22.04.14

Back On Winning Form - Andy Pell

“I decided it was time for a visit to Packington Somers again, after a six-year break. So, I booked on to the open to be held on the Molands Lake. Packington is a lovely venue and a pleasure to visit. Molands had been fishing hard of late and with an 89-peg Maver match held on the complex the day before, I wasn’t expecting it to be a big-weight affair.

Thirty-six anglers had booked in and at the draw I pulled out peg 48. This was a decent peg and I had some room to my left, as neither 49 or 50 were in.

My main attack would be a Micro Pellet Feeder, cast tight over to the island with a banded 6mm pellet. I also set up two pole lines at 14.5m and 13m to cover pellets deep and shallow. Also, to keep my options open, I baited a chopped worm and ground bait line. Finally, like in most matches, I always have a margin area baited for later on in the match and with two swims free to my left, it certainly looked good for later on.

After 90 minutes and only one or two liners on the tip, I moved onto my long pole lines. There were no indications at all on the pellet, followed by only a crucian carp, F1 and skimmer on the worm line. I wasn’t prepared to go onto my margin line this early, so opted to try the feeder again. I quickly had a pull round and a 3lb carp was soon in the net. Another followed shortly after, but then it all went quiet again.

From what I could see, the fishing was hard all round the lake, so it was a case of plugging away to see what happened. I did manage a bigger carp of around 5lb, but then decided to fish the margin where I had fed casters for an hour or so. Double caster on a light rig got me a small run of around seven F1s before it all went quiet. It was apparent that the fish wouldn’t settle over a bed of bait and it was a case of picking off a fish, then resting the swim allowing others to come in. I made this work on the feeder during the last hour, adding three more carp, including one of around 7lb.

My weight of 35lb was enough to win the match as the lake really did fish hard and patchy through the day. My Micro Pellet Feeder, coupled with three-inch, 0.17mm N-Gauge hook lengths, attached to a size 20 MWG hook did the damage.
I also added some Mainline Banoffee stick mix to my dampened down micros, which helped them stick and also added a bit more attraction. I’m not sure if it made a difference or it was just a coincidence, but my three biggest carp came after I sprayed some Stinky Stuff liquid on to my 6mm hard pellets. Who knows for sure, but it certainly didn’t hurt.

I enjoyed my return to this venue and although I didn’t end up with a huge weight, it’s a very picturesque and the people there are very welcoming. I’ll certainly be back in the near future.”

Andy Pell.

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