Winter Plate

On Sunday I fished the GWFFA Winter Plate competition.

After doing some recon on Saturday afternoon the best looking spot seemed to be on Long Bank on the North Shore. The wind was going to be Westerly in the morning moving to a Northerly by lunchtime so logic seemed to suggest the North Shore was a good bet. On Saturday I walked the bank and saw fish moving and there was a boat drifting along Long Bank. I had a chat with the boat and they had got 12 fish between the 2 of them on minkies. So with the wind report from www.xcweather.co.uk confirming the wind direction a good plan was forming.

I got to Long Bank at 7.45. the match didn't start till 8.30 so I had plenty of time to walk the length of the bank looking for fish. Didn't see a single thing move.

Set up the floating line with a minkie on the point, PNT on first dropper and a black buzzer on the top dropper. 8.30 arrived and I waded in. 2nd cast and i was into a fish on the minkie. A good fish too which put up a good fight. Just before the net the hook pulled loose and it was away. Damn! but a good positive start.
10 mins later and I had a 2lb rainbow in the bag. It had taken the PNT. By 9.30 I had another fish in the bag. This one was a bit bigger, 2.5lb maybe?

Went quiet after that till about lunchtime when I hooked in to another fish but lost it after a few seconds.
Peter rang me, he was on The Seat and had 4 and rumour was that Steve Ellerbeck had a fish over 6lb from Gaynes Cove. I stuck it out at Long Bank but probably should have moved.

At the weigh in it seemed I had the tactics wrong again! Gaynes Cove and The Seat where the spots to be in despite the wind directions. Peter had 7 fish in total although one was from G Bank. Steve Ellerbeck did indeed have a cracking fish over 6lb and 4 more good fish but it wasn't enough to beat Peter's 7.

I finished 5th with my 2 fish weighing in just over 4lb.

Full results and Peters winning report should be avaiable here www.gwffa.co.uk