I've fished the Snake 3 times before, once in the Scottish Seniors last September, and a couple of times last summer - but never with a pole, so I figured it would be a useful learning experience.
Alan Hird, John Perella, Heather Lauriston, Scott McAuly joined me from the 'Croft team, with four Orchill guys there to show us how it should be done.
I drew P20 which I was told was a good one, and I started setting up. The Snake is around 15M wide at P20, and much deeper than the ponds at the 'Croft, so I spent some extra time setting up a couple of longer rigs to cope with the 9 feet of water that was in front of me. I also set up 2 rigs for the far side, where there were a few features, mostly bullrushes. The far shelf was just under three feet deep, and it wasn't very wide. So one for on the shelf and a second one set for about a foot deeper which would put my bait on the slope of the shelf.
The all in was called and I shipped out the shallowest rig to the far shelf where almost right away I hooked into a carp of about a pound. I continued to catch on the far shelf for about an hour, but the carp were replaced by a shoal of tench, all of about 8oz - very nice fish, but not very big! So I changed rigs to the 'down the shelf' rig and started catching some larger carp. The bites continued to come, but the wind picked up enough to blow over my pole roller twice and presentation was becoming increasingly difficult. But any time there was a lull, I caught.
The all-out was called at 16:00 and I weighed in my best match catch to date at 41lbs - 6oz. But young Scott at the other end, had managed 51lbs, which was fantastic bag! John Perella was next up with 30lbs and then Heather with around 25lbs, so the Orchill folk were a tad upset that we had hammered them -:)
But it was just a fun match, Sunday is the real deal!
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