Ayrstrike 5 Orchill

[Tommy L]

Will start this thread as I'm fishing the match. Looks like only myself and Doc from Magiscroft who will be fishing unless anyone knows different. Does anyone know if decision was made as to what pond it is on, would hate to be practising on the wrong pond in my dreams tonight. I'm aware that a couple of Central boys are fishing the match. Can see it being a very cold miserable day with little fish caught, numbers that is.

I will say good luck and congratulations to all the brave souls who take part in case I'm too cold to talk by 4pm Saturday.

[martin]

Hi Tommy, I'm afraid you will have me to put up with on Saturday as well as I am fishing to. Don't think Gus has made his mind up 100% which of the two ponds the match was to be held on but when I spoke to him on Wednesday he was fairly sure it would be on the pond that was opened for coarse fishing last year and not the new hole that has just been dug

Looks like the weather is going to be miserable as you have already said so I might not be able to talk come 4 o'clock either.
See you up there on Saturday.

[PANDA]

best of luck to everyone at orchill hope it fishes well for yous .tight lines

[martin]

Thanks Panda, having looked at the weather forecast I have decided I must be mad, on top of tomorrow I have a club Match at Magiscroft on Sunday so it looks like I am going to be cold and wet all week-end !!!!

Tommy spoke to Gus a little while ago and the match is on the older of the two ponds, apparently the sides are still caving in on the new pond and there is far to much suspended sand/silt in the water at the moment.
Meet at the office for 9 o'clock, Gus said something about the owner putting on Tea & Coffee. I think he said something about pies as well but I could be wrong about that !!!!

[Tommy L]

Intend to leave Noddy land about 8am so see you there and tight lines. I have decided to give Finnie a miss and go direct for the 22 pounder of Orchill, sounds like a plan.

[Tommy L]

Pleasant surprise checking on the weather there.

http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/tod ... chterarder

[martin]

Tommy, sounds like a plan to me as well. Apparently ET (think thats what they call it) has been caught a few times since he was put in so you never know you might get lucky.

Just looked at your weather link and it seems to have brightened up a bit since I last checked !!! Still a bit of a wind chill though....

See you there in the morning, tight lines.

[martin]

Good got home quick enough to be the first to congratulate Tommy on his win today

[Tommy L]

Result.

1st Tommy Lauriston 5.37 kg (11.8lbs) Qualifies for Final
2nd Martin Pearson 4.76kg (10.5lbs)
3rd Tony Ball 2.96kg (6.5lbs)
4th Stef Hunter 2.52kg (5.6lbs)

Photographs to follow.

[Tommy L]

Good got home quick enough to be the first to congratulate Tommy on his win today

Thanks Martin and well done on your second place, after seeing the size of your fish during the weigh in I honestly thought you had done me.

[martin]

Course you did Tommy

Actually I didn't weigh all my fish in !! When I was putting them back I couldn't see the little tench I caught, found it in the keepnet. Gus said he would give me 200grams for it which would have taken me to about 5 kilo but still not enough

[GG]

Well done Tommy Hard-Lines Martin

[SilverFish]

Get in there tommy!

[Tommy L]

The photographs.



Martin Pearson setting up his gear and at that point was still dry.




Tony Ball just minutes away from the first fish of the day.




George insisted that I put a winning smile on my face.




Tried to get Martin to smile.




Steph with his catch




Tony being presented with his third place.




Martin takes the runner up spot.




Let a fishing manager loose with a camera and he cuts Gus out of my big moment receiving first place.

Match report to follow.

[Leamed Up]

Congratulations Tommy L. I know i haven't known you long but i've never seen you with such a big grin on your coupon!!! Is there a full match report to follow, looking forward to reading all about your victory!!!

[perchie]

Well done Tommy! Look forward to the match report

[martin]

Thanks George, I supose someone has to come second Got a pretty good idea how Woody felt now, think I would rather have finished third or Fourth.
I knew Tommy was in with a shout because everytime I looked up during the last hour or so he was netting another fish, I obviously didn't will the tip to go round enough during the last hour and a bit!!!!

[Doc]

Im even happier about this result than i was at the one at Ibrox .... well done wee man

[GG]

Just trying out a new Flikr account

See my rubbish pictures here http://www.flickr.com/photos/21102861@N ... 300262360/

[Tommy L]

Ayrstrike 5:

Well, what can I say. Practice makes perfect, take yourself to the venue the week before, freeze yourself to death over the match hours fail to get a bite or even a line knock, what better preparation. At least I knew where I was going. Got up early as the early bird catches the worm. A stroll round Tesco Cumbernauld a 7am to get the rolls, roast beef, milk and a packet of Milk chocolate drops for a nibble during the match. Back to the house and devoured a Mrs Tommy L full cooked breakfast. Next was the preparation of the paste before setting of to see what the day would throw at me. BTW the milk chocolate drops were devoured after breakfast, they didn't even make it to the peg. They saved one of my grandchildrens easter egg which was still to be collected.

A 30 minute journey up the road following my own directions. That was going fine until I turned onto the road where the fishery was to be met with a Road Closed sign. Good job my name is Thomas, Doubting Thomas as I carried on and got right along the road 3 miles to the fishery. That was me past the first test today as I strived to win my way to the Ayrstrike final. Don't know what member of the Central Club errected the false signs or was it Oor Martin. When I entered the fishery at 0840hours all the anglers were there except for 'The Doc' and Tony Ball.

The patter in the hut whilst the free tea or coffee and biscuits were offered by Andrew was something else, way above my educational level. The talk was about the tempreature of the loch throughout the week. The fishfinder used during the week gave the tempreature in some sort of American eqivalent, you should have heard the conversions, they Central boys really know a thing or two about water temps. The next discussion was where's GG and Leamed-Up. I was able to tell Gus that GG was not fishing to save him wakening him up phoning GG on his mobile. At GGs age you need your full sleep. I didn't want to say that Leemed up wasn't coming as he is as smug as a bug in a rug re this competition and he hadn't confirmed to me that he wasn't fishing. Gus resolved that imponderable by you guessed it phoning GGs mobile to see if Leamed - up was coming. GG was so deep in sleep that his phone went to the answering service.

Looking round the room I saw that I was in very good company with the excellent standard of anglers fishing. After all Central are the Reigning Fed Champs as they have told us on this very board, havent you Cocky. Practising hadn't helped me and I learned that Gus had been catching fish whilst practising and Tony had blanked. I knew that I had to come up with a master plan quick. Thinking off the top of my head and being a thrifty angler I came up with a master plan. ' Gus, Gus, are there any tickets left for the Magiscroft Sunday match ' when Gus told me there was I produced the 15 quid to buy one. Being a right unlucky person and have spent 15 quid when I could have qualified anyway today I was hoping it would come right back at me and bite my backside for spending 15 quid I didn't need to. Hope you can see the logic.

The draw was made and I drew peg 5, didn't mean anything to me, or to anyone else as nobody knows the fishery that well yet. It was then of to the peg. The first good thing was that I could drive and park my car adjacent to Peg 5 a real bonus when your my age. 'The Doc ' was drawn right next to me on Peg number 7, you can't have all the luck going in one day. I set up my feeder rod and then the pole and found that I had still an hour to kill. I spent most of that time anchoring my brolly and even tied my seatbox down to the peg. I was taking no chances with the wind.

When the all in came I cupped out a few balls of paste on my paste line and then threw in the maggot feeder with two red maggots on a number eighteen hook. On his first cast Tony Ball was into a good sized Carp. He played it carefully and as it dropped into his net he let out a cry of 'Yo' to celebrate his good start. For the first 30 minutes I didn't get a bite. At that point my hook length tangled up and there was nothing else for it than to start again. I decided to alter my tactics and use the sweetcorn in the manner it has been working for me over the past fortnight. ( This report might be all encompassing but I'n not that silly ) Almost right away the tip went round for a small mirror carp just over 0.5 lbs. It was a start and I could see nothing else was happening around the pegs.

At 1210 hours I was reeling in my best Carp of the day weighing about 4 lbs. I must at this point say that the fish at Orchill especially the mirrors are top notch to look at and are real healthy looking fish. At that stage I was of the opinion that I was in the lead in the match with Tony being my Gauge as he was the only other person I had seen catch although others had. Entering the third hour I caught another Carp about 1lb and I was feeling real chuffed with myself. At that stage the bites dried up and I went onto my pole for three put outs. Whilst on the pole I saw Tony catch another fish which looked a decent size and also saw Martin take two fish one of which was big.

It was right back to the tip rod with the same method. I caught another couple of small Carp to be confident I was in the lead again. Another barren spell where I had to watch Martin catching another big fish. I then saw Tony net a large silver with a girth of 4 inch diameter and it was 15" long. That didn't put the fear of death into me as it was Tony's flask that had gone for a sail whilst he was struggling to keep his keepnet from blowing out of the water.

During the fourth hour I saw the first fish caught on the pole when Steff landed a Rudd. I watched as Martin started to land a few fish and I was certain that he was away in the lead. I decided I could sit moping and lose the match after being in the running. I thought no way and changed my set-up slightly and finished strong with 3 fish in the last hour. I landed a 2lb Carp with 5 minutes to go ( turning up your pain Martin ) which turned out to be crucial. I was of the opinion that I had about 10 lbs in my net.

The rain had been thundering down for the last two hours so it was great to get up and move about a bit for the weigh-in. I was the last to be weighed in so I walked about as the drama unfolded. Mr Yardley was first to weigh in for 0.76 KGs, Steph was next recording 2.52KGs, Brian Cochrane 0.9KGs it was getting exciting. Next was Martin Pearson and when he brought his keepnet out I was of the opinion that Martin had done me when the scales recorded 4.76 KGs. At that point I can honestly say I was a little downhearted. We moved onto Tony and his fish scaled at 2.92 KGs so I knew at least I had second place. The time was approaching the moment of truth, as I emptied the fish into the net I heard Ronnie say ' I don't know it looks close' I took that as encouragement as I was thinking I had been beat. I heard Gus utter 5KGs and listened no more, a large smile broke out on my face as wide as the Clyde as can be seen from the photo. Looking at the photo I hardly recognised myself.

Now part of The Smug Club I can imagine the qualifiers being delighted that I made the final as an easy target to beat. Be aware that when it comes to chasing money this angler doesn't budge an inch. How could I go home to Mrs Tommy l and tell her I lost a couple of grand today. GG and Leamed - up refused to have me in their syndicate, I refused to have 'The Doc' in my syndicate cause I'm after the big money. Not saying i will win it but will be doing my best to get it. See you all late May in the final.

Know what's going to happen tomorrow a big blank.

That's all for now folks away to find directions to Ayr.