psv xmas

westerliegh was the venue for this one and with both lakes being used i wanted a draw on the new lake as generally you get more bites as there are lots of small carp skimmers and roach to be caught.i was happy with my draw as i pulled 23 on the new lakewhich was 2 past the aerator, basically it was a 2 rig job one 4x12 rig on 0.12 line and an 18 808 for over and the same for down the edge. on the all in i cupped some soaked micros in 3 spots against the far bank reeds and began loosefeeding a few casters down the margins.
first put in over on 4mm and a missed bite , next put in and i connected with what looked liked a 2 pounder ,shame it was hooked in the tail though, and the hook pulled after i had made a couple of stabs at it with the net.then it went daft as the skimmers showed up , and at about 3oz a time the can be a right pain on soft pellet. so i switched to single maggot , which the little buggers tend to hang on to. about halfway through i started to drip a few casters in with the micros which improved things as i started to get some nice roach and a couple of small carp also i got to admit i also foulhooked a 7 lb fish which stuck for a change and after a 10 minute tussle was safely netted, that was a proper bonus as no one on our lake seemed to be catching.all i had down the edge was 1 small carp(1lb) and a bumble bee perch, so i stayed with the far bank swims as at least it was regular bites wit caster hook bait being best as the fish were slightly bigger than on the maggot as tiny roach were nailing that on the way down . yuo had to keep moving between the 3 areas as you would catch a couple then the bites would stop so you would go to the next swim and thats how it went to the end, by rotating the swims i kept putting small fish in the net right to the end.
as the 2 lakes were being paid out as 2 matches i didnt mind that it turned out that the old lake had fished well with some good weights on the cards. back to our lake and i weighed 17 lb , which was just enough to edge out mark mark radford who had 16.12.
overall the match was won by neil(i cant draw)mercer on peg 2 old lake with 43.5 taken on corn off the back of the small island all small carp aprox 35 fish so he had a nice day.
2nd darren north 38.3 peg 15 on soft pellet
3rd ryan jordan 31 lb peg1
tony rixon 17 lb peg 23 new lake
mark radford 16.12 peg 30 new lake
paul elmes 15.6
it was then back to the midland spinner pub for the prizes and buffet which was done by paul elmes,s wife marie and very good it was as well and she is 7 months pregnant as well with there first child so good luck to you both.
highlight of the evening was dean malin getting hold of the wrong end of the stick and thinking certain people were taking some bags of groundbait they werent entitled to, he wanted to take people outside for a fight the language was terrible he even blamed me as i was sat next to them, but when some one explained to him that all they had taken was his and mine which we both had said we didnt want, so fair play he did come back with a huge slice of humble pie and apologised to everyone. i,ve seen it before and i do find it quite funny but it dont pay to laugh at him at the time , friends or not , but i did give him a bit on the way home .
and it pissed down all day thank god for goretex.
and as always the prizes sorted out by mr wilson were excellent