Trinity, Woodlands, 09 March (15 pegs)

Firstly thanks to all who attended last week's Agm at The Horseshoe.
And a welcome back for the new Chairman, Mike Wilson who has returned to the helm after a break of a couple of years.
And thanks to all who have fished throughout the year and assisted with organisation, weighing-in etc which has resulted in a successful season with some great results and no re-draws!
Well done also to Mark Radford who wins the Matchman of the Year title.
Back to today and for once we were forecast a warm spring day and that's exactly what we got, the warmest day of the year so far in fact.
As per usual fishery manager Misha (complete with new dark hair colour) was in charge of the welcoming committee and offering plenty of useful advice.
So with fifteen fishing the payout was top three overall and (with Kev Jefferies at Emerald Pool), two Silvers payouts.
I won't go into too much detail as to how the match went as Brian Shanks, on peg 12, had his first carp in the net fishing 8mm pellet shallow before I'd even filled my bait tubs and he continued in the same vein up to the "all out" fishing mostly at 14m between 18" and 3' deep.
He also caught in the margins on meat for a total of 124lbs exactly.
A stewards enquiry considered disqualifying his 3rd net but he would have still won!
In second place was new member Steve O' Toole on peg 7 with 80-0 caught on meat in the margins (left & right) on just his top 2,
And third spot went to Chris Gay with 72-10 from peg 31, again caught on pellet shallow.
Silvers went to Lee Waller with 9-12 from peg 6.
As for my match, I had planned to fish the waggler with caster but that was a no-go as the wind was blowing towards me and to my right making the presentation rubbish.
The long pole line, which I'd fed with groundbait containing micros and caster never produced a bite and after seeing too many people catching shallow a hastily assembled pellet rig also produced nothing.
Most of the match was then spent in the margins.  First put in down the left side produced an instant bite and a good sized carp was hooked but unfortunately it shed the hook, or should I say, it shed the rig and kept the hook as the rig came back with a curly pigtail of line where the hook should have been (not good).
I did manage a handful of carp down the right margin towards the empty platform of peg 14 and a late look back out on the shallow rig produced two fish in a row before the rig got completely wrapped up around the pole and put the dampers on that.
My meagre 28-6 was by no means the worst performance of the day as over in peg 20 Matt Taynton, who is more often than not, a force to be reckoned with could only manage a few silvers (no carp whatsoever) and from a peg that even Chris Gay and Colin Ellaway have managed to catch from before now so Matt most definitely qualified for the "Hero to Zero" award this week!
Talking of awards, Chris Gay took the "Best Dressed Angler" award with his very smart new outfit which caused a bit of amusement at the draw especially at the expenses of our resident (Daiwa) tackle / clothing tart Will Dearlove.
I never got a picture of Chris in his finery but I did get one of Derek Lucas giving his neighbour Brian Shanks a lesson in catching carp on the pole (see below)

Unfortunately for Derek, what this picture doesn't show is that Brian put 2 fish in his net while Derek was playing that one!


Full Result:

1. Brian Shanks (peg 12) ...... 124-0
2. Steve O' Toole (7) ......... 80-0
3. Chris Gay (31) .............. 72-10
4. Darren North* (9) .......... 51-8
5. Mark Radford (17) ......... 39-0
6. Ryan Radford (24) ......... 38-6
7. Keith Ray (30) .............. 36-14
8. Will Dearlove (25) ......... 29-4
9. Steve Burgess (15) ....... 28-6
10. Derek Lucas (13) .......... 20-14
11. Lee Waller (6) .............. 9-12
12. John Bradford (27) ........ 8-1
13. Matt Taynton (20) ........ 7-6!!!
14. Chris Szakacs (10) / Lionel Legge (28) .... dnw

*golden peg

Silvers:

1. Lee Waller (6) ......... 9-12
2. Keith Ray (30) ......... 8-4
3. John Bradford (27) .... 8-1
4. Matt Taynton (20) ...... 7-6

And on a lighter note, down at Shiplate and the final round of their Winter Series, Alan Healey needed a good result to ensure a place in the overall money.
Especially he needed to do better than Steve Howell which he was quite confident of doing as he had taken a few pound coins off him over the series.

I dont know what happened there then, but at least Adam Caswell, who was standing in for Dean Malin (and fishing for Fry's?) managed to retain some self respect ........


"On points the series was won by Dean Malin (Shimano/Dynamite), with Steve Howell (Shiplate) taking Second and Rich Hawkins (Bristol PO) in Third place. The Silvers league was won by Julian Pinkett (Bristol PO) and Second was Gordon Jones (Shiplate).
The Pairs prize was won by Dean Malin and Alan Healey.

The match itself on the day was won by Steve Howell on the pole, fishing worm shallow to the far bank, and margins, feeding micro.
1st Steve Howell (Shiplate) p12W, 50lb 9oz (pictured)
2nd Adam Caswell (Frys) p1H, 39lb 3oz"


 (courtesy of Shiplate Carp Fishery Facebook page)