Hi Folks,
I fished a match today on the reed pool again but the oppisite side was matched today. Obviously wasnt expecting anything exciting due to the weather and more importantly the wind!
I drew peg 17 which is only a couple of pegs down from one of my fav pegs, which is number 15.
As soon as i arrived at the peg i decided to change my attack all together and just left the pole for the day and concentrate on the bomb. I decided to set up my Silstar match picker on the bomb as i havnt had it out for a while. As an after thought i did decided to set up a margin rig with just a little side thought as abit of security.
Its important to do a bit of feature finding when you just have open water in front of you, especially with a a fish at a time method such as the bomb. There are methods to do this whilst not chucking in continuously like a baboon, with just simply 3 casts. 3 Far chucks, 1 left, 1 right and one in the middle of the swim.
A couple of hints for doing this are:
- Always point your rod to the side.
- Keep the tip touching the water.
- Reel in 1ft at a time (If you have time).
- Use a round bomb/lead. A gripper would be better if you can find one light enough.
- If you hit a ledge. It'll stop dead. It will feel like a snag. But a simple lift of the rod and slack in the line will relieve the tension and enable you to keep it coming towards you.
Getting back on track...
I was all set. I had a feel about for 15 minutes and found a small maybe 6 inch ledge around 35 yards out. I was going to fish to this but not strictly all day. I dont mind casting to a showing fish if it is deadly quiet.
My bomb set up isnt anything fancy. I dont buy bombs or leads. I use a bomb/lead that comes out of the maggot feeders which i some times use i prefer these and it saves a bit of dosh in the long run. Not to mention you can simply clip on the feeder bit and then add some sloppy swim stim for a bit of attractant!
Obviously my style of simplicity is carried on with my bomb tactics too. I thread the eye of the bomb through my mainline (4lb Maxima), shortly followed by a bead and then tied off to a swivel with an o ring attached. Then i do prefer 2ft for a hook lengh, but i have gone upto 5ft before! Today i was going for practically anything so i opted for an .9 bottom (2.4lb) tied to a B911 18 Spade end. My main attack was to be dead reds, but if needed i had a few 4mm and 6mm pellets to go at.
Time was called and i put on 2 dead reds which were fresh out the freezer and chucked it out to where i had clipped up, i decided my first chuck would be with the feeder on and decided to put abit of slop in there. It landed just where i wanted.
It was after about 30 minutes that i started getting signs. The other lads were getting fish but only roach and nothing even remotely good was showing as of yet.
Wasnt long before my tip swang round! At first i thought it may be a bream, It was giving the ol' nod which i associate with them, but as i reeled it in it began to wake up. You have to take it steady when your on light tackle, but the picker rod is soft enough to take its lunges.
Wasnt long before i had it in the net......
I did decided to go on the margin rig for ten minutes.....
I went straight back out with the naked bomb and just sat and waiting. It was the last hour of the match and i thought i may of been pipped to the post by cookie but then i managed to get into 2 of these!:)
....and a small chub followed.
It was a very hard day. I knew it would be. Hallcroft is always the same onces a Northern wind gets on it, but before the weighin i was thinking that "I reckon i have fished well" and now i am certain i made the right decision.
This was all the bait i used all day. Apart from a cup full of swim stim slop....
Top 3 were:
1. N Johnson 46lb 5oz
2. S Cooke 34lb 9oz
3.N White 32lb 7oz
Nathan
@Fish4Thought
