Larford Classic Qualifier Sunday 17/10/10

Hi folks, me & Stav had booked into the Larford qualifier on the speci lake but for a change the weather man had got it right in our area they had forecast the first proper frost since the end of last winter, when Stav came around to pick me up he confirmed that he had to scrape the frost off the car windows it was white all over( Great winter's on the way!). As we dropped down into the Severn valley towards Larford off the main road the fog/mist was that dense that you couldn't see the speci lake from the cafe and the temperature gauge in the car was still reading 0c! There was 30 booked in for the match and with only 1 bank available the pegging would be tight i drew out peg 81 one off the end peg & Stav drew peg 74 not as low down as we were hoping, the last big match on here 2 weeks ago saw the top 3 all come from the pegs in the 60's in the center of the lake where the fish tend to hang during the winter ( had the fish gone into there winter quarters already?) . At least i was in good company for the day as an old friend of mine Tim Guise was on the next peg end peg 82, now Tim might be getting on a bit (sorry mate) but he is still a very good angler and he would be hard to beat with all that spare room to his right. I had been in two minds most of the week as to still attack the lake as i would during the summer months hoping the first frost wouldn't damage it too much or go softly softly due to the cooler weather, i opted for the first option thinking that the lake is deep and it would take a few cold days to put the fish right down. I set up just 1 pole rig as i thought that with every peg in they might prove hard to tempt close in, a method feeder, straight lead & a pellet wag just in-case the fish came to the sun that had now burnt off the mist and was quite pleasant.
The pole rig i set up was a 1.0gr maver paste float 0.18 silstar line straight through to a 4 175 hook set 8ft deep at 11m, on this line i would feed with a mix of chili hemp & meat in the hope that the carp moved in later in the match. I had brought 2 bags of 8mm pellets for the straight lead & pellet wagg which would be fished around 30-35m out, i had also brought some g /bait for the method feeder which i would fish at 50-60 turns plus the usual array of hook baits for this.
Well to cut a long story short after the first hour i had 1 skimmer on the straight lead Tim was bite-less and the Welsh chap on the next was bite-less as well! the first proper frost of the winter had took its toll and what wasn't helping was that the lake was like a sheet of glass and the sun was now quite warm probably the worst fishing conditions you could ask for. Even at this early stage of the match i was regretting my all out carp/summer tactics a switch to the method was called for with one eye on the guy's either side as they both had a look on the pole line, second chuck on the method with 2 dead reds on produced a skimmer and over the next hour i had got 6 skimmers before they dried up. Word along the bank was that it was fishing rock hard up our end of the lake no one was catching anything of note at all, after around 2 1/2 hours Stav rang to say that he had got a 3lb carp when he hung up as he had got a bite it turned out to be a skimmer only his second bite of the day! On the 3 hour mark i finally had a bite on the lead on a 8mm pellet it was a 3lb carp just 1 bite out of the blue then nothing again, i had tried all my lines apart from the pole as Tim and Welsh guy hadn't had a bite on it. It was now approaching the last hour so i picked up the pole and decided to sit on it until the end of the match as my section was fishing hard you can have 2 bites for 30-40lb on the pole here ( they don't call it the speci lake for now't?), after around 10mins the float buried it was a nice 2lb skimmer on a 8mm cube of meat but not what i was looking for. Another 10mins passed before my next bite which when i struck i new it wasn't a skimmer and after a short but healthy fight a nice 8lb carp was netted, i was now praying for a late burst with around 45mins left to go i put another pot of hemp & meat in which attracted a 1lb skimmer so i put another pot of feed in as it was to late in the day to build up a net of them. 2mins after the second pot i was playing another carp which felt big but didn't seem to be going anywhere fast just plodding along the bottom but as i shipped back half the pole we parted company, SHIT!, on closer inspection the hook had opened up! What was that these turbertini's 175's are very strong. As i was fishing straight through i now had a decision to make either put another rig on or throw the lead over the top giving me more chance of getting a lump out, there was now fish on the pole line as Tim had a great big lump on the lead over the pole line and got broke by one while the Welsh lad to my left to had a carp on the pole at the same time. I opted to fish the lead over the top of the pole as the safer option so i changed the hook-length from a lasso to a quickstop mounted 2 8mm cubes of meat on the hair and under armed the lead over the 11mm line, with 15mins to go the tip hooped around and a 3lb carp was netted not the big double i was praying for which turned out to be my last action of the day. I had got 3 carp & 9 skimmers what a hard days fishing that was, Tim ended up with 1 carp & 2 skimmers & the Welsh lad 1 carp & 3 skimmers it was not the end of the lake you wanted to be.
When i had packed up i walked down around 10 pegs where i met up with the scales that had weighed from the bottom end up, Phil (Briscoe) said that there had been a 62lb & a 55lb which were the best two weights so far. The guy on Stav's left was the first i saw weighed with 20lb odd
Stav had 1 carp of 3lb and 15lb of skimmers for 18lb odd, 2 pegs to Stav's right saw Mark have the best weight up our end with 5 carp 7 a few skimmers on the method for 49lb, the guy on peg 78 had 1 12lb carp and 32lb of skimmers for 44lb saying like most that he had all his fish in the last 2 hours but was dry until then! Peg 79 DNW, peg 80 DWN, me with 14lb of carp & 10lb of skimmers for 24lb then Tim on the end with a DWN i was right in the thick of all the fish!!! Although Tim didn't bother to weigh as the two 40lb+ weights were in our section he said he would have pushed me close as he estimated his carp at 18-19lb with 2 2lb skimmers. It had been a very hard day with the first proper frost of the winter taking a bigger toll on the lake than me and a lot of others had anticipated but when there is 20lb+ fish swimming around it don't take long to go from zero to hero ( if you can get them out).