Acorn Pole Only Series, Round Four, Sunday 28th April2013

Once again the weather kicked us in the teeth, as temperatures dropped overnight, shame as the day was overcast and the wind not to strong as to inhibit fishing.

We've had a few moans about the hour and a half to set up, we've listened carefully to these comments and ignored them......

It was my turn to be in D section today, I fancied anywhere except 23 and 25, that was until I saw the weigh sheets from Saturdays match, revealing that 38 and 36 had been 2nd and 3rd, on these smaller lakes, I am not too keen on drawing pegs that have produced the day before, as they often don't seem to do it two days running.  I was going to take the last peg, but the Brown Nosed Bridge Troll wanted the last peg, so I pulled out 38  for myself, leaving Bob Gullick one off a bridge on 23.

The lakes have coloured up nicely and there were a few fish moving before the start, I did have a target of 50lb, which had I achieved it would have been about right, but, there is very little to say about the day, it was one of the least enjoyable days fishing I have had in quite a while.  Every time I looked to my left, I could see Joe McMahon's elastic coming out, as he plundered the bridge peg 40, catching shallow against the bridge.  Fair play to Joe, he fished a tidy match, but it was frustrating when I hadn't had a fish for the first hour or so.

I had set up a rig to fish banded pellet shallow/1st shelf, a rig for the second shelf, another for down the track and a paste rig for the margins and tight across.  I had meat and pellet on the bait tray to start with, expecting to catch on that. Blanking after 1 hour 20 minutes saw me reaching for the maggot box and first put with maggot down the track resulted in a skimmer, that was the only bite from the deeper water.

I ended the day with a couple more skimmers, roach and a tench on maggot, but even on a light rig, with 0.10 and a 20 hook, I was still waiting 15 minutes or more for a bite.  This was enough, at 4.08 to take the section silvers money, so thats my series paid for with three pick ups, my attempt at catching carp was similarly dismal, 6 smallish fish for 14.   , that was two on maggot, three on pellet and one on paste, a pretty poor last but one in section. I just couldn't work out how to get a bite, so frustrating to have a match like that and learn nothing at all.

 At least I didn't hook enough, or big enough fish, to pull the hooks off the line today,  as I'm still waiting for Tony Rixon's knots masterclass, so one small consolation.....

1. Joe McMahon 104.07   peg 40
2. Mike Nicholls 102.10  peg 8
3. Tom Thick 68.08   peg 12
4. Matt Tomes 60.06 peg A4
5. Lance Tucker 59.14 peg 4
6. Andy France 54.13 peg 13

Silvers

1. Mark Broomsgrove 34.06.   peg A3
2. Paul Lasson 24.06 peg A5
3. Glenn Calvert 22.02 peg A8