Day Three – Pollawyn
The midway stage and High Bank on Pollawyn beckons. Although it never produced the day before, the peg I wanted was 13 as it’s the nearest end peg plus Darren Cox was on 14 yesterday and told me how he'd fished it. He did well to catch 25lb of skimmers for second in section and warned me that they only turned up in the last couple of hours.
In went the drawing hand and out came peg 13. Nice! Sadly the skimmers never turned up at all for almost everyone and with the wind being nowhere near as bad today I would've been better off fishing shallow for roach. My lack of experience on this lake and this type of fishing really cost me.
I still weighed in 26lb, though, but that was mostly down the edge. Here I fed casters where it's over 3ft tight in and fished one or two light casters on the hook. I had at least half my weight of perch - including three 2lbers - plus some decent roach too. In between I kept looking for skimmers at 7m and 13m where its a top-four deep but only ever picked up occasional small ones.
As expected with boney-mouthed perch I pulled out of a few and spent way too long looking for non-existent bream. The thing is, when they turn up they are 1-2lb so well worth catching. On the opposite end peg I had Steve Hemingray who was catching all day and I reckoned was on for 35lb-plus. He actually ended up winning the section with 29lb - just 3lb more than me, which made me feel absolutely gutted. I could've definitely had that weight if I had fished down the edge more and realised sooner that the skimmers had switched off.
All in all I was bitterly disappointed with my performance and felt I'd read it all wrong. Yet again I had also scored a 2nd when I really should've had a section win. With three seconds I am now lying 8th overall so far but I could easily have been a lot higher up. Today was yet another match to chalk up to experience. To make things worse The Cornish flu Has really kicked in now and even taking another couple of £1 coins off Derek and Steve didn't cheer me up that much. Should've, would've, could've and all that!
In went the drawing hand and out came peg 13. Nice! Sadly the skimmers never turned up at all for almost everyone and with the wind being nowhere near as bad today I would've been better off fishing shallow for roach. My lack of experience on this lake and this type of fishing really cost me.
I still weighed in 26lb, though, but that was mostly down the edge. Here I fed casters where it's over 3ft tight in and fished one or two light casters on the hook. I had at least half my weight of perch - including three 2lbers - plus some decent roach too. In between I kept looking for skimmers at 7m and 13m where its a top-four deep but only ever picked up occasional small ones.
As expected with boney-mouthed perch I pulled out of a few and spent way too long looking for non-existent bream. The thing is, when they turn up they are 1-2lb so well worth catching. On the opposite end peg I had Steve Hemingray who was catching all day and I reckoned was on for 35lb-plus. He actually ended up winning the section with 29lb - just 3lb more than me, which made me feel absolutely gutted. I could've definitely had that weight if I had fished down the edge more and realised sooner that the skimmers had switched off.
All in all I was bitterly disappointed with my performance and felt I'd read it all wrong. Yet again I had also scored a 2nd when I really should've had a section win. With three seconds I am now lying 8th overall so far but I could easily have been a lot higher up. Today was yet another match to chalk up to experience. To make things worse The Cornish flu Has really kicked in now and even taking another couple of £1 coins off Derek and Steve didn't cheer me up that much. Should've, would've, could've and all that!
By far the best part of the day, though, was Paul Glenfield's speciality 'Cornish Roadkill Curry' that he cooked us all in the evening. Boy it was tasty and warmed us up a treat. Jenny's Lake beckons tomorrow – as long as I survive that curry!
Jon Arthur
Jon Arthur
