The Saturday Open at Gold Valley 16th November

The Hopeful Match Fisher

So back to Gold Valley today for an open match, on what was predicted to be a miserable day by the weather girls.  Actually it turned out to a fine day to be out.

The match itself needs a little explaining.  It was a Winter League 4-man team match (which I think is every week or two?)   Now I'm not in a team, but when I booked in John Raison said to turn up anyway and he would drop me into a team which was under manned.  I ended up in a team which seemed to be some of the guys from Daiwa Dorking.

The match was split between Middle Lake and Syndicate, and I expected it would be a mostly a pellet/method/feeder job.  It has been most of the time recent and was again today.  I decided to work with micro pellets rather than a method mix, which seemed to work okay on the day.  It was the first time I was using the Matrix Evolution feeders, which I've converted onto recently from the Preston feeders.  Following some inspiration from Steve Ringer I prepared a batch of nice bright yellow 6mm pellets, which contrasted well against the darker Dynamite 3mm Green Betaine pellets.

I drew peg 116 on Syndicate, which is approaching the far corner on the near bank.  I was happy enough with that draw, having been on the far bank a lot recently.  There seemed to be a lot of fishing topping, so like most other anglers I set up a waggler, along with the method and a pole margin rig.  I started on the method, but clearly my pellet mix was too loose, as I scattered 3mm pellets all over the margins on the first cast!  After a few adjustments I was in for the first drop, which after a couple of minutes thrashed round the top for a carp of about 4lb.  A decent start.  I kept on the method and happily picked up four fish in the opening ninety minutes.  The guy next door had much the same and I think between us we led the way on the section.  

One rather irritating occurrence was the loss of two fish and two method feeders, both at the point of pulling into the fish.  Not sure why, but it was to happen again towards the end of the match too.  My only explanation is that it was failing in the quick change bead, but I don't know what the matter was or why it happened so consistently.  I'll have to keep an eye on that.  Over the whole match I lost four fish I would otherwise have expect to net.

Into the third hour it all quietened off, so I put on a heavy pellet feeder in order to bang it out to the centre rope, which runs right-to-left.  It was a good move because I grabbed another three fish in quick time.  But then it slacked off again so I dropped into the margins, which was just as dead.  So back out onto the pellet feeder which yielded only one more fish until the all-out.  

I put 45lb 7oz on the scales which put me in the middle of the section, about half the section winning weight of 90lb. I wasn't 100% happy because the lost fish would have put me at 65lb - good enough for second or third in section.  It's annoying because the losses were down to terminal tackle failure alone.

Another thought was that I found my feeder rod struggling to get a decent distance accurately, so I might be in the market for another feed rod better able to drop a feeder better on a 50-60 yard cast.  

Until next time.

Hopeful