It was good to see some new faces on the match today, with a healthy 14 anglers partaking. I settled down and took the money whilst Charlie and Trevor sorted out the pegging.
I drew peg 12, end peg on the café bank and a good peg if the wind was blowing in, as it was today. I decided to concentrate on my normal 2+2 line with .18 Stroft to .16 hook length to a size 16 PR36. A .3g MW Diamond with a couple of number 8s spread out. This would be my opening line but I also set up a line to fish 10m towards the corner, I used a similar rig to fish the 2ft margin depth where I could see the float, however I was sure I was 2ft away from the bank due to the over hanging nettles and reeds.
I had Trevor for company on peg 8 and although I had a bit of room in the corner, I was concerned that the fish would not turn up, it really is a feast or famine peg. I started off throwing a few grains of corn and I was soon getting indications on the float and after 15 minutes I had 3 fish in the net but they were only around the pound mark. I was still feeding 3 or 4 grains every 20 seconds or so and started to up the feed, to see if this improved the bite ratio. No noticeable change so I tried a bulk shotting pattern and this resulted in a few 2lb fish to leave me with 15 fish in the first hour for around 25lb.
I tried bringing the rig closer, but the fish would not follow, I could only get a bite just off bottom and the full range of the top four. After two hours I reckoned on having around 50lb and was going nowhere. I was getting fish but they were small 1-2lb stamp. I needed to get a few 3lb fish to have any chance of a frame. I could hear Trevor catching and could see a few others getting a few fish.
A slow 3rd hour prompted the change to the margin line. I had been feeding regularly and first put in resulted in a 3lb fish. But that was it. A move closer to top four down the edge changed my match, I was getting bites regularly and was slowly building a weight. I would get a couple of 3lb fish followed by a couple of two's then back to 3lbers. Hours four and five flew by and by the close I reckoned on having 120lb. Going into the last hour I was hoping for a few lumps to finish off the session but alas it was not to be. I was now having to wait for a bite and when I connected it was another 2 or 3lb fish.
At the all in I reckoned on around 150lb, which I knew would not be good enough on the day. I had plenty of bites again but the stamp of fish were on the small side.
Overall
1st Colin Spencer 262-09
2nd Trevor Price 257-04
3rd Charlie Lancaster 210-13
4th Terry Lancaster 170-01
5th Keith Ashby 159-02
6th Neil Hutchins 143-00
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