We had a few fish but I selected to fish the feeder more where as Ivan stayed on the pole and ended up with well over 40 kgs in a couple of hours.
The weather was very unsettled with wind and even a heavy thunder and rain storm as we packed up.
The NSW open Match on the Friday is run as an open individual with a random draw and we done well to get 3 of us all fishing in different sections as it gives us a good idea on how things go for the team event. Once again I drew back in what was the old D section but was C section this year as a new section has been pegged on the far side of the lake. None of the four of us manged to draw there so would have to wait until the team draw to see how we go on there. I always seem to draw this section but don't mind it too much as it is usually an all out feeder section. Two years ago I drew the same peg 3 days in a row on this section !
Anyway c3 was to be my spot for the day and it was 2 pegs away from the feeder canal the runs into the lake. The hot pegs on this section are 10 and 11 in most matches and they seem to produce fish much earlier than the others so most times you are fishing for 2nd if anglers catch there early in the match. The 2 pegs either side of the canal can be good with lots of fish usually hanging around but it also can be very snaggy. There is a fence or something that runs along the lake bed for a few pegs at 25 to 30 mts and then when the heavy rain comes any crap that washes in the storm canal usually gets caught up in it. Most try and fish the feeder further out and get the fish off the bottom fast on these pegs but when searching around with a bomb before the start I didn't have any snags on my peg that I could find. Ralph from the Sydney AC was to my right on C4 would be in the thick of it thou.
It was quite windy again today but not much signs of rain. I set up an open ended feeder to start with and also had a method feeder to switch over to later, plus I had a 4 gram and 2 gram pole rigs set up to try at some stage. For bait I keep it simple for Canberra and had corn, maggot, some bread for an 8 or 10mm punch plus I had a few worms in my bag to sneak out a perch or two for the team matches Saturday and Sunday for a few section points if it's hard. My usual plan on here is to feed a bit on the pole line first, then 6 or 8 balls on the feeder line and start on the open end feeder but keep a ball of crumb going in every 5 mins or so. I have found on this big water even though it's not fished much it doesn't take them long to start coming into the sound of the groundbait going in and then switch over to the method feeder once there are a few fish are around. I don't put any feed in the groundbait only in the initial balls and thru the feeder. After the first hour and 20 mins it was very slow and no one seemed to be catching. I didn't even have a liner on the feeder and decided to drop a worm on my pole line to see if any perch were around and within 2 mins had a carp about 4 lbs in my net. It took the worm on the drop...! Despite fishing it for the next 40 mins I never had another bite and it was getting harder to fish the pole as the wind was picking up even more so went back on the feeder. Ralph had just lost a fish on the feeder at this stage. It was well into the fourth hour before I had a bite and fish number 2 was in the net. Ralph next to me was now getting into fish regularly but not getting many to his landing net as his peg proved to be a real snag pit. I switched to the method feeder and started to get a few fish mind you the first 3 I hooked all swam to my right and snagged. The last hour I only managed 2 more fish and lost 4 more all again to my right despite doing my best to keep them away from it. I was a bit frustrated with this but wasn't too worried about today's match and then felt much better when Ralph told me he lost 14 fish in his peg and even better when I had beaten him and the other side of my with 10.35 kgs. Pegs 10 won the section with 35 kgs and Neil was on 11 and was second with 22 kgs
Overall today the match was won by that man again Alan Woods (winner from Mildura a few blogs back)....from the new section with 48 kgs. There is no stopping him over here at the moment. Ivan had also finished 2nd in B section today with 13 kgs
We all headed to the pub for the team draw that night as we draw the sections the night before and then pegs on the venue in the morning. Most other years we have placed ourselves in our sections but this year we decided to do it via the random draw as none of us had fish the new section and we were all pretty familiar with the other sections. Even with a random draw I ended up back on C section again for Saturday morning but wasn't complaining...
I wasn't even too bad after I had drawn C 4 in the car park in the morning even thou I knew it was snaggy...Having watched Ralph on Friday, he was casting short so my plan was to go a bit further out and hopefully get there heads up fast. As the wind wasn't that bad when we were setting up I also took out a slider rod to fish over where Ralph was casting at which was about 20 mts out and maybe keeping the line up would keep some fish from the snags
C4.........Day 2.......!
pegs to my left....The day started badly for me when I had just finished setting everything up, plumbed my slider up and all was good I had 5 mins to spare before the all in and decided to have one more chuck with the slider to make sure it was good, It settled perfect and then snagged in whatever it is that's on the bottom in this peg... I snapped it off so threw the rod down and started to feed a feeder line about 50 mts out on the all in. Half an hour in and I had a fish on but hit the same snag again on the way in...feeder number 1 and fish number 1 gone...! For the next 2 hours I was the only one getting bites and hooking fish on my side of the canal but still had a dry net... Nine feeders and nine fish was now the count lost in the snag and no matter what I did, keeping the rod low, keeping it high, going left, going right , I even stood up on the seat of my box for 2 fish they still found a snag. I was quite sure by now there is a little more than a wire fence in this peg.
The pressure was really piling up when I talked to all the rest of the team and they were all doing ok in there sections and then 2 anglers to my left had fish on as I left my phone down. I tried feeding another line my side of the snags and clipping up a feeder on it at about 18 mts...this was easy as my slider was still sitting and bobbing in the water to mark it !...I could not get a touch on it for the next hour so had no choice only go back out again. The next 2 hours I once again had 11 fish on but just got 2 into the net was going to be out of method feeders soon at this rate. I then had a quiet last 45 mins and tried the pole but not a sniff, when the funniest thing happened. My last 2 casts on the feeder I had 2 fish as soon as the feeder hit the bottom and both came in with not a problem..no snags, nothing and I hadn't done a thing different... I was so glad to hear the all out today and had left over $60 of feeders in the lake. I finished 8th in the section with 10 kg even. The section was won from C9 with 18 fish for 36 kgs and C11 was second with 30 kgs. .......18 fish...!
I felt much better when I got back to the cabin and found out Ivan had won his section, and both Neil and Shaun were 3rd in each of their sections... It got even better at the pub that night we we found out our team was winning the day but we had Woody's team on our heals just 3 points behind us. This will be the third year in a row we're leading on the first day. We all decided that night to stick with our sections again for Sunday.
It was nice, calm and sunny at the car park for the draw in the morning. I decided to sit back and wait till the end to draw my peg and am certain the clouds just appeared as I put my hand in the bag with only 2 pegs left.........yup C4 was on the disc I took out...I could even swear it was at that moment the wind got up too.....by the time I got to my peg it was blowing hard across the lake into us
I sat on my box for a long 10 minutes before I set up on the peg trying to decide what way to approach the peg today. I had thought at one stage of calling the police and telling them I just seen a body sink about 30 mts out and to send a boat with a chain and hook and would show them exactly where to pull it. After counting up what feeders I had left and got hold of the night before I decided to clip up on a line at 18 mts my side of the snags and fill it in at the start and hope to draw the fish away from what was down there. I was also going to fill in a pole line despite the wind as it may calm down later...or just drop a feeder over it if the fish turned up. I would leave the long feeder line for the first 2 hours with nothing going in to it and hoped I could get some fish to come in closer but had set up a rod with a long range open feeder for it just in case. I had Jason Ollenshaw on my left today and also we had their team just a few points behind us so it was another full on day ahead. After 2 hours and not a touch on my short feeder line or pole it was not looking good. Not many were catching around me and the wind was getting wilder. After another 1/2 hour and Jason now having a fish in the net. I had no choice only go out on the long feeder but just let 3 balls of crumb go in . I had a fish withing 15 mins and got it in no problem and thought here we go....yup here we go....for the next 2 hours I hooked 9 fish and landed 1.
I was convinced at this stage it's not a wire fence down there...It's a house and as I hooked a fish there were going in the front door and his mates were closing it behind him. The ones I got out were when his mates would slam the door in his face just for fun.....! I tried again on my short line and had 2 fish straight way but they also snagged up as soon as I picked up the rod and just on the clip. I re clipped a meter shorter but couldn't buy a bite. I stuck it out on the long feeder line for the last hour with what feeders I had left to land 2 more fish but again lose another 3..... altogether 14 fish and feeders lost today......I should have called the cops in the end just to report a robbery.....!
My 8.8 kgs managed to get me 7th in the section out of 11 and once again C 11 won with 42 kgs and C9 was second with 30 kgs. But Jason manged to take 2 points from me. The rest of the team all finished mid sections. For the third year running we suffered a bad 2nd day blow out to end up 4th team overall from 11 teams and also missed 3rd place by 1 point. Mind you we would have needed something really special this year to win it as Woody's team took the title with 3 section wins and a 4th on the second day and Alan himself winning all of the 3 days......well done again.....Next year maybe..if I am still here in Oz that is.. Our next big team of 4 event is the nationals which are on in March 2010
Team BGT Sydney...nope not hung over...it was just early in the morning for the pic.....!Last Match of 2009
My last match for 2009 was a Sydney AC club league match which was back on the race course lake we had the winter league on. There was 17 fishing today but the levels have really dropped here now and most of the pegs are now all along the deeper dam wall side. I drew peg 19 which was the shallower side where the good weights came all winter and an end peg but now the water was out past the ledge so wasn't sure how it would go. Once again it was stinking hot in Sydney with the temps in the high 30's plus there isn't much shade around this lake at all.
I plumbed around to find about 2 ft of water everywhere in my swim except of one area about 2 mt square at 13 mts where there was a hole about 4 ft deep and just set up one rig for this. A .3 gram "Hillbilly critter" and as I had open water just used white hydro on a puller bung.I set up a margin swim also at 10 mts to my left and a small waggler to cast around further out. There were a few fish rolling all over the lake as I was setting up.
I spent the first hour feeding my pole line with a few bits of corn every few minutes while fishing the waggler but didn't have a bite and it seemed to be another of those hot days where the fish didn't seem to want to feed. Everyone was just getting the odd fish here and there except of GT, our Italian member who was on a peg right across from me that has a sunken Island. He was putting fish in the net regularly. I went on the pole and slowly started to get a few small fish but it was hard work and having to work the bait up and down. Most were small fish all under a pound. Some of the guys to my right had a few fish by now also. The 4th hour was my best spell and I even shallowed up well of the bottom at one stage and had 10 or 12 small fish one after another before landing a carp about 2 kgs while constantly feeding a few maggots. It seemed to then quieted all around the lake for everyone until the last 20 mins when fish were coming out from most of the pegs again.
I wasn't too sure how I had fared up in the end but was certain the guys to my right had bigger fish. After the weigh in I was surprised to see I had finished 2nd with 15.6 kgs. GT won with 21 kgs and Ivan was 3rd with 13 kgs. Today's result has now pushed me well up towards the top of the table and our next match in this league is a weekend trip back to Canberra for a sat and sun double header in the first week in Feb....Hopefully the dreaded C4 and that section won't be used and maybe this time I can get a few fish out........
15 kgs for second on another stinking hot Sydney match...........
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