Oakfield Open 12 11 14

A lot of you will know that the MK Nugget is contested by Mick Wright and myself over the course of a year. All was fine until I was asked to swap shifts in July. It meant our normal matches were curtailed and we had to plan in advance our matches. Today was one of these matches. Not at one of our normal haunts but it made a nice change to pop over to Oakfield Fishery near Aylesbury.
Mick had agreed to pick me up in return for a breakfast and to avoid the queues around the roadworks at Buckingham we set off around 0645. We arrived nice and early for the draw but breakfast took up some of the time.
At the draw we were told there would be 14 fishing so they would split the match over both Red Kite and Swallow lakes. I was hoping for a peg on Swallow  but I ended up on Peg 8 on Red Kite, with Mick on the end peg on our bank,18.
The wind would be tricky today, It was blowing directly into our faces and coupled with rain, it was obvious that I would be getting wet today. I do not like umbrellas.
I decided to fish a line at 12m with expander or hard pellet, A line at 5m with corn and a margin line to the pallet on peg 7 for a maggot approach.
The strange thing I noticed was that there was very little tow on the water and I could easily use a MW Diamond in 5ft of water. Hooklength's were .13 to a size 18 B911. For the 5m line I used a similar float in .3g for 3ft of water to a size 16 PR36 fished direct. Margin line was .18 Stroft and a NG Mini Diamond to a size 16 PR36.
At the all in I potted in a pot of small balls of micros on each line followed by a half pot of the intended hookbait for each swim.
Starting off at 12m I missed my first bite after 5minutes but was soon into my first f1 around 2lb, next put in and another followed after a couple of minutes wait. Then nothing. I re-fed and tried the 5m line. Nothing and 20 minutes wasted. A quick look down the side on maggot and no indications or bites. Back out to 12m and nothing. Switching from expander to hard pellet made no difference, indeed the only thing I could get a bite on was maggot and a small skimmer and a gudgeon were placed in the net. That was my match. I could not get a bite on anything bar maggot and these were only small blades, no carp or f1s. To say I was disappointed was an under estimation. I had looked forward to this match and felt gutted that I had let this one slip.
Mick had also struggled but had persevered on a top three line for 12lb to comfortably beat me for the nugget, making it 12-11 in my favour with one match left to go.