Acorn Individual League Rd 2.

Back to Acorn today and after last weeks gale force winds it was pleasant to see the lake calm for a change, I felt quite positive about the day ahead and had resorted to wearing my old joggers I've had for years and are wearing a bit thin' but since wearing jeans I haven't had a pick up and the weather has hindered my fishing most weeks so at least they had worked for a change in the conditions for a start".

with 29 in the league we all get to rotate the three sections twice and I wasn't to bothered where I would end up so into the draw and out comes peg 10 which I was happy with although Nick (Trolley Thief) Harvey only managed 16lb off it last week but he said it was towing hard due to the wind, I didn't have that problem so was hoping to have a few as it wasn't a long distance to the island being about 12mts.

I plumed up with a 4x10 chanti on 0.13-0.11 an a size 18 Pr478 and found just over 2ft tight into the bank against the grass which was ideal and had a slightly heavier 4x12 rig to fish in-front of the bull rushes 2mts to my left on the bottom of the first shelf in 3ft or so of water. Keeping it simple I had a rig to fish to my left at 6mts in the open water just in-case I couldn't catch on my main lines and last of all a 4x10 chanti on 0.11-0.10 and again an 18 PR478 to fish against the shelf towards the empty pallet peg 11 again 3ft being the chosen depth.

(Notice I placed my pole roller bag on the bull rushes to give me a better view)

for company today I had Charlie Barns on peg 9 who was happily going to leave the carp to me in search of the lakes silvers, And fellow blogger Ken Rayner on peg 12 which looked nice down the edge aswell.

 Charlie.

I had Drawn Tom Thick in this first round of the knock-out who was also in my section on bridge peg 34 so we had a quid on the battle that lay ahead for the fun of it, At the all in I cupped a sprinkling of hard 4mm's and some damped micro over to the deeper swim in-front the bull rushes, a large 250mm cupful of micro onto the open water 6mt swim and cupful of damped down groundbait with a palm full of dead red maggots added, A lot of people don't feed this line until  they plan to fish it but I like to add a pot full of the same every 45mins to build the swim up and draw the attention of and bigger fish. I had mixed up a bag and

 a half of the Thatchers natural just in case they did turn up later in the day as I hoped they would.

Starting across in the shallower swim tight into the bank I shipped out with a whole worm and had a cadpot attached with some micro pellets and groundbait in once the rig had settled I pulled the rig up tight to the bank and cupped the feed in on top float after a few liners I re-fed the same again 15mins in and carp number one was in the net followed by three more in the next twenty minutes was a good start and from what I could see a few fish were being hooked, things started to slow up and a could see the fish were keen to come up in the water so I cupped in a larger amount with the bigger pot and re-fed my margin swim with more groundbait  before trying the swim in-front the rushes with a 6mm expander, first put in and a fish of 4lb was good then just one missed bite in 20mins saw me back tight to the island feeding regular with the cadpot, no more bites on worm saw a change to corn and two small carp followed before it slowed again. topping up and leaving it seemed to let them settle before going back in and nicking the odd fish so a quick try on the open water swim with a worm didn't produce and a look down to the pallet with a bunch of dead reds on the hook was yet to produce but we were only half-way through so was sure it would give me fish in the last couple of hours.

Back to the island and I switched to a 6mm expander on the hook and by shallowing up an inch I would lift the rig as tight to the bank as possible so the pellet sat right in and the tip of the float would just be showing and by emptying the cadpot in once the rig had settled and waiting saw me have some cracking bites and some larger fish to 6lb.

 Going into the last couple of hours the wind had picked up making hard to keep the rig tight to the bank so it was time to switch to my margin with a whole worm, as soon as it settled I missed a bite but as the rig settled again I was in with my first fish from in-front the pallet around 3lb, going straight back in with a full pot of groundbait soon had me a bigger fish of 5lb,

   After A couple more liners down to the pallet I re-fed with another pot-full and went back over to the shallow swim, two good fish then nothing seemed to be the pattern so by topping the swim and leaving it then going back down the edge feeding it before I went on it saw me add to my catch including a foul hooker which leapt out the other side of the pallet' though I somehow managed to steer it back through tail first and into my landing net at around 4lb"

Another fish across saw me stay down the edge just into the side of the pallet,

   The last 20mins saw me add 3 more to 5lb all on the worm to give me a total of 19-20 carp in total, at the weigh-in top weight on peg 5 in are section was Brian (Anteater) Slipper with 43lb before my turn to weigh and my catch of 85lb odd was good enough to take the lead.

Myself. 

Tom was last to weigh in and his 51lb was enough to take second spot in the section behind my-self meaning not only had I won the quid he was out of the knock-out as well which was good news for me' although tom has since informed me he is back in the knock-out as the fastest loser on weight so I could draw him again next time".

 Tom Thick.

Back to the results and I was happy to be top weight on the day, Picking up £60 for the section was a bonus as there's not a pay-out for top on the day with the monies going to the overall placing's at the end of 6 matches, Paul Faires managed top silvers weigh on the day though it was a close affair with Charlie picking the section up by de-fault with 9lb odd, Overall I was pleased how my day went and by nicking a couple of fish and letting them settle seemed to work best as-well as not being afraid to swap around hook baits when it went slow. Back in two weeks for round 3 so looking forward to the next time, and a big thanks to the wife today for taking some nice pics.

 Paul & Myself.

Overall Results -

1st Dominic Sullivan (Maver/Cadbury Angling) peg 10, 85lb 6oz

 2nd Russ Peck (Thatchers Tackle) peg 36, 69lb 8oz

3rd Tom Thick (Thatchers Tackle) peg 34, 51lb 13oz

4th Bob Gullit (BVMG) peg 22, 51lb 12oz

Silvers

 1st Paul Faires (Sensas Thyers) peg 15, 10lb 7oz

2nd Tom Thick (Thatchers Tackle) peg 34, 10ld 4oz.