Il start with the fishomania qualifier, I started the day 46th on the reserve list, wondering if I would even come close to getting on, talk at the draw as usual was you wanted to draw copse, you have more room than anyone and it's not usually match fished every week so the fish are always ready to feed, otherwise having abut of knowledge of the venue, I knew wood could throw up a weight but didn't expect the other lakes to compete. I was fortunate to get onto the match as about 20 people didn't turn up (I think) I just about squeezed in and couldn't believe it when I saw peg 8 copse, this is a good peg (supposedly) and I was very happy to draw copse because at least I had abut of room. Despite the fact I have fished the venue few times in the last year, I've never fished this lake as it's not big enough to hold an open match. A quick chat with Paul the tackle shop owner and he told me Chris vandervliet(who drew just before me in the que) conveniently drew peg 17 on copse with the wind blowing into it, and Ross Harold was also on a decent peg, Paul told me they were both better pegs than mine so I new I would have a challenge on my hands to win.
I got to my peg very late, seeing as I had to wait for 120 anglers to pull pegs out, then wait another 30minutes In case any one turned up late who had tickets, this meant I arrived at my peg with 40minutes to get ready, which wasn't ideal.
I decided on a margin swim to my right which was abut like a 5m line as it had a spit going out with reeds that looked lovely, a swim to my left in shallow water next to some over hanging sedges that looked very inviting, and long pole to the island, although on setting up it was hard to hold in the wind.
I started on my right hand swim with the idea of kinder potting, the left hand margin was big potted and long pole left alone unless I fished it. I had a good start catching about 30lb in the first hour, more than anyone else I could see before bites slowed up, a look down the left resulted in a good run of better stamp fish to get me upto about 60lb before yet again it died, at this stage I considered going long but on first attempt I almost took off with the wind so quickly the pole came back in, I considered chucking a tip over but the angler to my right had caught about 3fish all match and it was clearly not that great, he was also only about 3meters away from where I would have been chucking, so I discarded this and went back to the right margin. To cut a long story short, I kept a steady run if fish going by swapping between right and left side until the last hour when I only managed 4fish, this was frustrating, but after the match it seemed everyone on the lake had exactly the same thing, so I didn't feel I did much wrong.
I finished weighing 103lb, I won the lake beating Chris vandervliet who had 97lbi sh I think! Talk was that I had won it, but my hopes were dashed when a weight of 129lb came from pathfield, very unexpected, I was then relegated into 3rd after Gary bull weighed 145lb of peg 38 on wood.
Although I hadn't won, I was chuffed to frame in a big match like this, and even more chuffed to win my lake against top opposition. The feeling when people were saying I had won it was indescribable, and it's left me craving that feeling again. Next year I'm applying for more tickets and il be back to go that bit better!
My last big match win was at southminster pits, which was a 60 pegged. This is my third visit to the venue as I only go once a year on the inter club match, last year I was sat on a featureless peg watching every peg on the other side of the lake sack up in carp next to reeds in corners, it looked brilliant over there, I managed 13lb of roach for 5th in section that day, which was realistically as good as I could do!
This time however my fortunes had changed and I drew a corner peg on the same lake, it looked fantastic, loads of room and fish topping in the corner whilst setting up. Last year this peg had about 40lb and the match was win with 70lb so I fancied my chances. I spent a good 20minutes plumbing every inch of my right hand margin, and finally settled on 13meters down the bank, just past a little bush and more importantly a relatively flat bottom without tree roots, the rest of the swim was horrible and full of roots and snags which would have made fishing a nightmare. I fed a cup of groundbait (this was 50/50 sonubaits krill and sonubaits sweet f1, a margin mix that works everywhere I go and have complete faith in) with some dead maggots here and chucked a tip down the corner, after 10minutes I'd had nothing so thought I'd see if I could mug an early carp on the pole line, the float flew straight under and a short scrap later a nice 6lber was in the net, I went straight back in and had another one, by this time only 25minutes had passed and I had already matched my weight from the year before, not too shabby!
I topped the swim up with more groundbait and maggots and went on my roach line as there are some cracking roach in here and felt I could catch these until the margin was really ready. After 2 minutes and 2 decent roach I saw a tail sticking out the margin. I proceeded to catch 3 carp in 3 put ins and then topped up again. I decided this time to go straight back over the top, and had another withing minutes. I got into a nice routine catching 2 or 3 carp off a pot of groundbait with a few dead reds. I had a slow spell in the middle of the match, but otherwise caught very regularly. I finished with 26 carp for a match winning143lb, beating the 'reed' peg who came 2nd with 78lb.
I had a great day and was really pleased to win by such a great margin, I had got the feeding pattern spot on all day and hardly lost a fish!
The rig that did all the damage was a Nick Gilbert margin float, I used a heavy 0.4g as the swim was about 2.5 foot deep these also feature a 2mm bristle which helps the float stay up when you get liners, personally I am completely converted to heavy margin floats for carp, regardless of depth, I'm happy to use a 0.4g which is about 4x14 in less than 18inches if the target is carp. I see no reason to fish any lighter, I have all the shot above a 4inch hook length, so my 10 maggots are on the bottom and not going anywhere, we all know how positive margin carp take the bait aswell so there's no reason to make life hard for yourself, after all what's the point in feeding accurately with a pole cup if you fish a light float that's going to waft about when a fish comes in!
I also came 2nd a colemans cottage the other week on a 36peg match on wood lake, I weighed 154lb which would normally be enough to win with this many people on it but I got pipped by Gary bell with 164lb. I won't disclose my tactics for this match just yet as the maver match this is coming up next week on here, but more importantly my team bills tackle are in the semi final of the bait tech supercup in 2 weeks where we will be trying to make out way to the final for a second year running.
These results also mean I have 7points after the first 2 weeks of the anglers mail/preston innovations matchman of the year, which is a great start! Although I am under no illusions that I could win this competition as I fish team matches all year round, if I'm to score points it will be venues I fish once or twice a year that can be very Peggy, this is much harder than fishing 2 or 3 local commercials that run big matches in my opinion. I also don't fish a Saturday and Sunday so will most likely fish half the matches if many! Hopefully though I can score a few points and keep my name on the leaderboard a little while longer.
Thanks for reading
I will be back with more!
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