Sunday 03/09/2010 - South West Teams of Four - Chiltern Trinity

This league was previously known as the Veal’s Teams of Four – now called South West Teams of Four and now being run by Tony Rixon (Rip Off). So Charlie Barns mustered his old Angels – Tom Thick, Rich Coles and me. The first match was at Chiltern Trinity – Woodlands and Wild Marsh. I didn’t relay mind which lake I fished as I had the bait for both. Charlie and I drew Woodlands – Charlie, peg 24 and me peg 7. I have drawn this peg before this year and had 89lb for second to peg 16. So I was happy with the draw. However, there was a match on Woodlands the day before ran by Leyton Palmer, I know because he asked me if I wanted to fish. On arriving at my peg I immediately knew my peg had been fished the day before and by someone that fishes Bowd Valley Lake. How did I know this, simply because of the unmistakable red mud that was left on the platform – I wonder who it was? I was a bit disappointed to find that peg 6 was in, last time it wasn’t. In fact there were too many of us crammed in the end corner with pegs 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 being fished. Thus seriously affected the fishing with Anton Page on peg 3 only weighing in 5oz!

I set up two paste rigs one for 5 metes and the other for both margins and a 4x16 Jolly to fish with either expander pellet and paste (plus any other bait I might use). I started by feeding 125ml of 50/50 hard 4’s and wetted micros at 5 metres and commencing to feed both margins. First put in at 5 metres with paste I had a 3lb Carp with four more of similar size following in the next 30 minutes. Looking around I reckon I was well in the lead, but not for very long as the swim died. I think I was being a bit impatient deciding to re-feed, I feel now I should have given it a bit longer before doing so. It was far too early to go in to the margin so tried the 6mm expander pellet at 5 metres and had one bite and a few indications for nothing – not even a Silver fish which was highly unusual. So early in to the margin it was to be then. Because the wind was fairly strong, blowing left to right I favoured the down wind RH side and first put in had a small Carp. Paul Elmes on peg 6 was struggling and also went in to the same margin swim - his LH side. I knew this wasn’t going to help my case so I tried the LH margin but the wind was a bit too strong for the soft paste so got out the stiffer paste. I had another small Carp but our end of the lake was fishing very poor. I kept trying the three swims to the end of the match and ended up with a total of 10 Carp for a weight of 35lb 8oz - with unusually dry Silvers net – unbelievable. This gave me 6 points, with 38lb 5oz taking nine points - so close. This helped the Charlie’s angels to 6th overall with 21 points.

The match was won by Leon Hubbard (pictured right) with 82lb 11oz from peg 26 on Woodlands (W). Leon started fishing the pole at 13 metres shallow then dropped short to 5 metres on the bottom with either paste and pellet, where he caught the lion’s share of his weight.

The Silvers was won by Gary Etheridge (pictured above right) from peg 61 on Wild Marsh (WM) with 19lb 15oz. Gary caught all sorts on maggot - deep and shallow.

Close runner up was Nicky Collins (pictured right with his net of Silvers) from peg 16 on Woodlands with 19lb 8oz. All Nicks fish fell to chopped worm and caster.

Full Result:

1. Leon Hubbard 82-11-0 peg 26 W
2. Chris Davis 70-05-0 peg 41 WM
3. Pete Sivell 67-06-0 peg 14 W
4. Steve Mayo 65-03-0 peg 29 W
5. Tin Clark 65-01-0 peg 18 W
6. Alan Oram 62-12-0 peg 21

Top Silvers:

1. Gary Etheridge 19-15-0 peg 61 WM
2. Nicky Collins 19-08-0 peg 16 W
3. Craig Edmonds 16-02-0 peg 30 WM