Whitemoor Match.

As the title suggests once again I have been back out doing some match fishing, this time though it wasn't another practice session I threw myself in at the deep end and went straight into a match! I only say threw myself in as since the last time I wrote about match fishing practice I haven't done any and I haven't fished Whitemoor's canal lake in even longer.

       Okay so onto the fishing and how the day went for me, to start with as always I spent around five days preparing rigs and tying hook lengths as it is always better to be ready for anything and have it all to hand if you do need something, the alternative of course is do no prep work and spend a few weeks kicking yourself for not doing so! Sunday morning finally arrived and Mark and I set off around 8am to get to the venue in good time before the draw at 9am.

        When we arrived the weather was not looking great and we couldn't see to many anglers waiting but after a few minutes the car park began to fill out a bit more, all in all there was twelve anglers to fish the twenty peg lake so was going to be nice and spread out along the bank. On the way in I specifically said to Mark I would have been happy with any peg except the end peg 20, he on a similar train of thought to me said roughly the same apart from he didn't want peg 1 so of course it was inevitable that we both drew those pegs!

          Draw done it was time to head off and get ourselves set up, first thing I did was started soaking my 4mm Bait-Tech carp and course pellets for feed baits and pumped some 4mm Xpand pellets, I emptied a pint of casters into another tub and drained the water off my pellets before chopping up some worm and getting a tin of corn out my bag to, last but not least bait wise I had some bread I had prepared on the Saturday ready for a spot of dobbing.

          So with bait being ready I began shipping out my pole to various different spots and having a good plumb around, I started off going really tight to the other bank but could only find between 6 - 8" of water there, I thought this was way to shallow due to the water being so cold and also it didn't seem to be as colored as usual, I decided to come back away from the edge a pole section and found myself averaging around 1.75 - 2' in depth in most places so was very happy with this. I shipped the same rig comprising of a 0.2g Dino F1 float and a strung shotting pattern of No11's over towards some rushes along the end of the lake at the same distance and was delighted to find the same depths along there as well, this meant a very easy day when it came to rotating lines! I set up a duplicate top kit in case of a break or a bad tangle so I could get back to fishing as fast as possible.

        I then also plumbed up a margin rig at 2 + 2 (or a top kit and the 2 top sections of my pole) this rig was a 0.3g Dino Trux margin float, this had a bulk of No9 stots and 2 No10 droppers. This was the line I was planning on feeding with chopped worm and caster for a few hours at the end to try tempt a few margin monsters out in the last hour.

         With this all done I punched a piece of bread with a 4mm punch and put it on the hook and sat waiting for what felt like an age for the all in shout. Once this was finally called I shipped out straight in front of me to the middle of my far bank and proceeded to lift and drop my bread around in the area to try tempt a quick bite, this couldn't have gone any better to start with as I had two fish in the first ten minutes but unfortunately the rain started to fall super heavy and it took nearly an hour to get my next bite! Although I was very happy to have finally gotten a bite it was only a small skimmer which was indication enough to me that was the end of my bread fishing for the day.

          I went back out on the same line this time though with a small kinder pot with about a dozen 4mm pellets and a Xpand on the hook, I poured the pellets in very low to the water as I didn't want to make any noise with them I simply wanted something on the bottom to stop fish in their tracks and start them feeding, I am a great believer in that feeding fish attract hungry fish so this was all I was trying to do! I could not believe it though when my float went under within seconds of it settling, at this point I couldn't help but think what if I have made this change sooner! for the next hour or so I had a fish a chuck and was now very happy with how my match was going. I spent the hour before watching the guy on peg 18 catch fish after fish and now finally was doing the same thing to him as he had to watch me catching whilst his float remained still.

           Once again though my bites had dried up so I decided to pot in 25 - 30 pellets there and leave it to rest, I headed out towards the rushes but to no avail so I decided to give my margin line a quick go to try nick a fish before heading back out to the rested swim, I managed to get a bite with in about five minutes unfortunately though the fish discharged the hook in my keepnet.

          After a battle with the net trying to get it out of the water and unhook it whilst the fish inside thrashed about I finally got back in the water to a swim the was wall to wall fish for another hour or so, once again though the bites stopped but this time it was for an all together different reason, the next bite I got came about fifteen minutes later on the same line but this time though it wasn't a shy timid bite the float was down and gone before I knew what was happening my elastic was over in peg 19, after playing this fish for about twenty minutes I thought for sure I had the big girl known as 'Bent Tail' she is a stunning mirror of around 15lb in weight or so now, I myself had managed this fish in the last match I fished there some time ago and she was 13lb 15oz then and I knew that if I netted her I was well in the lead! After the battle I slipped my net under a stunning mirror with the top part of its tail missing that barely fit in my landing net, at this point I picked up my phone and text Mark to tell him I had her! Unfortunately though when I came to the weigh in it turns out I got a little bit ahead of myself as the fish only weighted 9lb 8oz.

         I was now into the final hour and a half of the match and it was time to start feeding my edge line, I went straight in with a nice sized hand full of finely chopped worm and a few casters which I was planning on fishing a nice big worm over a bit later on, with that done I tried the 'rush' line again but as had been the case all day there was no fish at home or if they were they either weren't hungry or were to smart for me. so I shipped back out to the middle line again where I manged a further three fish before deciding to go on my margin line, this turned out though to be a waste of fifteen minutes as once again I couldn't get a line bite let alone a fish!

          I went back out on the middle line this time it was where I was going to be staying for the rest of the match the only problem was the rain starting really lashing down and I could barely see a thing in my peg! "ALL OUT" rang down the lake and now all I could do was wait for Tom the lakes owner to come round and weigh everyone's catch, I started to pack up my gear so as to take my mind off the coming event, I didn't have to wait long though as he started down my end and worked back to the club house.

          35lb 5oz was my weight and 46lb something was the guy next to me so by this point is was slightly disinterested with the rest of the weighing as I thought I was going to fish badly. This was not the case though as the only other weight close to ours was 30lb 12oz so I had managed to finish 2nd in my first match in a very long time and pick up some prize money also. Mark managed to win his section as well to grab himself a few pound to.

          Once again thank you for reading guys I do apologize for not having any pictures but unfortunately my phone is broken at the moment and I also didn't have anyone else there to take any pictures for me.