Alders Farm Pines 17 02 15

After last week's decent result on Pines Lake I was itching to get back and have another go. Pines has changed a fair bit since last year with a lot of skimmers going in to compliment a good head of carp. For company this week were Trevor, Charlie and my nemesis Mick. So the MK Nugget starts here. These really are friendly matches/knock ups call them what you like but it always amazes me why more anglers do not attend.
Still onto today. I drew the same peg as last week 8 and was confident that I would get a few having learnt from last weeks mistakes. Mick was on 4, Trevor on 6 and Charlie on 10.
At the all in I potted a large pot of micros with around 20 grains of the yellow stuff at 14m and did the same at 11m to my left  at 10 o'clock. After an hour I re-fed the lines as I had not had a bite. This seemed to do the trick as I had my first bite just after, a skimmer about a pound. I had no other bites for the next hour and a half. Charlie was struggling but was getting odd bites on maggot over GB whilst Trevor was on around 6 skimmers but was starting to get bites regularly. Mick was still biteless and was going onto the pellet cone.
I decided to try toss potting everything in over the 14m line and this made a difference. I was getting a few bites on the smallest corn I could find in the tub and although I was missing a few I was starting to get a few skimmers. They would then die off and a few carp put in an appearance, making a significant boost to my weight. It seemed like a switch had been turned on as everyone started catching. Mick on the cone, Trevor on his maggot over GB and Charlie was putting together a nice net of skimmers.
I just kept my head down and stayed focused on the 14m line, getting odd fish on both pellet and corn. After all, the real battle is for the nugget and the bragging rites at work.

Overall

1st Trevor Price          43-12

2nd Charlie Lancaster 36-05

3rd Keith Ashby          34-02

4th Mick Wright          30-09

It had fished hard all round until the afternoon when it seemed to come alive. Perhaps it was the cold night leading up to it, the influx of a lot of cold water during the previous day, I don't know but it was the same for everyone so at least it was fair.
I came away with a grin and a nice nugget from Mick, so all was not lost. Mission Accomplished.
Next week is on Ash Lake and with the changes made to the lake it will be interesting to see how it fishes.