Final round and really only pride to fish for, I would have liked to see the canals pegged differently, as I was in the middle of the 'bunches of three' and that as you can see from the sheet was not where you wanted to be.... A real struggle and I wasn't sorry to see the back of this league which has not been kind to me.
First of my winter opens today, what a day to pick storm Arwen certainly made things tough... I was expecting most to cry off, but we did have 10 hardy souls who wanted to fish
I pegged it to try and keep the wind off most anglers backs, so the not the usual spaces between pegs, as its equal payouts by default, I fished maggot short all day and managed to take the silvers (equal overall/silvers payouts in these winter matches) with 3.15.....
Standing in for someone today - no idea who, Kingfisher for me, great I like it, but bloody hell, my last 9 draws on there including this one have been 47,48,45,46,45,37,43,47,43 - a bit of variety would be nice....
I think my achievement was beating those either side, but too far away from the winners.... I've only added the weigh sheet sheet for my lake.
First round of the Acorn winter league, after finishing 2nd last year (and I'd been hopeful of a win but the last round fell foul of Covid lockdowns) I was hoping for a good start and wasn't desperately upset to draw peg 1. Well it was a struggle and this will be my dropper!!
My turn on match lake and amazingly I was handed 15, a peg I'd never seen before, but it is an end peg with a bit of space.
Approach was waggler and lead, with just a margin pole set up, as I felt an edge and a short line would be enough, with waggler being my main approach. Simple bait tray, 6mm and 8mm pellets, a few expanders, meat and maggots. I had time so I set up a method and did some micros.
Started on popped up bread, didn't spend too long chucking it round the peg, thought the colour and the temperature would suit pellets and a bit of feed. I pinged pellets on the waggler line and had a couple of fish, then the indications stopped, the fish were rolling past the marker board peg 15 can't fish past and no one on peg 0 to push them back my way. The did come back and drift away again in spells, I had odd fish on the waggler and the lead.
I tried the method up the end bank, not as much as a liner, I'd fed a short line with meat, never had a bite on that and I did manage a low double down the edge on 8mm pellet with 30 minutes to go. Frustratingly lost a double on the lead, the hooklength broke, just after landing another low double, so I can only assume it got damaged, that probaly cost me two places.
Enjoyable day on the waggler mainly, fed about 3/4 pint of pellets for 85.02 which was third on the lake and 4th overall, so frustratingly one out of the money, but a big improvement on the last four matches....
1. Joe McMahon 110.12 Main Lake 14
2. Russ peck 92.02 Main Lake 12
3. Paul Nichols 85.03 Westpool 5
4. Chris Fox 85.02 Main Lake 15
5. Brian Slipper 83.06 Main Lake 8
6. Steve Howell 77.11 Westpool 15
First trip to Sedges since the cafe and tackle shop has opened, a nice job, breakfast was nice and lovely clean toilets, shame that was the best bit of the day.
I really expected this to be a day where a few bites would be on offer, how wrong can you be. I drew peg 23, I travelled down with Tony, he drew 29, I just cannot think of anything to write, neither of us had a bite....... Can it get much worse!
Fished this as a stand in, I knew I'd be on either the Old Match Lake or Willow, OK with that. Drew 26 on Willow, I had a bad start as I'd pick up the wrong ready rod holdall in the garage and didn't realise until I opened it and found two lead rods and no waggler. As it turned out, the wind probably meant I wouldn't use it to effect anyway.
Set up one of the bomb rods to fish bread at the start, also a dobbing rig to dob bread up the edge, neither of which produced a fish. I had a spell catching small skimmers on soft pellet, but it seemed like there were no carp around, I did manage to get two decent carp up the edge in the last 20 minutes, far too little to late.
Another day of underachievement and I felt the draw had contributed, as a few commented that 26 hasn't featured for a while now.
