Following a week of frosts and the possibility of ice-breaking by Friday the numbers for this match were diminishing rapidly and I was considering cancelling but we had a couple of late book-ins and the weather forecast was promising a bit of a rise in temperature and no frost overnight.
In addition I'd phoned the fishery and both the main lakes were ice free unlike a lot of other Somerset venues so no need for my sledgehammer head to weigh down the brand new fishing bus!
Even better news was that Alan Healey was helping me christen the new bus which meant he was buying at the cafe and the icing on the cake would be to rob him of another pound coin but unfortunately that wasn't to be.
Predictably the weather forecast was completely off the mark and the skies had cleared overnight resulting in it being very cold and foggy (although that didn't hang about too long once the breeze got up).
So with just the seven fishing, pegging was a bit of a head-scratcher .... One bank, but which? Or spread out on both banks?
In the end we decided on the one bank, the bank shared with Brick lake, leaving out the corners (31 & 40).
No doubt it was the wrong choice as in this kind of situation you're never going to please everybody but never mind.
The match itself was fairly un-eventful for some, especially for Lee Williams on peg 39 who, despite his best efforts, gave up early after snaring just two very greedy (and very tiny) roachlets.
The serious action took place at the other end of the lake and was shared between Lee Waller on 32 and Alan on 33.
Lee fished soft pellet over micros long and found quality skimmers whereas Alan opted to sit it out on the tip with bread all day for four bites and four carp totalling 17-5 but it wasn't enough to beat Lee who's net of skimmers plus a bewildered carp went 19-5.
I had found myself on peg 36 sandwiched between Keith Ray on 35 and Matt Taynton (who seems to enjoy drawing next to me here) on 37.
36 is an open water peg but I spent the first hour chucking a method feeder with micros and 3 dead mags to an island I discovered accidentally (Keith insisted I mentioned that).
Regardless though of whose peg it ended up in it produced bugger all.
Dropping back on the pole at 13m with a single maggot over micros eventually produced a tiny skimmer which was a relief as I was starting to have ideas about a dreaded blank.
That one was followed soon after by its twin brother before the next bite produced something a lot more substantial which turned out to be a skimmer of about 1½ lbs.
Unfortunately though, despite the most delicate of shipping back, it nodded its head and shed the hook leaving me close to tears and wishing I had a seven metre landing net handle as it floundered around on the surface for ages like a jellyfish before it realised it was free and swam off to warn its mates.
Closer inspection revealed the maggot had flipped over the hook point ... bugger (as they say on the good blogs)!
So a quiet spell followed at which point I got bored and went back out on the tip for more biteless action (although I did have a liner).
In the meantime Keith had spent several hours fruitlessly bread-slinging and Matt had been trotting a wind and tow assisted waggler past the island whilst muttering about being on the wrong bank. That had produced just one roachlet so I was doing ok in my 3 man section.
That was until Mat dropped onto his pole line after 3 hours and promptly had four skimmers in a row, reversing the deficit, before losing number 5.
By now I was getting no indications at all on the pole but I was struggling with presentation as the tow was pushing the rig back towards me. Adding a section and fiddling around with the shotting improved things a bit and I managed to get a few more skimmers and baby roach including a fish around the pound mark.
By the end Keith had followed Lee Williams on the walk of shame after netting just one skimmer (that was hooked in the wrong-un).
With first and second places sewn up it was going to be a close call between myself, Matt Taynton and Matt Challenger on 38 for the default silvers payout.
Matt Taynton took the honours with 5lbs dead which comfortably beat my 3-7 and Matt Challenger's 3-3.
So a hard day but it was enjoyable working hard for every fish.
Full Result:
1. Lee Waller (32) ....... 19-5
2. Alan Healey (33) ..... 17-5
3. Matt Taynton (37) .... 5-0
4. Steve Burgess (36) ... 3-7
5. Matt Challenger (38) ... 3-3
And 2 dnw's
Next week we are on the main lake at Plantations and hopefully it will have warmed up a bit by then and it will be a better result.
At least there are a few going though and there are some spaces available for those that forgot there was a meeting last Tuesday.
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