Luckily, I had skipped Shipham in favour of Hilltops as it's quicker for me to go straight down the motorway and to be honest, they do a good brekkie there and it comes out pretty quick too although the staff may not be quite as glamorous!
Anyway, 16 fishing today and Misha sorted out the pegging for us (no need for her bodyguard today as they're now married).
Taking my turn with the rest of the rabble this week I found myself on peg 10 which put me in the company of Rich Jones on 11 and, yet again, Matt "2 pegs" Taynton on 8 who was still trying to live down the memories of last week and muttering something or other about the bush between us meaning he wouldn't be able to watch me kick his arse again!
A quick chat with Mr Jones who knows the lake like the back of his neck confirmed what I suspected that it would be an up-in-the-water / margin day as we had a stiff breeze blowing at us and up to the top corner (peg 17) which was occupied by Simon Belcham so there was a fair chance that his sprat-bashing was going to be interrupted today.
I never had a quick chat with Mr Taynton as he was still sore about last week.
I never had a quick chat with Mr Taynton as he was still sore about last week.
I set up a shallow rig for 8mm pellet, a full depth rig, about 8' deep, to fish meat over soggy 4mm pellet for as far out as was comfortable in the wind (11-13m) and a rig to fish towards the bush on my right at topkit plus 2 sections which was beefed up a bit as some of the fish here can be quite hefty.
As I had a bit of time left I also set up a wag rod set to about half depth in case the wind dropped which it didn't so no more on that one, as they say (I've been dying to put that in somewhere)!
After cupping in a combination of pellet and meat on the pole lines I started out on the shallow rig (as did pretty much everyone) with a banded 8 and feeding 6's over the top.
And after a few minutes of old-school lifting and plopping the rig in (I can't get my head round the slapping nonsense) I was playing my first fish.
And looking round while I was playing it, it seemed that everyone else on our bank were also playing fish.
Unfortunately it wasn't so on the opposite bank as nobody was getting much over there and as the match progressed there seemed to be a bit of jealousy creeping in ... not that I was too bothered!
Sticking with the shallow rig I was getting odd fish but nothing like as many as Darren North and Chris Gay who were having a close battle on pegs 14 & 13 but for the time being I was keeping up with Rich Jones next door thanks mainly to a monster of a fish that would have been more at home at Cary.
I had an early look down the edge which resulted in missing a bite and putting my rig in the overhanging bush .... bugger!
This is a problem I'm getting a lot now as my 50 year old eyesight is failing rapidly and I struggle to work out distances and colours but never mind.
With a new rig on I went back down the edge and had another double-figure fish and a lucky escape as while I was playing it on my topkit I noticed out of the corner of my good eye the rest of my pole sliding off the roller into the lake and luckily, with a bit of one-handed carp juggling, managed to grab it before it vanished.
With my shallow fishing not really setting the world on fire I had a look on the deep rig but presentation was a nightmare as the tow was going with the wind and pushing the rig back towards me at a silly rate.
I hooked 2 fish on this rig, both fouled when I was lifting the rig out, managing to get one of them in backwards so I have a suspicion they weren't on the deck!!
As the match progressed Chris and Darren were still catching miles more than everyone else and Rich Jones (below) had a second wind catching shallow close in.
Up on Peg 17 Simon Belcham was, as predicted, suffering carp problems, the whingers on the opposite bank were still whingeing, Lionel Legge had even taken the opportunity to have a lie down in the sun.
Although Ron Hardiman on 32 had a few and Ryan on peg 20 was also catching so it wasn't all bad over that side.
I did manage a couple more out of the margin before the all-out but it never really lived up to expectations.
Rich next door had one on the all-out and provided a bit of comedy when he dropped his landing net and while retrieving it managed to get the hook off one of his other kits stuck in his hat and got in a bit of a pickle.
I was going to help him out but he'd got himself sorted by the time I'd stopped laughing at him!
My efforts went a total of 53-14 which was good enough for 5th place and one off the money but more importantly (for me) it meant another pound coin from Alan Healey and another lesson for 2-pegs Taynton who was well and truly "chip-shopped" as his other neighbour Matt "chatty-man" Challenger came 3rd with 85-1 caught mainly on paste down the edge, so I went home happy.
The match was won by Darren North with 96-2 all caught shallow with pellet and Chris Gay was one fish behind with 92-2
Mr Jones took fourth with 64-10 so the 2oz rudd I chucked back never cost me.
The silvers was won by Lee Waller on 29 with 7-13 of skimmers.
Ryan Radford was 2nd with 5-7 but wasn't in the pools allowing Simon Belcham to frame with 5-4 of whitebait by default.
Full Result:
After cupping in a combination of pellet and meat on the pole lines I started out on the shallow rig (as did pretty much everyone) with a banded 8 and feeding 6's over the top.
And after a few minutes of old-school lifting and plopping the rig in (I can't get my head round the slapping nonsense) I was playing my first fish.
And looking round while I was playing it, it seemed that everyone else on our bank were also playing fish.
Unfortunately it wasn't so on the opposite bank as nobody was getting much over there and as the match progressed there seemed to be a bit of jealousy creeping in ... not that I was too bothered!
Sticking with the shallow rig I was getting odd fish but nothing like as many as Darren North and Chris Gay who were having a close battle on pegs 14 & 13 but for the time being I was keeping up with Rich Jones next door thanks mainly to a monster of a fish that would have been more at home at Cary.
I had an early look down the edge which resulted in missing a bite and putting my rig in the overhanging bush .... bugger!
This is a problem I'm getting a lot now as my 50 year old eyesight is failing rapidly and I struggle to work out distances and colours but never mind.
With a new rig on I went back down the edge and had another double-figure fish and a lucky escape as while I was playing it on my topkit I noticed out of the corner of my good eye the rest of my pole sliding off the roller into the lake and luckily, with a bit of one-handed carp juggling, managed to grab it before it vanished.
With my shallow fishing not really setting the world on fire I had a look on the deep rig but presentation was a nightmare as the tow was going with the wind and pushing the rig back towards me at a silly rate.
I hooked 2 fish on this rig, both fouled when I was lifting the rig out, managing to get one of them in backwards so I have a suspicion they weren't on the deck!!
As the match progressed Chris and Darren were still catching miles more than everyone else and Rich Jones (below) had a second wind catching shallow close in.
Up on Peg 17 Simon Belcham was, as predicted, suffering carp problems, the whingers on the opposite bank were still whingeing, Lionel Legge had even taken the opportunity to have a lie down in the sun.
Although Ron Hardiman on 32 had a few and Ryan on peg 20 was also catching so it wasn't all bad over that side.
I did manage a couple more out of the margin before the all-out but it never really lived up to expectations.
Rich next door had one on the all-out and provided a bit of comedy when he dropped his landing net and while retrieving it managed to get the hook off one of his other kits stuck in his hat and got in a bit of a pickle.
I was going to help him out but he'd got himself sorted by the time I'd stopped laughing at him!
My efforts went a total of 53-14 which was good enough for 5th place and one off the money but more importantly (for me) it meant another pound coin from Alan Healey and another lesson for 2-pegs Taynton who was well and truly "chip-shopped" as his other neighbour Matt "chatty-man" Challenger came 3rd with 85-1 caught mainly on paste down the edge, so I went home happy.
The match was won by Darren North with 96-2 all caught shallow with pellet and Chris Gay was one fish behind with 92-2
Mr Jones took fourth with 64-10 so the 2oz rudd I chucked back never cost me.
The silvers was won by Lee Waller on 29 with 7-13 of skimmers.
Ryan Radford was 2nd with 5-7 but wasn't in the pools allowing Simon Belcham to frame with 5-4 of whitebait by default.
Full Result:
- Darren North (14) ......... 96-14
- Chris Gay (13) ............. 92-2
- Matt Challenger (7) ...... 85-1
- Rich Jones (11) ........... 64-10
- Steve Burgess (10) ...... 53-14
- Ryan Radford (20) ....... 46-15
- 2 Pegs Taynton (8/9) .... 42-4
- Chris Szakacs (2) ......... 38-10
- Ron Hardiman (32) ....... 35-2
- Adam Caswell* (24) ...... 32-12
- Mark Radford (27) ........ 24-8
- Lee Waller (29) ............ 21-14
- Ross Baker (23) ........... 11-4
- Sim on Belcham (23) .... 5-4
- and 2 dnw's
Silvers:
- Lee Waller (29) .......... 7-13
- Ryan Radford (20) ...... 5-7
- Simon Belcham (17) ... 5-4
- Ross Baker (23) ......... 4-4
Next week's adventure is on the new canal at Ivy House and it's a long while since we've been there so should be interesting.
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