Trinity, Wildmarsh, 24 Feb (10 pegs)

I've been racking my brains since Sunday evening for inspiration to come up with something positive to put in this update but to be honest, I've failed.
For most of us it was our first time on the Lake and nobody was expecting an easy days fishing as it was bitterly cold although not as windy as had been forecast.
And we weren't dissapointed either.
Misha had kindly let us have the first 30 pegs to choose from which was good with only 10 fishing, but nobody had much idea how to peg it so, following Misha's advice and a bit of logic, we left out peg 15 and the corner pegs by the bottom of the car park and spread the rest out evenly.
Only one peg stood out as a flier (peg 11), which has a narrow strip of reed bed on the left that extends right across the Lake although much of it has died off leaving an underwater bar that the carp and tench patrol around (apparently).
No awards for guessing which number was left in the bag for me to cock up!
As for the match itself it was a classic winter affair with some getting a few and others (especially me) not getting a few.
Leading the "charge" was in-form psv winter specialist Paul Reed (not something you see often) on peg 25 which is on the point of the spit. Paul adopted his standard tactics of dumping a pot full of groundbait and other stuff at 13m and fishing over it  for 6 hrs like a gnome, which today worked a treat as it produced the only decent fish of the match in the shape of a 4lb bream.
Also setting the pace was Kev "trigger" Jefferies on peg  9, so called as he has a habit of turning up once in a blue moon and mugging the pools.
Taking a break from the tougher competition of the Acorn over 55's* he used similar tactics to the gnome which produced a regular supply of good sized roach and skimmers.
But the big suprise of the day was Mark Radford who was hidden away on his own around the corner from the gnome on peg 29.
Mark spent most of the match struggling but in the last hour the skimmers turned up over his groundbait and chopped worm feed and four of them managed to hang themselves taking him from nowhere to top spot with 9lbs 4oz.
The gnome took second with 8-8 and Kev Jefferies snared 3rd with 8-0.
For the record, on my flier peg I managed three roach on caster which came in a frantic 10 minute frenzy. I put this epic failure down to the two grebes that were also fishing in my peg although Misha's theory that "I'm rubbish" was probably a bit closer to the truth!
Mind you, this was coming from someone who completely ballsed up my match bookings probably due to the fact that she puts the bookings on her 1-Direction calendar instead of a proper year planner but I've decided to let her off on this occasion as she has apologised and still remains the club's favourite fishery manager(ess)!

*Kev puts his youthful looks down to good family genes and plenty of moisturiser.


Full result:

1. Mark Radford (peg 29) ...... 9-4
2. Paul the gnome Reed (25) ........ 8-8
3. Kev trigger Jefferies (9) ......... 8-0
4. Stevie Wynne (23) .............. 4-14
5. Rich Jones* (14) .................. 3-4
6. Darren North (6) ............... 2-10
7. Si Belcham (17) ................ 2-2
8. Stewart Riddle (1) ............. 1-12
9. Steve Burgess (11) ........ 0-9  0-12
10. Ryan Radford (20) ........ dnw

*golden peg

For the record, the Clevedon match we should have had on Woodlands fared a little better as some of them seem to know what they're doing and managed a few carp ... click here for details