Sedges Fishery (Top-Kit Only) Final, Tile Lake.

After two different lots of qualifying rounds & the top ten in each making it to the final with good pay-outs up for grabs it was back for the final on Tile lake, Traveling on my own today I skipped the normal fry-up & arrived to find a full fishery with the over 50's on brick lake as well as the nineteen of us as we were one short, I fancied either pegs 21 or 22 on the far bank as they were consistent in the rounds I fished or corner peg 40 on the causeway up to peg 36 as this seemed to be another consistent area.

Into the draw & I found myself on peg 39 which I was pleased enough with as the day before peg 40 had won the normal match with 200lb, Are foreign candidate in the form of Ziggy Slowinski?? Was on it today but also fished yesterday & was on my peg but only managed a few so I was hoping with us all limited to fishing a maximum of 3mts" It would turn out to be more of a level playing field, Simple as far as rigs today, A 4x12 & 4x12 chanti on 0.17-0.15 & a 16 wide gape pellet hook to fish on top & just past the sloping shelf in around 5ft of water, The lighter rig on a short line to the float, A rig to fish shallow on a long line slightly further out & finally a rig to fish down the edge either side tight to the bank in 3ft of water. peg 38 Between myself & Martin Heard on 37 was the vacant peg so was hoping to catch a few down this edge later in the day, I started the match feeding a small ball of hard 4mms in-front of me, & a pinch of 8mm meat off to my left, I started the day on an 8mm expander & in the first 20mins had managed around 3lb of small skimmers before I hooked my first carp, It was a nice fish near 15lb & just as I went to net it the hook pulled for no reason" I've had this happen a couple of times with this pattern so I soon changed to a PR478 hook. It was frustrating as Ziggy had already landed two & a good early fish can be a right settler, I managed a few more small skimmers but was also having trouble with my expanders splitting,  Thankfully Bobby Gullit had lent me a pump as I lost my handle but it wasn't doing the best job & after pumping some more & having the same problem I decided to scrap fishing expanders" 

I had been feeding fragile amounts of 8mm meat to my left from the off & after 2hrs of trying my other lines it was time to have a look as Ziggy was now on Five & I was yet to put one in the net". Thankfully it worked as I had two carp straight away, The second I went to weigh as fish over 15lb have to be returned, It wasn't as big as I expected at just over 11lb but at least I had a picture of the size of fish I could put in the net. I decided to start feeding meat on the pellet line I had started in-front of me & switch between the two, I also cupped a larger amount into the bank on my right hand side, Over the next hour or so I added another four fish & seemed to be making in-roads on Ziggy as he was now playing with foul hookers"

I would only fish one line for a couple of minutes then move as it seemed to work best, It wasn't hectic & I had to wait for bites but by fishing right under my top-kit rather than on the snaggy shelf I wasn't getting the problems with foul hooked fish & when I caught the average was around 7-8lb, I did try the shallow rig slightly further out where I had been feeding a few 6mm's but the breeze was all wrong to keep the rig still so struck to either single or double meat on the short lines. With just 30mins to go I was getting close to the net limit or so I thought so decided it was best to go & fetch another fishery owned net, Ziggy took the opportunity to ask me to fetch him one as he was playing a fish, & another when I returned", I hate putting a new net in as it seems to curse me & I was running out of time with just 27mins left when back on my box, I had a look down both edges for the second time through the day but didn't have a sign so finished the day back on the meat lines, Thankfully I wasn't cursed as I netted a lovely Orange & Black Ghosty over 10lb & two more smaller fish before the all-out, But I hadn't a clue what I had?, Ziggy said he had around 80lb & I thought it was close between him & me so had that as my target weight, When the scales arrived Bobby G from fancied end peg 21 was winning with 164lb which I couldn't see being beaten, Their was another 100lb plus weight on that bank before a couple of close 90lb plus weights further along my side, Finally my turn & my 7lb odd of silvers added to my carp gave me a total of 121lb odd so much more than I had thought but to be honest after a slow start I just tried to concentrate on putting some fish in the net". Ziggy wasn't far off with his guess finishing with 85lb odd & quits in the quid stake I owed him although I did manage to take one off Tom Thick on my bank.

At the results & Bobby G's final weight was easily enough to finish 1st picking up £250 & he also had the added bonus of finishing 3rd in the silvers picking up another £100" He had all his fish on meat doing much the same as me so well done to him, I was pleased to finish 2nd as I've only fished this event for the first time this year & the bonus of picking up £170" was welcome with a weeks holiday ahead with the wife to take us a few places. The top silvers went to Martin Heard who fished caster to catch 160 small fish along with some skimmers caught shallow to finish with a total of 36lb. 

 

 Final Winner Bobby G, Left with Silvers Winner Martin Heard.

Full Results -

1st Bob Gullit, (Mosella) peg 21, 164lb 11oz, -  £250.00.

2nd Dom Sullivan, (Maver) peg 39, 121lb 2oz, - £170.00.

3rd Steve Fouracre, (The Sedges) peg 29, 107lb 4oz, - £125.00.

4th Tom Thick (Thatchers Tackle) peg 34, 95lb 2oz, - £100.00. 

Silvers -

1st Martin Heard (Mosella) peg 37, 36lb, - £150.00.

2nd Mark Bellringer (The Sedges) peg 22, 19lb 9oz, - £ 125.00.

3rd Bob Gullit (Mosella) peg 21, 17lb 12oz, - £100.