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, 31.10.15

Weather: Overcast, 15C, 10mph S wind, Air Pressure 1018

Peg: Covey 100

65 Fished

I have not been up to Partridge Lakes for about a month, but I have been keeping a check on the results and one thing I had noticed was that the pegs on the splits had started to frame a lot more lately; pegs such as 20-22, 72-75 and 97-100, although I haven’t noticed the split on Covey 2 framing that much.  Other pegs that have done well are pegs that are near the splits such 85,86,60.  I was hoping my run of good draws would continue and I wasn’t left disappointed when I pulled out peg 100 on Covey 4 – proper flyer!!  My section for the day was 95,96,97,98,100.

On arriving at my peg I realised I had left my heavier elastic tube of 4 top kits in the garage, so that meant the heaviest elastic I would have today would be white hydro which is heavy enough and can cope with any big bonus carp with the use of the side puller.

Set up:

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

RW Dink 4 X 12, 2ft, .11 to .10 powerline, Guru LWG 18 – across and side of pallet

RW Dink 4 X 12, 3ft, .11 to .10 powerline, Guru LWG 18 – across

Chianti 4 X 10, 2ft. 11 to .10 powerline, B510 18 – shallow maggot

Later I set up a Malman Snake to replace my Chainti

Bait:

2 pints maggots

Micros

4ml expander

1/4 pint of Sonubaits Supercrush Dark

On the all in I started in 2ft of water tight against the far bank rushes where I had found a flattish spot at 11 O’clock, on pellet.  I fed about 30 micros and I would immediately get fish moving into the swim, but I was missing the bites an after half an hour of doing this without a fish I decided it was not right. I think a longer lash might have helped me get more positive bites in the clear water as the fished seemed happy to feed in that depth but were spooking from the pole tip.  I decided to concentrate in 3ft of water as I felt the fish would feed more confidently in this depth of water and I immediately got an F1 from my 11 O’clock swim.  That was a solitary fish as it took me about another half hour before I got another which was at 3ft towards the pallet of 99 and that was on maggot.

2 hours in and I was blowing a good peg with only 2 F1’s in the net, whilst peg 98 had about 6 and I could see the guy on peg 85 had about 4.  I decided to have a quick look on my track at 6M where I had been loose feeding about 6 maggots every couple of minutes from the off, but there was nothing there.  I could see that there was a lot of carp starting to top to my right so I decided to have a dob with my shallow rig.  I shortened the depth to about a foot which meant I had a long a lash and was able to swing my float well away from the pole tip and I put some bread punch on the hook..  After a few minutes the float shot under and I had my first carp of about 4lb.  Back out and after about another 10 minutes the float shot under again and I was connected with something much bigger and although it came in quickly it stayed deep under my feet for a long time.  I only had yellow middy shockcore elastic and this was too light to cope with such a large fish as even though I have the benefit of a side puller, the elastic is bottomed right out and this puts a lot of pressure on the hook length.  I did get a look at the fish at one point and it looked to be about 12lb, but just as I thought it was going to give in it shot to my right and broke the hook length.  I quickly set up another rig with a long lash for dobbing and I also change my elastic to white hydro. Back out and after a short wait I was into another which again snapped my hook length – this was my own fault as I just used the rig staright from my rig box and didn’t chang the hook length and it was probably too light maybe a .10 and not the minimum .13 that was needed.

I was really down at this point as I was blowing a good peg and I had lost about 20lb from just 2 fish.  On the positive side I was putting the odd 4lb carp in the net and I was back in contention for the section.  The activity of the topping fish and me catching them dobbing was slowing down and although I would get the odd one I would have to wait a long time for bites.  With about half an hour to go I hooked into another Barney Rubble and after getting this to the net my elastic snapped just as I was about to scoop it.  I was well gutted now!  I decided to have a quick go on my track to see if the F1’s had turned up yet as there was no sign off them on the previous quick looks I had given this line throughout the match.  If they weren’t there I would get another dobbing rig out.  They were there and I went on to put 7 F1’s in the net in the last 20 minutes.

On the all out I had 40lb on my clicker and although I thought this would be enough to win the section I should have been well ahead and looking at the framing spots.  I weighed in 42lb for the section win with peg 98 getting second with 32lb.

On reflection, I should have made top 3 overall and if I had dobbed from the start with the right tackle, who knows what weight I would have had, maybe even a ton!  I lost 30lb from 3 lost fish, 2 down to me fishing too light (elastics and hook lengths) and the other fish was lost from my white hydro snapping.  I’m not blaming myself for the elastic snapping as I do check it before every match and although it had the usual fraying look at the end it seemed okay – it must have wore out more as I was fishing.  Although I love the action of white hydro I have now had enough of it and lost all confidence with it, I will be using an alternative in future which will probably be NG microbore 8-12.  70lb would have given me 3rd overall, so those lost fish cost me big time.

It will probably 2 weeks before I am back out on the bank

Tight Lines