The weather was planned to rain consistently throughout the day and on arrival it was steadily coming down. Sometimes it was heavy, other times just a few spots on and off.
A few anglers preparing for the forthcoming Alders Farm Winter League and a decent turnout for a Tuesday saw 11 idiotic anglers preparing to get drenched at any second. Into the bag of dreams and out comes peg 29, a good peg and one that I had fished recently catching 122lb from the left hand pipe. I had Lee Wilson for company on peg 30 with Paul Kearns on peg 27. Trevor Price was left with peg 21 on the dam wall, all on his own, not good for us. Bryn Wignall on 9 with Lee Newson on 7. The remaining pegs 1-5 were filled by Gary ?, Ken ?, Colin Kidd, Dave Adams and Rob Rayment.respectively.
Peg 29 Home for the Day
I had opted to fish four lines, two pellets lines, at 2+2 and left edge, a corn cum maggot late on line at top three and a maggot line to the right hand edge. All feed pellets were fishery pellets. At the all in, I cupped in half pot of 4mms onto 2+2 and put a small hand full into the left edge, a few grains of corn to just past my keepnets and out with a corn baited top-kit plus one. It did not take long and a small 2lb common carp was on and in. Out again and another, feeding three or four grains every 30 seconds. A quiet spell followed and I pushed out to 2+2 with a 6mm hard pellet on the hook. Again a couple of quick fish before a spell of "iffy" bites. I was feeding dampened down 4mms and I suspected skimmers were the problem. I re-fed the line with a full pot of pellets and had a quick look down the left edge where I had caught well the previous visit.
Nothing, although a couple of fish were seen mooching around with there heads down but further away from the bank than my feed, I could see Lee's landing net going back and forth catching on peg 30 and could hear splashing from Paul's peg. The far bank seemed to be catching odd fish with the higher numbers 7 and 9.
Trevor was catching, despite him saying how his peg was devoid of fish.
I kept on rotating my lines picking off odd fish regularly, but never felt that the fish settled over one particular spot, with 2 hours left I reckoned on having around 50lb and decided to start introducing maggots, I had around 3 pints with me from the JJL match and after a couple of small handfuls to the right edge, I saw a couple of tails go in after them. Jokingly I thought I heard Paul say he had seen a snake swimming past him. I have never seen a snake at Alders before, but who was I to disagree.Dropping a rig tight to the grass and after a couple of minutes a 5lb carp had taken the five maggots impaled onto my 16 KKMB, another smaller fish followed, and another. Lifting and dropping worked as did leaving them on the deck. I even managed to hook the snake, about 2ft long swam into my peg and the float dipped, perfect striking and the snake was on. It was no match for the red hydro but it was foulhooked in the back so cutting the line was the only option available to me. Those around could not believe it, I could not believe it. Luckily for me, it did not affect the weights at the end.Whether they were there from the start I do not know, as I saw no signs. The left edge and to be honest the one I expected to catch from, never produced a fish. It was all to the right, today.
I caught steadily to the end, not bagging mode where the float goes before it settles but a fish every couple of minutes and doubled my weight in that last two hours. My elastics had performed better and felt the change was justified, perhaps it was just a confidence boost but it worked. If you are not entirely happy with something, you need to change it. I felt that I had sneaked past those around me and on the opposite bank but could not see the far pegs and Trevor. I should have known better. than question it in my mind.
1st Trevor Price 267-10
2nd Lee Newson 192-11
3rd Bryn Wignall 180-00
4th Keith Ashby 155-11
5th Dave Adams 145-05
6th Gary ? 131-02
I think I have learnt some things today to take into my next few matches and look forward to working it out at Alders over the coming month's. Do I need an umbrella? I sat in the rain and it was heavy at times but the Halkon Hunt gear has kept me dry all day, coupled with Skeetex boots and dry feet. Happy Days.
I am having a pleasure day at Barston Lakes on Thursday followed by a club match at Southend Farm on the Saturday.
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