Thorpe Constantine Open - Sat 14th March

Due to other commitments on Sunday, I decided to fish a match on Saturday this week at Thorpe Constantine.

I had never even seen this venue before, however my normal travelling partner for a Sunday, Andy Meadows, had recently started fishing the Saturday Opens and had begun to get a feel for the place.

The bait rules on this venue are very strict with regards to what you can actually use. Meat and pellet are both banned which leaves corn, caster, worm, maggots and groundbait as your only options and following advise from Andy I decided to go with groundbait and corn only.

There were 20 in attendance and as far as I was told, I drew a goodish area however I was at the other end of the lake from where an island and various aerators are dotted about. In fact I was double banked as I had someone opposite me !

Target fish are small carp up to 3lb and small barbel up to 1lb. In summer alot of the weights are caught using paste on a Top 3, however at this time of year the fish are further out in 8-10 ft of water.

I assembled a feeder rod with a small groundbait feeder for chucking 25 yards, a rig for corn at 11 mtrs in 8ft of water, a rig for both margins at the edge of the reeds that jut out and finally a paste rig for 5 mtrs in 5ft of water.

On the 11 mtr pole line was fed with a jaffa size ball of green swimstim groundbait and a few grains of corn via the pole cup. The margins received a small smattering of corn and 2 small balls of paste were cupped onto the short line.

First cast in on the feeder with hair rigged corn and the tip flew round after 30 secs and a 2lb carp was soon in the net - I was going to empty it ! Sixty biteless minutes later on the tip and I decided to try the pole - Bugger !

The wind was horrendous from right to left and the undertow was strong the opposite way which made presentation very difficult. After much fiddling about, I found the best way to counter this was to lay in with the wind and when the float had settled let the tow hold it against the wind. To achieve this I had to lay about 8" on the deck with my final dropper shot just off bottom.

At times the wind was very severe and the sound of my G10 creaking was not pleasant. I managed to pick some odd fish up on the pole at 11 mtrs for the remainder of the match but never had a touch on either margin line or the 5mtr paste line. Odd chucks with the feeder also proved fruitless.

At the all in I had 2 carp, 2 barbel, 3 skimmers, 4 tench and a rogue chub for around 10lb. I knew I had not framed (no sections paid) so deposited the fish back before the scales arrived.

The match was won with 33lb, 2nd was 30lb and 3rd 23lb so it hadn't fished too bad based on recent results.

The obligatory chat was had with the match winner to see if I could glean some information for future reference and he stated that he struggled at 11 mtrs so half way through the match took 2 section's off, re-plumbed (2ft shallower) and began to catch.

All in all I enjoyed the day as it was the challenge of a fishery I have never seen before and entry fee was only £10.00.

Next week the gear has to be sorted as I'm sure I've got something on next weekend ?...............................ah yes, WHITEACRES !
For people who read this and are going to the Bait Tech Fest - see you there. For people who read this and are not going to the Bait Tech - tough luck.

Snooty

2009 Pools so far - £114

2009 Winnings so far - £80.00