After not fishing last weekend I was really looking forward to getting back on the bank this weekend. There were only eight of us fishing again and those that had already drawn peg 1 weren’t allowed to draw it again so that left three of us and I drew it! I had mixed emotions about it though as the peg hasn’t been the flier we all expected, still I was going to go for it! Robin warned us it might be busy out the pond as there was a festival of farming on and boy was he not wrong! There were people, cars and tractors everywhere.
I got to my peg and it looked nice with an overhanging tree, I made myself comfy and set up two rigs. The first was my usual roach rig and the second was a heavy rig for under the tree. I mixed up some Sensas Lake Black and chopped up some worms and I was ready. On my left I had league leader, Bruce Hunt and the next angler I could see was Graham Field opposite on peg 20. The whistle went and I cupped in three balls of groundbait at nine metres and then a pot of chopped worm and casters under the tree followed by another of corn and hemp. While I left that line to settle, I baited up with caster and went over the groundbait.
I didn’t have to wait long for a bite and was soon swinging in a 2oz roach, I was getting odd fish but was already well behind Bruce and Graham who were catching small fish a lot quicker than me. After 45 mins I had 10 fish and was already thinking about trying under the tree. After a few more minutes I could wait no longer and slipped on a piece of corn and went under the tree ready for battle to commence. I waited and waited but not a touch, so I tried double caster and started getting bites but the culprits turned out to be perch and roach and not the chub I’d hoped for.
I did have a lucky escape when an over enthusiastic strike saw my rig in the tree but it came straight out, have to watch that I thought! Then five minutes I did exactly the same and this time there was no way it was coming out. I could already sense this wasn’t to be my day. I dug another rig out of the box and continued feeding caster over the top, hoping to entice some chub to feed. I was still getting odd fish and even netted a better roach and two eels but by now, with half the match gone, Martin, Bruce and Fieldy already had over a hundred fish.
To be honest there’s not a lot left to tell from my point of view as I was so far behind on small fish I had to stick it out for a lump or two and it never happened. I ended with 24 fish which gave me 2lb 11oz and a really disappointing day. Bruce did better with 180 fish for 8lb 6oz, Graham had the same weight although he had 202 fish. Moses Holbrook did a little better with 9lb and as he was on the golden peg he could have been in for a bumper payday but Martin did enough with 200 fish for a level 10lb and the golden peg would go to the last match. Martin’s weight made sure of his third victory on the trot and he’s really got this small fish lark sorted.
The pond actually fished quite well as Malcolm Levy had 6lb 8oz to come nowhere, Neil Dring weighed 3lb 5oz and Rob Cox 2lb 8oz. Things have tightened right up at the top of the league with Martin now joining Bruce on 13 pts followed closely by Graham on 14 and it would go to the last match. Let’s just hope Martin doesn’t draw the golden peg in two weeks time!
1 – Martin Heard (Tiverton) – 10lb
2 – Moses Holbrook (Ilminster) – 9lb
3 – Bruce Hunt (ALS) – 8lb 6oz
3 – Graham Field (Taunton) – 8lb 6oz
Next week Andy and me are off to our annual pilgrimage to the Evesham festival so there’ll be no fishing next week although I’ll let you know how we get on.
