Saturday 17 September 2016

Marsh AC Alders Farm Ash Lake 17 09 2016

Regular readers will know that Mick Wright and I have a running nugget stake at each match we fish together, This has been going on for a few years and this year is no different with Mick leading 5-4 going into today's encounter. Alders Farm and Ash lake is a local venue to the pair of us and as such we made our own way to the complex. After a chat with Debbie and Trevor in the shop, it was agreed we would fish the cafe bank pegs 1-11. We only had seven Marsh members and a couple of guests to help make up the numbers, but this allowed everyone to catch a few hopefully.
I intended to fish the pellet if I drew pegs 1-6 and corn if I was further down the lake, as it is a little deeper there and with a good wind blowing into the end pegs, I thought that a static bait would work better than pellets. However the decision was decided at the draw bag where I took the last peg and peg 3. Mick had end peg 11 and I fancied it for a few today. It would also suit Mick as you are not fishing too far out.
For company I had Tony Roberts on peg 2 and John Button on peg 4.
I set up a couple of DS .2 greens to fish at 2+2 with a foot of line above the float and a couple of margin rigs to fish both the edge of the reeds and by the tree between pegs 3 and 4. The open water rigs were on black hydro as I believe I land more fish than on the standard red. However down the edge it was red hydro and orange vespe due to the expected larger fish.
At the all in, I threw around two dozen pellets onto each line and started off on the 2+2 line. The wind though was only allowing me to throw to 2+1 1/2, so I replumbed up and started again. My first fish came after about 3 minutes on this new line and I was off and running, by making slight alterations to the rig I was able to keep picking off fish in the first hour and had 14 in the net for about 40lb. Tony was catching on the maggot but was losing a few fish, I could see Gino further down the bank and Jim catching on 6. The second hour flew by but I was still doing well against those around me and with around 90lb in the net I was in auto pilot mode. Feed, lay rig in, feed, lift rig, feed and so on. The amount of feed varied during the spells, If I was catching then around a dozen seemed right but if it went quiet I upped it to 2 dozen and started again.
Halfway through the match I knew I had done the ton and asked Tony how he was doing and he said he had 44 fish, so I worked that out to be 130lb and felt I was a little behind but still within reach. I was once told by Gary Thorpe, that if you think it, do it, this was so true today. I thought the fish were off bottom, and tried a shallow margin rig to start with and I nicked a couple of 5lb fish doing this but still it was not right. I then took my spare 2+2 rig and took the line off above the float and set it to 12inches deep and a short line above the float. The wind had died down a little and I pushed the rig a little further out and bingo, I had a run of fish that took the weight to around 160lb with an hour and a bit to go. I placed a fourth net in. I wanted to see how much I could catch in the last hour. Tony's peg was slowing and mine was picking up, I was still on the black hydro and although I must have lost a netfull of fish today, others suffered the same fate. I was catching steadily to the end and never tried the margins, catching all my fish at either top 4 or 3 1/2. All on pellet and not a grain of corn was used.
At the all out, I knew I had beaten those around me, but Mick was still a worry as I could not see how he was doing and as I said earlier I did fancy his peg. Jim was first to weigh and opened up with 118-08, Tony placed 179lb dead onto the scales before it was my turn. After 8 weighs I recorded 299lb onto the board. John Button on his first outing this year beat his personal best with 106lb and his first match ton. Chris pipped him with 120lb even before Jim Etherington jumped into 3rd place with 170lb. Gino and Terry had a good peg to peg battle with Terry edging it 124lb to 122lb. Then onto my nemesis, Mick, end peg and a good draw, 240-08 to take second spot.
Overall
1st Keith Ashby                      299-00
2nd Mick Wright                     240-08
3rd Tony Roberts                   179-00
4th Jim Etherington                 170-00
5th Terry Goff                        124-00
6th Gino Exell                        122-00
7th Chris Withall                     120-08
8th Jim Boase                         118-08
9th John Button                      106-00
Overall, despite the change in weather conditions, from hot and sunny yesterday to rain and wind today and a big change in temperature, the lake fished well again. Lowest weight was 106lb and a couple of double hundreds. But more important than all of that is the score 5-5 and level pegging. Onto the next one in a couple of weeks.

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