First Match of 2012

For the New Year match, we were to be fishing the Island and the Woodside ponds - With 29 anglers attending, 8 would be on the Woodside and the rest on the Island - Given last week's result on the Woodside, I took my place near the back of the Q to draw, and would have been happy with either water. As it turned out, I once again drew a good peg - 26 on the Island.

We still had fairly gusty and cold conditions so the approach would be the same as last week - pellet or corn fished around an inch over depth on a rig with an extended loop to allow lots of pole movement without dragging the float with it.

Whilst plumbing up on the far shelf, I had a couple of liners, so decided that that was the place to start - but after one bite in the first 30 minutes, that I hooked and lost in the space of 5 seconds, I opted to move to the second line I had plumbed at the bottom of the shelf.

I was getting the odd small movement, so added a No 10 to take the float down to around 2mm visible and had my first F1 of around 2lbs within 10 mins. Bites were very tentative and patchy with corn or pellet. I only fed (6 -10 micros) when I hooked a fish.

2.5 hours into the match I had 7 F1s and a small tench for an estimated 15lb. Then the fish seemed to get a bit more bold and another 3 F1s and a second tench came in quick succession. And then they disappeared……..

So I returned to the far shelf where I picked up another 3 F1s and a bonus mirror of around 4lbs before the all out.

So I reckoned on having around 20lbs, but as soon as I lifted my keepnet, I knew it was at least 30lbs.

And looking back, if I'd done some simple maths, I would have known that - 13 F1s of 2Lbs, 2 tench of around 1.5lb ( both on corn) and a 4lb mirror. So a final weight of 35lb-3oz - Rightly so, Mr Perella gave me a hard time (no malice) for calling 20lb - lesson learned! I'll leave the under calling to Deek:-)

This gave me another win (nobody more shocked than me!) with Darrin Fergusson with 20lbs - 14oz in second, Neil Champman with 20lbs - 6oz in third and reigning Scottish Open & Scottish Seniors champion John Perella in fourth with 18lbs - 7oz.

Full results can be found here.

When I got my pole last month, John P gave me a couple of his homemade pole floats, and now I have learned how to use them, they work really well for shy biting fish like F1s.

Over the match I lost 7-8 fish - One at the net by being too impatient and the rest when getting the pole onto the roller (more care required). But once I'd figured out why I was bumping them, I lost no more.

I've now had my pole for 2 months and every time I use it, I learn something new - this lesson was that the positioning of the pole roller is a key skill, that I have yet to understand let alone master.

So a match PB and my first win on the Island pond - Somehow I've won 4 of my last 6 matches (breaking my match PB twice in succession) - I've certainly been lucky in drawing a decent peg on each occasion, but I know this run will end - but win or lose, my love affair with fishing has been well and truly re-established