14.03.13

Silvers & a Gold

After working at the Guru shows at the Ricoh Arena and The Big One in Farnborough, I was itching to get back on the bank and wet a line.
The first Match on my agenda after being frozen off week before was round five of the Meadowlands Silverfish League. In previous rounds I’d found it a bit of a struggle on the larger Lambsdown Lake and the Smaller Warren Lake was bossing the top overall positions in the matches. I paid my entry and just prayed to draw the Warren Lake.
The all-important draw took place and as I opened my peg I was relieved to see the words Warren on the ticket, I was also over the moon to see the number 18 as this is a very consistent peg.
Peg number 18 on the Warren Lake at Meadowlands Fishery is one of the deepest areas on the lake and in my experience that is never a bad thing in the cold winter months. The peg is around five feet deep a good foot deeper than most other pegs on the lake.
Because I’d struggled in a couple of rounds and missed a couple of rounds too my plan was to fish to win. My plan of attack was an all-out pole approach at 14.5m.
I set up two rigs with Mick Wilkinson slim-pattern floats. The first rig was set up on 0.15mm N-Gauge line was a slim, 10 no11 F1 float with a bulk of shot ten inches from the hook, with the bait nailed to the bottom. The second rig was also set up on 0.15 N-Gauge line but was a slim 6 no11 float with a string of shot for a slower fall and bites on the drop. Hook lengths for both rigs were identical and were six inches of 0.10mm line connected to a size 18 LWG.
My bait choice for this peg was simple; half a pint of micro pellets two pints of casters and a handful of 4mm and 6mm Ringers Next Generation expander pellets for the hook.
My approach was to feed micros and casters by pole pot and then kinder the same mix over the top at regular intervals, depending on bites and indications. I fed two separate lines spaced apart so that I could alternate if one line went iffy.
The plan worked well for me, as after a slow first 30 minutes the rest of the match was steady, and saw me picking a good stamp of skimmers off of both lines. By the end of the five-hour match I had caught an all-skimmer bag bar one fish, which was a lovely looking Guru-coloured fantail goldfish of about 2lb; the icing on the cake for me.
I felt I had fished a really good match and didn’t feel I could have done any better, barring the odd bumped-off fish.
As the scales approached me at the end of the event I was confident I had a good weight of between 40lb to 50lb. As I watched the weigh-in I was made up to see the scales register 61lb 12oz giving me a match win. Darren Cox was second on the day with 42lb and Roly McEneaney with 34lb.
Back at the car park at the pay out I received £120, which I split with my mate Chopper Harris. He had won his £40 section too so we both went home happy with £80 each. It was a great match to remember as it is my personal biggest weight of skimmers all captured on my new impressive new Daiwa Air pole. This was my first day out with the Air and can’t wait to use it again.

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