For company I had Dave Poole on peg 7 and "Standing Man" John Osbourne on peg 10. Whilst draw bag John "Boy" Smith (does he never age) was on the end bank peg 11.
Peg 8 doesn't have any bankside cover and with the water clear and the level down 18 inches or more I wasn't sure my margin was going to fish. Nonetheless I set up a margin paste float to fish out 1 metre from the bank in deeper water. The peg is a reasonable Silvers peg so set up the Ronnie rig and a 4x14 F1 winter to fish top-set plus four barrels in 5 foot of water for 4mm expander over micro, where I started the match. First kinder pot certainly got the fish interested with loads of indications however, it was Carp. During the first hour I had two Skimmers and four Carp for 25 lb before the swim completely died - apparently. Looking round it seemed everyone had gone quite, except John Boy who was catching down both his edges. So I decided to get my head down with the Ronnie rig with maggot over loose fed maggot. It was a tiny Ronnie a put-in. I thought I would try some GB which worked well as I started to catch better fish with the odd Skimmer.
Halfway through there was some commotion from the pegs opposite. Pete Greenslade had foul hooked a munter in the tail on his Silvers rig which had gone into Bob Prices peg. Bob could see it in the reeds so netted it out for Pete. For the sake of fairness Bob agreed to release it with the hook still in it for Pete to have another attempt to land it - which he did. You can't write this stuff.
With two hours to go and the small Silvers still hungry John Osbourne started to catch down his edge. decisions to be made and elected to try my margin with paste over hard 4's. First try a 8 lb fish was soon in the net. So I decided to stick with this until the end landing Carp to 14 lb. However, I did have a frustrating time foul hooking five Carp in a row. The crafty buggers were coming from the bank down the shelf hitting my line before getting to the hook bait. I fished in closer but still fed in the same place which improved things. I shouted "fish on" on the all out whistle and lost it five minutes over time with the hook pulling out and was lucky I had a hat on otherwise I would have looked like a Unicorn with a float in my head!! It being about 8 lb it wouldn't have been quite enough to beat John Boy though.
My Silvers weighed 12 lb 9 oz for second Silvers and my overall weight 104 lb 1 oz for second overall - mission accomplished.
As expected John Boy (pictured upper right with my munters) won the match with 114 lb 1 oz from peg 11. John took small Carp from each margin using double corn over corn and micro mix.
The Silvers was won by "Enigma" (pictured right rolling back) with 25 lb 4 oz from peg 16. Steve caught on allsorts.
I must say the Match Lake is fishing very well helped by the influx of 500 lb of 2 to 4 lb Carp transferred from the Carp Lake - a good move. Expect more fish to be transferred in the coming weeks. The winter fishing will also improve this year. Lets hope the Cormorants don't show as much this winter.
It was back to the pun with the usual suspects. it was good to see Dave Gillard fishing today.
Result:
1. John Smith 114-01-0 peg 11
2. Mike Nicholls 104-01-0 peg 8
3. Dave Haines 98-10-0 peg 2
Silvers:
1. Steve Dawson 25-04-0 peg 16
2. Mike Nicholls 12-09-0 peg 8
3. Dave Poole 9-04-0 peg 7
3. Martin Alexander 9-04-0 peg 6
Weigh Sheet:
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