That looks like a smashing day Mike!
relatively on time this week ... as promised in my last contribution to HDYGO, I attended Blunham AC‘s open match at Willington yesterday ... first time on the Great Ouse this year. 20 or so anglers attending ... all the usual suspects (Drak, baby Drak, Neale Shearn, Micky Burrell, paul(s) Reynolds and Caton etc.).
It looked threatening when we drew ... and was raining by the time I parked by the river ... at times during the day it was very persistent and it looks like my lightweight waterproofs are no longer .... waterproof!
The winning weights on this stretch are usually very close, but that notwithstanding there are a lot of different successful methods and the pegs do vary in their fishy populations. There are some good fish present ... particularly chub and perch ... but in matches it is often a small fish race. I drew peg 32 ... which had most competitors pulling a face and saying “distinctly average”, although that’s not too bad here ... as with the close weights you can make the frame from anywhere.
The river was very coloured , I’d say less than six inches visibility (although the dull weather didn’t help) and , being sluice controlled at the upstream end, was pushing through fast as a result of friday’s rain. But being sluice controlled it also slowed right down for two hour long periods in the match (first and last hour of fishing as it happened).
As a generalisation, despite the narrow river, you have to fish at least two lines at Willington to keep fish coming throughout the contest. I chose to fish three on this day: maggot and then chopped worm at 3m for perch. Hemp and caster at two rods for roach and the same across, targeting chublets.
I made a good start with three or four dumpy perch and some roach on maggot, but then struggled from about 20 minutes in ... just picking up odd tiny roach and gudgeon on stick float. On the waggler it was just minuscule chublets (barely bigger than minnows) and a few bleak.
what with the rain, the wildly Fluctuating flow and failure to build up a net of anything, I was feeling pretty down. the only change that had any effect was to increase the size of stick float and bulk the shot down ... at least that avoided the attentions of the bleak ... although I’m not convinced that the resultant gudgeon were worth any more! I had a few roach on hempseed, but in reality it was no better than caster on this day (pretty sure the extra colour did not help that or the perch prospects (they were noticeably absent in many nets on the day).
Then in the last half hour I suddenly started to catch slightly bigger chublets by casting the heavier stick float down the far side run. For a frantic 20 minutes it was one a bung ... then all to soon the whistle sounded to end the match. Now whether it was the flow abating, the fact that I’d upped the feed or just that they turned up late ... but I fear it was that I was too negative for most of the match and underfed the swim!
9 pounds and six ounces ... 6 ounces behind the default section winner and 2 and a half pounds behind top spot (Well done Mick Burrell).
A decent day, improved further by three cups of tea with my mum & dad, who live locally to Bedford
relatively on time this week ... as promised in my last contribution to HDYGO, I attended Blunham AC‘s open match at Willington yesterday ... first time on the Great Ouse this year. 20 or so anglers attending ... all the usual suspects (Drak, baby Drak, Neale Shearn, Micky Burrell, paul(s) Reynolds and Caton etc.).
It looked threatening when we drew ... and was raining by the time I parked by the river ... at times during the day it was very persistent and it looks like my lightweight waterproofs are no longer .... waterproof!
The winning weights on this stretch are usually very close, but that notwithstanding there are a lot of different successful methods and the pegs do vary in their fishy populations. There are some good fish present ... particularly chub and perch ... but in matches it is often a small fish race. I drew peg 32 ... which had most competitors pulling a face and saying “distinctly average”, although that’s not too bad here ... as with the close weights you can make the frame from anywhere.
The river was very coloured , I’d say less than six inches visibility (although the dull weather didn’t help) and , being sluice controlled at the upstream end, was pushing through fast as a result of friday’s rain. But being sluice controlled it also slowed right down for two hour long periods in the match (first and last hour of fishing as it happened).
As a generalisation, despite the narrow river, you have to fish at least two lines at Willington to keep fish coming throughout the contest. I chose to fish three on this day: maggot and then chopped worm at 3m for perch. Hemp and caster at two rods for roach and the same across, targeting chublets.
I made a good start with three or four dumpy perch and some roach on maggot, but then struggled from about 20 minutes in ... just picking up odd tiny roach and gudgeon on stick float. On the waggler it was just minuscule chublets (barely bigger than minnows) and a few bleak.
what with the rain, the wildly Fluctuating flow and failure to build up a net of anything, I was feeling pretty down. the only change that had any effect was to increase the size of stick float and bulk the shot down ... at least that avoided the attentions of the bleak ... although I’m not convinced that the resultant gudgeon were worth any more! I had a few roach on hempseed, but in reality it was no better than caster on this day (pretty sure the extra colour did not help that or the perch prospects (they were noticeably absent in many nets on the day).
Then in the last half hour I suddenly started to catch slightly bigger chublets by casting the heavier stick float down the far side run. For a frantic 20 minutes it was one a bung ... then all to soon the whistle sounded to end the match. Now whether it was the flow abating, the fact that I’d upped the feed or just that they turned up late ... but I fear it was that I was too negative for most of the match and underfed the swim!
9 pounds and six ounces ... 6 ounces behind the default section winner and 2 and a half pounds behind top spot (Well done Mick Burrell).
A decent day, improved further by three cups of tea with my mum & dad, who live locally to Bedford
