Hellos, Seasonal Greetings and general chat ensued for a few minutes before Eric told me to do the draw after his attempts in the last couple of rounds. Well there were only 2 rotations left on the table, neither looked overly appealing to be honest, but the venue is fair and barring 2 or 3 pegs which give up some fish for good section points (ie 5 and 24), you cannot predict where the winners and framing weights will come from.
The pegs left were gonna be either 1, 13 and 30. Or 4, 19 and 35. Similar draws met with shoulder shrugs. I plucked the 2nd set of pegs. Me on 19 (ok enough), 4 for Eric (5 and 6 better) and Steve had peg 35 (can be feast or famine). I would have rather been on either of the other 2 pegs as it seems like I cant get away from the far end of the lake, and that section generally does 3 weights, then the rest fight over the rest of the section placings, 24 and 26 seem to be most consistent at the moment with 20 and 21 next favourable
I got to my peg and surveyed the scene. I had Jamie Cook in peg 20 on my left then Vic Bush on 21 and to my right on 18 was Phil Dodd, he was going to have Mike West arrive on 17 but he'd be a bit late!! Tough company, even if you take in to account the other anglers in the section, Keith Builder, Paul Wharton, Derek Beards, Bobby Gullick and on 24 was Rob Birch.
Opposite, but in the next section was good old Ziggy Slowinski.
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Peg 19 at Avalon
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A lead rod for off the point of the island.
A waggler (unused), a margin rig for to my left, to my right against the bale of hay and further along by the empty pallet (all spots biteless).
A light rig for through the water and off bottom was made up but went untried.
Lastly a rig for 2 spots at the bottom of a gentle slope at 13 both in front (groundbait fed) and in the 10 o'clock direction (micros fed).
I had an array of bait on the tray, 8mm pellets, micros, groundbait, live and dead maggot, pinkies, casters, corn, punched meat, bread and expanders. Not a lot in quantity but options to try.
The 10am all in was called and I fed the long lines with 3 decent balls of groundbait in front and 1/4 of a cup if micros off to the left. The margins were fed too.
I chucked the tip out and hooked a fish right away, but it felt funny and fell off, I think it was a smaller carp or skimmer, ah well.
20 minutes later I lost another fish on the tip, again feeling really odd when playing it.
Sport then dies properly.
After an hour I was fishless, those 2 early 'bites' my only signs barring a single liner.
Jamie hadn't had any indication, but 24, 26 and 29 had caught a couple carp each and Bobby was getting silvers regular. Ziggy on peg 30 was on 5 or 6 carp already, mostly from his left edge by empty peg 31.
Another fishless hour passed, I had re-fed the 2 long lines but not looked over them. So I did and had a couple roach over the groundbait before no more indications.
So back on the tip and a flurry of activity. 1 cast saw the rod taken from my hand. A little 2lber was netted and with it 25 yards of line and a couple hooklengths, maybe this was the reason for my first two fish feeling funny and losing them, I think so.
Next chuck and 3rd chuck all saw little 2lbers netted. 3 of the smallest carp in the lake.
Mr West, by then, had set up, dropped in and landed a brute of a carp, a big skimmer and a couple smaller skimmers. Phil Dodd had a tench and a couple roach.
Jamie had his 1st carp 2.5hrs in, a second and 3rd followed, but his were bigger than mine.
Over the next couple hours I kept swapping between the lead and the long pole lines.
From the pole lines I managed to bump a decent skimmer, foul hook and lose a couple 6oz skimmers and a couple micro roach fell off. However I did land 3 or 4 nice skimmers around 1lb or 1.5lb each and some 4oz roach.
Elsewhere Ziggy had a couple more carp, but in my section peg 24 was doing really well, as was peg 26 and peg 30, Bobby was still among the silvers on peg 27. Vic was struggling as was Derek and Phil. Mike West was on a couple carp and a few decent skimmers. So maybe I was 6th or so in section, peg 24 was pretty much miles ahead of us.
Into the last hour and I managed another carp, actually it was another baby carp or 1lb or so, and another skimmer plus a couple roach. Jamie ended up with 6 carp. Mike landed another lump of nearly 8lb or so just before the whistle.
Derek and Vic only had some silvers and 1 small carp each. Bob had just silvers, but plenty of them. Phil had a tench and a handful of small skimmers and roach. So it looked like 6th in section for me.
I guessed I had 8 or 9lb of carp (4 total) and 5 or 6lb of silvers.
I packed up, loaded the car and went for a wander, following the weigh-in amongst chatting to a few guys. It looked like the 1st island pegs had done generally better and when there was weights of 42lb, 56 and 54lb and a few were saying peg 44 on the far side of the gap had done 100lb+, it was obvious that the fish liked being down that end.
The scales got to me and confirmed I had 20lb 1oz total, with my carp a few ounces over 10lb and my silvers a few ounces under 10lb, it did end up with me 6th in section, beaten by Jamie (24lb - 6 carp), Mike (27lb - 3 carp and 7lb silvers), Rob on p24 (52lb of carp), Keith (7 carp for 33lb+) and Paul (7 carp for 33lb).
The scales carried on and weights were consistent with a few better catches thrown in, but when we got to peg 44 it was Luke Pester who claimed 130lb 10oz to win on the day.
Eric had come 6th in section with 8 or 9lb and Steve never had a carp but was 8th in section. This has put us well out of the running for the series, so it is a matter of saving face in the next couple rounds.
The Fu Fighters did brilliant on the day in that they only dropped one point and claimed 4 envelopes on the day, so well done them.
Thyers were second with a couple 3rds and a second in section.
In hindsight....yawn...If only the carp I had were more average 4-5lb fish and the 1st two I had got in, then maybe we'd have been a little better off, but you never know as peeps lose fish etc.
Results:
1st -Luke Pester Fu Fighters 130.10 peg 44
2nd -John Fuidge Fu Fighters 56.04 peg 11
3rd -Shawn Kitteridge Thyers 54.03 peg 13
4th -Rob Birth Wickham Wanders 52.11 peg 24...
5th -Ziggy Slowinksi Somerset Carpenters 45.09 peg 30
6th -Phil Clapp Sedges 42.02 peg 5
Silvers
John Fuidge Fu Fighters 29.01 peg 11
Teams on the day:
1st = Fu Fighters - 29 points
2nd = Thyers - 25pts
3rd = Somerset Carpenters - 21pts
4th = Mosella Gold - 18pts
5th = Sedges - 16pts
6th = Mosella UK - 15pts
7th = Wickham Wanderers - 14pts
8th = Over 50s - 13pts
9th = Happy Hookers - 9pts
10th = Doddys - 5pts
Overall Standings:
1st, Fu Fighters, 25pts
2nd, Sedges, 24pts
3rd, Thyers, 22pts
4th, Mosella Gold, 20pts
5th, Somerset Carpenters, 20pts
6th, Mosella UK, 19pts
7th, Over 50s, 15pts
8th, Wickham Wanderers, 9pts
9th, Doddys, 6pts
10th, Happy Hookers, 5pts
So as you can see, we stand 7th and really are out of the running for a top 3 spot barring everyone else not turning up for 2 rounds....
Next up is Landsend next Sunday with Pawlett, I dnw'd in the corresponding match last year as a couple skimmers isn't enough to keep me there...lets hope for better this week. We have all 3 lakes, but a nice peg will do please....pretty please.
Take care and have fun.
Lee
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