Alders Farm Spring League Rd 5 01 05 16

Fresh from a good result yesterday at Monks Lakes I was hoping my form would continue. I must admit I have not fished to the best of my abilities during this league, I have made some bad decisions at key times and some very basic errors of judgement. As they say **** poor preparation leads to **** poor performance and that I accept and rectify.
So onto today's match. Ian could not be with us today as he was fishing a memorial match for a good friend of his, so Miles Phillips stood in, and with Madd and myself making up the team. To be fair we drew well, Pegs 6, 29 and 20.
I was on peg 20, next to where I was last week and thought I would fish a similar match, pellet long brought plenty of bites last week so why not today, and a line short at 2+3. Bait was 4mm fishery feed pellets with either 6mm expanders or 6mm hard pellet on the hook. I have not managed to catch a fish at Alders this year on corn so left that in the bag.
For company I had Ricky Quick on 19 and in my section, and Colin Fossdyke on 21, not in my section. So main aim was to beat Ricky and see where it gets me. At the all in I cupped a half pot of 4mm feed pellets onto both lines and started off long at 12.5m. Second put in and a carp around 3lb was in the net and just the start I needed. Ricky had also had a fish but was fishing shorter. I was feeding a tosspot of 4mm every put in but it seemed to pull the fish up in the water so tried that for 20 minutes for no fish. The fish were still there, as you could see small swirls as the feed went in. I tried the short line rig over the top and although I had a couple of bites did not connect with any. Back onto the deep rig and another smaller carp around 1.5lb and it was a case of keep plugging away even at this early stage of the match. After 1.5 hours I had around 6 fish and 12lb in the net.
I tried the shorter line, and had one fish off it but was still going nowhere fast. Ricky and Colin were also struggling, It seemed you would catch 1 or 2 fish and then nothing. I started feeding a line further out at 14m but still it was the same as the 12m line. I tried re-feeding the peg( bad decision) to try to spur the fish into feeding, but this seemed to have the opposite effect.
I did managed to sneak a few fish by fishing around a metre off the feed but was also going through a spell of losing fish.
However it was not to be, although it was close between myself and Ricky. I think the fish you hooked on the whistle tipping the scales into your favour. I weighed in 38-08 for fifth in section. Ricky 39-11. Steve Potter winning the section with 48- 10 from Roy Makins 47-10. So as you can see a fairly close section with odd fish gaining valuable points and considering I must have lost 6 or 7 fish which could have made the difference on the day.

Overall 

1st Chris Telling 115-04

2nd Trevor Price 113-03

3rd Mick Dickens 104-05

4th Nick Wooding 101-08

5th Hugh Crawford 91-00

6th Matt Grant 90-01

On a personal note I would like to thank Roy Makins for running an impeccable league. I cannot fault it. Also a special thanks must go to the team at Alders, from allowing us to fish a great venue to such superb breakfasts, you have all played a part in this series and should be applauded.
Next up for me is a week's holiday to Viaduct fisheries in Somerset. I will be posting a report when I get back, in the meantime enjoy your fishing.