Round 2 of the Match Fishing Cup!

Packington Somers held the 2nd round of the Drennan Match Fishing cup.


What a place this fishery is, not only is it quite picturesque in appearance but it holds some of the biggest matches going, attended by some of the biggest names. I pulled up into the car park and the memories came flooding back of the Sensas Final.

Except this time I would be watching Ian try to qualify for the next round for the Match Fishing Cup. The day was very warm and it was only 10am it was fast approaching 20 degrees and there was very little wind, although quite overcast to start with.
Now the match was to be held on Molands Mere pool, and there are a few pegs which are favoured, around the 40s is a fancied draw and there were and have been some very good weights coming from there. Pegs between 25 and the higher 40s were the places to be and most anglers were hoping to get a draw in this area.

10pm came round and so the draw started, A few anglers came out with beaming smiles and a few came out moaning. (Suppose that’s like us mere mortals?) Well Ian came out and looked a little downcast and said he had drawn peg 10, not in the fancied area to be honest. Gary Pook had drawn peg 8 to Ian’s right and the young Matt Darey to his left on peg 12, alongside Andy (the fin) Findley on peg 14 which had recently shown a little form to the method feeder. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke really could it…..?

Well Ian’s peg had a featureless far bank which was some 30 yards across, he had a small patch of floating weed to his left which extended some 2m out of the edge and that was about it. Not a promising peg really.

Being ever the optimist that he is he got on with the job in hand and started to set up his gear, now the match started at 12 so he had around an hour and 45 minutes to get everything ready whilst I sat in my carp chair and watched….being the ever so helpful person I am.

The first thing Diddy got on with was his method feeder rods, comprising a pair of 11ft Super G feeder rods accompanied by a pair of Daiwa Airity 3012 reels. These had some 8lb technium line filled to the brim. Now I can throw a feeder quite accurately and it takes me a couple of chucks to gauge the distance with a bomb. The first chuck on the one rod and the bomb landed absolutely perfectly some foot away from the far bank….are we really just kidding ourselves trying to fish against these guys?

Now I thought I was a tackle tart when setting up topkits, but Diddy takes the biscuit.
Here is a picture of some 10 top 4s….10! I don’think BNF has 10 rigs let alone topkits that he will use. Anyway….
He showed me the elastic he intended to use for his skimmer lines, this was the pink Garbolino Bazoocarp elastic through a match top 3 and accompanied by a pulla bung. I have to say my opinion of the pulla bung has always been sceptical, but after the match Ian fished I could be a changed man. Bag-up watch out…I need some pulla bungs and pink elastic.
The Rigs were made up on 0.14mm garboline with 0.12mm hooklengths attached to a milo T213 size 18 hook. The floats dc6’s varied in size from 1gram to 0.30grms alongside a mugging rig with a Mel Salter Pea float.

The 13m line was just around 7ft deep, so the number 4s were discarded as it is slightly shallower this side than the other. All these rigs were set up with the pink bazoocarp elastic and pull bungs. With around 10 mins of careful plumbing up he had found that the peg got slightly shallower to his left, this would aid him as the tow would actually pull his rig from right to left so the line would lay up the slope.
Ian also had a 6m line which incorporated a number 5 elastic through a top 3 and again a pulla bung just in case. The depth here was some 5ft and this was to be the back up line.
He also set up a few lines for up in the water in case the fish started to come up and intercept the bait on the way down as top ups were going to be done with kinder cups.

So all this being done he started to prep his bait which consisted of 2 bags of Bait Techs Super G gold groundbait, half a kilo of chopped worms, half a pint of (mostly) dead red maggots, 2 pints of casters and a tin of corn which he made me go and walk to the onsite shop to buy! Now the look on his face when chopping worms is almost disturbing I have to say, its that evil smile that accompanies the chopping noise that almost gives me the impression he enjoys the task…..weird people these professionals.

So all the bait was ready and mixed, and the all in was sounded at 12pm. In went 4 balls of groundbait laced with worm, casters and maggots onto the 13m line, now he cupped all of these in abd the reasoning being that he didn’t want to attract loads of bits into his peg, unlike the winter with groundbait and leam. He also fed one small ball on his 6m line and a larger ball heavily laced with particles on the margin line.
All feeding had now been done and the first method feeder was clipped on, 3 dead red maggots being the weapon of choice went flying over to the far bank with unerring accuracy.

Im now going to do a stopwatch on the match with what was caught, species, weight, time and which line.

So here goes,

12.00 method feeder thrown to far bank,
12.05 method feeder thrown to far bank,
12.12 method feeder thrown to far bank,
12.20 method feeder thrown to far bank,
12.24 no bites move onto 6m pole line,
12.26 4oz roach 6m,
12.27 3oz roach 6m,
12.28 4oz skimmer 6m,
12.29 2oz roach 6m,
12.31 6oz F1 6m,
12.32 4oz skimmer 6m,
12.33 2oz perch 6m,
12.36 2oz roach 6m,
12.37 1oz (the worm had this roach in a half nelson) 6m,
12.39 6oz skimmer 6m,
12.40 3oz skimmer 6m,
12.46 8oz skimmer 6m,

This line was then re-fed with another small ball of groundbait and Ian fished his 13m line, so now every fish he caught was on the 13m for the sake of ease.

12.47 3oz roach,
12.49 lost fish,
12.55 lost fish, (even the best occasionally have this problem)
12.57 lost fish, maggot had turned over the hook.
12.59 3oz roach,
13.01 4oz skimmer,
13.03 5oz skimmer,
13.04 4oz skimmer,
13.06 2oz skimmer,
13.10 6oz skimmer,
13.12 3oz skimmer,
13.13 2oz roach,
13.15 5oz skimmer,
13.17 6oz F1,
13.17 5oz skimmer,
13.18 6oz skimmer,
13.20 1oz perch,
13.24 4oz skimmer,
13.26 lost fish,
13.30 lost fish, frustrated words here as the lad to Ian’s left is now catching on the long pole aswell.
Gary Pook has also started to put a run of better skimmers together and Andy Findley has had 3 carp on the method feeder.

13.35 3oz skimmer,
13.36 lost fish,
13.37 8oz skimmer,
13.43 5oz skimmer,
13.44 8oz skimmer,
13.47 2lb skimmer,
13.49 1lb 10oz skimmer, (do you like my guestimates?)
13.50 5 oz skimmer,
13.54 Ian lays his rig in over the top of some kinder potted worms, his float slides away and after striking hits the fish somewhere midwater, around 10 yards of soft pink elastic streams from the pole as the fish runs off….I say Carp…Ian says “Im not sure”….Turns out to be a near 5lb bream! That will be a bonus then…ahem!
13.56 4oz skimmer,
13.58 6oz F1,
13.59 3oz roach,
14.01 5oz skimmer,
14.03 3oz skimmer,
14.04 re-feeds his line with another ball of groundbait.
14.07 3oz skimmer,
14.10 12oz skimmer,
14.13 8oz skimmer,
14.15 lost fish,
14.17 4oz skimmer,
14.19 3oz skimmer,
14.21 1oz perch,
14.28 4oz F1,
14.30 3oz skimmer,
14.32 6oz skimmer,
14.34 6oz skimmer,
14.35 3oz roach,
14.37 lost fish,
14.38 lost fish,
14.40 4oz skimmer,
14.41 4oz skimmer,
14.43 6oz F1,
14.44 2oz skimmer,
14.46 3oz skimmer,
14.49 3oz skimmer,
14.50 re-feeds with another ball of groundbait and has look on the margin line.
14.52 2oz roach,
15.00 back onto the long line,
15.01 1lb 6oz crucian,
15.08 2oz roach,
15.09 5oz skimmer,
15.12 14oz crucian,
15.16 5oz skimmer,
15.17 3oz skimmer,
15.19 5oz skimmer,
15.21 3oz skimmer,
15.29 7oz skimmer,
15.34 1oz roach,
15.36 5oz F1,
15.37 5oz F1,
15.38 3oz skimmer,
15.42 5oz skimmer,
15.45 3oz skimmer,
15.47 5oz F1, 70
15.48 6oz skimmer,
15.49 6oz skimmer,
15.53 4oz skimmer,
15.55 14oz crucian,
15.56 10oz skimmer,
15.58 6oz skimmer,
16.00 5oz F1,
16.05 10oz F1,
16.11 1lb 4oz skimmer,
16.14 5oz skimmer,
16.16 lost fish,
16.22 lost fish,
16.25 8oz skimmer,
16.28 10oz F1,
16.30 10oz skimmer,
16.31 6oz skimmer,
16.33 1lb 8oz skimmer,
16.35 14oz crucian
16.38 3oz roach,
16.39 4oz skimmer,
16.40 5oz skimmer,
16.42 8oz skimmer,
16.43 4oz skimmer,
16.46 lost fish,
16.50 6oz skimmer,
16.55 1lb 8oz crucian (foul hooked!)
16.57 8oz skimmer,
16.59 lost fish……trying to swing it!
17.00 All out!

That’s a total of 99 fish for 42lb 4oz!

I have to say this was an awesome display of Silverfish angling, seeing as his only real bonus was the one bream and to weigh in over 42lb was incredible.
Most of the fish fell to small segments of worm and dead red maggots, with a few chopped worms added via a kinder cup every 4 or 5 fish, sadly there were not that many carp cruising about and throughout the entire day I only saw 3, one of which was a large Ghost carp which sauntered past Ian at around 14m, he did get his mugging rig out but just as he was trying to get the right presentation and swing the rig over its head a little wind got up and made it impossible….lucky fish!




















Ian managed a very respectable 3rd in match with this beaten only by the better pegs on the other side, Kian wardle weighing over 51lb and Derek (the Chinaman) Willan weighing 45lb made up of better fish including Tench all caught on the feeder.

So he goes through to the next round, in the knowledge that he did a great job of what was considered quite a poor peg!
Top marks mate!
Lets wish him luck on the Thames on the 9th July