Emerald Silvers League Rd.4

With Darren picking me up we had a trip to hilltops for him to pig out on the belly buster' before making are way to the fishery in plenty of time to do the pegging out, What was noticeable was the water level was up at least 6inches from the last match and the colour had also dropped out, I wasn't expecting the weights what we had last winter although I was sure there were a few fish to be caught with a somewhat gentle approach? I let Barry draw for me today and fancied the first few pegs on the far bank but found myself on the peg facing back up the lake on the far end bank but it can produce anywhere so would still target my swim the same way.

 After a heavy shower for 5mins before the draw when I got to my peg the sun had came out which was nice but I was limited as to where to plum-up with all the shadows caused by the trees so my main line would be at around 10mts in the clear shadow seen in the pic above.

the depth is slightly shallower at this end of the lake and I had just short of 4ft so set up a 4x12 wire wonder on 0.13-0.09 and an 18 63-13 hook. the same rig would be used off towards my right into the shadow of the bridge which hopefully aid me to see the float in the same depth of water.

 I also set a 4x10 chanti on 0.11-0.08 with the same pattern hook to fish over the same lines if the fish were to come off bottom through the day. last of all 3x8 chanti to fish up in the water down my inside left were I planned just to loose fed a few casters by hand. At the all in I cupped two balls of ground-bait with some dead red Maggot & Casters added towards the bridge and started in front of me with single red maggot on the hook just cupping in a nugget of fishmeal ground-bait and a few dead reds via a tosspot attached to the pole right over the float and waited. I could see a few fish being netted from the off further up the lake and after 15mins I had a tench about 10oz's, After an hour I was up to 6 tench and 4 hybrid/skimmers but from what I could see nobody was catching fast and my bites were becoming more frequent, 2hrs gone and I was doing well having fifteen tench in total from bars of soap up to 1lb but by now the sun had come up behind me and despite trying the line towards the bridge it was impossible to see any colour float' As expected things began to slow down and the tench had disappeared and it seemed that Andy Gard over on peg 8 was now catching a few after a slower start.

 Andy.

 

I new it would be a case of catch what ever I could for the rest of the match so feed a new line 3ft off to my left with some micro and ground-bait and left it whilst I tried my inside caster line where I had a hybrid then a large carp which wrecked the inside before snapping the hooklength" so spend the rest of the match switching between the (Now 3) long lines managing to pinch fish off each with the sun now not being an issue catching mainly hybrids with the odd tench. After 5 hours I couldn't see what had been caught further up but new Andy had a good late run of tench so it would be close and I estimated to have around 20lb but its hard to tell here as there all sizes" so hoped to have a bit more as I said I thought 20lb would be a good weight on the day.

 

Starting on the small island Ken Rayner said he had a lot of carp problems ending with nearly 10lb, before Barry Fitchew on the opposite bank next to the bridge weighed 22lb, That was top weight until Andy had 25lb odd and I was sure he had enough to win on the day. 

 

 Andy Gard's Catch.

 

I new it would be close but was happy to end up just taking to win on the day with just over 27lb so working at it an finding a few extra fish paid off, For this prolific fishery I still don't think we have seen the best of it this year as there are still a fair few carp to be hooked and I enjoy the days where you have to keep on your toes and try and gauge what's going on around you,

 

 My catch of mainly tench.

 

A great result in the league for me with 2 rounds to go, adding £56 to the wallet along the way and with two weeks until the next round with the forecast of colder weather on the horizon it could fish well'. Cant go without giving Darren a mention & he was brimming with confidence before we started after drawing the peg I had last match.. Lets just say things didn't go to plan but he took it well' Although I reckon its because he had indigestion all Day after woofing the fry-up! lol.

 

Full results -

1st Dom Sullivan (Maver/Cadbury Angling) peg 9, 27lb 4oz. 

2nd Andy Gard (Alcove Angling) peg 8, 25lb 11oz.

3rd Barry Fitchew (Pole Repairs) peg 3, 22lb 13oz.

4th Kev Jeffries (PSV) peg 4, 18lb 8oz.

 

 

Overall Standing after 4 matches with worst result dropped -

1st Dom Sullivan, 4pts.

2nd Tim Lewis, 9pts.

3rd Kev Jeffries, 11pts.

4th John Barker, 13pts.

5th Barry Fitchew, 14pts.

5th Ken Rayner, 14pts.

7th Darren Greenwood, 14.5pts.

8th Andy Gard 16pts.