A heavy frost forced this match back half an hour to allow some competitors to break the ice which had formed on 50% of the match length overnight. I was keen, having refitted elastics and tied rigs during the week, but this match turned into a bit of a grueller for most. There were not many fish caught off any peg, and the best weights were made up of large bream, some reportedly as big as 5lb. I had hoped for a roach match but the severity and suddenness of the drop in overnight temperatures clearly put most fish off feeding.
Last week Exeter held a match in Snakes Wood, which made up D section today, and there were winning weights of skimmers but a number of small roach caught also. Both Gary Thornton and Dave Pullman had over a hundred, sat on adjacent pegs. My dad was in this section today and it fished very hard, his eight bites resulting in 680g of mostly one decent skimmer. Just over a kilo won this section in the end; a decent skimmer and around 15 roach for Wayne Mitchell.
I pulled peg 3 out of the bucket at the draw and knew I might be in for a hard time of it. The pegging started at Tidcombe Bridge, where Zac Newton had drawn the end peg. I think a few people in our section expected him to do well, but I wouldn't even pleasure fish there; it's a poor area. Between the two of us was Dom Garnett would you believe, although we had the benefit of some space between us due to overhead powerlines. Despite my initial reservations, I fancied a bit of space, and the bush opposite, would be a advantageous. I expected the top end of the section to fish better, although these guys had to break the ice, something the first five pegs were spared.
I set up a whip (one missed bite and definitely not the day for the method), a roach punch rig, and a skimmer punch rig - all for the bottom of the near shelf. Everyone else in my section fished the bread a section or two further than me, in the track itself. There was no boat traffic on the day, as expected, but I believe the fish like to feed on these drop offs, slopes and depth changes, rather than necessarily in the area of greatest depth. I only fished one other line, across to the spindly branches hanging off the far bank. The plan was to fire a small pouch of squatts across on the whistle to see if they would reach. They did, so I cupped in a small ball of black groundbait, and used a catapult to loosefeed squatt, else I would have fished punch there.
It took around 15 minutes to take my first fish on the bread, which was slower than those on pegs 4 and 5. This first response came after a change from 3mm punch to a 4mm, which I found strange on recap considering that it was such a difficult day. Two tiny roach were followed by a weighty skimmer, which was a massive bonus on such a day, all caught on the light rig, but the line never really got going and I had a look on the squatt much earlier than I wanted to. Two dumpy roach came pretty quickly, both requiring the net, but that was a false dawn and the remainder of the match was disappointingly scratchy.
Mid-match I hooked an absolute lump on double squatt, which I played carefully for a few minutes before the 22 hook pulled. You have half a chance on a balanced elastic, which was a soft 3-4 through a full top kit, but this was undoubtedly a proper bream, the slime on the hooklength giving it away. The remainder of my fish came a variety of ways; a 5oz skimmer on squatt, a few roach on punch and a couple more on a strung out shallow rig, fished in the track short of my groundbait, where any loosefed squatt had dropped short. Every time I caught a roach and thought I'd found them however, nothing more would come of it.
An hour to go and with the swim totally lifeless, I decided to go for broke as I knew that my mate Richard Higgs on peg 6 was beating me with three skimmers and seemed to be catching blade roach steadily. Nobody else seemed to be doing a lot either and by now we knew that a few people had managed bream in C section. As I knew I wouldn't catch Rich or the overall leaders by scratching for more tiny roach, I decided there was no point starting a new punch line (which can sometimes work for roach) and instead began flicking marble sized balls of liquidised over the near shelf trying to make something happen in the last half hour. I thought the match being put back until a 3.30 finish might increase the chances of a big roach or two turning up.
While I waited I employed the skimmer rig with a bunch of squatts (after all, I'd already lost a big bream here) but it never worked. The bread line also failed to bring another bite, so it was a pretty boring last hour or so, and I was relieved when the all-out was called to be honest. I knew I'd come second in section, and the weigh-in showed just how hard it had been with Zac weghing in 200g or so and Dom about 400g. My two skimmers and dozen or so roach went 1.050kg, then there were weights of around 300g and 100g whilst Rich had over a kilo and a half from peg 6, and caught reasonably steadily it would seem. Included in his catch were three skimmers of about 6-12oz, a decent roach and quite a few of the usual 'blades' too. The guys the other side of him had 300-500g of tiny roach, plus one angler who did not weigh in.
I arrived back at the football club for snacks and results and it soon became apparent that the lost bream had probably cost me no more than first in section as the overall frame weights were some way over the 3 kilo mark, meaning my bream would have to have gone well over 4lb if I had landed it. Possible, but probably not worth dwelling on. Still, I got a tenner back in the pools.
Overall winner was Ali Robinson with at least 5kg, possibly six, but I was so incensed at me and dad not winning anything on the raffle that I failed to take many of the results in! Paul Elworthy was second I think, and although you clearly had to be on the fish in this match as the top weights were so localised, he seems to be the don on the Tiverton Canal, always there or thereabouts.
A well-organised event once again, and it would be nice to see more matches of this size on natural venues nearby, but sadly the Christmas Match seems to be the only one to attract this many anglers (38).