V.D.E SUPERCUP ROUND 1 6/3/10

Hi Folks, the next match i have to report on is the first round of the V.D.E supercup, If you have read my previous posts you will know that my club team Halesowen A.C had drawn away to Rexel A.C at Hawford bridge with the White swan as the third team in the tie. I had been down a couple of times to practise and felt that we had sorted a few things on both pools, with three main lines catching better than anything else. The long pole with pellet , the wagg at half depth and on the top pool the straight lead and corn could come into play.
The format for the match is 8 anglers from each team 5 on the bigger top pool and 3 on the smaller middle pool, with rexel being the home team having to peg out and weigh in.
With pools money paid the lads sent me up to do the draw (why? have they not seen my draw arm at woodlands), i came back with draw 3 so we had that peg in every section ie, 3,6,9,12,15,18,21&24 and all the lads drawed out the envelope as per the rules ( you are not allowed to place anglers) i had the last peg left 18. I was pleased to have drawn on the middle pool as i was confident that i could catch off most pegs with the exception of the end peg opposite the car park as it was half the depth of all the others at only 4ft. As i walked towards my peg i was happy to see that i was on the same side as i was in our practice match 2 weeks ago and only 2 pegs to the right. I set up as follows,
RIG 1, main pellet line 14.5m 8ft deep, 1.0gr maver jona float 0.12 silstar line, 18 808 hook with an ollivette and two droppers.
RIG 2, secondary pellet line at 13m to my right up to some reed that extend out from the island, 0.50gr j-8 range float, same line and hook as above set around 6ft deep.
RIG 3 , Wagg & Magg line 20m with the island around 25m away,set at 4ft in 8ft of water, daiwa tourney 13 ft float rod, shimano super gt reel, 3lb maxima mainline to 0.12 h/l to 16 b611 hook and a 2.5gr loaded crystal wagg with only a size 22 swivel down the line 18 inches from the hook.
Bait was simple a pint of soaked micros, 1 1/2 pints of white maggots, 1/2 tin of corn and some assorted 6 & 4mm expanders.
On the all in i put in around 1/4 of the smallest preston pots of micros & 3 grains of corn on both my pole lines and started on the wagg. the guy to my right had a carp first put in on the wagg and it was not a surprise as he and the rexel guy had been watching the carp before the start crusing around his peg by the island, he was throwing to nearly the same point as me as he was around the next bank the only problem being i couldn't get close to them for the reed bank inbetween us. After around 10 mins of firing 6 maggs in at a time i had my first bite and a carp of around 2lb was safely netted, i stuck to this for the first hour and had 4 carp our bank runners said that most of the team had caught with only 2 so far struggling. I re fed both my pole lines and carried on with the wagg as i was level with the rexel guy in my section who was also on the wag and the guy in the next peg only on 2 fish after his one first put in. Second hour produced 4 more carp and odd roach which put me now in pole position with 4 fish to my right and 6 fish to the rexel bloke (sorry bob). The guy to my right (dean) was now on the feeder and had couple of fish on it at the halfway stage i had got 9 fish but it was slowing badly as deans feeder was landing only 2-3m away from my wagg line and i think that had defenitly put my fish off in the clear water. Out went the pole on my 14.5m line with a 4mm ringers cool water pellet and a fruit shoot pot full of micros , the float shot under straight away and my 11 preston hollo followed carp no10 was in the net.The next put in the same result and i was away, bob in my section had gone on the pole at the same time with the same result. The word on the bank was that we were up in 3 sections half and half in 3 sections and down in 2. I couldn't help the rest of the guys as they all knew what and how i was catching on all i could do was try and win my section and hope that the guy in the tight sections could find some extra fish from somewhere. The rest of my match was easy every5-10 mins i had a fish in the 1-3lb bracket i never felt the need to try my other pole line or go back on the wagg as i was catching steady enough to keep my nose infront of bob & dean and that was all i could to try and win the section.
At the all out i had got 29 carp and although bob had caught well i recond i was 15-20lb infront with dean only manging 7 although 3 of these were bigger fish. I went up to the top pool to watch the weigh in and by the time i had packed my gear up and walked up the bank the first 3 man section had been weighed in with our man big ritchie winning his section with 20lb on the lead & corn. Next to weigh in was baz robson he pulled out his net and the other 2 guys in his section walked off shaking there heads ( a good sign), baz's carp net pulled the scales down to 45lb and we were 2 sections up, baz had caught on half depth wagg & magg too. Rexel lads won the next 3 sections but we were tied on points as they had a last in the first section and our lads were all 2nd in the sections they had won, top pool weighed in and it was all tied on12 points each. This was going to go to the wire as i thought i had won mine but chris was not confident and kev said his section was to close to call. The first to weigh in my section was bob with 37lb & 21lb from dean, i pulled my first net out and they went 31lb i knew then that i had done enough as i had split my fish evenly in my to nets, my second net went 33lb and a grand total of 64lb 9oz was shouted out by the scalesman. So with 2 sections to go we were 1 point up the next section saw us post our only last of the day but luckily the rexel guy had only managed 2nd with wayne form jaspers winning there only section of the day with 30lb,28lb&22lb respectivly. With only 1 section to be weighed we were back tied on points and the rexel guy posted 31lb kev looked to sky's wondering if he had enough, the jaspers guy had 21lb and we were all tense as kev pulled his net out christ it looked close he put them on the scales and they went down to 33lb and change it was enough.
We had won the tie by a single point the points totals read;

1st. S.West 64lb 9oz (Halesowen) on Broomhill
maggott & pellet Halesowen 19 points
Rexel 18 points
2nd. B. Robson 45lb 5oz (Halesowen) on Penlake White swan 11 points
maggott

3rd. M.Duffy 39lb 10oz (Rexel) on Penlake
single corn

4th. B. Mcauley 37lb. 4oz (Rexel) on Broomhill
pellet & maggott

On reflection this was a great match won by a single which i found out later was the third time Rexel have gone out by 1 point so bad luck to them and the white swan. On a personnel note i had the perefct match when i changed from wagg to pole the fish were there after leaving them alone for 2 1/2 hrs.
Many thanks to the Rexel lads for , pegging out, weighing in and sorting the pools money out.
And many thanks to Trev & Sue for there hospitality and use of there great pools CHEERS. If you have never been to Hawford bridge made it to of your list of fisheries to try , trust me you will have a great day.