Plantations, Coarse Lake, 10 March (17pegs)

Spring finally showed it's face during the early part of the week leading up to this one, but it was short-lived and by Sunday morning winter was back with a vengeance with a bitter easterly wind to contend with and although the temperature in the fishing bus was showing 4` it felt more like 0` in the windchill.
In order to secure the whole Lake for ourselves we needed a minimum of 15 fishing but with it being Mothers Day, despite much furious texting, I only had 11 booked in. Luckily we (Alan) managed to snare half a dozen of Frys finest ringers at short notice who were happy to fish somewhere other than Bullocks or the Docks  where there would be a possibility of a few bites.
Sure enough there were a few bites for almost everyone and despite the cold wind the carp were feeding.
Jason Bird on peg 25 was off to a flying start with a couple of quick fish on the method chucked to the island and Merv Sivell surprised himself and everyone around him catching  on the pole at 14m with soft pellet on the noted flier peg 6.
And on peg 4 yours truly was having some action on the lead with double corn chucked in the direction of the island.
However, self-confessed venue expert Chris Szakacs was the man on the money with 10 good sized carp caught on corn at 4m down his right hand margin which, with his silvers, went a matchwinning 62lbs 8oz.
Jason Bird wasn't overjoyed with having wasted half an hour playing a Canada goose and a rather large island, neither of which came in very easily and quite possibly cost him the match.
As a result he had to settle for second with his 13 carp which went a total of 52-4.
Third place went to Marvelous Merv Sivell with 30-0 followed by myself with 23-12.
Silvers went to Bob Warren with 10-2 from peg 8.  Bob, after his religious 3 minutes on the tip, caught on caster down the edge and later a chopped worm which produced a bonus perch of 2lb plus.
Cadbury Angling had had a silvers match on the day before which was won by Andy Hembrow on peg 7 with 34lbs of skimmers caught on soft pellet. Steve Mayo was second with 21lbs from peg 5.  Ray Cooper dnw'd from peg 5 today .... hmmm!

Overall Result:

1. Chris Szakacs (peg 18) ...... 62-8
2. Jason Bird (25) ................ 52-4
3. Merv Sivell (6) ................. 30-0
4. Steve Burgess (4) ............ 23-12
5. Mark Radford (28) ........... 21-1
6. Alan Healy (1) ................ 19-2
7. Bob Warren (8) .............. 18-11
8. Mike F (38) .................... 16-10
9. Paul Reed (32) ............... 12-2
10. Andy Curry (33) ............. 12-0
11. Kev Jefferies (39) ........... 10-4
12. and 6 dnw's

Silvers:

1. Bob Warren ..... 10-2
2. Andy Curry ....... 5-4
3. Kev Jefferies ..... 4-9
4. Paul Reed ......... 2-15
5. Mark radford ..... 2-8
6. Chris Szakacs .... 2-5 
7.