And the wind blew……….
All the predictions were that the weather was about to change this weekend from blistering hot to cooler and wetter conditions. It did change, but not to rain. Cooler and much windier on the day.
The conditions for both pole and rod fishing were difficult but the rod fishermen had it worst. Those pegged in the reeds found it almost impossible to fish at times as the reeds closed up with the wind. Casting was a nightmare for most throughout the match. Those of us on poles had a far easier time controlling end tackle.
12 merry souls attended on the day, an equal split of 6 BGs and 6 Brits and we had an international celebrity angler attend too. Todor Chonov who finished ahead of the likes of Will Raison and Sturt Conroy at this year’s world champs.
For once, the draw was almost on time, maybe a minute or two late but we were close. (Our BG friends like to have a day or two to set up 
)
It was inevitable that the celebrity in our midst would draw the flyer, number 7, and he did. Having said that, I was happy with my peg, number 3, again the house bank and the shortest walk as it’s on our lawn, nightmare. I will say at this point that I always get someone else to draw my peg as I’m controlling the draw, plus we normally use Rado’s bottle top numbers too, so no cries of ‘fix!’ please as I keep getting the house bank.
My match was a hit and miss affair with very few fish in the 1st couple of hours. The usual wheat and sweetcorn being my chosen attack. I always expect the 1st hour to be slow but not as slow as it was on Sunday.
All I could hear for the first 5 minutes after the starting hooter was crash, crash, crash as people bombarded the lake with groundbait. World War 3 sprung to mind!
Anyway, the Grass Carp did turn up eventually and I netted 17 in approximately 30 minutes in hour 3 of the match. Then the swim died and I could only hit Taranka (Crucians). Hour 4 saw me searching for those Grassies again and I found them with about 45 minutes to go.
I’d been fishing at about 11.5m at the edge of the reeds, the fish were at 9m and weren’t about to budge. Fishing closer in saw my catch rate increase dramatically and I ended up with about 50 Grass Carp come the end of the match. The last 45 minutes being a frenetic last dash.
Todor meanwhile, had been plugging away on the whip in the corner and the word on the bank was he’d netted 100lb or so. I was looking forward to weighing him in as I think this lake is very capable of producing 100lb in a 5 hour match.
Anyway, results:
1st Todor Chonov 49lb 4oz - 22.34 Kg
2nd Paul Mansley 30lb - 13.61 Kg
3rd Gencho 26lb 1oz - 11.82 Kg
4th Rado 25lb 6oz - 11.51 Kg
5th Nikolai S 25lb 3oz - 11.42 Kg
6th Allan 23lb 15oz - 10.86 Kg
The top 5 places all fished the pole or whip.
As the results show, there wasn’t a lot between 2nd place and 6th place with Todor way out in front of the rest of us. Well done Todor, hopefully we’ll see you back here in the near future.
It would be nice if someone like Todor or Rado could reply to this and let us know how they fished the match.
I’ll try and publish some pictures in the near future but right now I need to finish fixing my roof.
The next match is Sunday 5th September. Same time, same place, same rules.
Tight lines,
Slaps.
I just found the results from 29th Aug. hidden in the middle ? Anyhow, its interesting that fishing at Manastyr is changing, Grassies are stepping back and the weights are slightly dropping even though the weather is getting cooler. Todor has shown some class, apparently, he must have caught over 500 fish which is a great achievement. All the lads I spoke to after the match said that was really good experience and they had great time. I believe the number of BG anglers will be higher this Sunday. I wont be coming, again
due to work commitments this time.
I will try to organize a match at Odrintsi reservoir located , 8km south west of Dobritch
http://www.bgmaps.com/en/map/dobrich
on 12th of September with 11th being day for practice. Will give more details soon.
Cheers!
Vlado
I don’t know why the results appeared in the middle, they just did and I can’t move them.
There was a minor problem at the lake in the week before the last match. A number of smaller fish died, I think it was down to lack of oxygen. It seems to have stabilised now and with the recent winds the water should be back to being healthy again.
Todor did perform well. It was good to see and it’s also good to hear there may be more BG anglers attending.
On the day, I think the wind had a major effect on the weights. At times it was extremely difficult to fish at all. In my case, I got it wrong and didn’t get the full potential from my peg.
I hope to fish in your match at Odrintsi but I will need quite a few pointers. Rado has promised me some information on Sunday, if his stomach recovers.
If you wish, I’ll publish details of your match on a couple of Brit ex-pat sites to see if we can get interest.
Have fun at work,
Paul.
Odrintsi info :
Main species:
ROACH- 60-80gr -ground bait and maggot/pinkies approach
CRUCIANS- 180gr-200gr, same approach heavier groundbait with some seeds ZHITO
and corn, chopped worms may work too
PERCH- no point targeting them
ZANDER – no point targeting them
CATFISH-no point targeting them
Last year there was only one match on the lake 20 -24 anglers. It was won by end peg with 4kg or so crucians on a pole. Average weight was about 2kg of 30gr roach caught both short pole or whip 5m
The thing is that this year the water level went 4m up and because fishing on the wall is prohibited we are not sure what we can catch out there. So coming for the practice session will be a good idea.
As you may have notice the average size of the roach doubled but we start catching way less crucians. So will see on Saturday whats is going on. If anybody has any questions please dont hesitate to ask.
P.S. Todor did score better than Will Raison and Stu Conroy but they fished only for one day (Will was replaced by Stu on day2)
:(
P.S.2 I will certainly enjoy my day tomorrow
[:(!]
All right, Ive got that approval The match will be on 12th Sep Sunday
but at bright side,at least you can take some pictures !
9:30 the draw
10:00 Going to the pegs and preparation, I am sure Paul will appreciate those 2 hours
11:55 all in
12:00 Start
16:00 End
Float only, FIPS rules apply
No joker and blood worm allowed
20 liters of wetted and riddled groundbait max.
There will be practice session on Saturday 11 Sep.
from 9 till 5 p.m.
If you have any questions please give me a call at 0885 800 291