MFS - Larford Lash Up, 3rd October 2014

My fourth year at the Larford Lash-Up.  This year we stayed at a different hotel to Chateau Disney which gave the event a different feel.  I'd travelled straight from Paris so was pretty knackered by the time I arrived so it was an early night for me, which in turn meant a clear head in the morning ;-)

The Draw
Names where called for the draw and of course every peg that was drawn there were shouts of, "flyer!".  I pulled out peg 12 on the Burr bank of the Specimen lake which is a great area.

Not too long a walk to the peg unlike previous years where I've been on the Chalet bank...  Arriving at my peg I would have Baz Wrexham and Jads for neighbours so I was expecting just a little bit of craic!

The Set-Up
I'd spoken to Matt and Glen who advised Method feeder at around 25 yards, 5 metre line and the margins later in the match.  So the set-up was as follows:
  • 5 metre line with around 6 feet of depth
  • Margin on the left
  • Method rod
Bait for the day was 8mm pellets, sweetcorn and dead reds.  I also mixed up some groundbait for the edge later.  Method would be loaded with dampened micro pellets.

The All-In
Priming the 5 metre line with some 6mm pellets it was straight out on the method.  Both Barry and Jads also followed suite but they went further out than I did... and so the banter starts from Jads, "Fishing short Lewy?"

"things can only get better"
The first hour went by very slowly with no fish for me, Barry had caught on the method and the fish had broken his landing net, this was just the start of the drama's of the day!  Barry said, "it can only get better"...

Into the second hour I finally took my first fish, a lovely carp around 5lb... sport was very slow today!  I took another carp on the method and a couple of skimmers.

The wind was still blowing but I decided to try the 5 metre line which was making presentation extremely hard.

Eventually I hooked a fish and out went the white hydroelastic (this choice has gone down in the MFS angling chronicles as "Bad angling"), which is quite light for the Speci lake at Larford.  Shipping back to the top kit I heard a rattle of elastic from with the pole... the knot at the pole bung had slipped, no elastic to grab hold of and strip back... it had lodged at the end of the pole.

Quickly I grabbed the elastic before it flew out of the end of the pole and was left holding a top kit in one hand and white hydroelastic in the other and a large fish on... oh sugar, what on earth do I do now?  Handline it in?  Jads and Baz saw what was going on... "it can only get better Lewy"...

I grabbed my diamond threader and decided to re-thread the top kit, while the fish was on.  The fish was just wallowing out in the lake, elastic stretched at quite a distance, but not charging around.



Breaking down the top kit, threading the pole I quickly put the elastic in my mouth as I had nowhere else to put it, although in hindsight I could have sat on it which would have been a lot safer, so kids, don't try this at home!

Jads was wetting himself laughing and had to come over and grab some photographs...  I managed to rethread the entire top kit, re-knot the elastic and start to play the fish again.  I eventually got the fish within netting distance and ping, out comes the hook and the fish was lost... after all that effort!  It was a good fish too!

"Things can only get better Lewy"... starting to get the idea readers ;-)

Margin line a bit long?
With a few hours left I primed the margin line with groundbait.  Jads was the first to go on his margin line which was to start with a disaster.  That disaster was his number 7 section breaking on his pole... oops, and we all now what Barry said, yes, "things can only get better".  Jads problem without a replacement section was that he had fed in an area that he couldn't reach anymore.

Next turn was Barry, hooking a fish on his pole and starting to ship the pole back, red elastic streaming out of the pole there was a loud crack and the pole broke at his 3rd section, last thing we both saw was the top kit and 3rd section spearing into the water never to be seen again.

"It can only get better Barry" I said...

My turn, again!  Going over on the margin line with double corn I hook a lump straight away, black hydroelastic streaming out... 5 minutes later the rig comes back to me having broken at the loop to loop.  Tying a new hook on, this time direct to the 0.20 mainline I went straight back over the margin.

Fish straight on, same as before heading towards the centre of the lake, this time after a short time the rig breaks at the float's spring eye... Next rig on, 10 minutes later back in and fish on straight away... this time it breaks at the dacron connector!

4 fish lost and then the all-out is called... thank goodness the day is over.

The Result
33lb for mid section.  Both Barry and Jads beat my weight so it was a pound to each of them!

Conclusion
A comedy of errors during the day with broken poles, landing net heads, lost fish and "elastic issues".  It was a sit and wait day with the windy conditions making the 5 metre line hard to fish.  Getting 8mm pellets out to the method feeder area was almost impossible.  I had to capitalise on the margin line but those 4 lost fish really cost me.

It was certainly an eventful day with pole breaks, elastic issues and snapped 0.20 line!  Great company helped the day... onto the evenings events with all the lads!

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