Still I was up and about nice and early for this weeks match, I had loaded the car up and was ready to go by 0715. Pulling into the car park, I was one of the first, ordering my maggot from Jim Stubbings and then going into the shop to see Trevor. Gradually all the regulars started arriving, Denis, Lee, Sean, Richard, Madd, Mick and Vic along with a few I did not know. The Alders Farm Spring League starts next week so I assumed they were practising for this event. Still always nice to see some new faces.
The general consensus seemed to be, to fish Ash Lake and with a dozen of us in attendance we could all have a bit of room. A cup of tea in the cafe pre draw and I was ready. Mick had gone in first and drew peg 6. A good winter peg that has the edge of the island to chuck a feeder to. Vic had 17 where the previous week, Richard Brain had a near 100lb net of carp. My draw placed me on 19, a very good peg, both in winter and summer. Madd was on 21 so at least we could have a bit of banter. And this is where the problems started. The axle on my barrow decided to snap. Luckily, Jim and the team were on hand to get me to my peg via the mule. Without them I would still be getting the gear to the car.
Looking at the peg, I could see I light ripple going from left to right. I had a dark area within range that I could comfortable fish at 12.5m. Two rigs were set up for this. Both .4g Derek Smith Diamonds, one with a blacked out bristle. Shotting varied from a strung out pattern to a bulk and hooks were 16s and an 18 on .15 lines.
I also set up a shallow rig, just in case as occasionally fish are caught in two foot of water on this peg.
I did not set up a feeder or waggler as time ran out due to the mechanical breakdown earlier, so it was pole or bust.
I had been guilty of killing my peg at the start of matches by feeding too heavily at the start. Today I started negatively, feeding nothing and letting the double maggot drop through the layers on there own. Ten minutes later and I placed a few 4mms and micros into a cup and dropped them into the peg, the change was instant, next put in and a small skimmer, followed by a carp. Both Vic and Madd were bite-less. I decided to ping a few maggots out to 12.5m. Lifting and dropping I was able to keep a few fish interested. Bites were very hard to see today, sometimes just slight dips on the float or the float holding up. There were very few straight under bites and the majority of these were missed. I could see Mick and every now and again I would see his landing net in the air placing a fish in his keepnet. Lee Newson was catching a lot of skimmers from peg 4, Brainy was on 12 in suicide corner and was picking up a few odd fish towards the tree. Trevor was nicking the odd fish by rotating a line in front of him and a long edge swim in really shallow water. I was on around 8 carp and a few skimmers.
As the time went on I just kept plugging away on the one line, adjusting depth and shotting patterns to try to see the small dips in the ever changing light and wind conditions. Vic had a couple of fish but was struggling, Brainy's Peg was getting stronger and even Madd was getting a few fish having switched from pellet to maggot.
By the time the all out came I was still playing the best fish of the day, a nice common around 8lb and suspected I was close to going over in the net. Lee had placed 21lb of silvers in his catch of 60lb, excellent weight on the day.
Mick was next up with 31lb, not that I knew that as they had written 91 on the sheet to wind me up. Brainy's 80lb from peg 12 showed there are always fish in the area, you just need to find them. Vic had packed up and thrown back. I was next up and put 11lb of silvers and 97lb of carp for a total of 108-03.
Part of 97lb catch
Just avoided the disqualification as one more fish would have taken me over the net limit. Madd put 28lb on the scales with Trevor catching 50lb from peg 27.I was happy with the win, but more importantly taking another MK Nugget from Mick. Its great to see him back on the bank, treatments are going well and he looks and feels well in himself. Great news and puts a lot of things into perspective.
Tight Lines All
