I woke up Thursday morning with Glenn telling me I snored like a cow, I reminded him he snored like a chainsaw! I was still full from last night and didn't go for a cooked breakfast, and I don't think a jalfrezi was the best choice of curry for my bowels!
Today's match was going to be on Campbell and (oh no) Lodge... Surely I couldn't draw on Lodge for the 4th match running? That said I wouldn't mind if I could draw on 64 or 66 where the majority of carp seem to be at present. Into the queue and either side of me were Tony Rixon and Craig Edmunds (a rose between two thorns), they both drew Campbell and I drew Lodge again, but in a corner, peg 53. I invited Steve Long to give me the benefit of his knowledge, he said to fish a wag to the bank and long to my left on the pole under a tree, he did say I needed a carp angler on peg 73 to catch / lose a few to push them out down to me. Andy Gard settled in peg 73, and if you didn't know Andy fishes for silvers mostly on a top set.
I'll be honest, I wasn't looking forward to it, as I couldn't really see myself competing in either the overall or silvers pools. Gabriel Skarba said my peg was "toilet", but there have been a few 80lbs of it. I set up a 3AAA wag with 0.21 to 14 PR38 for 8mm pellet, a 4x10 rig for the margin to my left for hard pellet, and a paste rig for up to the tree if I wanted to be silly! I began the match on the waggler and after 10 mins I had a fish on and off, probably fouled. 15 mins later and I hooked one that tore off to the tree and despite me giving nothing it got there and the 0.21 snapped. That was the end of the waggler fish, and what I would do was wait until I saw one by the posts and hope it would swim out to my feed, but most of the time they didn't. I couldn't have fished by the posts as I would have lost everything to the snags.
After an hour I was blanking and Martyn Woodington up on 66 had 6 carp, the writing was on the wall. After 2 hours I was still blanking! I tried to cheer myself up by singing stupid stuff and amusing Andy, though I think i may have gone mad in the sun! 2 1/2 hours in and I had a small skimmer on pellet in the margin, hooray time to go for a walk.
Back at my peg after eating a bacon sarnie and chatting to Glenn, Mike and Woody I went back for some more thrashing. Within minutes I hooked a carp in the margin on the pole it swam out into the middle and found an underwater branch and put my hook in there..... Drop back in and get another carp and last this one at about 8lb. That was the end of that! My paste line at 11m against the tree started fizzing with an hour to go, and I had 2 skimmers and 1 carp from here. I did lose another carp that had a sat nav set for home (being the roots of the tree) and as I threw my pole back we both had a mini tug of war before the hook came free. Match over, DNW as did peg 55 and 56.
However, I was determined to catch a carp on the waggler and decided to stay until I did so! I didn't have to wait more than 10 mins to hook one and I was giving it the real heave ho, Andy though the rod was going to break lol! Eventually landed a very healthy looking 10lb+ common carp. OK maybe I'll have another cast, 10 mins later I hooked another but literally as I pulled the rod up Behind me I watched the line head toward the tree in the blink of an eye and the underwater torpedo skillfully found a branch which snapped my main line. OK I surrender!
Woody did well on 66 to win our lake with 170lb, interestingly he caught straight in front and not by the tree. Gary O' Shea was top on campbell and caught on most baits on the pole.
Last night of holiday and 3 cans at the lodge to drown my sorrows before a few more up town. That was enough to get me eating lots of cheese with Glenn back at the lodge. I was a tad dehydrated in the morning...
I did fish for a bit on Match lake on Friday, couldn't catch deep on meat. Went shallow with pellet and slapping and caught skimmers F1 and a few carp before the scum got stuck in front of me and I packed it in. Gordon next to me caught on the bottom, weird! We all said our goodbyes after another great week, good company, good laughs and plenty of fish, I was knackered lol!
Back at Viaduct Sunday, and praying I do not draw Lodge for the the 5th straight match!
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