2nd November , peg 39 Rowans canal
Rowans canal
After yesterdays eventful match at Partridge lakes i was eager to get back on to the bank and catch a few fish i had wondered whether to give the coveys another bash but in the end decided on another try at Sycamore fisheries although it had fished hard recently on their i fancied the challenge . We have had some heavy rain and strong wind over night which i felt would have a bearing on how it would fish today but at least the weather today was forecast to be a bit better although the temperature had dropped dramatically over night , on arrival at the venue there was a few people knocking about and as it turned out we had 36 attending the match which was more than i had expected after last weeks hard contest but their was a few new faces at the draw queue , when it came for my turn i pulled out number 39 which was exactly the area i wanted so i was understandably happy on arrival at my peg the wind was blowing towards Davids pool and the only down side is the low autumn sun could be a problem at the start of the match .
My rigs for todays match were ;
Top three – 4ft 4×12 malmans roob float with 0.12 garbo main line and a 0.10 garbo hook length which had a size 20 gamma pellet hook my elastic was red matrix .
Channel – 6ft 4×14 malmans speedy float with 0.12 garbo main line and a 0.10 garbo hook length which had a size 18 gamma pellet hook my elastic was red matrix .
Far bank – 3ft 4×12 malmans roob float with 0.12 garbo main line and a 0.10 garbo hook length which had a size 20 gamma pellet hook my elastic was red matrix.
My bait today was ;
1 pint red and white maggots
1 pint soaked micros coated with ground-bait
small tub mixed expanders
small tub corn
As the all in sounded i went straight on to what i hoped would be my main line of attack because it certainly worked well when i won from peg forty the other week and i really expected my float to show indications straight away but things didn’t turn out that way as thirty minutes passed without a sign even after feeding a full kinder pot of maggots every five minutes , so i decided to start feeding my channel swim with half a cupping kit full of micros and while i waited for this to settle i continued on my near slope but another bite less ten minutes and enough was enough so out i went with a pellet on the hook on my channel swim , a couple of lift-drops resulted in the first carp of the day coming my way which was a start at least but a few missed bites wasn’t what i wanted (this is one of my downfalls when pellet fishing)
I decided to kinder pot in a few maggots on this line to see if i could get a bite using these unfortunately this didn’t have the desired effect as it seemed to kill my swim , i went back on to my three meter line as i had fed it for an hour but still no indications so i decided to waste anymore time their as it seemed to be devoid of fish and i went out to my 13 meter swim where i began trickling in maggots through a large kinder pot this finally produced a few bites but the trouble was i was foul hooking a lot of fish and i was tearing my hair out for the second match running trying to solve the problem . I went shallower an inch at a time trying to find at what depth they were feeding at but this didn’t work and i found the best thing to do was just have a couple of droppers which allowed for a slow fall of the hook bait plus having no bulk down the line for the fish to bump into giving false indications , i was still getting foul hooked fish but not as many as i suffered before and seemed to get a proper bite just as the maggot hit bottom .
I did another rotation of my swims to see if any fish had settled but this produced just one carp from my channel line , so i decided to spend the final hour of the match on my three-foot 13m line and after having the benefit of a rest i had four quick carp before the dreaded foul hookers returned in abundance which thinking about it after the match i probably over fed bringing too many fish into the peg as they live along that far bank.
When the all out sounded i knew that i had been beaten on both sides but if i had figured out a way of solving the foul hookers problem i would have had a very good chance of framing today but that’s the way it goes sometimes and i will be thinking long and hard about solving it in the next few days . As far as i am aware peg 38 won by fishing in the channel and peg 40 got second with 24lb fishing to the point of the split , my twelve carp got me just 13lb not a great days fishing .
So that’s it another weekend of match fishing over with which to be honest i found to be a bit of a struggle on both days but with a bit more luck could have been oh so different and with my previously successful top three-line falling to work for me so a review of my tactics is in order before my next trip to the bank , which i think will just be on Sycamore fisheries on the Sunday because i am out on the Friday night with my wife for our wedding anniversary .
matthews580 