Sunday 13/03/2011 - Boyd Valley Open

Driving the 1 ½ miles down Rye Down Lane to Boyd Valley Lake I had to bang on the brakes because a Deer had jumped through the hedge landing just in front of me. On seeing me It immediately jumped back through. On arriving in thewcar park the field behind the lake had four Deer (pictured right) grazing, good to see.

The venue has become very popular for the East Enders of Bristol because of the short travelling distance, coupled with the ever escalating cost of fuel. I will be back again next week.

The question for me was would I pull peg 8 again. The answer was no, because Steve O’Toole was running late so Dave Haines drew his peg first and out came my peg 8 (did Steve turn up, I thought I heard his voice!).

In to the draw bag and out comes in-form Carp peg 3, umm. Due to the over night rain the peg had a red pool of water along the front sleeper, I tried to perch my seat box away from it, but soon resigned to sitting in it. I set up my usual Ronnie rig and one Skimmer rig to be fished just down the inside shelf at 7 metres. I decided to feed my 3 mm expander pellet in hard ground bait to get it down on the bottom quickly to stop the Ronnie’s eating them on the drop. I started after the Ronnie’s by feeding the usual caster with caster hook bait, catching straight off fish in the 3 to12oz bracket. I did have a go for the Skimmers but had only one of 3oz, so decided to stick with the Ronnie’s for the remainder of the match and other than one 2lb 5oz Carp ½ hour to go I had caught Ronnie’s regularly through out. My Ronnie’s weighed in at 31lb 4oz, giving a total of 33lb 9oz for first in the Silvers and fourth overall.

The match was won by venue first timer Matt Taynton (pictured right with his catch) with 49lb 6oz from peg 9. Matt caught some early small Carp out in front at 7 metres. Matt later switched to both left and right hand margin with corn hook bait catching three quality Carp to 8lb in the last half hour or so.

Full Result:

1. Matt Taynton 49-06-0 peg 9
2. Lee Waller 38-04-0 peg 11
3. Leyton Palmer 36-04-0 peg 1
4. Mike Nicholls 33-09-0 peg 3
5. Bela Bakos 19-04-0 peg 2
6. Steve Jefferies 16-01-0 peg 5

Top Silvers:

1. Mike Nicholls 31-04-0 peg 3
2. Dave Haines 14-10-0 peg 4