Tag: fish4wales

Sunday 30th August 2009

Having fished the final Jinx match on the Saturday me and Gem stayed over again ready to fish the Fish 4 Wales match on the Sunday. It was a lot colder and it was that cold it woke me up at 3am, I had to put the cooker on for 10 mins to warm the tent up. I know what your thinking but Gem was asleep.

After I finally managed to get back to sleep I woke up again at 6am and this time I decided to stay up and get some rigs tied ready for the match. Nick was also awake and had the same thing in mind.

With the draw not being until 12pm we had plenty of time to spare. I spent the morning walking round the lake watching all the fish on the surface basking in the sunshine. There was also another match on the lake today, they were fishing from pegs 4 to 21 and we had 22 to 2. They started arriving and had their draw and was soon underway fishing. Watching them gave us an insight to how the lake was going to fish today and it was not looking good.

Soon 11am came round, people started arriving for our match and Gem even woke up . The weather also decided to change from being nice and calm to being very very windy and spitting with rain. Typical British weather hey.

With everyone there except Al, Nick got the draw under way. I was thinking to myself that I wouldn’t mind peg 26 again when Gem pulled it from the bag. I put my hand in and pulled out peg 32, a peg I had not fished before. With some info off Clive (thanks Clive) I got my gear to the peg and set up a line at 10m on the deck and to the bush on my left. I was told not to bother with shallow today which brought a frown to my face as I love my shallow fishing.

To my right I had Nick Williams on peg 30, Steve on peg 28, Gem on peg 26 and Matt on peg 24.

By the time we started the wind had really picked up and I looked to my right at everyone fishing at 5 meters when I was out at 10m. Within minutes of the all in going Gem was already in to a fish on the paste and then another. This made everyone very scared I can tell you. Gem with two fish and everyone else with zero.

I put in 2 pots of pellets in at 10m and went over it with a nice cube of meat, I didn’t have to wait long for a bite but it was a lovely foul hooker. I had no control over it and guess where it took me, yup in the bush on my left. He kindly left my hook in one of the branches before waving goodbye. Things always seem to go wrong for me when it’s windy. Despite the wind I managed to get 4 fish in the net which cleared me of the Minx as she had not managed to catch any-more.

With the wind picking up even more and a flurry of foul hookers on the 10m line I had a look on the bush but again all I was getting was liners and foul hookers. What really put the icing on the cake was getting snagged in the bush much to the amusement of Gem that had come down to see how I was doing.

After being told not to bother with shallow on peg 32 I thought bugger it, I was racked off with the margin and 10m line only producing foul hookers so I popped a shallow rig on with a nice white boilie. I fished it out at the 10m line about 2 ½ foot deep. Before I shipped out I fired some 6mm pellets out and could just about make out the swirls amongst the waves. I shipped out and plopped the boilie in, it sank about 2 foot and the float disappeared. No foul hooker this time, with the hook being in the right place the fish was under control and in the landing net after a nice short fight. Shipped out again and had a smaller carp, then a better sized carp. Things were looking good.

Looking to my right I had noticed Steve and Nick had both found regular fish on their 5m lines. Gem was still having problems getting another fish and Matt had been in to some action too although I could not quite see how many.

Gem had managed to find another fish and what a fish it was. A new PB for her. 16lb 8oz, Well done Gem.

Matt had also been to the weigh station too.

During the last hour of the match I had given up on the bush and decided to concente on the 10m line, both shallow and on the deck and had managed to pick up some more fish. But I knew I didnt not have enough to beat both Steve and Nick.

With the crappy weather and being too busy trying to catch some fish I never went for a walk with the camera, So I had no idea on how the others were getting on in the little lake. All was to be revealed in the weigh in. And also a nice surprise for Gem, she had thought she was last but it turns out someone packed up and went home. Red Hydro, Welcome to the Minx List

Results

Clive Pritchard	2	143-04
Steve Wilson	28	116-00
Nick Williams	30	85-04
Simon Mound	32	69-04
Paul Jay	34	61-00
Mat Edwards	24	48-00
Keith Fellowes	38	47-08
Gem Doyle	26	21-00
Pat Pritchard	36	DNW