This match was the last match of a 3 day festival down in Somerset at 3 different venues. I’d struggled at Viaduct with a last in section on day 1 which really blew my chances of doing well this year. Then on the 2nd day at The Sedges I managed a 2nd in section. So I really needed a good result on this last match to finish up in a reasonable place. 

This final match on the Moors pool at Avalon fisheries saw me draw end peg 21 (and the longest walk) So I felt it may be OK for a few fish.   

On arrival at my peg I set up a bomb rod for throwing over to the island, long and short pole lines and a margin line to my left. I started on the bomb, a method which bores me to death but it can’t be ignored with the island being well out of pole range. I fired out a few pellets and baited up with an 8mm hard pellet on the hook while I potted in 6mm hard pellets at 13 metres and a pot of corn on my short pole line.  

The first hour on the bomb produced 3 carp and then it slowed down. I’d been topping up the 13 metre pole line with 6mm pellets every five minutes during the time I was fishing the bomb so after an hour and 20 minutes I tried there next fishing an 8mm hard pellet. I began getting bites and was soon catching some Carp. This continued for the next hour while I was pinging in 6mm’s before it started to slow down and I was catching the odd Skimmer. 

So at this point I potted in a cup of corn into my short left pole line where I’d fed a pot at the start of the match. The left margin also got a pot of meat for later in the match. Then I tried on my short right pole line where I’d  also fed pellets but I never had a bite. So I swapped to the short left pole line but this only produced a couple of Skimmers. It this point I’d now stopped catching carp so I decided to have a look in the margin. Nothing came from here in 15 minutes so I re-fed it and left. I was really scratching my head now. I’d had a good first two hours but I was really struggling. I went on the long pole line which again wasn’t producing and also the Bomb line and the margin line but again nothing and I now gone two hours without a carp. 

Going into the last hour a needed find some carp so I decided to return to the long pole line where I’d caught carp early in the match but I still couldn’t catch anything. 

At this point I made a change to my feeding and stopped feeding 6mm pellets and I started pinging in 8mm’s, after 10 minutes I was catching carp again, the feeding change had worked and I landed several more carp in the next 45 minutes before the all out. 

I weighed in 78ln 10oz which gave me 2nd place in the match and more importantly a section win. 96lb won the match. I just wish I’d made the change to 8mm feed pellets sooner! 

After the first days poor result at Viaduct This section win helped me climb the overall festival table and got me up to 7th overall.   

Hard Pellet Rig – 0.5g Nick Gilbert NG XT Finesse Power pole float set up on 0.17mm Guru N-Gauge with a bulk of no.8 shot, 18 inches from the hook with two no.10 dropper shot. above a 6 inch 0.15mm size 14 Guru SLWG banded hook. set up on Black Hydro.   

Bomb Rig – 8lb main line with a Preston Innovations ICS inline 20g match cube/bomb set up with a pre-tied size 12 banded Preston innovations KKM-B hook with a 0.19mm hook length.