After missing a couple of matches with blood clot in leg. I decided to give todays match a try, With the idea being if leg starts to ache I can come home with the venue being around 15 minutes away, The venue was one that I took Mikench on an now he will more than likely end up paying council tax there, He is Never off it, Anyway I digress, I drew peg 5 which incidentally was a couple of pegs away from where Mike and myself fished, I set 3 pole rigs up, A maggot rig with size 20 hook to 8 solid elastic on side puller, deep 4x14 rig with size 14 hook on 13h elastic again on side puller for use with meat, corn or bunch of maggots, and a margin rig, Small Drennan dibber with a couple of stotz to cock it and a 16 Guru QM1 hook with quickstop attached, At the all I potted a few maggots down the track at 5 metres, a few pieces of meat that had been soaking in Sonubaits F1 liquid flavouring at the end of the track at 9 metres, and some 4mm Robin Red pellets with a golf ball size of soaked 2mm pellets,also Robin Red. I should mention I drew the golden peg With a 100 quid riding on it, I also set up an old Silstar Diaflex 7' bomb rod with xsafe method feeder. I started off on the maggot rig and was plagued with suicidal roach that Gillete and Wilkinson Sword would be proud of, The were like razor blades with fins and eyes,
I thought 100 quid or not, I wasn't going to sit there for 5 hours catching roach that weighed something like 200 to the pound, So it was an 8mm Robin Red pellet on the hair rig and 2mm on the method feeder and out it went to my right across to the far bank, I had an end peg, After a few knocks on the tip it went round and and F1 of around a pound was soon in the net, Then nothing, Right I thought a change of plan, 3 x 8mm discs of bread on the margin rig out at 12 metres to far side, A few Ide were caught and a few F1's then it went quiet again, Plan C now came into play, meat on the margin rig at 12 metres, F1's, Ide, a solitary tench, roach that must have hung on to meat when I unshipped pole back, Each time I caught a fish, I potted 3 or 4 pieces of meat in each time I went across, It was a waiting game, Some bites were slight dips of the float others were the pole tip bouncing down to the water,
I had one carp on that didn't know it had been hooked, I "walked it" from the far side to within netting distance, Then it woke up. 17h elastic was heading back to far side at a rate of knots, then the hook pulled, At this point I decided to stretch my legs for a few minutes. Back on the seatbox and back to far side, I lost 3 more in the rushes, . I tried the margin to my left ,nothing, Nothing more on the bomb rod, So back across to far side and picked a few more F1's up before the all out, I knew I had beaten the lads to my left,it was the others on the other side of the island I didn't know about, I was last to be weighed in and no one was saying what the weights were, I weighed in 18lb for third, 20lb was second and 23lb won it. Those lost fish and an aching leg cost me 100 quid, The money now goes into club funds and golden peg starts again on Next match at Lloyds Meadow next Saturday, another water Mike likes and I think Gordon ( wethrough) did even though we didn't fish our intended pool, which is the one I am on on the next match.
