This league is one I look forward to every year as it is a 19 teams of 5 so has a great turnout and the fact that you get to fish nearly all the lakes on the complex gives you some variety on a typically predictive commercial. 8.30 was the draw time for the first match and with a 7.15 am wake up call by Lee Trivett telling me he will be late as he has forgot his keepnets (Muppet) I decided to check my gear through to make sure I was totally prepared for what ever lake I would be thrust upon.
In the holdall was 17m of Sensas Pole with 8 silverfish topkits ranging from 3 - 6 elastic and 6 carpy topkits ranging from preston 11 hollow up to 15 hollow. 2 tip rods, 1 for lead fishing for carp and 1 for either a light feeder or small lead for a mixture of fish. 1 13ft waggler rod for carp, 1 13ft light waggler rod for silvers and a little 10ft waggler for either a little corner chuck or island chuck on match lake etc.
Ok so that is enough of the prep I had done during the week and back to the draw where I met up with the rest of our team, Andy Power, Des Shipp and Mark Harper. We decided that we would let the ginger prince draw our team peg as he is a drawing machine (well most the time or just for him anyway). He comes back with Peg 124,88,60,44 and 16. I fancied 124 or 16 but not 88 or 60 so I had a little moan when I saw peg 60 next to my name. This is a peg I have done well off before, in fact I won the silvers off it a couple years ago in the WL but I would rather of been in a corner or on the rope in the middle of the lake. To my left on 59 I had the westlands helicopters slacker Phil Cardwell and on my right on 61 I had the welsh wizard Glyn Reynolds. I decided to have a side bet with both just to add a bit of spice to the match.
I set two waggler rods as this is a float only section, 1 with 4lb maxi to a straight drake and 0.12, size B911 with a little hair rig to fish corn or meat and the other a 10ft, 3lb maxi with 0.9 size 18 drennan silver fish for single caster or maggot.
My Pole lines consisted of 1 x Sensas .3 Pencil float on 0.11 to 0.10 hooklength and a size 18 808 hook, 1 x .4 carpa chimp on 0.10 to 0.8 with a double bulk for lift bites on 5 elastic, 1 x .3 carpa chimp on 0.10 to 0.8 for just touching bottom with 4 elastic. Both Hooks were size 20 drennan silver fish. Finally I set up a preston silver7 for top six and casters but this I won't talk about as I didn't get a bite on this line all day.
Whistle went and I started off by cupping in 4 balls of gb at 13m and some casters and 6 grains of corn at 17m. My plan was to leave both these lines for at least two hours but keep topping up during this time.
I started on my heavier waggler rod with a small piece of corn put out at approx 25m out whilst feeding my short line with 4 - 6 casters every 3-5mins. After about 25mins my float disappears and I hook into a carp which I let run through phils peg but after about 10mins I safely land it in which I thought was around 13 - 14lb. "Great start just what I wanted". Half an hour later I have another bite and I was thinking get in another carp but this turned out to be a 4 ounce hydrid ("crap"). I gave this line another hour or so in which I missed a bite but at this stage only corner pegs 64 and 66 had more than me, onto the 17m line with double caster and a wait of 15mins and no bites resulted in me thinking that this was going to be a hard day. Onto the 13m line and a roach first put in then next dob with single caster and an huge lift bite resulted in wait a massive snag of which I tried pulling for a break but this just angered the snag and caused eruption of bubbles where it was moving a little. This was not what I wanted as I was 3 hours into an 5 hour match so a little late to set up another gb line. I put another section on and plugged away to not a lot. 2lb to be precise
I was seriously annoyed with this as skimmers were being hooked on the other side of the lake and all I was getting was the odd roach. Phil had about 8lb of skimmers with about 20mins left when Paul Greenwood walks past with the scales. Phil is fishing down the edge under his tree at the stage turns round to have a quick chat and then turns back round to his pole almost being ripped out his hand. 8lber landed and I was going to lose a pound. Damn you Paul he may of missed that bite if he was looking lol
I spent the last ten mins on the waggler with corn but no bites happened so match finished with me moaning yet again about the corner pegs and how un fair my draw was lol
My Carp went 12-12 and silvers 2-04 for a total of 15lb and a very disappointing 8 points out of 19. Phil weighed in 18lb and Glyn 2lb 4oz so at least it was all square on the pound front. I was to help Phil weigh in but there is nothing worse than walking around with the board to people keep looking over your shoulder when they have caught more than you. Bobby Gullick was the biggest culprit of this. The Lake was won by corner peg 66 with corner peg 64 second (predictable).
On the team front, Mark won his lake and section with 82lb, Andy won his section with 88lb, Des had 13 points off 88 with 40lb and Lee had a sorry 3 points so in total 61 points. Tied 3rd on the day and only 10 points off top spot which off are draw we were really happy with.
Match was won by the old cart horse and Lead expert Nick Ewers with 158lb 7oz off peg 5 on Spring. Well Done mate.
Next match for me will be the Sensas Challenge CIPS rules match at Woodlands View in a couple weeks.
