want the feed I had started to give them a bit more, probably about 20 maggots every fish.  I didn’t want to feed to lightly as I wanted to keep the F1’s down and feed off any Ide, but I think I made the mistake of feeding too frequently as the swim died. I decided to give it a 20 minute rest and try at 3ft again and during this spell I fed the track twice with about 10 maggots each time. Nothing at 3ft, so with 20 minutes remaining I decided to go back on the track and the little rest and lighter feeding had done it some good as I went on to put another 4 F1’s in the net, by feeding about 10 maggots every 5 minutes.

At the all out, I knew I was well beaten by peg 40 who had caught about 25 F1’s to my 14, but I decided to weigh to see how I had finished in the section.  Peg 40 won the section with 32lb and also finished 6th overall,I think I was second with 18lb, peg 36 DNW, peg 33 had about 10lb and although I didn’t see peg 42’s weight I don’t think he caught much.  I don’t think they pay 6th place as a framing position with the amount that fished, it will probably be top 3, so no jammy default section win for me!

On reflection, I’m going to take the positives out of this match and the fact that for once I got my track line working in the last hour.  I think, although I may have gone a little overboard with the feeding at one point which may have caused them to back off,  it may have just been a case of the swim needing a quick rest and letting the fish regroup and settle on feeding again.  Feeding 10 maggots every fish (every 5 minutes) seemed to get me a run of F1’s before they backed off.  Maybe feeding 20 maggots every 2 fish (every 10 minutes) might have prevented them from backing off, but I’m leaning towards it not being the feeding and the theory that the fish will become a little spooked after catching a few and the swim needs a 10 minute rest.  I didn’t get any fouled hooked fish today and very few liners which leads me to think I didn’t get too much wrong with the feeding.  Did the less positive strung out track rig, as opposed to the more positive strung bulk and 1 or 2 droppers, make a difference? – I’m not sure, but I will continue with it when conditions allow and time will tell.

Hopefully I will get to fish next Saturday as next Sunday me and the missus are doing a car booty, which I have been promising to do for about 2 years and with a busy fishing schedule coming up I want to get it out-of-the-way……………… can’t wait!  I have also realised that Liverpool V Man Utd are on next Sunday and I will probably miss that too….gutted!

Tight Lines