With only two matches left in the league I was hoping to stop the slide that has seen me drop from first place in the last match. The weather was overcast and it looked like it might rain and there was also a blustery wind. There were seven of us fishing and the pegging was pretty spread out, I drew peg 12, just along from where I was last time and Moses drew the same peg he won off last time but would he find another bonus fish this time?
I set up my trusty whip and a Drennan Roach rig to fish just past the whip line. There was quite a bit of tow and it was affecting the whip rig quite badly so I thought I might have to fish the pole to hold the bait still. Rob blew his whistle and we were off, I cupped in two balls on the pole line at 7 metres before starting on the whip. I had a rudd first put in on maggot so switched to caster and started getting odd better fish, although I wasn’t catching as fast as the last match the fish were of a better stamp and I had 32 fish for around 3-4lb in the first hour.
Justin Charles was next peg along on 14 but had arrived late but was getting a few small fish, Alvin on peg 4 was catching well but Martin reckoned he was struggling (yeah right!), Rob Cox was getting a few on 8 and I couldn’t really tell how Bob and Moses were getting on. The second hour saw my whip line slow so I tried the pole and had a good roach first chuck on double maggot, my next fish was a tiny perch so I tried caster. I was getting fish but they weren’t any bigger than maggot fish and I was losing my way. The wind was awful and made feeding a nightmare, back on the whip saw me getting odd fish but my catch rate had dropped right off.
Moses caught a chub shortly followed by a good eel and then another chub! was he going to win again? Martin certainly thought so. Then the rain started and although I didn’t have my bib and brace, I had at least brought a coat, unlike poor Justin who was getting soaked. Hour three saw me struggle on with the whip getting odd fish but I knew I wasn’t going to beat Moses or Alvin who had landed several decent perch. To be honest it wasn’t much fun and I was relieved when Rob called the all out, I ended with 76 fish and thought I had 5lb or so.
We all hurriedly packed up and the scales soon arrived at my peg, Moses had weighed 11lb 1oz (his fourth 11lb+ weight on the trot) and I thought he’d win again. Justin didn’t weigh and my fish went a rather disappointing 6lb 1oz, Robin had 4lb 4oz, so at least I’d beaten the anglers either side. Then Martin had 11lb 14oz (struggle then!) and now looks to be in line for the biggest weight of the series prize, beating Moses previous best by an ounce. Alvin had 11lb 4oz for second place and Bob didn’t bother the scalesman.
Another poor result (4 points) saw me slip to fourth in the league behind Moses on 8 and Alvin and Martin on 9 and I really need a good result in the last match to stand any chance of a league placing but I just can’t see it happening. Once again I’d tried to target quality with casters but you just can’t catch enough of them.
1 – Martin Heard (Tiverton) – 11lb 14oz
2 – Alvin Jones (Enterprise Angling) – 11lb 4oz
3 – Moses Holbrook (Ilminster) – 11lb 1oz
I’m at Summerhayes tomorrow night so after two bad matches, will it be third time lucky? I doubt it.
Also I popped into the new fishing shop in Chard, The Tackle Box, and the owner seems really nice, he hasn’t got much match gear in at the moment but hopefully that will change. I wish him luck and it’s nice to have a tackle shop in Chard again, check out his website at www.lymetackle.com
