I got to the venue in good time and went to the lodge to pay my pools, sadly only 11 anglers were booked in. Two of the guys fishing were sat chatting Howard Webb and Martin Preston. Howard has won 7 out of the last 8 matches he’s fished here using pva bags on the lead with peas on the hook. Martin followed suit a couple of days ago and won. I had no bags and no peas, let’s see how the paste compares. At the draw I pulled out peg 132, a corner peg that had framed the day before on the lead. Dick Bull was on my left on 130 and opposite on 110 was former Thatchers team mate Tony Gilbert.
As I began to set up the sun was shining and I put on some sun tan lotion. Had a lead rod ready made up, and got the pole out and top sets. Went to get my paste rigs and they weren’t in my rig trays, hmmm, checked the base of my box and not there either. The thought occurred to me that the last time I fished was Bitterwell silvers match, and maybe I had taken out the carp rigs. Oh dear. Bit buggered now! Managed to find a float that I thought I could use for fishing down to the end bank, where I could fish worms over micro, had a 12 to 0.19. Set up a dobbing rig and that was it.
I was feeling a bit cheesed off not having my carp rigs, but would just have to make do. We started at 10:30 and I began on the lead. Despite lots of carp showing it took me 55 minutes to get my first carp, then had another next cast. I was feeding 6mm and a few 8mm pellets, trying various pellets on the hook. Two more carp came fairly quickly and then bites stopped. The sun had been replaced by pouring rain, I had my coat on and brolly up, we endured 5 downpours during the day.
An early look down the edge was rewarded with a carp and 2 skimmers, but then had the rig trashed when a hooked carp made it into the brambles. Halfway through and I had close to 40lb, this was much less than most people from what I could tell. There were signs of fish on the end bank as I had the float moving around, but I felt the carp were off the bottom despite me only feeding with a pot. It was hard to fish with the brolly up and frustrating when every other fish seemed to find a snag. With my last rig smashed I was back on the lead. I fed a line at 6m with some pellets and when I saw fizzes on this I dropped the lead over it, I put some of my paste on this wrapped over a pellet. Had a carp, one came off and 3 more skimmers.
Match was over and I knew I was only weighing in to know what weight I had (96lb on clicker for carp). Tony had emptied his margin in the last 2 hours and I knew Howard had bagged up. I was first to weigh in and I felt sorry for Steve Long as he was getting a soaking as the rain started again. My carp weighed 101lb and skimmers 9lb, so 110lb. That would only beat a few people (mostly those fishing for silvers lol). Dick had 120lb next to me.
The match was won by Howard with 316lb, all on the lead, Tony came second with 279lb. The silvers were won by Craig Edmunds on 118 with 95lb of skimmers (there were two 70lb+ skimmer bags). Weigh sheet below.
With my family away for the night in Cardiff watching Girls Aloud, I stayed for a chat at the fishery and then took a steady ride home on some flooded roads. Grabbed a chicken kebab in Keynsham on the way home and then put the soaking wet gear away. Remembered to look for my paste rigs, couldn’t find them anywhere… and then it dawned on me.. I’d put them separately in another drawer in my box, so I did in fact have them with me… FFS what a plonker 😂😂😂😂
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