i fished a match on jcb on sunday. i wasnt going to, due to the fact that i had snapped my no 4 section last outing(see bad start), but my dad said i could borrow his pole. what a mistake! if you also use a maver deliverance 2, i pity you! its like fishing with a peice of limp spaghetti! anyway, as is the way, i drew the flier again. it always makes me feel nervous when i draw a decent peg, because if you dont perform, the lads laugh! fishing in 10 feet of water at 13 meters isnt easy when its blowing a gale and hammering it down with rain.(at least i cant be labeled as a fair weather angler i suppose! my peg was supposed to be stuffed with tench in the margins to my left. the closest i got to a tench all day was the smell of a dead one under the edge of my concrete peg square! i picked up an odd skimmer and perch at 13m, but struggled to hit bites with the peice of long pasta i was fishing with. i finally hooked a fish that made some no 6 elastic come about a foot from the end of the pole. a bream of about a pound. nice. then i started catching roach one a chuck. then, disaster! PIKE! didnt even see another fish for the rest of the match(about an hour) weigh in. 1st place 19lb odd. 2nd place 10lb odd. 3rd place 8lb odd. 4th place me with 7lb 12oz. pig sick. 4th place again! thats 3 4ths in 4 matches! i cursed my dad when i dropped his pole off later that afternoon for persuading me to use that godawfur pole of his and for me getting so wet, the dye ran out of my boxer shorts and stained me red! imagine if you will the shock my missus got later on when she saw my little fella that looked like he had been out in the sun for a few days!not pretty. i will keep plugging away at this club match stuff though. theres always plenty of banter and at least i wasnt sitting at home with the missus!

. all of the smiley faces applied at one stage of the day or another!