MFS - Stafford Moor - Silvers Festival, 27th February 2013

March 03, 2013

Day 3 of the MFS Silvers Festival at Stafford Moor. The odds of Dave (Shedful) drawing against Colin (BNF) again today had been calculated at a 1 in a 3000 chance. Dave decided to draw last to see if that would change his luck. I drew peg 34 on Woodpecker which is right at the back of the lake and another long walk to my peg. Dave’s luck held steady and two other “victims” had picked the pegs either side of Colin, he was one happy man!

Arriving at Peg 34 on Woodpecker I was in a bay area, the wind blowing across me with a slight ripple on the water. It looked promising, but the previous weights from this peg were low. Plumbing up I found a pretty uniform 3 foot of depth in the peg.

The Set-up
I decided to set-up a feeder rod in case the pole didn’t produce and I could explore the bay area. I opted for two main lines at the normal 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock postions. Plumbing up to find two area’s of the same depth so I could utilise a single rig, set up another rig as a back up. The lines were at 13 metres giving me an option to go past to 14.5 metres if necessary.

Bait again as the previous days were red maggots, dead and alive, casters and some 4mm expander pellets.

The All-In
Following the previous day’s advice from Steve May I decided to follow the same pattern of feeding a small nugget of sloppy groundbait laced with a few casters and dead red maggot each put in on both lines taking a fish from each alternative swim.

These don't count ;-(

I kicked off both swims and started with dead red maggot. It didn’t take long for the first bite and a small skimmer was in the keepnet. I topped up the swim I took the fish from and went to the other line. After the first hour I had about 10 fish in the net, nothing of any size but I was happy and confident the larger fish would turn up.

I decided to try a expander pellet to see if this would bring a better stamp of fish. No sooner had the float settled, it dipped and a good fish was on. After a bit of a battle on very light elastics a carp was in the net, shame they don’t count. I topped up the swim and went to the other line, but with a double red maggot. The float shot away and a lovely ghost carp was in the net, great I thought, the carp have moved in... I resisted the temptation to up the feed on both swims but stuck to my plan.

Using single dead red the silvers came back, but still nothing of any decent size and after 3 hours I had a good net of fish, but they were small fish...

Both lines then died, no bites, no twitches, no indications at all. I decided to try the feeder for any signs of life. I cast beyond pole range and baited 3 dead red. After half an hour no fish, not even a knock on the tip so I picked up the pole again and started both swims off with a small nugget of groundbait.

The temperature going into the last hour dropped and the pole tip was soon shaking in tune with my shivers despite 8 layers of clothes. The rest of the match my 10 o’clock line was proving more productive, so I stayed on that line until the end of the match.

The Result
Plenty of fish, but small and they weighted 6lb 3oz for 4th in section.

Conclusion
The previous days weights were less than I had, so I was pleased with my efforts. Alan on the peg next to me had potted in rather than fed sparingly and he weight 3lb so I feel the approach was correct.

The T-Shirt
No “Battered by BNF” t-shirts were awarded today. Rob B A (note the comment below, sorry mate) escaped the “honour” by 3oz from the Lawns on Tanners. BNF commented later that it was the "lucky tench" he landed ;-)

The Lodge of Plenty Dinner Menu
A Colin special, Spag Bol with plenty for second helpings. Dave (Shedful) had been out and bought some Jaffa Cakes and Chocolate fingers which didn’t last very long at all!