It was back to the Chelmer for this weeks Match, after last weeks wash out I was hoping conditions were going to be good this time round. There had been no rain all week so I was expecting a river just come out of flood with a hint of colour and a decent flow, fortunately that was exactly what I found when I turned up at my peg!
We were fishing along the Hoe mill stretch, which is normally the more consistent area, and you can always catch a few fish, I hadn't fished this part since last year when I had a great day catching roach on hemp, I was hoping for more of the same!
I drew peg 5 from the draw bag, meaning nothing to me as ive not fished here for so long, I got my gear and started the long muddy walk to my peg. On arrival I found myself on the same peg as the year before. This is part of the river where it goes from about 17 meters wide, to about 10 meters, although this didn't concern me too much as id won the section from it last year.
I had some joker left from last week so decided I was going to fish a line down my inside to my right, about 2 meters away from the bank, just where it gets deep, and another straight down the middle with hemp, with the option of moving further across if the fish backed off.
I started the Match by feeding a golf ball sized ball of bread down the middle, the plan was to trickle hemp on this line all day with the odd ball of bread to hopefully get the bigger roach to feed, I then started fishing on my inside, fortunately the fish were on it instantly so after 30minutes id caught 40 small fish over the joker, probably for less than a pound, but it was a good start! I went over the bread line and caught instantly on bread, the fish were slightly bigger but were coming far slower, I tried some hemp only to miss a bite after 5 minutes, no good so I went back down the inside. I carried on catching here but the fish never got bigger, i had the odd 1oz specimen but not in any numbers. after about 2 hours the line down the middle was really building up, and I was managing a bite every run through on this line. I decided to stop feeding bread on this line aswell, I feel as though small fish only nose and spit out hemp so by feeding only hemp maybe I would get through to the bigger fish? Well, this didnt exactly go to plan, I did cut out the tiddlers, but didn't get onto the 4-6oz residents. The swim was constantly building though and in the last hour I caught alot of 1-2oz fish, which certainly boosted my weight, strangely enough I didn't really catch on hemp, even though this is all I was feeding. I found that if I fished 4mm bread punch I got quick bites, then after 4 or 5 fish I would put a red maggot on and I would get a bigger roach or dace every time, nice weight builders. I had a nice rythem going through the match and I new I would be in contention, unless someone got onto the bigger fish in which case I might just fall short! Id managed 205 fish in the 5 hours, and thought they would only go about 6lb at best!
I went along with the weigh in, and I was surprised to see Mr mason only weighing 3lb 10oz, he is a great angler along this stretch, and anywhere he goes in fact. The bloke to my left managed 3lb 2oz, after suffering with alot of pike trouble all day. When the scales came to me I was pleasantly surprised by the weight of my fish as I lifted them out, the scales of justice showed me 7lb 8oz, I was very pleased with that, much more than id thought! The last few blokes weighed in, including my grandad, Peter Thompson, who managed 4lb to pinch 2nd place from Mr mason.
Id had a great days fishing, even though I had to walk through 8inch deep mud to get to my peg! Thats yet another win for my season, at another venue, and another style of fishing. Ive won matches with 400lb of carp, 60lb of bream, and 20lb of roach, various mixed bags and now 7lb of river roach and dace, nothing pleases me more than to be able to win matches with a variety of fish and with different techniques, ive truly had some fantastic fishing this season, im looking forward to the winter ahead, as I love catching silvers on commercials, so much to look forward too!
Next week im off to Rayne lodge top lake on the Saturday for an open match, then on Sunday I have a club match on the bottom lake, this time of year you don't know if your targetting 50lb of skimmers and carp or 150lb of carp to win a match at Rayne, one thing I love about match fishing is on days like these having to work out the best method to catch, rather than going somewhere knowing your going to ton up in the margins.
I must confess to having had a sneaky practice on Saturday on the bottom lake, in preparation for this Sunday, I just cant help myself but go fishing when im not at work! I caught 22 carp and an endless amount of skimmers, for roughly 100lb I thought. But the weather can change, frosts can kick in and fish can swim into another peg, so bring on next week.
Thanks for reading this weeks blog, I look forward to posting next week on how my 2 matches go!
Tight Lines,
Reece Hearn.
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