Mick was driving and we made good progress from Milton Keynes to Witham, checked in for breakfast and monies paid to Chairman Dave. Although we had the whole lake, I thought the pegging was a bit strange, it was pegged to leave out the bowl and was just pegged along the straight on both sides. Giving both the end pegs a massive advantage. Still I would be on peg 38, with Mick on 9, a good peg by the aerator. I had two decent looking edges with room under trees either side, so these would be my option for later in the day. I was surprised to find around 6ft on 2+2 line and around 5ft on 12m. It was shallowing up towards the central islands. I also set up a shallow rig to go over these longer lines in case the fish came up. Bait would be 4mm Alders Fishery pellets with a 6 or 8mm hookbait. Nothing else. I have been trying to teach myself pellet fishing and slowly am coming to terms with it.
At the all in I cupped a halfpot onto the longer lines and threw a handful of pellet to me right hand side. I then started at 12m pinging a few pellets every 30 seconds. I had a few liners and finally connected with my first fish, a common around 2lb after about 10 minutes. With no further bites or liners I tried the 2+2 line. Nothing, no dips, liners or anything. Down both edges and a small carp from the left hand edge and a roach. Back out to 2+2 and a small skimmer, but found I had to feed heavier to get a bite. After an hour I had 4 fish for about 4lb. Not the start I wanted or expected.
Chairman Dave had come for a walk and was admitting to a couple of fish on the maggot, and that Simon was catching well on the end peg and both Mick and Tony were also doing well on the opposite bank. I needed to do something to provoke a response from the poor start. I shallowed my margin rig up to about 8inches deep and fished tight to the bank on my right hand side. I could see a couple of fish coming in and having a look and hoped to snagged a couple of them before they spooked completely. After around 5 minutes the float dipped and 5lb of angry mirror carp was in the net. Out again and another, unbelievable in such shallow water, that was it though. I deepened back to depth and by feeding a dozen pellets and dropping the rig through them picked off a few more carp, some ripping the elastic out before it touched bottom. With 3 hours gone, I was back in it, I had started a second carp net due to net limits and although I was missing a few bites I was also picking off odd fish to around 7lb. I could see Jim sneaking a few fish out regularly and John was also getting a few fish. Mick was still catching and I could see Tony netting some nice carp although they were slower than me.Whenever it went a bit quiet I simply re-fed and moved to the tight edge 8in swim as I could see a lovely ghost carp cruising in and out, alasI never did hook it, but it was a lovely fish.
With an hour to go I reckoned on 100lb in the net and opted to get a third net. I then started getting a lot of foul hooked fish, 6 on the trot at one point and made a slight tweak to the shotting pattern and this seemed to work a bit better. I did have a couple of looks down the left hand edge but was getting odd roach.
At the all out I was hopeful of beating Mick despite the poor start as my catch rate was a little better, I thought.Simon and Clive had both posted a ton on the weigh sheet before the scales arrived at my peg. With 4 weighs of 4lb, 56lb 50lb and 27lb, I was under on all nets (60lb Limit) for a total of 137lb and the lead. John had just under the ton, Jim 121lb, before it got to Tony and Mick, with Mick just edging it 95lb to 91lb. Jim E who I could not see, and the grapevine seemed to miss, was last to weigh with 125lb.
Overall
1st Keith Ashby 137lb
2nd Jim Etherington 125lb
3rd Jim Boase 121lb
4th Simon Watkins 114lb
5th Clive Pritchard 107lb
6th Terry Goff 100lb
Overall, the lake fished well,after a slow start, the only anglers catching from the off were on the end pegs and the aerator. However as the wind increased and blew into the bottom of the lake, things improved. So with a MK Nugget in my pocket and the score looking a bit more acceptable at 5-3. Roll on Tuesday for another battle.
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