Alders Farm Ash Lake Challenge Match 23 08 14

Saturdays are my football days, not playing but sitting in front of the telly watching. However I had promised Trevor I would help out with the shop and assist Terry Lancaster whilst he fished a match arranged by Colin Fossey against Apollo Sonu-baits Banstead. True to my word I arrived nice and early as it can be a bit manic on match days with everyone wanting pellet and maggots. However the first words out of Trev's mouth was do you want to fish today, we are one short. So back in the car to home, collect gear including 2 bags of frozen corn. Back to the fishery and sort out my nets. Grab a couple of bags of fishery pellets and pray the corn de-frosted early enough to make it work. I did have 4 tins in my bag so all was not lost.
I had been "selected" for the ASB team, along with Terry and Brian Townley who each had had a similar conversation with Trevor. How he does it is beyond me. Still it makes a change to fish a team match, something I have not done for over 10 years. With Breakfast out of the way and monies paid the two captains drew for pegs. I ended up on peg 9, I was happy with that, I had a blank peg either side and is home to a few fish. Brian was on 7 and Colin on 12. The two "chuckle brothers" Carl and Colin were on pegs 5 and 6 respectively with Matt Grant on 4 and Mick Dickens on 3. I would do well to beat a couple of these lads on those pegs. Trevor had drawn peg 32 with Nick Darke on 28 and Ricky Quick sandwiched between them on 30. Terry had drawn 34.
I decided I was not going to complicate things today and concentrate on 2 lines only. Two plus one in front and top two to my right.  Rig one was a .3 NG Mini Diamond to fish in 2ft of water. 20 Stroft and a size 14 PR36. The margin rig was a .2 Ghandi set to fish just on bottom in a foot of water. I made duplicate rigs of each in case of any breakages or tangles.
By now some of the corn was de-frosting nicely and although would not be ready for the all in. I had enough to kick start the swim. At the all in I put a couple of handfuls of fishery pellet down the side and fed around a dozen grains of corn. Another 20 grains went to top three and a grain of "gelled corn" was shipped out to position. A positive couple of bites missed saw me change the shotting slightly before carp number 1 was in the net. Another couple followed and by the hour mark I reckoned on 15 fish for around 40lb.
I noticed a few swirls down the side so had a look down there and was rewarded with another 15 fish in the 2nd hour for another 60lb and a ton in two hours. I was starting to get a few iffy bites and felt they were coming off the feed, so moved the rig around a metre from the bank and this had a desired effect, Although I was waiting longer for a bite it was a positive bite and I was landing at lot of the hooked carp. Hour 3 gone and around 180lb in the net.
However all good things come to an end and hour 4 saw me struggle in comparison to the previous hour. A move to top three still down the edge a metre out saw me foul hook fish after fish and losing all of them. Back to top two and a half cured this problem and I was getting a few more fish by flicking the rig beyond the feed. This was a 5 and 1/2 hour match so with 200lb in the net I was hoping for a good last hour to push me up the board. Brain was catching well but was struggling for bites, Colin's splashing was less frequent although Colin on 6 was still catching. In fact Carl had told Colin he had 300lb in the first three hours but was struggling now. The last hour saw me still fishing down the right hand edge but I was rotating the line I was fishing. In close, back, to the left and front of the feed. I was gradually feeding more regularly and during this spell, by switching between standard corn and the Gellit flavoured corn I could keep fish coming. By the end of the match I estimated I had 250lb. I had done about all I could on the day from the peg on the method I chose. I had fed 2 1/2 kilo of corn throughout and 3pints of pellet to keep the fish there but at times the fish still seemed to drift off and I suffered a lot of 10 minutes spells where I could not get a bite.

Overall

1st Colin Spencer    Peg 6      486-09 GOT Baits

2nd Carl Williams   Peg 5      450-02 GOT Baits

3rd Matt Grant        Peg 4      385-00 GOT Baits

4th Nick Darke       Peg 28    371-07 GOT Baits

5th Terry Molloy    Peg 36    360-05 ASB

6th Colin Fossey     Peg 12    345-11 GOT Baits

My 293-06 was good enough for 8th on the day which I was pleased with. I was second in the ABS team and could hold my head up high. Even though we GOT beat by a good GOT Baits team. Well done lads.