Sunday 04/03/2012 - Viaduct Teams of Five Winter League - Final Round - All Lakes

We arrived at the Canards Well for breakfast only to find that they were closed. Bela was well pissed, so it was flat out to the Globe Hotel for the cold buffet and the environmental unfriendly plastic brown sauce plastic packets.

Team Captain TM arrived with the team draw and I don’t know why he had his cheesy grin on show as he had drawn the same peg as the first match when we came last!! As it was my turn on Carey I was handed peg 90, followed by a bollocking from Bela for stating the peg I didn’t want on the drive down!! I wasn’t the only one to have this foresight, as Tony Rixon was hoping not to draw peg 21 – and he did.

Peg 90 does not suit my style of fishing as it requires 16 metres of pole to be fished into the end margin. I am not sure anyone could have fished that long today with the high gusting winds. As it was my first time on the peg I had a good think about how to approach it. I decided that I could forget team points as the draw wasn’t going to lift us up the league. I was laying 9^th overall and needed a Lake win to stand any chance of getting in the frame. So I thought the Silvers super pool would be my only chance of picking up any coin. So it was the pole with a 4x14 Jolly to be fished at 7 metres (wind and hands limited) and the small GB feeder at 25 metres. I started on the feeder with double maggot on the hook and after 20 minutes this had produced one sucked maggot. So I spent the rest of the match on the pole. I had fed a whole pot of caster on this line and with single caster on the hook I had three missed bites before I landed my first 1oz Ronnie. The reliable Ronnie’s kept me interested for quite some time – missing bites, bumping off, falling off and landing the odd one. The sun came out and the 12 o clock swim was unfishable, so it was round at 10 o clock where I had another caster swim on the back burner. Again it was Ronnie’s having a cautious look. It wasn’t until the last twenty minutes that the Skimmer put in an appearance landing six before the whistle, bumping two. I think the Skimmers were hanging loose up in the water until the wind picked up late on and pushed them down on the feed. It was all too late for me. My Silvers weighed in at 8lb 2oz for a mere 4 points (I think). If the match finished an hour later I would have ….. so would everyone else!! I did have my personal best Ruffe which I estimated to be 2 oz. The current Ruffe record is 5oz and 4 drams.

The team didn’t improve on the last result on the peg with 29 points, 1 less. However, we weren’t last. Team wise we ended the league in 12^th spot, which based on the draws we had was about fair.

The match was won by Dave Roper (pictured right - last seen trying to recover his keep net from his peg) with 135lb 12oz from peg 97. Dave caught on the straight lead with meat hook bait.

The Silvers was won by Vince Brown (pictured right) with 23lb 12oz of Skimmers from peg 18. Vince caught on the pole at 14.5 metres fishing caster over caster.

Top individual was Ray Hayward with 85 points – averaging 17 points per match out of a possible 19. Ray today fished peg 2 on Spring Lake and fished the lead all match for two Carp.  I really don’t know how he does this.

Full Result:

1.      Dave Roper 135-12-0 peg 97

2.      Des Shipp 134-09-0 peg 113
3.      Jason Radford 93-01-0 peg 86
4.      Steve Kedge 83-13-0 peg
5.      Bob Gullick 80-03-0 peg 127
6.      Paul Housewood 78-02-0 peg

Top Silvers:

1.      Vince Brown 23-12-0 peg 18
2.      John Moody 20-05-0 peg 43
3.      Dean Malin 20-02-0 peg 68

Top Teams on the Day:

1.      Thatcher’s Youth 70 points

2.      Somerset Angling 69
3.      Dynamite Baits 67
4.      Awa-Shima 67
5.      Viaduct Select 67
….
16. Silverfox TM 29

Final League Position:

1.      Thatcher’s Youth 335 Points

2.      Somerset Angling 308

3.      Moaning Maggots 304

4.      Viaduct Select 297

5.      Garbolino 264
6.      Maver Red 262
…
12. Silverfox TM 224

Top Individuals:

1.      Ray Hayward 85 Points
2.      Tony Rixon 80