Orcheton

Pemberton Central Match
Orcheton
Saturday 15th August 2015

After the confusion of wrong dates in the build up to Orcheton it was good to be on the fishery and ready to go. It is one of my favourite lakes to fish in the local area, despite it being quite peggy. With the peggy nature in mind, it often benefits the match to have a low turn out so with our match only having 11 on it, it was quite a nice number to have. 

At the draw, I was hoping for one of the usual flyers, pegs 1, 18 or 19 would do nicely but typical of my form on this lake, I drew peg 11. I think in the last 4 matches I've fished on here, I've drawn in the area of pegs 9 to 12. 

Peg 11 is just to the left of the rope that runs top to bottom of the lake which makes for a nice marker when fishing. My plan was simple but fairly typical of the approach here. I had a method feeder and a bomb rod set up to fish along the rope at around the third 'bottle' out and a pellet waggler to fish at the same range. I also set up a pole at around 13 metres with a rig on the deck and another in the margin to my left. I also set up a pole rig to fish a small pellet waggler on a long line. This is a tactic that was recommended to me so I thought I would give it a go, the plan being to try dropping this in front of cruising fish. 

I started the match on the method and immediately started to feed the same line with 8 and 11 mm pellets. The method didn't seem to produce though and with no liners or any other indications, I soon switched to the pellet waggler. I did get a few indications on this line before the float eventually buried and I was landing a nice roach of about 12oz; not what o was expecting on the pellet waggler but I persevered with it for a while, altering depths to try and find the fish before deciding it wasn't working and came off it. At this point I was thinking it might be a match where the pole would be better, so I fed my 13 metre line with a large cup of pellets and fed the margin lines with a mix of corn and pellets. While these lines were settling, I had a quick look with the bomb but as per usual, I couldn't sit out on this tactic and quickly gave it up. Onto the pole line at 13 metres and I managed to put a few small skimmers into the net but nothing to shout about and it was becoming apparent that today wasn't going to be the prolific day I thought it might be. As all else seemed to be failing, I decided to pick up the pellet waggler pole rig and have a 'plop about' - this turned out to be a good decision as after catching a nice skimmer, I went back out and soon hooked into something much more substantial. A spirited fight soon saw me slipping a double figure carp over my landing net. I quickly went back out to try for another but no other fish were obliging.  For the rest of the match, it was a case of picking up a couple of fish by rotating through the various set ups I had available. With about 30 mins to go, I got my head down and fished the margins and managed to put a run of skimmers in the keepnet.

At the weigh in, my final tally went to 28lb (thanks to my double figure carp) and that, surprisingly, was enough to secure me third place in the match. Dennis Darby came out on top with 41-8 from peg 17 and Alex Yates took second with 38lb from peg 1.

Pem Central - Current League Standings

I have updated the results page following the Orcheton match.  This can be found here http://fishernutstu.blogspot.co.uk/p/pemberton-central.html 

Still all to play for at the top of the league.  Personally, due to missed matches and some poor results, I have set myself a target over the last 4 matches to aim for a top half of the table finish.  I am one position off at the moment - lets hope I can get some decent results in the upcoming matches.