Blythe Pairs League Sunday 3/4/11

Round 5 of the league and as the temperature starts to rise we were all looking forward to catching a few after the long hard winter of no or very little fish. Stav got me to draw and i was in two minds about my peg 35 on bridge as it has no form but looks a great peg as it's in a corner and you can reach the small floating boom with 13m of pole, i had drawn Stav on peg 12 on Cherries where i had fished the last round which is a good peg and i was sure he would catch a few off the peg. Peg 35 on Bridge looks good as it has a long edge to itself which is a sort of a bog/marsh area that is fenced off, a good 7 1/2 ft of water up to the only floating boom on Bridge pool( the other islands on Bridge are proper ) but there has been very little caught off the peg so far in the league i was just hoping that with the warmer weather a few carp would show up this end as pegs 3 & 5 which fish up to the other side of the boom had shown next to nothing so far in the league and pegs 7 & 10 on the point being the most consistent. With not fishing the peg before i decided to keep things simple and set up just 3 rigs, 2 for up to the boom at 13m 1 on the deck and 1 up in the water the other down the edge at around 10m which is just as the reeds start to stick out from a rope that is across the marsh bay to the right of the peg.
Rig 1, on the deck rig a o.50gr Maver Jona float with an ollivete and to no10 droppers, 0.18 mainline to a 0.14 hooklength and a 16 tosciro hook in 7 1/2ft of water, 13 hollo elastic.
Rig 2, up in the water on the same line 0.30gr Maver jurassic dibber 0.14 straight through to a 16 pr27 with a lasso for hard pellets & 13 hollo elastic.
Rig 3, edge rig a 4x12 Maver Jona float with all the shot 8in from the hook, 0.18 to 0.14 and a size 3 tubertini 175 hook, 13 hollo elastic in 3 1/12 ft water.
For bait i had got all the usual sizes of pellets from micro to 8mm, 1 1/2 pints of casters & 1/2kg worm, 1 tin corn & some 4mm & 6mm expanders.
On the whistle i potted a cup full of chopped worm caster with a few grain's of corn 10m down the edge and half a pot of 4mm pellets on the 13m line with a couple of grain's of corn, i put a 6mm expander on the hook and shipped out to 13m. After around 30 seconds in the water the float moved side-ways and no proper bite, another few seconds later and i lifted into a bite with no connection? I lifted the rig out of the water to check the pellet was still on and dropped the rig back in, the float this time moved side-ways in the other direction? i was getting liners there were fish up in the water, with the match only 2 mins old i shipped back and changed to the shallow rig with a 6mm hard pellet on. I dropped the rig in and fired 10 4mm pellets over the top and my 13 hollo came out of the end of the pole Bingo! a 1lb f1 was netted and next put in the same result it looked like there were a few fish in the peg. Over the first hour i remained on the shallow rig and caught 11 f1's and 1 carp of around 4lb with most of the f1's around the 1lb mark but a couple over 2lb, on the hour mark i rang Stav to say i was ok and catching and see if he was catching he had a couple of carp 5-6lb so he was catching and all looked well. Hour 2 was a little slower than the first with around another 6-7 f1's and 1 more proper carp of around 4lb again but as the last 15mins of the second hour failed to produce a bite it was time for a change, it was time to try the margin line and rest the shallow rig and as far as i could see most of the rest of the anglers on my pool were struggling with just odd fish showing i thought i had around 25-30lb and was sitting pretty. I had feed the margin line 2-3 times with a pot full of my worm, caster & corn slop while i was fishing shallow so i shipped out with a kinder pot of slop and a worm head on the hook, there had been the odd bit of reed bashing going on right from the start down the margins so i was not surprised when the float buried not long after settling and with a bit of slide strain i soon had a 2lb carp in the net. I started catching well on the margin line with mainly small carp in the 1-3lb range a couple of tench and the odd roach i also had a solo chub, i was glad that the carp on this line were relatively small as i was not fishing heavy gear for them and with only 13hollo elastic and 0.14 line i felt that if any big carp turned up they would make short work of my rig and go through the 10ft thick reeds in double quick time. I stayed on the margin line for around 1 1/2 hours before bites began to dry up a bit so a quick switch back to the shallow rig was called for and with 2 f1's and a 3lb carp in around 5mins of fishing it looked like the rest had done the line good and as if the fish had regrouped! Wrong with another 15mins of bite-less action up in the water it was back to the margin line to see if the same sort of rest had done this line any good, we were now into the last hour of the match and i hooked a fish down the edge which swam straight through the reeds and broke my hook-length now i had to make a decision to make, put a new hook-length on or get a heavy rig & top kit out? I went for the easy option and just replaced the hook-length WRONG! 5mins later i hooked another good fish that went through the reeds under the rope and out the other side, i applied as much side-strain as i dared without risking the pole but it was all in vein as the rig was stuck solid. The problem was now that the rig was some 13m away stuck in the reeds and as i began to ship back the elastic got tighter and tighter, i got the pole back and managed to break down to the short no4 and top kit but to stop the risk of getting a pole float in the eye i normally in this situation put my foot on the elastic under the water to slow the rig down when it comes shooting back it hit's my rubber boot and not me. Not this time as i was just about to put the elastic under my boot with my top kit in a funny c shape all i heard was the sickening crack of carbon and loud bang as my top kit shattered into lots of little pieces SHIT!!! I soon realized my mistake as i had got my top kits mixed up and had been fishing down the edge with a match kit and not a power kit PRATT. Not one to cry over spillt milk i got up and got my super power kit out of the holdall with tight 17hollo elastic out and put a 0.18 rig on, i only managed one 2lb carp and a couple of roach in the last half hour before the whistle sounded. I don't know if it was the disturbance of me losing two quick fish or going to a heavier rig but just when i thought the big carp had turned up i couldn't hook another one! As we walked around the pool weighing in it soon became apparent that it had still fished harder than we all thought with weights between 15-25lb the norm, Carl's partner (sorry his name escapes me) top weight off peg 23 with 36lb, i knew then that i had got enough to win the section and so the pool, i was last to weigh in on the last peg and after a couple of weighs i was given 70lb 4oz Great a 1st at last and all we needed now was a good result from Stav which could see us shoot up the leader board, a quick walk to the car park to find Stav soon revealed that he had come 2nd on Cherries pool with 35lb and Kev Cark winning the pool off peg 10 with 36lb, Stav had caught mainly on the pellet wag and feeder but losing a couple of big lumps down the edge late on, Kev having all his fish on the feeder up to the boom. We have shot up the overall leader board from 4th to 2nd with Carl & Co in-front by 11 points and Kev Clarke & Tony Bowen in 3rd some 5 points behind us. With 2 rounds remaining it's now all to play for and we are a lot happier than we were 2 rounds ago lets hope for a good draw on the next round in 2 weeks time.