MFS - England Ladies Fundraiser, The Glebe, 2nd August 2011

My second MFS match at the Glebe in Leicester and a fund rasier for the England Ladies team.  What a great day out!

I arrived around 8:30am and quickly met up with the MFS massive, BNF, Animal, Scone, Woody, Slider and Snooty Fox.  BNF was looking forward to giving out another "Battered by BNF" t-shirt, but today would be different...

Colin (BNF) walked me round Lake 1 at the Glebe and helped with a match plan as I'd never fished the venue before.  The Glebe layout for the match lakes is fishing one bank only, so it would be feeder to the far boards for the first hour and then after priming the pole lines keep checking them for fish.

So, 9:30am quickly arrives and we all form the normal "orderly" queue for the draw.  BNF pulls out an end peg on Lake 6, so he is over the moon, Slider then pulled out the peg next to him... Would Slider be the next proud owner of the BNF t-shirt?

I drew Lake 1, Peg 2, just missing out on the end peg.  The bonus was that it was a very short walk with all the gear, no need to break out the trolley.

Walking the lake earlier there were plenty of carp cruising on the surface, so maybe the pellet waggler would work?

Lake 1, Peg 2
The Peg and Setup
I'd done some preparation the night before and had brought with me, feeder rod, bomb rod, pellet waggler and of course the obligatory pole.

Bait for the day would be pellets, hemp, corn, dead maggots, maggots and worms.  I had plenty of bait on the side tray.

The feeder was clipped up to the far bank reeds.  The glebe have a no method feeder rule and minimum of a 20" hook length, so I'd prepared plenty.

Pole lines were 6m in front of me and my left and right hand margins.  The right hand margin had an overhanging tree, so I fancy a few fish from that swim later in the day.  Plumbing up I found the 6m line was around 6' deep and the margins around 2.5' deep.

Pellet waggler would be 3/4 to 1/2 way across and the bomb rod would be fished under the pellet waggler line.

The match time was 11:30am until 5:30pm, 6 hours and plenty of time to set up.  I was ready about 20 minutes before the all-in so sat down, took in the lovely sunshine.  Fish were still cruising around the swim, but further out due to all the footfall on the bank.  Lake 1 was almost full of anglers.

I could see Andy Findlay, Preston Innovations from my peg, so it was a good opportunity to observe a top flight match angler and his approach to the match.

The All-In
I potted in full cup of 6mm pellets on the 6m line, fed corn and hemp on the left hand margin and groundbait potted in on the right hand margin line.

I cast the feeder out every five minutes in the first 30 minutes to get some bait in area.  While wait for a bite on the feeder I was pinging 5 to 6 pellets out to try and get the fish feeding up in the water.

The first fish came to the feeder and 4 dead red maggots, the bite was a wrap around as they all were.  After an hour I had two fish in the net, so I decided to check my pole lines, nothing, so I repotted the pole lines and sent the feeder back out.

I changed the bait to 6 live red maggots on the feeder and no sooner had it hit the water and I was sinking my line everything tighten up and my battle with a lovely 7lb mirror carp started.  It didn't come in all that easily and I had to take my time to net it.

After the second hour I had only take 4 carp.  So I tried the pole lines again, nothing, tried the pellet waggler line, nothing, so back out with the feeder.

The day was very hot and the there was very little ripple on the water, the wind was also blowing away from me.

Hour 4 and I went onto the margin lines after potting a kilo of corn and 3 pints of hemp... result, one perch... not a good sign.  I tried the right hand margin using worm, one tench.  I was also resigning myself to the post match mickey taking...

So, next option, I banded an 11mm pellet on the bomb rod and put it over the pellet waggler line... the rod was ripped off the rests and a 3lb common was in the net... this theme was to follow until the end of the match.  I hooked and landed a couple of ghost carp... now ghost carp really fight hard.  Two bites were that savage that by the time I had lifted the rod, the reel drag was pulling and the hook was straightened...

My Result
I was in a section of 12 pegs, Peg 1, end peg next to me had been getting fish from the margin all day long, he weighed in 70+lb.  I weighed in at 25lb.  Snooty Fox who was in the same section 50lb, that meant I was a pound down...
BNF, standing on a bucket next to Slider

I also ended up a pound down to both Animal and BNF.  It's all about the pounds!

Post Match Raffle
Lots of prizes had been kindly brought in and Roy Marlow had donated the peg fees to the cause.  The raffle was brilliant with almost everyone picking up a winning ticket, some more than others... I'm talking about Snooty Fox who could open an ebay store with the amount of gear he won ;-)

The T-Shirt Award
The most important part of the day was seeing whether or not BNF was giving out another t-shirt... not today, Slider had weighed in 188lb all caught shallow using caster and BNF only 60lb, a true battering of BNF, so it was with great pride that Slider awarded BNF a t-shirt I had made, just in case...

Conclusion
Slider fished a brilliant match and took outright honours, well done mate!  BNF loved his fushia pink t-shirt, Snooty Fox won the raffle, lots of times.

The Glebe is a great fishery, I look forward to fishing it again, but I'll have a simpler plan next time.

Over £900 was raised for the England Ladies team, well done MFS!

Link to the results

Next match, The MFS Larford Lash Up... and maybe another T-Shirt for BNF... already ordered

Popular posts from this blog

Lake Semerwater, Wensleydale, 15th May 2022

Renny Lakes, East Harlsey, 14th May 2023

Lake Semerwater, Wensleydale, 13th November 2022