Young Matchman Today

by Kaine Whitlow




On Saturday 22nd September, I was due to fish a club match at Whitehouse Farm a club lake. My plan of action for the session was to fish a short line at 6m down the margin and a long line at 11m. I would fish luncheon meat on the 11m line fished over a bed of pellet and corn, and on the 6m line I would fish pellet over pellet.
At the draw I drew peg 9 which I knew was a good peg for tench and carp in the margins. I walked to my peg and the waters surface was as flat as a pancake. PERFECT conditions I though to myself.

The session
When the whistle blew at 10 o’clock I put a cupfull of pellet to the short line and a cup full of pellet and corn to the long line. I also put a few catapult pouches to the far lilies, which would allow me to have a go on the feeder later in the session, and hopefully pick up some bonus fish.
I then shipped out the short line with an 8mm hali-hooker Sonubaits pellet on a size 14 Kamasan hook. After about ten minutes fishing at the short line, I hooked my first fish and to the back of the net a skimmer of about 12oz’s came.
Then about 20 minutes later, the float shot under, but sadly I missed the bite. It was then another 10 minutes until I had a fantastic bite when the float lifted and then disappeared under the surface resulting in a small mirror of about 6oz’s in the net.
Over the next hour, I caught many small carp which resulted in my keepnet being 3lb heavier. The next hour in the session went awfully quiet and I only had a small knock, but I kept up my hopes knowing there was still plenty of time to hook those big carp. I kept the bait going in and then after about 5 minutes, the float was being towed away and plummeted under the surface. This fish felt bigger than my previous catch, maybe a tench or a carp. I focussed my skill and landed what turned out to be a Tench of about 3lb.
Shortly after, I bagged another Tench which was roughly the same weight as the previous one. It then seemed like an eternity waiting for my next bite which put me under pressure with the match looking like it was slipping away. So I decided to change my hook bait to a small cube of meat on the 11m line which turned out to be a good decision as it then put me well on the way to a double figure bag with the addition of a 4lb hard fighting muscular carp.
The session ended shortly after and I was happy with a good days fishing and a good bag from my efforts.

The weigh in
At the weigh-in, I was 9th in-line and the final result was a solid bag weighing 14lb 7o’z, which included my bonus Tench and the one large Carp which was caught with my 11m line. I was placed second, which resulted in valuable points, putting me on my way to winning the club junior league 2007.

Overall
I think that overall, I did well in this match as I had been keeping an eye on other people's catch rates and baiting methods. In my next match, however, I think I will try using more meat and other different baits with the 11m line to improve my catch rate even further.

Good fishing

Kaine Whitlow