After an early night I was up at 6:30 and soon loading the van (nothing forgotten), and dived in McDonalds drive through. I decided to pay cash to get some change for the pools, but that backfired when I was handed £15 of pound coins, fifty pence and 20 pence pieces!! When I got to the draw I counted out the coins and gave them to Dean Harvey and ran. Let’s just say I guess by his language he was not impressed, Rich Lacey nearly pissed himself 😂.
As Rich has been doing well in the drawbag I let him go again, he got A4 and me B3. Last match here A section was rank and B section better but down the lower end, so we weren’t really sure how we would do. When I got to my peg I was not that impressed, no far bank tree cover, just reeds.
Since bream have shown every round the first thing I set up was a gbait feeder with 0.13 to 14 N30. I mixed up the usual Sonubaits Dark F1 and Sweet Skimmer for this. Although the peg was cramped and close to the path I set the pole up as I reckoned it would be best for presenting the bait with a down stream wind. A 1.5 pencil rig and 2gm bodied rig were put up with 18 N10 to 0.10 Accu Power. I also set up a whip and waggler but they were not used.
At 9:30 we started and I had 10 fairly quick casts on the feeder, casting about two thirds across. No lucky early bream for me, so onto the pole where I chucked in 8 balls of gbait (Sonubaits Black River and Black Roach). I started on the positive 2g rig and had 1 roach, onto the pencil rig and it was a struggle. I did manage to pull out some very small roach on single maggot but when this faded I picked up the feeder.
It was nearly 11am and I only had just over a pound I thought, the feeder had not produced a bite. I added some chopped worm and caught a Ruffe, great 😂. However, at 11:10 I had a lovely pull round and hooked a bream. Despite the increased boat traffic I landed it safely, maybe 3lb. Next cast worm and maggot on hook and probably waited all of 2 minutes for another pull round, this one was nearer 5lb. Next cast a perch, then next cast another bream. By 11:50 I had added another bream and a skimmer. About 16lb in aniut 40 minutes, happy days.
All went quiet, just odd little perch and another Ruffe, but after my last match I was thinking that I would get a few more later. Unfortunately the vibes were not good, and the feeder was now dead. I picked up the pole to try it again but was not confident that I would catch, but I was wrong. By fishing the pencil float and maggot I could now catch 3oz to 4oz roach, I had 30 minutes catching then as soon as it slowed I went back on the feeder. The feeder line was still dead and after 25 minutes I was back on the pole and the roach were back. I caught them steady until 30 minutes of the match was left, and then went back on the feeder, but no last chance bream today.
I hadn’t heard much rumours about what had been caught, but upstream Derek Coles said he only had 5lb, below me Tony Twist had a couple of bream and a skimmer. Rich had been struggling up in A section. I was packed away quickly and wandered down to see Lee Warden getting weighed in, he had 2 bream and a couple of decent eels, but he had lost 2 bream. He weighed 14lb 6oz which was top at that point. Whilst we weighed Lee in 2 bream rolled in his peg!
Tony weighed 12lb 10oz and then it was my turn. I put 3 bream on the scales for 12lb 10oz and then the rest of my fish also went 12lb 10oz for 25lb 4oz. That was enough for me to win the section, but I was told that Warren Bates in A section had 5 or 6 bream so it sounded like he was going to win the third match on the trot. When I pushed my trolley back up the bank all the A section anglers were gone and so I didn’t know what was caught until I got back to the car park. The first person I saw was Warren and after winding me up he then told me I had won the match. Turned out the first three anglers in A section all had a few bream, as you can see from the sheet, and they all framed.
1st Tim Ford 25lb 4oz
2nd Warren Bates 22lb 6oz
3rd Craig Pinker 21lb 7oz
4th Jerry Pocock 19lb 4oz
Dean Harvey had the last laugh today, he put all the coins I gave him in my winners envelope! I just knew he would 😂😂😂. (Update, just bought 4 cans of Moretti in my local shop and paid for them with 50 pences 😂)
On the pairs front Rich and I extended our lead to 9 points, but fair play to Rich he was the best in A section without a bream with 3lb 12oz and that was a great result for us. I was really pleased with how my day had gone, I was not expecting to have that good a day but it just shows you never know. I cannot make round 5 but have super sub Matt Challenger standing in for me. Think it might be a few weeks till I get out again due to other commitments.
