I have to admit I was looking forward the the Christmas match, I'd even had a good rig making session during the week! I had two preferences for where I wanted to draw - preferably on lake 2 as it's fishing better and secondly a peg with a bit of room as hopefully the fish would move there with 23 people on each lake. I should have really known that I'd draw lake 1 though, simply because it's the only lake I've drawn on in the Christmas match!
I wasn't overly happy with the peg I'd drawn (9) as it's not often in, plus it's sat back meaning you can't reach the island with the pole as it's about 20m wide. Some people did say about catching lumps in the edge in the bay area to my left, citing that it produced some in the summer - obviously they didn't realise it's not summer!
First out of the bag was the lead rod, my trusty 10ft puddle chucker coupled with a small Daiwa front drag reel with 6lb mainline. Terminal gear was a 1/3rd oz Guru square lead with a range of different hook lengths on .15 powerline. Hooks were 18's for corn and 16's for punch. Two pole rigs were put up, the first for the deeper water at about 9m in just over 6ft of water. With no wind a 4 x14 Prston chianti was the float with .12 line to a 17 B711 hook. Lakky was a soft 12 latex. The second rig was for about 9m down the margins between the remains of two lilly beds. I had about three and a half foot of water on the slope here and the rig was a bit heavier with a 16 B611 to .14 line and a 13 Hollo elastic. Float was a 4 x 12 Preston somo.
On the whistle the track line was fed with a small pinch of hemp and a few casters, while I planned to flick casters here with a catty every now and then hoping that if nothing else I could get a roach or two here ( I wasn't that confident about catching a carp!) The margin got the same but with a few grains of corn added before the bomb rig was baited with a couple of punches of bread and cast about a meter and a half off the island in about four feet of water. I have to say I nearly fell of my box with surprise when I had a liner after only a minute or two, but nothing came of it. The first hour's monotony was only broken when I decided to cup a few more casters along the margin as the four casts after that, trying both corn and bread punch produced nothing else, and dropping tighter was fruitless too.
An hour and a quarter in and I was just contemplating trying the track line when I had another liner on the bomb. Hoping that odd fish may move in front of me into the quieter un-fed area I sat it out without recasting but no more signs of fish showed. At this point the only activity I'd seen was the angler on peg 11 to my left catching odd small roach and the angler to my right potting half cup-fulls of bait in every twenty minutes! I slipped a grain of corn on the track rig and gave that a try. No sooner had the bait settled than I had a sharp 'dig' on the float but I missed it! No no indications followed on corn so suspecting the knock was a roach I buried the hook in to a caster. After five minutes, just as I was thinking about coming off the line the float plinked then slowly sank away. Expecting a small fish I was surprised when the lift was met with three feet of latex coming out of the pole! The fish then moved off to my right and just as it reached the edge of my peg what felt a heavy fish pulled off. I didn't swear.... much. A new (and bigger hook, a 16 B611) went on but another ten minutes gave no more so I topped up both the pole lines and went back on the bomb.
The first go back across was on punch and while this was out I decided to make a tiny pva bag up with about a dozen 3mm green Swim-stim pellets and eight maggots in it. This was dispatched over with a single grain of corn after trying the punch for fifteen minutes. It hadn't been out for that long before the rod pulled, dropped slack. It then pulled again before sharply pinging back again. I picked the rod up fully expecting a fish to be on and couldn't believe that there wasn't! Nothing on the next chuck on corn so I tried punch again. This had been out about ten minutes before it did the same again, including there not being a fish on the end! I really couldn't work out why they weren't on...
With two hours to go I decided it was time to catch a fish so on went maggot and down the track. No joy! not even a tiny perch. It may have been the Christmas match but I was hardly full of Christmas cheer at this point! In fact I was wondering if the sausage rolls and mince pies were done.... I tried the margins on caster with no joy so I slipped a red maggot on. A tiny perch followed next chuck by his twin brother then no more bites. Still, I hadn't blanked! Back on the bomb with a single grain of corn and time for a coffee and a sarnie. Half way through the sarnie and the rod slowly pulled round and kept going. After a sluggish fight a common of about five and a half pound was in the net. Yes! I have to admit next chuck gave another liner and I started to hope that some fish had started to move in but the rest of the match passed without so much as a sniff despite trying everything. Long hook links, short hooklinks, punch or corn. Even trying maggot on a smaller hook on the track rig failed. It just seemed like there was nothing there!
I have to admit after struggling so much I was surprised to find I was 4th on the lake with 5lb 9oz, one ounce behind 3rd! One fish of double figures and a few perch for about 11lb was second and three fish for 18lb was first. As I thought lake two had been better - 31lb winning with a couple of 20lb weights. I have to apologise to everyone drawn in the reeds though as after tipping one of those pegs to win last week they all blanked, ooops! Still, the day wasn't all bad as I managed to catch up with a few people I hadn't seen for a while, plus I managed to win a few beers for myself and some chocolates to keep my other half happy! I also found that I wasn't the only one to have had a few myth bites on the tip. Not something I've ever had before. Answers on a postcard as to what happen though as I'm sure they wernt liners....
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