The Pool, Fieldsend Fishery - 18 October 2009

I was a bit dubious about fishing this match. Having never seen the venue before, hearing how the pellet waggler often dominates and the recent cold weather made me almost stay at home to watch the Football and Grand Prix! In the end I bit the bullet and decided to make the effort with this year’s match attendances frequently being below par.

I drew peg 6. I wasn’t too happy with the draw after recent matches being won off pegs 1-4. The way the match was pegged meant peg 6 was an end peg in the section which made it more appealing. Trev drew peg 2 which was the golden peg. As one of the contenders for the club championship, I really needed to beat him in the section to stand a chance of competing in the league myself. The other main championship contenders, Mr T & Ronnie, were pegged in the other section.

I did manage to glean some info from a few sources which narrowed my plan of attack to 2 areas; the pole with pellet and the method feeder. I felt the pole would offer the best presentation if the conditions allowed and the method feeder would be my plan B if the wind was a problem.
Before the off I plumbed up two pole lines, one at 13m and the other at 8m. With the 8m line being my main line of attack and the 13m line fed in case the fish wanted to be in the deeper water as the water cools. I set up one rig on the 13m line in about 10 feet of water; the float was a 1.5g maver pattern with 0.14 line to a 14 B911 hook, bulked with an oli with 4 nr 9 droppers. This was set at dead depth so the bristle was still showing on a slack plumbed line. I didn’t fish this line during the match.

I set up 2 rigs for the 8m line in 6 feet of water. One was a standard pellet rig with a .75g Tipo and 0.14 line to a 14 B911, this was shotted with a spread bulk of nr 9s with the lowest around 12 inches from the hook. The other was a 4x18 chimp set up with a 360 rotating hook length and a double bulk with the bottom bulk above the pivot about 3 inches off the bottom. I have had a few fish on this type of rig recently but this didn’t produce a fish today, with all fish falling to the strung out rig fished at dead depth.

At the start I cupped in a mixture of 6 & 4mm softened hard pellets on both pole lines and went out immediately onto the 8m line with a 6mm expander. Working the bait by lifting and dropping I kept fish coming throughout the day, feeding a toss pot of bait after each fish, bite or 200 count. This ensured I kept the bait going in, even during slow spells. Although the seasons are turning I still felt the fish would want some feed before the frosts set in. The fishing wasn’t manic but it was steady with around 5 fish per hour. The fish generally came in spurts with no obvious rhyme or reason why and when the appeared.

I had a look on the method after half an hour as Karl had 3 fish on it to my 2 on the pole. I hooked a fish first cast but lost it at the net so decided to focus on the pole.

At the weigh-in I had 17 fish in net 1 for 54lb 4oz and 6 fish in net 2 for 27lb 4oz, including one of around 8lb. I was frustrated that I lost 12 fish in total but I expect many people lost fish so I wasn’t too disheartened, I do however feel that black hydro was too heavy and grey would have been more appropriate.

I think the lost fish may have been down to the fact the bottom of the lake is clay which often means the fish in these venues often have quite soft mouths compared to those in other venues. Speaking to Ray Sladden after the match he said that losing fish is quite common on the venue.

Ray was 2nd in the section with 58lb of pellet waggler caught carp followed by new man Shaun who fish similar tactics to Ray for 33lb. Mr T won the other section with Ronnie 2nd.

There was some commotion at the weigh-in regarding the counting weights as a few anglers had over 50lb in a net. I think we need to make it clear at the next meeting how we are going to move forward regarding to venue net rules and our previous turning a blind eye.

These sort of disputes are not good for the image of the club or for the rapport between members, especially when membership and attendances are below par.