Oaks - Cedar - Club Match - 29-04-12

After a disappointing days fishing a week ago I was glad to be back on “home” soil. After a lovely breakfast I caught up with Acko and Woody to decide which pegs to use. With us having pegs 42-80 and 19 anglers fishing it made sense to fish it every other peg, you’d end up having a relatively pleasant day free from wind if you drew on the points but it’d be horrendous on any of the straights! Thankfully come the draw, I managed peg 64, which is bang on the end of a point! Although it was to be believed these flyers were no longer flyers, I was glad that I’d be able to fish properly for the day! I had Acko to my left on peg 62 and Cooksy to my right on 66. I’d heard Ian Bowman had fished peg 62 the day before and only weighed in 15lb so I was prepared for a struggle, although the angler on peg 65 managed 38lb. So if I got somewhere in between I’d be happy! It was lightly drizzling at the start of the match but the longer I went on setting up the rain got worse. Normally I don’t use a brolly but if it’s raining before the match I tend to put it up, plus the wind on the end of this point wasn’t too bad so hopefully I’d be alright. I set up three rigs for the day, the first being for down the track, this was one of my homemade KP 0.4g floats on 0.14 mainline, 0.12 hooklength with a size 16 Gamakatsu pellet and paste hook. A size 16 hook may seem a bit big but I was going to fish meat on this line, and I overheard Woody say he a 16 might be better than 18, I could always swap to an 18 if I decided it wasn’t right. The next rig was exactly the same as the track rig but with a 0.2g version of the float for fishing in front of the sedge in 3ft of water, this rig would also do for both my margins. My final rig was pushing up the side of the sedges and was again the same line and hook but with a 4x12 Malman Cedar. All rigs were topped off with doubled 5 elastics. Bait wise, I had some 4 and 6mm expanders, some micros, some 4mm feed pellets and a big tin of meat chopped into 6mm cubes, chopped with a kitchen knife, unlike Gordon “I can’t do my meat without a meatcutter” Thackwray! At the all in the rain was now in full force, the brolly was keeping a bit of my gear dry but when its coming in sideways there’s naff all you can do to keep dry! I threw a dozen 4mm pellets down each margin and keep doing this every five minutes or so whilst I fished in front of the sedges. I baited up with a piece of meat and put half a dozen cubes in my pot and went across to my right hand sedge. The float sat motionless, I came back every 5 minutes or so to keep a few cubes of meat going in but after 45 minutes and 3 gudgeon in the net I wasn’t going anywhere fast. I had a look down the margins and managed 2 F1’s and a small mirror before that also dried up. I fed a full kinderpot onto my deep line and left it ten minutes before going over it. First put in and I was rewarded a mirror of about 3lb, by feeding 5 or 6 bits of meat every put in I started putting some fish in the net. It was by no means frantic but I was certainly glad to be putting something in the net. The wind was occasionally gusting through and had by now taken the brolly down and launched it up the bank, strange how its less annoying to sit in torrential rain than under a brolly! I carried on catching slowly off the track line when I felt it slipping away from me, I fed a dozen bits of meat to try spark a response and also fed the same on a new line a few meters further to my right. Whilst these had time to settle I spent five minutes back in the margins which I’d been continually feeding throughout the match, but after catching a gudgeon off my left swim and a roach off my right swim I was soon back onto the track swims. For the remainder of the match I alternated between the two track swims and did manage to keep a slow but steady stream of fish coming to the net. The all in was finally called at 4 o’ clock and Acko was already half packed up. He was admitting to about 15lb but tipped back, so at least I was a quid up (I’ll have that next week a t Woodlands please!). I reckoned I might have about 30lb and Paul was admitting to a bit less. The scale came round and Rab had managed 53lb odd off peg 70 (flyer), Tony Koz had had 46lb, Bob Sinclair 42lb and young Joe had managed 39lb. So it was going to be close on our point, Paul weighed in a low 20lb and then it was my turn, I managed 38-04, so I’d more than I thought but still not enough. After trudging the gear back to the car, we met back in the cafe to dry off a bit. The top three looked like this: 1st J. Wood - Peg 48 - 73lbs 02ozs 2nd R. Ogilvie – Peg 70 - 53lbs 00ozs 3rd T. Koz - Peg 68 - 46lbs 04ozs Next week were at Woodlands, this will be the first time I’ve fished there this year so it’ll make a nice change, I just hope the fishing is kind and the weather kinder!