i was quite looking forward to this one , another new venue and new faces (which were mostly old
) so off i set out of god's country over enemy lines in to deepest darkest lancashire . arrived nice and early so i was at the front of the queue.........for both the loo and the breakfast!! met the guy who runs the place (forgive me i'm rubbish with names) he was very helpul and informative and pre breakfast i went for a stroll around the lake.
it was a nice looking venue with the flyers being any peg you could fish to the sunken trees. this were ornately decorated with copious amounts of pellet wagglers some of which had been cast in and some of which the carp had deposited there. The other end of the lake looked a bit barren in comparison so i guessed nobody wanted to draw down there.
Anyway stroll over and it was back for a breakfast and a coffee. To be fair i'm not a connisseur on breakfasts and although i was sure i felt my arteries hardening as it went down it tasted ok to me.... but one or two disagreed!
This was the opporunity to try and identify a few team mates and quickly located the lads and started chatting. Apparently they were all familiar with each other and the venue and had mixed opinions on the place.
Bushy was quickly selected team captain whilst out the room and quickly gathered up the team and the pools. Matchgaz showed up and a shout for true blue meant we were ten strong and ready to rock !!
At this point we were handed an envelope which we had 'drawn' and was told floating pole was voted out which we anticipated. It was then decided to pick a peg you fancy and as i had no idea which to go on i was given 7 which is a flyer (in the right hands!!) so off we all trundled ,squeeky trolley an' all to our pegs.
Peg 7 did look carpville central but the trouble was the sunken trees some of which you could see and as i found out later a lot more you couldn't. i had Neil (hillbilly) at the next peg and we were in the same section at willow so he would be catching a few i thought. the guy to my left, didn't catch his name, was cock a hoop as setting up he recieved a call to say his house had been sold. So he was a happy bunny.
i set up the pellet waggler and pole for fishing 6m with catmeat and 12" deep at the snags if they would come out and play as i wasn't prepared to risk my pole by fishing beyond them. I will try to descibe my peg at 11m there was a stump to my left covered in wagglers and to my right there was the same with about 4m between them and then in the middle of them, but 5m futher away was a tree !! So any fish had to miss both snags on the way in and that was just the ones i could see!!
11am and were off. first hour nothing. no knocks on waggler no bites on catmeat and nothing shallow on the pole. dont panic plenty of time yet. 2nd
hour still nothing guy to my left has two carp on paste and hillbilly has three on waggler (virtual open water swim) and there is a lot of splashing and even more tapping coming from my left a few pegs down.
3rd hour contact first carp on wag but just buries straight in to stump on my left. sugar!! i notice when i feed there is lots of activity beyond the stumps but my other line at 11m is showing nothing. So i decide to feed heavily at 11m only and spend a bit more time on catmeat to encourage them out of the snags.
cat meat again produces nothing but one bite and a tiny skimmer so its back to the pole shallow at the front of the snags on hair rigged pellet but despite little taps from silvers the carp wont come out so i'm back on the wag again in the danger zone. BINGO feed then cast over top float buries rod goes round and i'm leaning back and pulling for all i'm worth. 20 seconds later an 8lb carp is safely netted.
but sadly the next two result in a straightened hook and the other in the snag
and that was the pattern for the rest of the match i would get one out but lose two. It was fustrating but also exhilerating trying to meet the challenge the peg had thrown at me. My final tally was 4 carp (8 lost) and a skimmer .i felt like i had been ten rounds with tyson when the all out sounded
At the weigh in i knew it would be tight between me and the lad to my left but hillbilly had caught steady all day with few losses so i was hoping for 2nd in section as the fourth angler in our section hadn't fared too well. Hillbilly weighed a big weight over 70lbs as i remember and i weighed just short of 25lb which was a skimmer a small carp of a pound plus three proper ones. The lad to my left pipped me by a pound or so with two carp and a load of skimmers leaving me on 2 pts. All i can say is i tried my best
i watched a few others weigh in including the junior ...yes junior who won the match with over 171lb Well done. He fished at 19m on the tap and fed over 8 bags of pellets so i'm guessing he knows what he's doing.
Post match chat led me to believe everyone had a laugh and i certainly enjoyed the day and the company. I would like to express my thanks to Gazmalman for organising and running a smooth match and keeping a big smile on his face . Well done to maggot drowners winners on the day.
see you all on the bank again sometime
compleat tangler
i
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