Alders Farm October Festival Day Two 12 10 2017

So there I was yesterday, professing to fishing too light for the fish in front of me. I felt that I would have secured another few fish by fishing more positive. So with this mind, I was going to pull out all the stops, regardless of where I was going to draw.
I had done alright yesterday, 4th in section but picked up some coin, sneaking the section by triple default. Strange how these things work. Today though was on the harder but fairer section. At the breakfast table all the talk was who was getting peg 21 and 29. Both Pete Archer and Colin Spencer were claiming them as their's. With breakfast out of the way and Pete holding the bucket,  Pop Up stepped up and pulled out his peg, 21 can you believe it? Colin could not believe it, only for Jim to pull out 29 for Colin. That is one golden arm. I was going to reside on peg 27, it won the section the day before. Colin Fosdyke was on 28 and Alan Harrison was on Peg 30. Round the corner we had Pete Archer on 21, Nick Pringle on the peg nobody wanted 20 and Rob Rendle on 19.

Any one of these Please!!!

Interestingly both Matt Kearns and Dave Taylor who were leading the other section were pegged next to each other on 2 and 3 respectively. John Haselar on 1, Paul Kearns on 5, Nick Rowe on 6, Ricky Quick 7 and Lee Newson on end peg 8.
As I stated earlier I felt a more positive approach was required, this would not be in the feeding but in the rigs themselves. I was going to start on .19 NGauge to a size 16 B911x and .4 rigs. They were all Derek Smith Diamonds, there was not a lot of difference in depth from 5m through to 11m so I just made duplicates of the same rig with depths accordingly. I also set up a small float for fishing maggot tight into the reeds to my right. I only had about 10 inches of cover, but the fish are used to it.
At the all in, I started off on 6mm pellet at 5m feeding fishery 4mm pellets through a toss pot. A foul hooked fish to start with and then nothing. I tried a maggot on the hook and still nothing. Adding a section and working a pellet around the feed got me a couple of small carp. Fossy had got off to a good start with 5 in 5 put ins before again his swim went quiet.

I could hear a bit of splashing from peg 29 so knew Colin was also nicking a few early on.

I could not work it out, I had to feed to get bites, not too much and you would get one or two fish and then have to move to a new area of the peg. Bait would have be either maggot or Pellet, it did not seem to make any difference. With 2 hours gone I had 9 fish for around 18lb and felt I was going nowhere. I was going to fish the remainder of the match down the edge. I was going to be last in section if I did nothing so attacked the edge positively.
Although I had only around 10 inches of depth at a top three and tight in, I could see odd fish coming in and going out again. I needed to find a way of holding them there. Feeding pellets and maggots together seemed to work and bites were coming regularly enough to keep things interesting. I was still having to wait but bites were hit-able and averaging 3lb a fish, I was building a weight. Not enough to catch Fossy but it would be close within the section.
At the all out I thought I had around 80lb but it may be nearer the ton if they were slightly better than the estimate.
Top Three Individuals
1st Lee Newson 152-04
2nd Colin Fosdyke 146-02
3rd Ricky Quick 125-10

Overall Section 1
1st Colin Fosdyke 146-02  7pts
2nd Pete Archer 109-07  Section Winner 6pts
3rd Keith Ashby 105-09  5pts
4th Colin Spencer 105-06 4pts
5th Alan Harrison 101-07 New Personal Best Match Weight  3pts
6th Rob Rendle 86-01 2pts
7th Nick Pringle 46-08  1pt

Overall Section 2
1st Lee Newson  152-04 7pts
2nd Ricky Quick 125-10 6pts
3rd Dave Taylor 115-00 5pts  Section Winner
4th Nick Rowe 107-06
5th Matt Kearns 100-09
6th John Haselar 68-01
7th Paul Kearns 66-04

So all to play for tomorrow, I realistically need a section win and hope that others fail. I am probably lying mid table and is where I thought I would be. I spoke with Nick Rowe prior to the start of the festival and he was of the same vein as me. Did not think we could compete at the top of the table but can upset a few results.