I picked up my Thatchers team mate Andy Ottaway who was in one of the other teams, this would be his first visit to Acorn. We all met up at 8am at the Bridge Inn for breakfast and a good chat. The draw was soon done and from my teams envelope I pulled peg 40 a bridge peg, Mark was the other side of the bridge on 6, Ricky on 25 and Jamie on 15. My section ran from me back to peg 29.
It was cold and low cloud meant there was a tiny bit of drizzle now and then. However, I could still easily see the anglers on the island including Martin Reyat on fancied peg 5.
It wouldn’t take long setting up and based upon what my captain said I had 3 rigs. A 4x16 for fishing at 9m in the deepest water, a couple of 4x12 rigs one for 12m and one for against the bridge, both at around 3 1/2 to 4 feet deep. I had 18 GPM to 0.11 powerline on all rigs. I was going with maggot as my feed today but did have some corn and micro ready to try.
We started at 10:15 and it was really slow it seemed, my 12m opening gambit spot didn’t yield a single indication. I moved to 9m in the deep water straight in front, but nothing doing here either, so tried the 9m line next to the bridge which was my banker. This time I had a bite and hooked a decent fish, but I soon realised it was fouled and after playing it for a good 5 minutes plus I pulled out of it. Back to the bridge and liner, then another bite, hooked it and this fish charged off under the bridge. After a few minutes everything went slack, line had snapped just below the bulk so clearly the fish had found the underwater stanchion, think it was fouled too. Third time lucky I hoped, and indeed I was hooked up again to a smaller carp that was hooked in the mouth, but it came off as I was about to net it. Not the best of starts then!
At this stage Mark in 6 had netted a few fish, Freddie Harper-Wojtyla had missed 1 bite on 38, but Steve Spencer on 36 had a few carp from fishing down his margin. By the bridge had gone quiet and so tried back in front of me, I had my one and only bite here, lost another fouler. Finally just after the hour I had my first carp in the net at 5lb, soon followed by a 4lber, both from the bridge.
Had to rest it and go round my swims for nothing at all. Then about 2 hours in hooked a good carp than swam away from the bridge and up to Freddie. Luckily I just managed to turn it and get it under control, a nice 8lb common hooked in the mouth. It was a one off and I was really struggling, so went round the swims again. Three hours in and get my first bite at 12m, fish hooked and took off under the bridge, this was really pulling and I was just waiting for the line to snap when I saw the fish boil nearly in peg 7. Somehow the line held, after pulling the fish a long way from the bridge I finally thought it was safe to break down to the top set. Eventually got the net under the carp, it had been hooked in the pectoral fin and was a double figure common.
With 2 hours to go Freddie got his first carp, but mine and Marks pegs really switched off, Mark had double what I had but he couldn’t get a sign now. I managed to catch just two more fish, both tench about 3lb each. Freddie had a couple more carp and tench to end better.
Scales were coming to me last and it was getting quite dark so no pictures today. My section was being won by Steve Spencer with 52lb, my fish went 33lb 11oz which was just enough to get me second in the section, my biggest carp was weighed at 11lb 5oz.
Back at the Bridge Inn Neil did the results.
1st on the day Martin Reyat 104lb peg 5
2nd Neil Mercer 103lb peg 9
3rd Jamie Brown 93lb peg 15
On the team front my team had tied for first with Neil’s team, but we lost out on weight by 9lb. My consolation was taking the biggest fish prize and a tenner lol.
There was a match at Newbridge today and I expected it to fish well for bream, it did with 56lb, 54lb, 47lb and 44lb.
Next fishing for me is I don’t know just yet, will see in a couple of weeks.
Happy New Year!
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