The weather forecast was for it to piss down all day, they weren't wrong!!! I left as much stuff as I could at home, took pole roller out of bag and left it at home etc.
I went into this match in 5th place overall and confident of getting into a framing place, its a lake I have done OK on in the past and can usually catch some on here. A bit deflated to draw 29, I definitely fancied a draw on the far bank, but with 28 not in, it was at least one positive.
Given the rain and conditions, I thought it might fish tough, but the water temp was still well up, so it wasn't as if the rain was cold and knocking the temp back. Set up the usual 4x14 Middy Paste float, a pellet rig to fish over it, a lighter pellet rig and a wire stemmed Gimp in case I had to fish devil spawn or maggot. Finally an edge rig, same depth both edges, so nice and easy.
Bait tray was simple, 4,6 & 8mm pellets, paste and dead maggots. I did have some meat left over from Viaduct and worms, but I find meat just get trashed by shit fish on this lake.
Starting on paste I had a liner and after 20 minutes or so hooked and landed a 8lb common. I switched to pellet after 40 minutes and had a skimmer. I had been a bit more frugal with the bait than usual, given the miserable weather. Then I hooked a fouler, big fish, it leapt of like a skimmer, but was probably about 12lb, it came off... I switched to feeding GB and dead maggot and had a few skimmers before it went dead.
No matter what I did, I could not get a bite. I did finally hook a fish down the RH margin, it knew where the exposed tree roots were and snagged me solid in them. I hooked one more, down the LH margin, it charged off, but no problem, I was using my trusty Orange Vespe, 0.20 Stroft with a 0.18 hooklength. Can't believe what happened next, fish gone, 0.20 snapped, lost my float and that just about summed up my day and rounded off an unsuccessful weekend.
I went 4 1/2 hours in this match without landing a fish, spent an hour fishing maggot without a bite, just trying to put something in the net. I didn't stay to see the results, but I expect my 13lb odd was last in the match. It's days like this, that I have no answer to why I couldn't catch, that knock confidence, I've never pretended to be a superstar, but I can usually find a way to catch something and it's frustrating to be in a position where I have no idea what I did wrong.
Well done to Tony on winning the series.
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