Barston Individual Intersite match (65 pegs)

Ah well the weekend has been and gone and I have to say I enjoyed it very much.

Here's a thought for the day before I start the write up.

Sometimes life is like a peanut and jam sandwich, sometimes you get the smooth, sometimes you get the crunchy.

So onwards to the match, I have been looking forward to the match all week with lots of preparation and the odd rig and hook length tying session. I always like fishing Barston's main lake, even when its hard. There is something quite special about the place that keeps drawing me back, couldn't tell you what it is but the allure is great! (some say its the chicken wings...)

The draw was to be made at 9am with the fishing from 11am till 4pm as some of the walks are quite long and once you have loaded all the gear onto barrows and then unloaded it an hour has almost passed anyway. So meeting Tony on the car park with his bait, rigs and hook lengths I had done for him it was into the clubhouse for a breakfast and a chinwag with the other lads from the MFS website and a few other familiar faces.
After spotting Nigel I have now managed to get some dates for a possible set of winter league/open dates fished to CIPS rules at Barston lakes, so watch this space as I put some dates up.

Draw time came and it was peg 60 that stuck to my hand, this is one of the longest walks on the complex and I was eager to get going as I had plenty to do, this is the slightly deeper part of the lake and with very little wind or ripple I didn't think it would fish too well. But undeterred I set off on the hike to my peg.

The peg itself was comfortable with 2 trees either side of me, one around 2m away to my right and the other some 6m to the left, I was going to set up a line for fishing down the edge here as it is around 4-5ft in the edges on these pegs with depths of around 7-10ft in front of you dependant on peg.
I decided on 3 lines, one at 6m just down the shelf in around 6ft of water, this rig itself comprised 0.14mm Ultima Power Silk mainline, with a 4 x 14 KC Carpa Chimp and a 0.12mm Power silk hook length and a size 16 Milo T213 hook. this was matched to a match top 3 with a puller bung and Garbolino pink Bazoocarp elastic...fabulous stuff.
My next line was a comfortable 13m in deeper water and at around 7ft I was not so optimistic that the bream would show, as the area is quite prolific with little tiny 3oz piranhas that are the newly stocked F1's.
Anyway this line I set up 3 rigs, the first was set up on 0.12mm Ultima Power silk mainline, a 4 x 16 carpa chimp with a bulk and two droppers to a 0.10mm Power silk hook length and size 16 Tubertini 808. This was again matched to a match top 3 with a puller bung and pink Garbolino bazoocarp elastic.
The next one was set up on one of Garbolinos new Match Light kits armed with a doubled up Preston slip number 5 elastic. This stuff is ever so forgiving and quite light in the top kit compared to its equivalent hollow rated elastic. Cheers Gareth for putting me onto it finally. This rig was made up with 0.14mm Ultima Power silk mainline to a 0.12mm hook length and size 2 Tubertini 175, the float was a KC carpa chimp in 4x18 to fish with a bulk, 2 droppers and pellets on the hook. (hence the hook choice)
My third rig was again 0.14mm Power Silk matched to a 0.12mm line and a size 14 Tubertini 808, again with a 4 x 18 KC Carpa Chimp just in case the skimmers turned up en-mass. Again this rig was matched to a doubled up number 5 Preston slip elastic.

I did set up a feeder rod, I didn't need a long chuck so it was a Spro 40 Picker rod matched up with a Red Arc reel and 4lb Ultima Power steel line on the match spool, this was matched to a 0.17mm Power Silk hook length and a size 14 PR36, these hooks are awesome, I use them for most of my carping as it offers a great hook hold. Skimmers don't seem to come off either.

Now my bait table consisted of, 1/2kg of worm, 1 pint of casters, 2 pints of 4mm pellets, a tin of corn (you never know), some 4mm and 6mm expander pellets and then a load of ground bait...the fish were going to 'Ave it' in the words of Scone.
My plan of attack would be 4 balls at the start laced with ample chopped worm, some caster and a good handful of pellets on the 13m line, this would attract the Skimmers, F1s and maybe the odd carp or Tench if your lucky.
The 6m line would receive one ball of the ground bait mix alongside a good helping of pellet and it would then be loose fed with pellets at regular intervals.
My margin line was filled in with pellets and corn in the hope of a carp perhaps putting in an appearance.

I was ready for the all in, a quick tidy up of the peg revealed that I do take far too much stuff to a match and maybe one day I will cut it all down a bit...maybe.

The all in was called, so out went 4 balls of groundbait laced with free offerings on the 13m line, 1 big pot of grub down the edge and the single ball on the 6m line with some extra pellets. My next task was to put in 6 feeder loads out to 30 yards and then have a sit over this for the next 10 minutes to see if the tip would go round with a mug fish.
So all the lines fed, I baited the feeder hook length with a whole bendy dendy and slung it out to the spot i had deposited 6 feeder full's of bait. I then sat on my hands to wait and watch.

3 minutes passed without an indication so it was back in and lob out again. I sat on my hands for another 5 minutess before the tip went round, I lifted into thin air...doh! Out went the feeder again and I sat on my hands for another 5 minutes before reeling it back in and deciding to have a look on the pole lines.
I tried the 6m line initially for 5 minutes to see if there was a mug fish about but no liners or bites were forthcoming, so it was time to try the 13m line.

Out went an expander pellet on the slightly heavier rig to see if again I had any better fish mooching about in the peg, this is always worth a quick look, as carp or Tench could be the first fish to have a look on the bed of grub before any of the other fish get a look in.
The rig had settled for perhaps 2 minutes without a bite, so a lift and drop was made and the float buried, I struck and 5 yards of doubled 5 elastic came whizzing out the pole tip as the first F1 of the day made a bid for freedom, this elastic I have to say was excellent for this and the near 8oz F1 was safely deposited into the keepnet.
I put the rig back out and had to wait a further 10 minutes before getting another 'proper bite' as liners had been a small problem, perhaps I should have left this line for a little longer to get the fish picking up the freebies more confidently. But another small F1 made its way to the keepnet.

I decided to leave the long line and have another couple of casts on the feeder to see if I could catch a few on this line whilst waiting for the pole line to settle properly, I cast out and waited for 3 minutes before reeling in and re-casting. The feeder tip was then pulled round as a small F1 took a liking to the worm hookbait, this might have been encouraging if I had another bite off it...which didn't happen, I spent perhaps a further 15 minutes on the feeder for no bites at all. Silly mistake!

Back to the 6m pole line which I had been dropping half a dozen pellets over since staring the match, I waited again for perhaps 10 minutes on this line trying to entice a bite, but still nothing.
I re-fed this line with another ball of groundbait and then re-fed the margin line as well.
Back to the 13m line, I managed the odd small F1 (piranhas) and one solitary skimmer of around a pound, but again this line soon dried up....interesting.

I had now got perhaps 5lb in the net with 2 hours gone and things were not looking good as the angler to my left had now got 2 large skimmers, 5 big f1s and a few bits in his net and the the people in the deep pegs had also had a few fish.

I decided that i needed to force the peg a little and added another ball of groundbait over the 13m and get the kinder cup out and feed after every indication with a small helping of pellet and chopped worm. This for the next 2 hours with the odd look on the feeder produced not an awful lot.
with just over an hour to go I put another ball of groundbait on the 13m line and went onto my lighter rig with a large section of worm, this was immediately snaffled by a 1lb skimmer...had they at last turned up?.......YES!




For the next hour I managed to add a dozen skimmers to around 3lb and one bonus bream nudging the 5lb mark which was a welcome boost, I actually thought that this was a carp for a while as it fought really hard. I also lost 3 others which all fought quite similar, so I can only presume that these were also larger bream and the hook just pinged out for whatever reason.

The bites had been positive and after every 3 fish I needed to add a ball of groundbait to keep them interested, so perhaps I hadn't been aggressive enough on my initial feeding?

Ho hum, my net of fish went 37lb 14oz for a section win, so I was quite pleased with the result, but I'm sure I could have had a further 15-20lb if I hadn't lost a few fish. But that's fishing I suppose.

Tight lines all!


Next match is to be an open on Friday most probably Moorelands and then an MFS match at Cudmore on saturday.