Staunton Court, 7 April (13 pegs)

Finally it seemed we were going to have a day off from the relentless winter and the forecast was for a cloudy day with light winds and 10º and although I was still scraping ice off the fishing bus first thing, the forecast was spot on and it eventually turned into an almost nice spring day. As ever breakfast was at the Watersmeet hotel in Hartpury served by our favourite waitress who this week had her arm in a plaster cast but that didn't affect the breakfast which was as excellent as ever.
13 fishing today and pole only so five on either side (avoiding the shallower "corner of death" where three of us struggled last time round). We then had 2 on the top bank, and 1 on the bottom bank but that was switched round under the advice of our Polish Hungarian contingent.  As it happened, the top end of the lake fished better than the bottom end probably due to the warm(ish) wind blowing up that end and the "corner of death" would most likely have fished totally different today but who knows.
I would say though that this lake would benefit greatly from having proper platforms to fish from which would give people a bit more room to manoeuvre on the concrete bank where space for shipping is limited and on the opposite grass bank where the bank on some pegs slopes straight to the edge of the water resulting in a fair bit of adjusting of box legs to get a stable base to fish from.  Shipping back on this bank also has its problems as the bank behind rises about 10 feet from the water, made up presumably from what was dug to form the lake itself.  It would also allow anglers to cover a few extra metres of water in pole-only matches (which ours are).
Anyway, at the start most chose to fish long and on the deck, apart from Simon (Des) Belcham whose standard 1 rig was set up at about 6m.
Adam Caswell got off to a good start and was catching decent skimmers from the off but elsewhere not a great deal was happening.
Darren North, on peg 2, in a bid to impress his boss Brian Shanks was having a go with a shallow rig and must have caught on it as a few others soon switched to the same tactic.
Mark Radford on peg 4 was also catching odd carp shallow as was the mugger on peg 5 although Brian doesn't possess any rigs more than three feet deep so nothing new there.
A couple of hours in and Adam, the club's new silvers expert was still fishing, still catching skimmers and still making plenty of noise but his neighbours Chris Szakacs and new member Chris Packet were also catching carp shallow as was myself although mine were coming out of Chris Packet's peg when he wasn't looking.
Club superstar Alan Healy meanwhile was having an unusually uneventful day on peg 12 and was missing the absent Paul Reed who would have been his only chance of regaining any money today as even the silvers weren't helping him out and he was having to endure a fair amount of abuse.
The mugger however was now catching shallow both out in front and long up against the steel shuttering that holds the bank in on that peg and with three nets in the water, was looking well ahead of anybody else. Chris Packet had likewise dug out a third net and my peg had started to produce well in the last hour and I no longer needed to stray too far to my left to catch and even had a couple from the shallower water in death corner.
And that's the way it finished up with the Mugger first with 102-2 followed by Chris Packet with 92-8 and myself with 82-8. Simon Belcham gave Adam (whose skimmers eventually deserted him) a lesson in silvers fishing with 25-12 of mostly skimmers ranging in size from plankton to a couple of pounds caught on maggot and caster at 6m.
I've not done it for a while but the Hero to Zero award this week easily went to Alan as it's always refreshing to see someone have an off day and take it on the chin without bitching and moaning about certain other people's pegs being "solid"!
It was nice to see a bit of decent weather for a change and a few fish come out as a result although it seems Trig did a little better fishing shallow at Landsend today winning it with 226-3 from peg 22! Trinity next week and the weather is promising to be good again which is always a bonus down there.



Full Result:

1. Mugger Shanks  (peg 5) ...... 102-2
2. Chris Packet (8) ...... 92-8
3. Steve Burgess (7) .... 82-8
4. Mark Radford (4) ..... 81-10
5. Darren North* (2) .... 77-7
6. Chris Szacaks (10) .... 61-2
7. Simon Belcham (6) ... 45-0
8. Matt Taynton (3) ...... 22-11
9. Adam Caswell (9) ..... 22-9
10. Alan Healy (12) ........ 19-9
11. Will Dearlove (1) ...... 17-8 
12. Derick Lucas (11) ..... 4-11
13. Ryan Radford (13) .... dnw

Silvers:

1. Simon (Des) Belcham .... 25-12
2. Adam Caswell ........ 14-1
3. Matt Taynton ......... 9-11
4. Chris Packet .......... 9-6
5. Alan Healy ............ 8-5
6. Derick Lucas .......... 4-11
7. Mugger Shanks ...... 3-7
8. Chris Szakacs ........ 2-15
9. Steve Burgess ....... 2-12
10. D/arren North ....... 2-8
11. Mark Radford ........ 2-1
12. Will Dearlove ......... 1-8