| Jammy or what?…………… |
So there we were booked in the pairs carp match. I was due on holiday the week before the match, I would have to entrust Tim with baiting up the lake. I dropped off 10kgs of Red Shrimp and Garlic with him and gave him instructions to scatter feed the bait all over the lake. I’d already been round with the Match Secretary and pegged out the swims the week before so passed on this valuable information. Because the draw is carried out by putting the swim numbers in an envelope it’s not a case of choosing a swim it’s a case of being lucky. The subs were paid and with the pot at £140.00 it was worth winning, that and the fact that I was currently top rod, my pride was also at stake.
I’d been instructed at the last minute to carry out the draw, which meant that the onus fell on Nick to do the honours. We did a circuit of the lake, I pointed out to Nick the swims that I fancied and the swims that I didn’t. Not that he could do anything about it. The envelopes we shuffled and lady luck made her move. Nick only managed to pull out one of the two sets of swims that I didn’t fancy. Nick made his way to the swims and made his choice, which left me with the one swim I didn’t fancy. We scattered about a kilo of Red Shrimp and Garlic in likely looking spots and got the rods out.
We had an uneventful first night. However Tim and Mark, in the next set of swims to our left had managed one of the new stockies (which didn’t count, only fish over 10lb did) and a 17lber. Another angler had also managed to catch and was rewarded with a 27lb Mirror, so we had a lot of ground to make up.
The swim I was fishing had an over hanging bush to the right hand side, about 7am I managed to lose a fish in this snag. Nick managed to catch a mid double common at 15lb 12oz, which meant we were off and running. The weather had got warmer and there were plenty of fish in front of us, so we opted to fish zig rigs. Armed with new pots of Tutti Megafish and Red Shrimp and Garlic Pop-ups, we had a few options in our armoury. About mid afternoon Nick managed to land another smaller fish on the Tutti Megafish zig. We weighed it in the hope that it might be bigger than 10lb and were fortunate enough to see the needle go round to 10lb 8oz. Now we were within a pound / pound and a half of the leader. We reeled in for the BBQ and a bit of a social and a time to catch up and see what else had been out. The leaders were on 27lb 8oz, Nick and I were on 26lb 4oz, Rim and Mark were on 17lb and two other anglers were on 11lb. |
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We were still in the hunt but with a dropped fish were gutted not to be out in front. We all returned to our swims and prepared for the night ahead. About 11pm I dropped another fish on the snag to my right, I was absolutely gutted. Those 2 lost fish could have secured us the £140.00 winnings. About 5am in the morning Nick managed to hook a small fish which spat the hook at the net. It looked less than 10lb, and we convinced ourselves that it wouldn’t have counted.
After a hearty breakfast and with so little weight in it we set about winning the £140.00 and salvaging some pride. With the match finishing at midday, we set all our rods up on zig rigs and set about our task. Moving the baits every 30 minutes or so, changing depth and swapping between pop-up sizes. I was quite surprised to see that we were the only ones who were going all out to win, but at least it stacked the odds more in our favour. We slowly packed our gear away leaving just the rods, nets and unhooking mats. I’d spoken to a couple of mates on the phone who suitably chastised us for dropping fish. With 20 minutes to go I reeled one of my rods in and packed it away. Holding on as long as possible I removed the back rest and hanger from the last remaining rod and packed them away. Just as I turned to go and reel the rod in my mobile started to ring. I stood looking towards the rod and towards the phone trying to decide what to do. “Your phones ringing Doug” Nick called to me, best answer it then. It was one of the anglers who’d fished the match and left early having blanked. “still fishing?” he asked, “’til midday” I said. “any more fish?”, “no, not a bee…” eeeeeeeeeeeeppppppppppppp, the rod screamed off. I launched the phone and struck into a fish. Nick came over offering calming words and encouragement, “leave me a lone and find my phone, there’s someone on the other end” I told him. Nick abruptly finished the call and came over to see how I was getting on. As he did the fish turned and I recognised it as one of the previous year stock fish which goes mid twenty. Safely in the net I let out a cheer across the lake. We weighed the fish which went 26lb 4oz, the money was ours and the bragging rights too. |
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This was to be Tim and Mark (the out going champions) last session on the lake for a while. The opening night of the season was 2 weeks away they’d been baiting our other lake in preparation for the season ahead. At the opening night draw they managed to get the best swim on the lake, jammy or what?................... |
Doug
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