Only 5 rounds, well spread this year, with the last round in April. There is also 10 teams taking part with some very good anglers in the mix. Mosella have 2 teams, Pete Wild, Vic Bush, Tom Mangnall and Vince Brown to name 4 of the anglers. Nigel Garrett, Tom Thick and his dad are another team. Plenty of other very good guys taking part as well.
Anyways, a bunch of chatter before the draw was undertaken. Our team was one of the last to go and we ended up with a less-than-good draw. Steve Fouracre was on end peg 48, but it isn't the greatest end peg. I was on 29, a less than favourable peg as peg 30 (in the next section) is better. But it isn't the worst draw and I had peg 28 empty. In my section there were at least 4 pegs I would have chosen ahead of mine, 19 (end of island) and 21 (snaggy gap, better side) and the two corners 23 and 24.
For company I had Tom Thick on peg 30 and Glynn Wickham on peg 27, Phil Clapp was on peg 26.
Eric had peg 15-ish, not too bad to be honest, but he was in a tricky section with the lower numbered pegs more fancied.
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| Peg 29 at Avalon |
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| Looks fishy.....it wasn't!! |
3 pole rigs were put together, one for the nice looking edge to my right towards the empty peg. Here I would feed maggots and fish bunches over the top.
The 1st silvers rig, (0.3g NG gimp, 0.14>0.10>16 B911f1. A 8 solid laccy.) which incidentally went biteless was for fishing at topkit distance to my right around the bale of hay, I would fish casters over casters through the water. This line is usually my banker for some roach and maybe the odd surprise in the form of tench, crucians and bigger perch.
The second rig incorporated the same float and lines etc but was in 0.5g to allow for the wind which was due to increase in strength and a 6 elastic to suit.
This 2nd rig would cover 3 spots in the peg, 2 at 13m in two directions and 1 at 6m or so.
The longer lines consisted of groundbait on one spot, micros on the other with expanders, maggots and caster to fish over the top.
The short line was purely a line for expanders and micros.
At the all-in I began on the feeder, not much happened for me in the first hour, but Phil on peg 26 had a long fight with a carp on his number 4 elastic and Tom had bagged a carp and some skimmers on the pole. Glynn hadn't caught more than a couple roach.
My 1st fish was at 11 o'clock and was a small roach over the groundbait, but then it never gave me a bite. So back on feeder and I had my 1st carp, maybe 5lb, well hooked in the pec.
Another 20 minutes, fishless, on the feeder (switched to a lead) saw me spend the next 3hrs on the pole where I hoped for some of the venue's larger skimmers/bream.
My 1st skimmer came over the groundbait to pinkie and maggot combo and was around 6oz, a couple of roach followed before it died.
Over the micros at 13m and a 4mm expander gave me a couple 6oz skimmers, again it died.
This period of time saw me swap between the two long lines and picked off the odd skimmer and roach to 8oz, actually I had a perch of around 12oz over the groundbait. I also picked up 3 or 4 skimmers of the same sort of stamp from the 6m line, on expander.
At around 2pm I had a look on the lead and I immediately had my 2nd carp, similar sized to the first at 5lb or so. But that was my action there for the day.
Glynn at this point had his 1st carp, a 3lber on the feeder. Phil was still on his 1 carp but had some silvers.
Tom was doing well and looked to have at least 11lb of silvers and had 3 or 4 carp, but one of which was about 12 or 13lb. Thankfully he wasn't in my section.
Elsewhere in my section I could see Pete Wild up in p24 catching a few as were Lewis Jones on peg 19 and the guy in 21 had 3 or 4 carp. Jason King also had some big skimmers and a couple lumpy carp that tried to 'do him' under his platform. So my 5th in section looked about right, I also expected peg 23 to have had some carp, but couldn't see him well enough.
As we entered the last hour the wind got a lot stronger and noticeably colder, this killed sport for us up at this end and the 60 minutes saw me only put a couple 4oz skimmers and a roach in the net, no indications on the lead either saw me hoping the 2 guys to my right don't catch, thankfully they didn't and the all-out was called.
I reckoned on 8lb or so of silvers and 10lb-ish for my couple of carp. Anything higher than a section 5th would be a bonus to be honest.
I packed up, loaded the car and followed the weigh in, but didn't pay too much attention to the weights. When we got to me, Eric had 2nd in section from his peg. My section had 3 weights I wouldn't beat, so tipping my fish onto the scales saw 2 identical weights, 11lb 5oz to each my carp and silvers. 22lb 10oz my total. 4th in section, so a result of sorts.
I followed a bit further and saw Tom Thick have 13lb of silvers and 30lb+ of carp.
John Fuidge's usual under estimation of his silvers saw him have 16lb of skimmers and bream.
Steve Fouracre did well and I think he was 3rd in section, maybe 2nd.
The results were soon sorted and envelopes dished out. Turns out that Steve and Eric had both got default section money and we had finished 2nd behind The Sedges on the day. Jamie and Keith took 1st and 3rd spot on the day, both winning their sections.
Individual winner was Jamie Cook with mid-40lb's
Individual silvers winner was John Fuidge with 16lb+
Top 3 Teams were, The Sedges, Over 50's and then Thyers.
Next round is on the 18th of December I think, but next weekend I have the last round of the Teams of 3 at Shiplate on Sunday. But on Saturday I am covering for Dave Chidzoy in the final round of the Avalon Silvers Series.
Until then, stay warm and take care.
Lee
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