Arriving at Monk Lakes the weather was looking decidedly dodgy , for a moment I thought Malc was visiting Kent . A good number of Anglers, Danglers, Maggotdrowners, Venue Experts and Paul East (looking tired as usual) were eagerly tucking into sausage sticks from the food van and looking forward to a decent days fishing. Dirk had rung to say he was stuck on the M25 behind an accident and would be late.The talk was all about which pegs people wanted to draw or perhaps didn't want to draw and estimates of the winning weight varied from 70 - 150lbs.
The draw went smoothly and my home for the day was to be peg 61 half way along the causeway, not where I wanted to be as the wind and rain were to be right in my face all day.I settled on fishing 3 lines today, 2 in the margins to my left and right and out in front at 8 metres. As a back up I'd brought along a feeder rod set up in a ready rod bag in case things were tough. As is customary I'd joined in a £1 side bet with Peter, Paul and Dirk. 2 large cups of 6mm Skrettings pellet went in on each of the margin lines with 3 pots going in a 8 metres. Leaving these lines to settle I chucked the feeder about 20 metres and sat back and waited. The wait wasn't long as Carp no.1 was soon in the net after taking my paste hookbait. Back out and within seconds the tip went round again and an Ide of about 1lb was quickly landed. Then things died and the tip sat motionless for about 10 minutes. On to the right hand margin line with 6mm expander and a small skimmer was the first to take the bait. 2 more put ins and 2 more baby skimmers made me think I should leave the margins for a while longer. A trip to 8 metres proved no better so it was back to the feeder. 2 more Carp quickly followed and then nothing. The match for me continued like this for the next 3 hours, the odd fish from the margins and a couple of fish from the feeder but I just couldn't get them to feed confidently.
Looking around throughtout the match it seemed no-one was particularly bagging although Peter told me Simon Edwards was doing quite well. Every so often I would take a slightly better fish but in the main they were all quite small. No Green Tench, Golden Tench or Barbel seemed to be present in my swim so it was a case of sitting it out for the Carp. I carried on taking the odd fish on the feeder till the end of the match and felt a little dissapointed that I hadn't done better but they were just too finicky.As the weigh started James North was leading with 52lb 12ozs till we reached John Haigh who had 58lbs. Phil Brice then bettered that with 66lbs 8ozs from peg 48. A lot of people were complaining about how bad the fishing had been but it was clearly down to the change in the weather since last weekend.
By the end of the weigh in Nick Allen ran out the winner with a creditible 73lbs 12ozs on a difficult day. Well done Nick. Most of his fish were Carp taken 3 sections out on paste. I finished with a dismal 27lbs 6ozs beating Dirk and Paul , however Peter took another £1 from me with 34lbs 40zs. Unfortunatly the weigh sheets got rather wet during the weigh in and by the time I'd got home they had welded themselves together making them impossible to read. Luckily I'd already started making a new list which stayed dry so I'd still got the top twenty weights.
- Nick Allen 73-12
- Phil Brice 66-08
- Peter Allen 63-12
- Graham Flynn 62-00
- Ian Carley 61-00
- John Haigh 58-00
- James North 52-12
- Simon Edwards 52-08
- Dennis Price 50-12
- Trevor Little 46-00
- Dave Barr 36-08
- Peter Morton 34-04
- Gary Cross 34-02
- Steve Holden 33-12
- Simon Elsey 32-08
- Jeff Driscoll 32-00
- Alan Loader 30-08
- Mike Jameson 28-04
- Vince Gould 27-06
- Matt Love 27-04
Section 1 P Brice 66-08 J Haigh 58-00
Section 2 P Allen 63-12 G Flynn 62-00
Section 3 N Allen 73-12 S Edwards 52-08
Section 4 A Loader 30-08 C Pritchard 21-08.
The main winner from the match are the two charities who benefit from the http://www.disabled-angler.co.uk charity match series, Rainbows Childrens Hospice and Macmillan Nurses. The match, the 2 auctions and a donation from Lexus Park Lane brought in £540. Finally thanks to everyone who took part, helped with the organisation and especially Braham & Murray who gave us 4 cases of their hemp products which we gave out to every competitor. As soon as all the money is in I'll forward a cheque to Dirk.
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