I was really looking forward to this match as there aren't many bagging waters around my area so the chance to catch a net full of Carp makes a change.
I arrived and found only 9 were fishing today which meant we would use both ponds.
Pond 1 has larger fish and a good head of silvers where the second pond has a lot of stockie carp and the odd bigger fish.
It was decided to payout the winner of both ponds and best silvers.
I drew peg 9 which is the first corner peg on pond 2 and i was happy with this as i fished it the only other time i had visited so knew the depths and range to fish at.
I set up 4 topkits a 4x12 for meat in 5ft of water at 11.5mtrs a pellet rig for the same spot and a Shallow Rig for my Right hand Margin towards the empty Pallet I also set up a Rig for top 2 plus 2 for silvers in case the carp didn't show and a pellet Feeder for the far bank which is about a 20 mtr chuck but i knew the carp hang out over there and there were signs of carp mooching around that bank.
There were 4 fishing on my pond inc Mr H (Peg 16) who had just won the overnight match at Rackerhayes and who won the Anniversary match at this fishery last time out, the fishery manager's brother (Peg 15) who fishes the ponds regularly and Father Christmas(Peg 12) who also fishes the ponds on a weekly basis during his off season so i was the novice on the lake.
At the all in i potted in a big pot of meat and hemp over the 11.5mtr line and balled in some groundbait down the right hand margin.
I went straight out on the meat rig and had to wait 10 minutes but then my float bobbed and my first carp was landed at around 1lb it was a good start next drop and again the float sailed away but this time the fish darted off and the hook came off.
I fed some meat via a kinder pot and sat back and waited for another 10 minutes then carp number 2 came along i netted it quite quickly this seemed to be the pattern for the first hour and i ended with 5 carp for around 5lb I heard that the lad on 15 had 7 carp whilst Father Christmas was targeting silvers and was having a few but quite small Roach and Gudgeon.
The second hour went much the same as the first although i did land a lovely 3lb carp so i tough i would be neck & neck with the lad on 15 i could only hear moaning from MR H so i guessed he was struggling.
The third hour started frustratingly One of my back seatbox legs suddenly gave way and i neede to get off my box to sort it so quickly chucked out my pellet feeder i was around the back of the box when the rod flew around and depsite my catching it the hooklink snapped. I tied another and cast out to same spot with a 6mm pellet and agian the rod wrapped around but this time i was ready and managed to land a nice pound and half fish next cast i had a slight drop back bite which turned out to be a Gudgeon.
A few more chucks resulted in nothing so i was back on my pole line.
I had a quick look down my margin but had nothing so went back out to 11.5 Mtr's I had a bite almost immediately but lost it and then had to wait another 20 minutes before i had 2 quick carp
After 3 hours i had 12 carp but the lad on 15 had 17 so it was possible he may have been just ahead
My peg seemed to switch off for 45 minutes and suddenly the lad on 15 now had 27 carp to my 15 so i thought it was all over so had a quick 10 minutes on my silvers line which produced a few small roach but i was missing more bites than hitting them so gave that up.
With 45 minutes to go Mr H packed up with only 5 small carp he had enough i knew FC was off the pace so i was siting comfortably second on the lake and thought 1 big fish could get me back in the frame.
I saw the first tail pattern of the evening to my right about a metre from the bank and 2 mtrs further down the margin past the empty pallet so id ropped my rig on top of it and instantly had a bit which i landed.
Straight back in and the float didn't have time to settle before it flew off but so did the carp.
I quickly rebaited and went back in and had another.
In the last half hour i landed 6 Carp and lost 3 putting me close to the lad on peg 15 who ended with 30 carp
At the weigh in he said he thought he around 25lb as his carp were small but he did have a 2lb Tench I thought also had between 20-25lb and wished i had found the fish to my right 10 minutes earlier.
The Scales came along and my net weighed 25lb 10oz so again i was close with mt estimate and the lad on 15 seemd worried as my carp were mainly larger than his.
FC weighed 12LB with 4.5Lb of silvers and taking the silvers cash.
We got to 15 and the lad was looking more worried the net came out and it looked really close but it went 27lb 2oz so he beat me by 1lb 8oz.
I was disappointed but my biggest match weight to date and a second on the lake against more experienced anglers shows that i may be learning a few things and it was good practice for the summer league.
Lake 1 was won with 59lb with a few lovely carp over 5lb (this was the first 50lb net in a competition and things are looking really good for some big weights during the summer) second was 49lb 14oz
Not sure when i will be fishing again as work is getting really busy but hope to be on the bank soon.
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