Packington Somer's Teams of three.

Well the weekend has been and gone, shame really as I would have liked to have had a better result.

Anyway thought for the day, What does an Atheist scream when she orgasms?

Right onto the fishing.

Morning had arrived on the Sunday and I cant begin to tell you how excited I have been all week in anticipation of this match.
It was to be teams of three and I was drafted in to help fill a gap...lucky me.

The match was to be held on Molands mere, now for those who have never fished the place it is a wonderful venue stuffed with roach, perch, tench, crucians, skimmers and the obligatory carp. Now I prefer to catch anything that swims in this pool and always gear up to do so.

Anyway upon arriving at the venue it was time for a coffee and a toasted bacon sandwich with brown sauce....just the way to start a good days fishing....or so I thought.

A quick walk round the lake revealed next to nothing really apart from there were horrendous amounts of lily's in certain pegs, both on the far bank, on the island and on the inside aswell in certain pegs. A few carp jumping and betraying their presence on the far bank gave me a little confidence that a few fish will be caught today.
Walking back to the cafe the draw was just about to start, so at last I could'nt wait to see where I had drawn. Scott Poynton handed me an envelope with 3 pegs (well 2 actually....he cunningly concealed the third peg in the ripped off bit...) to draw from. So in went my hand and out came peg 3...or permanent peg 6....hmmm a challenging area.

Scott Drew peg 52 and Mark drew peg 17, both I would have fancied more than mine. Anyway the draw was done and off we went to our respective pegs.

Now, upon arrival at my peg I noticed I had no far bank vegetation but had some patches of Lily's growing out some 8-9ft from the bank side on either side of me, perfect I though for Tench and Crucians to hide.

I set up 2 feeder rods, both Spro 40 Picker rods, teamed up with Red Arc reels and Ultima power Steel reel line. These would have cage feeders attached with one 12 inch hooklength and one 6 inch hooklength, both made up on 0.21mm Ultima Power silk line to some Preston PR28 size 14 hooks. This was to be for carp and tench up the far bank. I did have some lighter hooklengths made up just in case I needed to drop down the shelf into 5ft of water and look for the skimmers instead.

I set up 6 top kits, 4 were made up on Garbolino pink bazoocarp elastic with puller kits, 1 had a soft set number 8 elastic and the other a number 14 for fishing near the lily's for the Tench. My mainlines would be at 13m one at 11 o'clock and the other at 2 o'clock, the one at 11 would be fed with 3 balls of groundbait and some chopped worm and caster, whilst the 2 o'clock line would be fed with just micro pellets.

I would also have a 5m line fed with just one ball of groundbait and will receive casters thrown in by hand over the top to keep anything there interested. The margin lines would be fed with a dark green groundbait laced with micro pellets, worms and corn to see if I could tempt few tench or crucians.

My Long lines were all made up on 0.14mm Ultima Power Silk line to either a 0.10mm or 0.12mm Power Silk hooklength. These had 0.75 grm Cralusso Cristina floats , this held bottom nicely and with a slightly adapted thicker hollow tip sat nicely dimpled until a skimmer either dragged it under or picked up the dropper shot and gave me a lift bite.
My 5m line comprised of a 0.14mm Ultima Power Silk mainline to a 0.12mm hooklength, this was matched to a 0.50grm Cralusso Cristina float, shotted with positive bites in mind as I would be fishing segments of worm on this line, this was matched to the soft set number 8 elastic.
The margin rig was 0.19mm Ultima Power silk to a 0.17mm hooklength and a size 3 Tubertini 175 hook, matched to number 14 elastic. This would get the Tench out should I hook one.

Sitting ready for the match I had a plan in mind, the first thing I would do was to deposit 5 feeder loads of groundbait up the far bank and see what comes over it. I would then feed all the pole lines in rotation and go onto the feeder as soon as the other lines were fed.

So the all in was called and in went the 6 feederfulls of bait...I had a wayward cast....ahem!
Fed all my pole lines and just as I was finishing cupping in the last ball at 13m I could already see a carp moving on the bait opposite in the 2ft of water....the tail giving it away. I baited the hook with a worm segment around 2 inches long and cast out to the carp, landing perhaps a foot away and spooking it, well that was bound to happen really and I was'nt too worried. So waiting for perhaps 2 minutes the tip gave me an indication that there were some fish there and another tail waving at me had me biting at the bit waiting for the tip to go round..alas not this time. So another chuck to the island and 2 minutes later the tail was back again nothing...hmmmmmmmm.

I decided to put another 3 feederfuls there to get the carp hoovering up some freebies and get their confidence up a little. I went to the 5m line as I had been regularily putting in a few casters and pinches of worm over the ball of groundbait, the float settled and dipped, a perch was soon winging its way into the waiting keepnet. This was followed by another 2 smaller samples around the 1oz mark and then the line just did'nt produce, so another small ball of groundbait and it was out to 13m to have a quick look whilst keeping my eye on the feeder line to see what was happening. The 13m line threw up 2 small roach and a hookpull from a skimmer...doh!

I decided the feeder needed another looking over, this time the feeder hit the water and a bow wave made its way across the water as the carp spooked away again, so they were there but just not giving many signs at the moment or nothing to betray their presence as they sneaked up the shelf. The tip for perhaps a minute stayed still until out of the blue an almighty crash on the far bank saw my feeder rod yanking round as a carp darted from the far bank...splendid to watch!
Anyway this carp at around 7lb was a welcome fish and put my nerves out of the window for a while, again a follow up cast to the island saw me hook into a snag on the bottom and a broken hooklength..ho hum.
3 more casts and there was'nt a sign on the feeder line, so it was back to the 5m line which immediately threw up another small perch and a small dumpy F1 carp. So some more casters over the top and nothing...motionless float! Hmmm pattern emerging now.

Back to the 13m line saw one bite and nothing else, so this was topped up with another 2 balls of groundbait to try and make something happen. My margin lines were the next to receive a little attention, I put a whole bendy dendy on the hook and lowered it into the swim by the lily's on my right, the float barely settled before it shot under and a micro perch was lifted into bright sunlight, not the fish I was looking for, so another ball of green groundbait went onto this line and I swapped over to my left hand line, again lowering the bait into position it was there for perhaps 30 seconds before a dip was followed by a positive bite. A strike was met with firm resistance of the lily bed...perfect. So a quick pull and the hook came free.
Lowering it down again slightly away from the last area the float buried again and this time 3 ft of elastic poured from the pole tip as a 1lb F1 made its way into my waiting landing net.

No bite followed this, so it was back onto the feeder. Now I must explain this started the most frustrating period of fishing Ive had in a long time. The feeder had only just hit the water when the rod was almost wrenched in as carp number 2 tore off into the middle of the lake, I managed to get this back to my bank and could feel that it was a decent fish, then it decided that the lily bed to my right was the place to be and promptly sheered my hooklength off leaving me with the lily's and the carp swimming round feeling smug....
Grrrr....

So I cast out again and 2 minutes later the tip went round with a typical skimmer bite and at around a pound it was welcome. I decided to cast again and 2 minutes later the tip heaved round as carp number 3 was hooked, this fish also came out from the far bank, plodded around for a while and then came up in front of me, and at around an estimated 5lb would be a useful fish...disaster, the fish flipped over and managed to flick the hook out...arrrrghhhhh.

I decided that I needed to catch something and looked on the 5m line, nothing was forthcoming. Back out onto the 13m and 2 small skimmers and a roach were the rewards for around 15 minutes work...not good. The feeder line was calling, I cast out again with the long hooklength and it took 5 minutes of liners before the tip went round, this time a small f1 at around a pound again was at least easy to get into the net. A few more casts were needed before I had another indication on the feeder line and carp number 4 was hooked. This fish was scrappy as I fought it to my bank and this time the left hand lily's were the carp's choice for my feeders final residence...arrghhhh (this was'nt my choice of word here, shall we say that it was rather obscene)

A new feeder and hooklength were applied as my other rod was cast into the water with the 6 inch hooklength, this I never had a bite on.

I re-fed both my margin lines and 13m groundbait line and looked on the pellet swim, I had an immediate bite that saw a near 1lb skimmer think it was a trout for a minute as it jumped about. Another smaller sample followed, but this soon dried up and would need a re-feed and it was back onto the feeder.
Carp number 5 soon found the bait and swam directly towards me, until I caught up with it and had the rod almost wrenched from my grip as it turned the other way, it then swam into the middle and went solid...no matter what I did it stayed solid, I pulled, I let the line go slack and still nothing, this was getting frustrating. Then just as I was about to pull for a break the carp swam free, so who only knows what happened there. The carp was giving me a dogged fight at my feet before the hook pulled out. I think this was from the feeder bouncing around too much or maybe even being foulhooked?, but I will never know I suppose.

A couple of small skimmers from the 13m line gave me hope that it could have at last switched on, but no. Small string of fish and then it would go quiet.
Back on the feeder line and carp number 6 and 7 were again both hooked and lost in the lily's either side of me, I was getting rather stressed at this point, Ive never felt so downcast when fishing goes like this.
Anyway finding the will to re-cast carp number 9 was played hard and it ended up in my net and at around 2lb it did'nt stand much chance I don't think. I actually let out a large sigh at this point as I had finally landed a carp.

I decided from this point to abandon the pole as with only 30 minutes left I needed weight and there were still the odd fish showing over on the far bank. Carp number 10 was hooked with 10 minutes to go, so I tried very hard to keep this fish on, but despite my best efforts the fish was lost in the lily's to my right after much swearing and cussing.

I could'nt wait for the match to end, but that's fishing I suppose.

Now my 17lb was enough for 3rd in my ten man section so I was pleased with the result although my blood pressure must have been sky high. Mark had won his section with 21lb and Scott had done well coming second in his! So we scored 26 points out of a possible 30, not too bad at all.

Well Barston for me Sunday, lets hope that the carp and skimmers will play ball there!

Tight lines all.