Partridge Lakes, Open Match, 07.11.15

Weather: Rain, 13C, 15-25mph wind, Air Pressure 1012

Peg: Covey 12

66 Fished

There was some bad weather forecast today, with a heavy wind that was due to keep changing direction coupled with persistent rain.  I sometimes back out of these matches when the weather is bad but with winning my section the week before I was in a positive mood and raring to go.  October had been a great drawing month for me with a couple of flyers and many good end pegs coming my way and I was hoping I could carry this through to November and continue drawing the better pegs.   I was left disappointed at the draw bag after puling out peg 12 on Covey 1, an area I had only ever fished once before about 4 years ago.  I asked a few people about the area and most people grimaced when I told them what peg I had drawn and one guy advised me to go home!  My draw became worse when I arrived at my peg to find out peg 13 was also in and we would have to share the reed beds that were between us. Peg 11 was spare and there was someone on peg 10, although he was in the first section.  I was in a 6 man section of 12,13,15,17,20,21.  I wasn’t aware of these sections until after the match and spent the match trying to compete with peg 10.

45lb was framing in some matches of late so my target weight wouldn’t be high today and with me not being too happy about my draw I reduced my target weight from 40lb to 30lb.

Set up:

Malman Secret 4 X 14, 6ft, .11 to .10 powerline, B510 18 – track

MW F1 Slim, 8X11, 3ft, B510 18 – far side, peg 11 pallet and left hand reeds

Malman Snake Mk2 4×10, .13 top .11 powerline, Guru LWG 18 – dobbing

Bait:

2 pints maggots

Handful of Sonubaits F1 Dark + Leam

Slice of bread

I wasn’t that optimistic of catching much by dobbing bread today, I don’t know why, it just didn’t seem a good area to do it.  The reeds looked good to my left, but with me only having half of them I would only be able to go up to 7M and with me not wanting to go pole tip to tip with peg 13, I decided to just plumb one 3ft swim at 5M and I wouldn’t dedicate too much time to that.  My 3 main swims would be 3ft across at 2 O’clock, 3ft by peg 11 and my track at 6M.

On the all in I started to dob at 2ft, against the reeds to my left, across and by the pallet of peg 11. I spent half an hour doing this with no success, but I did spend the quiet time watching other anglers to see where they had caught from.  Peg 10 was catching down the track, peg 13 had lost one carp dobbing against the reeds he was sharing with me and besides that little was being caught.  I decided to start fishing my 3ft swims whilst continuing to loose feed over my track line.  After 2 hours of the match had gone by I only had 2 F1’s in the net and although this was bad, most anglers were in the same boat, except for peg 10 who was on about 12 f1’s at this point, still catching from his track line.  It seemed the track would be the best place to catch fish from and although I don’t like going on this line this early in the match I felt I had no choice.  I had been loose feeding over the track from the start and when I went on it I decided to toss pot my maggots in to give a tighter feeding area. This worked a treat and I had a good run of about 12 F1’s in the next half hour until they spooked a little.  I had now put myself back in the section and I had myself ahead of everyone I could see.  With the fish backing off from the track line a little I decided I needed somewhere to go whilst I could give the track line 10 minutes rest spells and I chose to use the pallet of peg 11.  For the rest of the match it was a case of getting 2 or 3 F1’s from the track before resting it for 10 minutes and taking what I could from the pallet of peg 11, although I did only manage one solitary F1 from this pallet.

On the all out I had 28 F1’s on my clicker so I reckoned I had about 35lb. Peg 10 weighed in 34lb before me and it was only then I realised he wasn’t in my section so I didn’t have to worry about beating him.  I weighed in 38lb for the section win with peg 15 32lb, peg 17 26lb, peg 13 21lb and pegs 20 + 21 DNW.

Peg 12 Section Win

On reflection, I thought it was a well-earned section win from not a great peg.  Having said that me and peg 10 had the 2nd and 3rd best weights on the lake, after Kieran Rich taking 55lb from peg 2, so maybe I wasn’t in such a bad area after all.  It just goes to show that these F1’s do move about and you shouldn’t always right off an area before you fish it.  I don’t like going on my track line as early as I did and I much prefer to take fish from elsewhere before hitting the track towards to the end of the match, but I felt I had no choice today.

I have booked on for Saturday 14th Nov, but I’m not sure I will be able to fish as I have had a little operation on my right elbow and it’s pretty sore right now, I will have a late fitness check on Friday.

Tight Lines

Partridge Lakes, Open Match, 15.08.15

Weather: Sunny Intervals, 15C, 10-14mph WSW wind, Air Pressure 1014

Peg: Covey 4

52 Fished

After the recent warm weather, a cold front had come in the day before and brought in some rain with it.  I was unsure how the drop in temperature would affect the good weights that were had during the week, but I was confident the conditions would be better than last Saturday’s match when it was hot and muggy.  There had been some warm easterly winds during the week and the fish would have surely followed them to the west side of the lakes, but the wind had changed to a westerly direction on the Friday, so would this mean the fish followed the wind to the east side of the lakes?  I wasn’t sure, maybe they would be well spread.  On the previous 2 weeks I have been here, although I have had good section draws, the pegs have not been good draws overall, so hopefully this week I could draw one of the pegs with recent good form.  Pegs 2,8,25,33,42,52,85,105,131 seem to be the areas that offer most consistency, so one of them would be nice.  I wanted to be on the east side of the lakes as this would be where the wind would hit some pegs.

As usual I was one of the last to draw and I was well happy when I pulled out peg 4 on Covey 1.  I was in a good area but a tough section of 1,2,4,6,8.  Pegs 2 and 6 had both produced big weights recently and peg 1 is also capable of producing a winning weight.  My peg and peg 8 would have the benefit of the wind blowing into our corners, so it was all set up to be an interesting section.  Whilst setting up I was a becoming more and more optimistic of catching a good weight, as there was a lot of fish topping and the breeze had picked up a little to put a nice ripple on the water in front of me, whereas pegs 2 and 6 were sheltered from the breeze.   I was beginning to think a ton weight should be easily achievable if I could get them going shallow from an early point in the match.

Set up:

MW F1 Slim 10 X 11, 5.5ft, .11 to .10 powerline, B911 F1 18 – track

MW F1 Slim 10 X 11, 5ft, .11 to .10 powerline, B911 F1 18 – top 2

HB Ratchatcher 1, .13 to .10 powerline,, B911 F1 18 – margins and far side

Jigga , PR36 18 – banded caster

Bait:

3 pints casters

1/2 pint maggots

1 pint of Sonubaits F1 Supercrush Dark

I had set up a jigga as opposed to a standard dibber as I wanted to fish bungee style and I wanted the option of going 14M to my left near the unused platform and shipping out 14m would be so much easier with a jigga.  I had also got a chianti float rig out, for fishing shallow, but never had time to put it on the top kit before the all in at 10.15am – I would set this up during the match if I needed it.  I had a lovely looking margin to my left at about 5 sections, where it was 2ft deep tight to the bank, this would be my starting point.

On the all in I fed my right hand margin (top 2) with a nugget of ground-bait and some maggots and then I went on my left side margin with 6 maggots in a tosspot topped with a nugget of ground-bait.  With no sign of fish after 5 minutes I re fed, but still there was no signs of fish in the swim so I decided to feed about 100ml of ground-bait and 50 maggots and leave it alone for about 15 minutes, whilst I tried elsewhere. 30 minutes gone and after failing to get a bite on my right hand margin I decided to have an early go shallow at 6M, where I had been feeding casters from the off and after giving it 15 minutes and just catching one small ide I decided it wasn’t right yet and I had to look elsewhere.  A 10 minute spell on my top 2 on maggot only produced a couple of micro perch.  An hour in and I had about 10oz in the net and I was beginning to worry that I may struggle today.  The next 1.5 hours passed by with me not putting anything else in the net and I was beginning to feel a little deflated as peg 6 had been catching the odd one and had about 25lb in his net and he was probably leading the section.  Peg 2 to my right was struggling like me and had no more than 5lb at this point and although pegs 1 and 8 were slightly out of eyeshot, I sensed that these were not doing too well.  So half of the match gone and even though I was well behind peg 6 I wasn’t giving the section up just yet.  I decided to have another look shallow and I began to put ide in the net and although most of them were about 10oz I would get the odd larger specimen and in the next 30 minutes or so I put about 15lb of them in the net before they seemed to back off.  This settled me down a little and gave me some hope of clawing back the section as although peg 6 was on about 30lb, I was starting to catch quicker than him.  I gave the 6 meter shallow line a good 20 minute rest whilst I had a look shallow towards to unused platform at 14M to my left and I also had quick goes on my margin and top 2.  I had my first F1 on my top 2 but just as I was thinking a could put a string of them together the micro perch returned and I decided to come off it and go back shallow, where I had not stopped feeding casters.   Back on the 6M shallow line and I was immediately into an F1 and I began to put F1’s in the net at a fast rate and in the next 45 minutes or so I took my weight up to about 45lb, which I thought was just ahead of peg 6 and I was probably leading the section with half an hour to go.  My peg went quiet at this point and this is when peg 6 began to catch F1’s shallow at a fast rate, whereas I only had 3 F1’s in the last half an hour.  The all out was sounded and I was left feeling a little disappointed as peg 6 had probably put 20lb in the net in the last half hour and was looking good for the section.

Peg 6 weighed in before me and put 62lb on the scales – I knew I couldn’t beat it and I went on to weigh 53lb, giving me second in the section.  Peg 1 weighed 41lb, peg 8 34lb and peg 2 DNW.  Incidentally, peg 10 which I think was the first peg of the next section, packed up and went home early.

On reflection, I staged a good fight back and I must admit I thought I had the section in the bag with half an hour to go, but peg 6 fished a good match and I think he always kept his 6M shallow line fed for the whole match and he was rewarded when the F1’s turned up with half an hour remaining.  The 2 things I thought about doing that I never did was switching to a shallow rig that I could slap away from the pole tip as I think the fish were still there when it went quiet, they had just backed off from the pole tip, and I also considered fishing sweetcorn to the unused pallet at 14M left but I never got the rig out and did it.  I reckon I could have got at least 10lb from that pallet in the first half of the match, which would have been enough to give me the section.  I should have realised I needed to go long when none of my short lines were showing any signs of F1’s or Carp.

Even though I was left feeling a little disappointed I thought the second half of the match was an exciting head to head between me and peg 6, so I got some enjoyment out of it, I’m just kicking myself as I reckon my peg was good for 70lb if I had fished the first half of the match correctly.  There were no weights over the ton today, peg 87 won with 99lb and the other 5 framing pegs came off Covey 5 with 77lb being 6th, so I reckon peg 6 probably had one of the top weights from Covey’s 1-4.

Well that’s the end of my little summer stint at Partridge Lakes and I’m back on the club matches next weekend.  I’ve fished 3 weekends on the bounce and had 2 section wins and a second, which isn’t bad going.  I don’t think I’ll be able to get on more than 2 or 3 opens at Partridge between now and November, I have 6 club matches and a trip to Whiteacres in this time so opportunities will be limited.

Clubby at Sycamore Fisheries Rowlands Lake, next Saturday….. watch this space.

Tight Lines