Maver Match This Qualifier, Patridge Lakes, 18.07.15

Weather: Sunny intervals, 20C, 20mph NW wind, Air Pressure 1010

Peg: Ribbon 6

83 Fished

I don’t usually fish these matches as they are quite costly at £50 and I find it hard to justify the cost, but with me only getting two Fisho’s this year I decided to treat myself.  I arrived at about 8am and I met up with Gary (Matthews580) in the car park before we both set off to have a stroll around the lakes.  Back at the hut at 8.30am and I went to buy my maggots at the on-site tackle shop and after a quick chat with the always pleasant Barbie I was the advised, by Gary, that I had to register my attendance.  With us fishing from 11-4 today there would be plenty of time to set up after the 9am draw and this meant all anglers were not as rushed pre draw and the queue  didn’t really form until about 8.50am, which is when we chose to join it.

From the lakes that were in; Covey’s 1-6, Ribbon, Marsh and Spey, I was hoping for a peg which had the wind, giving a good ripple and a corner/wind end peg would be preferable, such as Covey 85, 54,8 or 105.  The only lake I didn’t really want was Marsh, as I have never fished this, but even this throws up big weights and has produced the winner in big matches such as this.

Gary went first and drew peg 83 which he was very happy with and then I drew Ribbon 6 which was also a good draw, being the peg Connor Barlow qualified for the Fisho final from.

Set up:

MW F1 Slim 8×11, .11 to .10 powerline, B510 18 – top 2 maggot

MW F1 Slim 8×11, .11 to .10 powerline, PR36 20 – top 2 4ml pellet

MW F1 Slim 10×11, 11 to .10 powerline, B911 F1 18 – track

MW F1 Slim 4×11, 11 to .10 powerline, B911 F1 18 – far bank at 3ft

Small dibber, .11 to .11 powerline, B99 F1 18 – shallow maggot

Bait:

4 pints maggots

4ml pellets

Pint of F1 supercrush

I had wanted to get some casters instead of maggots but this would have meant me leaving work early on the Friday to pick them up and with me being busy in work at the moment I decided I didn’t have time and that maggots would be just as good for catching them shallow.

I was ready to go 20 minutes before the all in and when the signal for the start of the match was sounded I eagerly went across to my far bank swim with about 15 maggots and a pinch of ground-bait in the tosspot. I did this a couple of times and all a got was a small roach whilst peg 8 had already caught a couple of F1’s from his far bank line.  I noticed my ground-bait had dried out a little too much, so I added some water to it to make it a little more sloppy so I would get a good plop out of the tosspot and hopefully draw the F1’s in.  This worked and I went on a little run of 8 F1’s before they spooked a little and I foul hooked one losing it at the net.  Half an hour in and I was doing OK with me being 8-3 up on peg 8 (the only peg I could really see).  With the far bank fading and needing a rest, I took the opportunity to try my top 2 lines where I had been feeding 4mls from the off, by first trying a 4ml pellet.  With no bites from this I went back on my far bank line and decided I would feed maggots on the top 2 as this was what I was catching on across.  I could only manage a quick 2 F1’s from the far bank this time and found myself coming off it a lot quicker to try elsewhere.  Meanwhile peg 8 had began to have some success from fishing with caster shallow at 10M, catching F1’s and a couple of bonus carp, so I grabbed for my shallow rig and began to catapult maggots at 10M.  I managed a couple of F1’s but they would soon back off this line and found myself changing lines again.  I had noticed peg 8 would catch 2 or 3 and then they would back off from his shallow line for 10 minutes or so, but he would stick with it and by doing so he was there when the fish would return and he would also catch the odd bonus carp.  Before I knew it there was only 1.5 hours left (where had the time gone) and I wasn’t doing great with only about 30lb in the net.  Peg 8 had stuck it out shallow and was way ahead of me now, so I made the decision to stick it out shallow and see if I could get to some sort of respectable weight.  I did mange a good run of F1’s in this time but when my elastic snapped at the puller and I lost my rig, by the time I had put another rig on my swim had died and I spent the last half an hour with no fish. I was having most success by catching one a foot off the rushes and then I would push my rig into the rushes (bungee style) and wait for the elastic to rip out of the pole and this would be good for another couple of F1’s before I would start the process again – feeding a foot off the rushes, catch one then 2 from the rushes and so on.  At the all out I had 50lb on the ticker and I reckoned peg 8 was good for 70lb.  Peg 8 was first to weigh and he surprisingly put 98lb on the scales to my 58lb.  I didn’t think there was that much between us, but speaking to him afterwards he told me he had about a dozen 3 to 4lb carp in his catch, he said he did start by fishing with pellet shallow but soon came off them when he went 15 minutes without a bite.  He went on to win the lake with that, with Neil Machin getting second with 93lb.  I finished about half way on the lake with a couple of DNW and a few sub 50lb weights.

On reflection, I wish I had made an effort to get casters as they seemed to make a big difference as although peg 8 caught more fish than me, he didn’t have a great deal more and his weight was boosted by the bonus carp.  We were both fishing shallow the same way, sometimes having a bit of line between float and pole tip to allow us to slap the rig and fish at 10 inches and at times we would push the float right up to the pole tip to give us a bungee style rig at about 18 inches.  The other difference was our swims with peg 8 having a good ripple and my peg having only the occasional ripple, even though there was a strong crosswind at times.  Having said that I don’t think the ripple was the difference, I think it was bait choice and the fact that peg 8 stuck it out shallow after half an hour. It was a good draw today and I am sure a better angler would have caught over the ton by fishing positively with casters and sticking at it shallow.  In hindsight, that’s what I should have done – bought casters and fished then shallow against the rushes and I reckon I would have had around a ton.  I only managed one bonus carp from the far bank and this jumped over the aerator rope to my left, leaving me lost on how I was to land it. Luckily it ended up breaking my light bottom after steaming towards peg 4. Next time I pay so much for a match entry I’ll make sure I don’t compromise with my bait.

Well done to the young lad on peg who fished a steady match and not only gave me a spanking but beat some good anglers on the lake today, including Neil Machin and Adam Richards.

Peg 8 – 98lb (lake win)

                  Me – 58lb

My ego was boosted a little at the end by being one of only a few anglers chosen to get their picture taken and put on Facebook – it must be the new Bandana look!

I had to get straight off after the match and didn’t get a chance to see Gary and find out how he got on.  Hopefully he caught a few and enjoyed the day like I did.

Club match tomorrow at Hall lane, hopefully I can improve on my bad run on matches and at least frame.

Tight Lines