Goodiford Mill 14 -15 July 2017 Yam Yam

I have been looking forward to fishing this week since it was first planned last year. I have enjoyed highs and lows fishing with the Yam Yam's but this year was a real eye opener and even made me consider packing it all in. Do not get me wrong, the lads have been fantastic, its the actual fishing that has got to me. I always thought I could catch a few fish, not at a level of an open match angler but a decent club angler, I will not win often but look to compete.  I make decisions throughout the day, not as quick as others and some will work while others do not. However when your in the company of good anglers it can be frustrating and feel at times that you are going through the motions. As I said earlier I do not expect to win a lot but do expect to compete. I know they have a greater knowledge and are prepared to freely part with this, it is just putting what they say into action that does me in.
Anyway he goes my week fishing with the Yam Yams. Vic decided he was going to drive down to Goodiford Mill for the pre-week matches at Viaduct Fishery. All was good travelling down and meeting up with Derek Smith, our Hemel Hempstead based angler at Taunton Deane services for breakfast. With breakfast out of the way we then travelled to Goodiford Mill to meet up with the remaining lads from the Black Country.
Day One Goodiford Mill 14th July
The lads had decided to have a two day festival on the Friday and Saturday before heading to Viaduct after the match on the Saturday. Stopping at the Silverton Inn in Silverton overnight. We drew for pegs each day and points were awarded on your finishing position each day. The angler with the lowest points winning the festival. If tied the weight would come into it.
Day one I drew peg 50 right next to the gate and a nice short walk. I planned to fish the point of the island on the pellet waggler but with a tricky cross wind it would be hard. I set one waggler to fish light and make a plop plop noise on entry and another heavier rig for make casting easier and fish further out if required. I also set up a couple of pole lines for fishing later in the day or when the wind got up too much. For company I had Frenchy on the next peg and Nobby a further peg away.Fred, Paul and Gongo made up the rest of our section. At the off I fed both margins with corn one side and pellet the other. I then started to ping a few pellets over to the island. My feed was going everywhere such was the wind. Changing my catapult to a hard plastic cone type worked better. After around 10 minutes I had my first fish of around 2lb on the light rig but the wind was picking up so switched to the heavier float. A couple more fish came but I was not setting the world alight. Both Frenchy and Nobby were pulling away from me. Paul going further away from them with a few better fish. My only hope was to catch down the edges close in. Starting on the pellet edge I had a few fish quickly before the line went quiet. Switching sides also saw a few quick fish on double corn, but theses were a better stamp than those caught on the waggler or pellet line. Frenchy was now bagging on the waggler, getting proper carp nearly every put in and was favourite for the section with Paul cloase behind. It would be close between the rest of us for the minor places.

1st in Section Frenchy 149lb

2nd Paul D 128-14

3rd Nobby 99-06

4th Keith 97-06

5th Fred 95-12

6th Gongo 73-03 

The other section results were;

1st Vic 153-01

2nd Derek 114-07

3rd Bob 97-05

4th Cotty 95-08

5th Kimble 93-06

Day Two Goodiford Mill 15th July
Again an open draw for the second day and with the arrival of Soupy we were up to 12 anglers.Day two saw me fishing peg 8, a peg Bob had the previous day and had a good weight from. Again I set up similar pellet waggler rods and margin rigs and planned to fish similar to the previous day. Again I had Frenchy on Peg 7, Vic's peg from the previous day and Soupy the other side. However I was not feeling too good, highly probably, down to the amount of alcohol consumed the previous night. Still I was on holiday. I started off on the light waggler and plopping it in well, I thought. I had a couple of fish but then nothing, I was feeding tightly and keeping things neat and tidy, just four or five pellets every 30 seconds or so. Frenchy was feeding heavier and also chopping and changing his wagglers, but catching well. It was noticeable though that the fish were a lot smaller than the other end of the lake. After around 3 hours I tried the margins. Nobby had snared a couple of lumps down the edge and I was hopeful of one or two. Double corn snared a couple of around 4lb, a better stamp than those o the waggler, unfortunately not enough of them on the day. Our section results were:

1st Derek 140-05

2nd Frenchy 107-12

3rd Soupy 76-04

4th Nobby 69-08

5th Gongo 56-15

6th Keith 55-14

Whilst the other section went

1st Paul 149-05

2nd Bob 138-00

3rd Vic 114-01

4th Kimble 111-06

5th Fred 108-06

6th Cotty 84-04

Overall

1st Paul D 3pts 278-04

2nd Frenchy 3pts 256-12

3rd Derek 3pts 254-12

Vic finished with 4 points with a weight of 267-02 whilst I was way down on 10pts and a weight of 153-04 and a slowly clearing head.