Maple 12th April

It’s been quite a while since I last blogged so I’ve got a bit to catch up on.

We had a few knock up matches up at Morndyke a few weeks back where I managed to come 2nd with 3 carp and Gordon came 1st with 6 if I remember rightly, a couple of weeks before that I managed to lose 2 carp early on and subsequently blanked, Gordon won that time too with 8 or 9 carp, most of which were caught in the last hour.

We went to Woodlands probably a month ago now and I once again managed to draw Kestrel, I managed 3 carp throughout the whole match for about 7lb, certainly nothing to write home about!

Easter weekend, we had the second of our club matches on the Sunday, I’d missed the first one as I was moving into my new flat, plus it was at Brafferton and I didn’t fancy gudgeon bashing for six hours.

We were up at The Oaks, Sessay where our match was to be held on Maple, pegs 24-66. Gordon and Rab arrived at 7:45; we quickly loaded the van up and were on our way. A steady drive and catch up saw us arrive at the complex at around 8:15.

Typically the draw was a little bit late, as I walked into the shop Rab had already drawn his peg and managed to snare boss peg 66 which is throwing up some weights at the minute so he pretty much ran towards his peg. Gordon was on 28 and I managed 26, with it being peg, miss a peg it meant we were next to each other. Robert was on 24, his missus was on 32 and Martin Whittaker was on 30 which would complete our section.

I set up an array of rigs to fish to the island; I had 2 rigs with 4x12 Malman Cedars, one on 0.14 and one on 0.12, plus two identical rigs but with 4x10 floats. Elastics were 10 and 12 Maver Latex.

Gordon sounded the hooter a couple of minutes early and you could here people moaning all around the lake!

First put in on a 4mm expander, I dripped in some micros and was getting the odd liner until the float buried; we soon parted company although I was straight back out to catch the culprit, an F1 of about 8oz. Gordon had a few better fish early on and took a considerable lead of what I assumed to be about 6lb.

I plugged away swapping between rigs and swims and managed to put a couple more fish in the net before a lull of perhaps half an hour before the same run of fish again. Gordon shouted over and asked how many I’d had, I replied that I’d had a couple of stockies and a common of maybe 4lb. Gordon replied with ‘you kept that 4lber quiet’, although not all of us have to make a song and dance about every fish we catch, I said that next time I caught a bonus fish I’d stand up on my box and make the whole lake aware before doing a lap of honour! Thankfully that was my only big fish of the day!

It was quite a tedious match and because I’d not been fishing in probably a month it wasn’t filling me with any confidence for the upcoming matches. Maple as a lake is one that I have some confidence in as I’ve done average to quite well on in the past and it suits my ‘style’ of fishing, although by the end of the match I felt I’d taken a backward step more than anything else. The back straight where we were was fishing pretty poorly in comparison to the other parts of the lake though so it was all about going for the section win.

Approaching the last hour I feel I only had a maybe 15lb, Gordon was admitting to 20lb although I knew he was lying. A last ditch attempt meant I had to push to right hand side of the island at 15 meters where I managed another half dozen small F1’s as well as losing a good fish. I knew I’d not won the section but it would be interesting to see what I had in the net. Robert had started catching in the last couple of hours and thought he might have pushed me too.

I’d not realised either but Robert and I were on weighing in duty, which meant I’d get a nice thorough soaking before we headed back! Robert weighed in just over 20lb and I thought it was going to be tight, I managed to plonk 25lb 2oz on the scales and surprised myself as I didn’t think I’d have 20lb. Gordon then managed to up the bar by chucking 30lb odd on the scales which meant he took my quid, I told him I’d be having it back at Woodlands next week! Gordon took the section as Martin put about 23lb is on the scales.

There were some good weights in all the other sections with Stu and Woody ounces apart with over 48lb each but Woody narrowly took the section. Bob the builder claimed the next section with 55lb odd.

Then came the bagging section. I’ve to thank Honest John for giving me a work out, 4 weighs later he’d put a total of 116lb on the board which coincidentally resulted in another match win for the Starbeck Champion. John was on peg 62 and fished maggot shallow to the aerator. Tony Koz managed 68lb 8oz for second place overall and finally to weigh in was Rab. I asked him why he only had one net on the boss peg as we had a 50lb per net rule but he wasn’t biting. Rab also managed to triple default his section and took home the spoils.

So this week I let the team down with both Rab and Gordon picking up, I asked them if we were still sharing the winnings but they both told me the same thing, ho hum!

Well Woodlands next week and for once I can guarantee I won’t be on Kestrel! I better get making some beefy rigs up!