Nick Speed's Blog - Not That Peg Again
Geplaatst Match Nieuws at Jul 02, 2011
At the moment I’m at the top of the leader board on the South Yorkshire County Champs Table, and for me to stand a chance of holding the Title for the second year running, I have to pick my weekend matches carefully, as a weekend with no points could be costly.
Last weekend I went back to lindholme Lakes on the Saturday, where the match was on the Locco Lake, and a bright sunny day caused this lake to fish quite hard. So on Sunday I decided to go to Hallcroft Fisheries, where I was lucky enough to draw a good peg and received a great days fishing, bagging shallow with carp and skimmers.
Saturday 25th June
Locco Lake, 25 Pegs
Although this is my favourite lake on the complex, the last two matches on the Locco, has seen me in the most little productive area on the lake both times, and in fact the same peg. So hopefully today I’m sure to pull out a better peg!
Well they say things come in three’s, yes you guessed it!
I pulled out peg 48, for the third consecutive time, and as you can imagine I was not a happy chappy!
Arriving at my peg, I was greeted yet again by a westerly wind blowing straight off my back.
With the water in this lake being a lot clearer simply because of the depth, this means a wind always creates cover for the fish, and so the pegs with wind and water movement are always stronger than calmer areas of the lake.
Basically this was mission impossible, but regardless I sat down with the intentions to better my previous weights on this peg.
Without doubt this was going to be a method and edge attack match, as from past experience this is the most consistent plan.
My set up consisted of a method feeder, and an edge rig for later on when I can hopefully catch a few edge dwellers.(Middy Carp Grey Float, 4x 10, 0.18 Low Viz Line Direct / 83-13 Hook)
For the majority of the match I was going to target the F1’s on the method feeder at around the twenty metre distance. Unfortunately this peg doesn’t allow me to fish any further out, as I’m hemmed in the corner.
At the start I went straight out on the method, and to be honest I was expecting the first hour to be the best hour. So after one hour I had only one small F1. This was not good as this meant the lakes fishing a lot harder than expected.
After a very boring four hours of catching the odd f1 on the method feeder, I was just hoping for a miracle down the margins. This was the only area of my peg where I was going to receive an arrival.
By the last hour I had been priming my margin swim with groundbait (Dynamite Swim Stim Betaine Green/Marine Halibut /Marine Halibut Method Mix, equal quantities), and also feeding Dynamite Luncheon Meat over the top.
Going on the last match when I didn’t catch down the edge until the last 5 minutes of the match, I wasn’t expecting much. However with half an hour remaining I finally hooked a big boy from the margin, which although I managed to guide away from all the reeds, I pulled out of it in open water.
All that time feeding and waiting for an arrival and then losing the first fish you hook is definitely not the objective.
So any way I carried on and shortly after I was into my second carp which thankfully I safely banked, a common around the 5lb mark.
On the final whistle I had managed only 2 carp down the edge, and in the process I lost two costly carp also.
I weighed in 29lb 9oz, which was 8th in the match.
Ben Holmes won the match with 105lb, Craig Lawson was second with just 44lb!.
Sunday 26th June
Hallcroft Fisheries
Moat Pool, 45 Pegs
Bright sunshine, High pressure, Southerly wind, all the key ingredients for bagging shallow with carp and skimmers.
I couldn’t wait for this match, especially after yesterday’s ordeal, and as a reward for moaning I was given Peg 2 on the moat island.
Peg 2 is a great draw, but if the wind is not blowing in its favour, this may be just a section winning peg. Luckily on this day there was a strong southerly wind blowing straight down the lake, which of course makes this peg a flyer.
Upon setting up I knew there was going to be just one approach needed to extract a big weight, shallow and nothing else was the only sensible option, as looking out I could see fish moving all over the peg, Happy Days.
For my shallow rigs I set up 5 identical rigs, the only difference that separated them all was the depth of each rig.( Middy Carp grey, 4 x 12, 0.16 Low viz Line Direct/ 63-13 size 16 Hook).
This array of rigs would enable me to read at what depth the majority of fish want to intercept the regular helping of Dynamite Luncheon Meat, simply be alternating rigs until the correct depth is found.
For my bait, all that was needed was a few tins of Dynamite Luncheon Meat; all diced into 6mm cubes.
At the start I immediately went out to 13 metres with a 2ft rig, and started feeding a few pieces of meat on a regular basis. Within twenty minutes I was into the first creature of the day, which turned out to be a mirror around the 10lb stamp.
The first hour produced 5 carp for around the 40lb mark, this was definitely a good start, but meanwhile on the other bank Lee Wright was also catching carp shallow, and by the end of the second hour Lee was 5 carp ahead of me.
The cross wind was causing a big problem with trying to feed and hold my float still enough to tempt a bite. This caused me to stop catching in the middle of the match, as I could only watch Lee build up his weight, whilst I was still stuck on 8 carp.
This is a typical scenario at Hallcroft, as the wind sometimes forces you to swap methods. However whenever possible I’m a big believer in persevering with the most sensible method that’s going to win the match, and on this day it was shallow, so it was just a case of battling it out against the wind until the peg became stronger with feeding.
With two hours remaining my swim kicked back alive and in the next hour I went from being 7 carp behind Lee, to 5 Carp ahead!
This run of fish boosted my weight as in this little flurry of carp, I managed to land three double figure fish.
In the final hour I managed another 4 carp, which at the end put a total of 25 carp in my net, also topped up with just a few small skimmers.
At the weigh in my fish registered a Match Winning 152lb 5oz.
I caught nearly all my fish on the 3 ft rig!
Lee wright was Second with 134lb
Andy Oldham was Third with 92lb.
This Wednesday I’m in the Fish’o Mania qualifier at Lindholme Lakes, then on Thursday I’m at Gold Valley Lakes in Aldershot, for the Third Round of the Drennan Knock Out cup, where I’m hoping to make the Top 16, in order to qualify for Round 4.
Check out how I fared in next week’s blog.
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