Bristol PSV Fishing Club: Emerald pools, Ruby lake

Originally i think there were 18 booked into this match but closer to the match this dropped to 14 then on the day there were 3 no shows which left us with 11 which as it happens is a good number for this relatively small lake. We had no committee members in attendance today so the honor of running the match went to Mark Radford, who done a good job organising and rejigging the pegging after the no shows along with the payouts.

After a lovely mild Saturday it was noticeably cooler and very misty come Sunday morning also there was a large slimy green algae bloom covering most of the lake. The lake has a good head of small carp so no one was to fussed where they drew with most having some sorta feature to fish too. Last time we were on the lake in March Steve O toole romped the match easy with well over a ton on corn off peg 11, this time round Steve Wynne drew it and for company on 12 he had the unusually quiet Pete Uzzel, who must of been confused by the weather or something as his gear is usually mothballed as soon as the clocks go back ready to be dusted off in the spring, anyway there was no missing him with his daglow green nets!

The match started OK for most with several anglers having a few early bites, noticeably Chris Gay up in corner peg 7 who was catching a few long against his small island, as the match wore on tho it was getting harder to string a run of fish together with people catching in fits and starts.

Hero to zero this week was errrr...............me! after acouple of wins on the trot this week i drew peg 4 and quite fancied it for a few with a nice reed fringed island at 12 metres, unfortunately it didn't quite go to plan and after a half decent start putting a few small carp in the net i then suffered a torrid few hours!! the only place i could get bites was tight to the reeds and it turned into a nightmare losing four or five rigs to hooked carp diving into the undercut bank on the island trying to throw the pole behind me to combat this proved very frustrating with the wall of fir trees lining this side of the lake, trying elsewhere proved fruitless even the margins were devoid of life apart from the horde of motherless minnows that inhabit this lake. I wasn't the only one struggling tho as with twos hours to go Mark on peg 1 had enough and packed up and went home taking son Ryan with him from peg 8 who was also having a very quiet match.

Going into the last hour a few people started to catch well, Steve Wynne and Lee Waller were having a few on the car park bank and Matty Taynton on peg 2 in the narrow channel was catching some proper ones on bunches of maggots. Head and shoulders above everyone tho was Brian Shanks on peg 3 who was catching one a bung fishing long shallow slapping a pellet tight to the reeds, he was also losing a few in the reeds but lucky for him could pull at a right angle getting them out without the need to ship back.

So first on the day with a weight of 75lb 4oz was Brian.

second with 54lb 4oz was Matty Taynton, third place went to Chris Gay with 50lb 2 oz, Chris had a good last hour fishing caster long down his margin, top silvers weight went to Brian's travelling partner ' roman candle ' Ron Hardiman with 4lb of fantails goldfish so a very happy car on the way home.

FULL RESULT