Talk Angling Match - Froggats - 29/03/2009

In the lead up to this match i had heard mixed comments, some people saying its decent and other saying its devoid of fish. I had never even heard of the place which wasnt good and being in Leominster it was a bit too far to practice. It would be an early one! Match day arrived and was duly picked up by my mate Steve at 6.30 . . . which was actually 5.30 because of the clocks changing. . . . times like this when you should be tucked up in bed nice and early not out getting ratted!!

After having a nice big fat fry up from Bewdley cafe and meeting some of the last there, we travelled down to Froggats. Arriving at the venue, i must say it looked superb. All the platforms were tidy, no litter. Looked the dogs danglies, apart from not seeing any signs of fish! We all knew we wanted to be on match lake, but no one knew which peg (apart from 20 which looked an out and out flier being the only peg that could reach the island). I did draw on the match lake, peg 8, Steve was right on the next peg in 7. We had a stick out island to about 13m which was seperating us that looked very fishy. My mate Shaun lived up to his name and drew peg 20 on match lake with Phil on the next peg to him.

I decided to keep things simple fishing an out and out pellet match, soft and hard pellets. Not knowing what was what i covered all my options setting up 8 top kits and a feeder and waggler rod. My main line would be at 13m where it was at its deepesst, i used a 0.5 MW Pellet, 0.14 main line to and 0.14 hooklength and doubled 5 slip elastic. Because i could change my hooklengths, i switched between a b911 (for banded pellet) and a Tubertini 808 size 18 (for soft pellet). I also had a duplicate rig with a spread bulk. Next line was at 6m, with exactly the same set up except a lighter 0.4 MW Pellet. I also had a lighter float set up for here for fishing 3mm Ringers pellets, with 0.10 hooklenth and a 0.3 Ackoo Pellet Stick, this was with double 4 slip. Next rig out was for up the island to the right, this was about 3 feet and had an overhanging tree so i decided i would fish a bit heavier just in case. I fished a 0.2 Hillbilly Grizzily to 0.16 main line and a no.2 Tubertini 175 to double 8 slip. My edge rig was pretty much the same as this but a lighter 0,1 grizzily. I also had some top kits set up for shallow using 0.14 main line to 0.12 hooklengths with Malman floats in 4x8 sizes. I also set up a straight forward free running feeder for banded pellet and a light insert waggler.

At the all in i cupped a small ball of 4mm pellets on my 13m and 6m lines and went straight up the island with around 20 4mm pellets in the kinder pot and a soft 4mm on the hook. after 10 minutes of lifting and dropping the float finally dipped and i hooked a 2oz roach that flew through the air and off! I fed this with about 100 4mm's and left it. Onto the main line at 13m, straight away i was having dips and knocks, eventually i connected with a fish about 6oz, must be the smallest carp in the lake . . .so i thought! I had a good hour of catching these tiny carp untill it went completely dead. I must have had about 20 fish for around. . . 4lb! I had been topping up all the other lines whilst fishing this one so i dropped in on the short line. 1st drop i had another tiny roach, f a few more pellets in the pot and dropped in again. This cast i hooked a lovely looking crucian which was actually a decent sized fish compared to what i was catching, i repeated the process and dropped back in, the float dipped slightly and as i lifted it felt like i had hooked a dead weight, the fish just plodded about on light gear after about 2 minutes keeping the pole nice and low i scooped a carp about 4lb WIll Raison style! What a bonus, or so i thought. From this point on i could not catch a bean on this line, also the other 2 lines where devoid of fish. I chucked out the feeder crammed with 4mm pellets and a hard 6mm on the hook. Before the tip even settled the rod ripped round and a smal carp was in the net. . . . but that too was short loved as next cast i didnt even have a liner, i even clipped on a lead and cast a few metres past the feed but this too also didnt work. WIth about 9lb in the net and the fish so small i was starting to fall behind. For the rest of the match i scraped around for fish and really struggled while steve on the next peg was building a weight fishing in the edge and Phil opposite bagging a roach a chuck on castor.

Come the weigh in, the weights were all fairly low and i knew i hadnt come last but framing was looking unlikely. I weighed in 12lb which i was dissapointed with but expected. Steve did well with 20lb. Shaun pipped him with 21lb. The match was actually won from the other lake with 39lb. All in all a good day oout but roll on the Larford TA match! Cheers for organising by the way Larry and JC. Very well run.