Time to get back on the bank and a switch back to a commercial for a bit of carp fishing, which meant changing out a lot of the rigs, hooks etc from the recent weeks Trent challenges. Sunday was the only day I would go fishing so I was hoping for a decent draw at the venue to help me out. However, I woke up Saturday morning with pain in my lower back, it was that bad I could hardly get out of bed. I was supposed to be watching Rovers and so took a couple of Ibruprofen and battled on best I could. It got better as the day went on, but was still painful Sunday morning, but I managed to get the fishing gear into the van.
I had a brekky at Wetherspoons in Kingswood, no silly sights in here today lol and got to the fishery in good time for the 9am draw. I wasn't sure I would be able to push the trolley up the slope to the fishery, but match organiser Gerry Welsh and his able assistant Nick Sanders both said they would help carry / push my stuff, thank you so much! I drew peg 22 which I wasn't that chuffed with to be honest, but then I was told that there were some carp caught in the area on the previous day. The trouble with this peg is it has a large sedge reedbed opposite that comes out about 3 metres, so you cannot get to the far bank shallow water, and you have to apply a lot of pressure on any hooked fish to keep them out of the pesky sedge reeds. There actually is one tiny little area of bank but it is wedged in between the reeds and a bush / tree, a tackle graveyard i reckon.
With my back feeling sore I was thinking I don't want to be fishing a long pole in the wind, but it seemed I had little choice as the carp don't tend to be in close for a few hours on this venue. On my right on peg 20 was venue expert Shaun Townsend, he knows that peg well and it has a good clean far bank, and with an empty peg either side of him he was going to be tough to beat today. On my left was one of the fishery management team Dave Haines. I put a straight lead up in case that was all I was able to fish, and 3 pole rigs, a paste rig with 0.19 powerline to a 12 XSH, 4x10 carp shallow with 16 KKM-B to 0.17 powerline for slapping, and a margin rig for fishing corn.
I began the match shipping out to 13m and slapped the rig over a few times with a 6mm pellet, within a minute I had a carp on the hook, and landed it at 6lb. Shipped out slapped a few times and another carp hooked and landed. Shipped out slapped a few times and third carp in the net. Now this was a great start, but Shaun had warned me that this can happen here at present and then you start foul hooking them and then they drift off. Sadly for me Shaun was bang on, I went from being 3-0 up to going to 5-3 to the carp. Frustrating when you are only fishing a foot deep and the elastic gets pulled out and you think that must be in the mouth. I tried going shallower to stop the foulers but every time I did I never had a bite. All indications stopped and I was forced to get the 14.m section and go closer to the reeds and slap. This brought me some more fish but when the bites stopped I had to try something else and rest it. The paste line I had fed short was dead, but as the wind that had been strong started to ease off (and my back was OK) I thought I should plumb up further out and settled on 10m.
It was probably about 2 1/2 hours to go when I started to get indications and fizzes on the paste line, I was behind Shaun who was fishing long and swinging a rig to the far bank with pellets. I had a couple of 8 to 9lb carp and was thinking this would get better, Kev Winstone and Dave Wilmott (more fishery management) who were watching me also thought I had a chance of doing well. Sadly it didn't quite pan out like that, with foul hookers becoming a problem. I struggled the last 90 minutes of the match, couldn't get anything in the margin, slapping was not working and the paste was a frustrating time. With 10 minutes to go I hooked into another bite and threw the pole back to keep the fish away from the reeds, but it soon pulled all the pole out to 10m as I hung on to another fouler that made the pole look in danger of going bang and was up by Dave. This one though stayed on, but I knew it was hooked somewhere near the rear end and I took my time and a few seconds before the whistle netted it. It actually weighed 11lb 9oz and was hooked in the anal fin.
Nick Sanders did the weigh in and my fish went 83lb 13oz, Shaun easily surpassed that with 144lb 9oz to comfortably win the match, but I guess his back was aching fishing long for a long part of the match. Picture of the winner with his shorts that he split bending over, I'll leave you to decide what caused that lol.
In second was Matt Taynton who had just over the ton on peg 12, Matt did well but was also helped by having peg 14 empty as there was a mix up with an angler thought to be fishing not being there. Third was Gerry Welsh with 88lb from peg 1, and I was 4th getting a small return as last in the frame. The last gasp carp I had took me ahead of Nick Sanders who had 82lb 11oz, sorry Nick ;-)
Much like the overall winner, the silvers was comfortably won by Dave Haines with 15lb 4oz of roach, rudd, perch and a couple of skimmers, meaning I had winners either side of me lol.
All change on the gear front for next week, I am fishing the Turner 400 on the river Thames around Radcot. I've yet to draw a dent peg on those matches and end up scratching for bites, you never my luck might change. The back is still sore and not right so I may have to get it seen to if this carries on.
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