My gear for today was my trusty old Silstar TraverseX heavy feeder rod coupled with a Shimano Stradic 4000GTM, 8lb Maxima mainline, 40gram large Kamasan block end feeder, 3ft of 0.22 Slistar hooklength to a 14 Drennan Super Specialist Barbel hook for the pellet.
My maggot feeder set up was a Maver Barbel Specialist rod with the same reel & line as my pellet set up but with a 16 Drennan super specialist hook.
The waggler rod was a ABU Suveran 13ft float, a Shimano Super 2500gtm reel, 5lb Maxima mainline, Dave Harrell 4AAA waggler, 0.14 hooklength to a 18 Drennan carbon chub hook.
For bait I had a mixed 3mm Dynamite & 4mm Sonu elliptical halibut pellets and a few 4mm Dynamite Source pellets for the feeder, for the hook I had got 6,8 & 10mm halibuts and 8mm Source pellets, 4 pints of white maggots & 2 pints of hemp.
I started the match on the pellet feeder cast to the edge of the crease where the water is slightly faster and after 4-5 quick casts in the first 10mins to get some feed in I settled down prepared for a long wait, I had also started to feed the waggler line with maggots slightly upstream of me and some hemp just in-front of me. After around 30mins the tip pulled forward and dropped back as a good fish had dislodged the feeder and I was connected to the first fish of the day, the fish tore of downstream and I knew straight away that it was a Barbel and after a good 4-5min battle I netted a nice fish of 5-6lb a great start. I was happy to have caught a fish early on as it settles you down I was just hoping it was not a solo fish, around 4-5 casts later and the rod top pulled forward again as fish no2 had picked up my 8mm halibut pellet. While I was playing the fish I was aware of someone standing on the top of the bank watching me and after I netted it he said well done and I turned around to see Dave Foxall who runs the float only Tuesday matches on this stretch, the fish was a good 6-7lb and after unhooking it and putting it in the keepnet Dave said that Oliie below me had just had a 4lb Chub on the wagg so it looked like the fish were going to have a go. After a quick chat with Dave he said he was off to see how the rest were getting on and I recast the feeder to the same spot and after only 30 seconds the rod pulled around again as fish no3 was hooked, I couldn't believe how quick the bite had come after the cast and it looked like there was a few fish down there having a go. This fish got stuck in some weed out in the middle but with a little pressure he came through it this one was a little smaller around 4lb, another 20mins later Gary Mason who had drawn below Cromwell's hole by the car park came up for a walk saying that he had not had a bite and apart from Ollie no one was catching. Ollie had another good chub but for the rest it was hard going so I was sitting pretty on 3 barbel and Gary said he was going for a walk upstream to see if his mate Shaun Waite was catching who was a few pegs above, with around 2 hours gone now another bite saw me connected to Barbel no4 just a Gary came back saying that Shaun & Martin above me were both blank! This fish was giving me the run around getting stuck in some more weed a bit further down the peg than the last fish I had to slack off on the fish which is good tactic too fool the Barbel into thinking he is free and swims out of the weed on it's own (sometimes!), if you keep on pulling most of the time you are making it worse by pulling the fish deeper into the weed. After a good 6-7 battle I slipped the net under a good fish which I estimated at around 8lb Gary said I was making him feel sick and was going back to his peg to have another go, I was enjoying this 2 hours into the match I was 4-0 up on the Barbel and I was thinking that if the fish kept on coming like this a good weight was on the cards. The next hour produced another 2 Barbel so with 2 hours to go I had 6 Barbel but hadn't had a bite for the last half hour of that last hour, another 30mins later without any more signs it was time to rest the swim and have a look on the waggler. I run the waggler through the peg for around 15mins for 2 Dace and 1 Roach around 2-3 ounce apiece at this point I felt that if was to hook any Barbel or Chub on this I would have had one by now as I had fed this line for 3 1/2 hours before trying it, I felt that I rested the pellet line long enough so I went back out on that for another 1/2 hour but as the match was coming to a close I got the feeling that the Barbel had done a disappearing act on me. With half an hour left before the all out I decided to have a last throw of the dice on a maggot feeder thrown down the bottom of the peg in the area that I felt where most of my loose fed maggots down the middle were landing just in-case there was a Barbel/Chub hanging around there, I had 3 fish from line in the last knockings of the match but sadly they were only Gudgeon and the all out sounded. I was happy with my 6 Barbel haul and I was hoping that they would be enough to get me a Turkey for the Christmas table and get me into the misses good books ( mega bonus brownie points!), the word on the bank was that the rest of the stretch had fished as hard as it had done a few weeks ago on the Cradley match here but I never count my chickens before they've hatched. Gary came and weighed my fish in giving me 39lb 13oz which I was more than happy with, Ollie below me had 3 Chub on the waggler for 11lb odd and big Ritchie in the car park had 1 Barbel & 1 Chub for 10lb odd. The top section at Hexton's farm had fished very hard with Steve Robson the best weight with 6lb odd of Dace and the middle section above the Island won by Andy Paggget with 2 Barbel for 8lb odd, I had won the match with plenty to spare so I was well pleased with my day's fishing and the added bonus of it being the fur & feather to boot.
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