winter at avalon

last winter we enjoyed somee good silvers and carp fishing at this venue , so i was expecting the same this year(oh dear). i drew peg 26 but was advised by vic bush that i wasnt very safe as the front of the platform had gone and was sloping towards the water at quite a severe angle, and he was right and as it was damp it was like ice ,so i moved onto 27 after the ok from the people each side, it meant i was next peg to martin lenaghan so at least i could keep an eye on the quid.
i left the rods at home as i wanted to target silvers again so it was 2 rigs again , both 4x16, one with an 18 to .12 and the other had a 20 to .10, 3 lines to day ,13 mtrs over g bait and 2 at 16mtrs over micros at 11 and 1 o,clock. on the whistle i cupped in 4 balls at 13 mtrs and sprinkled some micros over the 2 lines at 16 mtrs.
straight over the g bait and a roach first put in , then not another bite for 45 mins then another small roach then a perch then nothing again, so i put in a soft ball of g bait at 13 mtrs then went out to 16 mtrs with asoft 4mm on , a 4 oz skimmer straight away then nothing , so out with maggot ,and a couple more small skimmers were soon in the net , this was really hard with the fish really struggling to pull the float under. stangely the fish didnt seem to want to sit over the gbait but by swapping between the 2 16 mtr lines and by introducing a few maggots in with micros the swim did improve so by the end i was getting fairly regular bites from skimmers between 2 oz and a pound although the pounder was a one off. also the 20 hook to .10 seemed to get more bites, the only person i could see catching with any regularity was brian shanks on 32 , as he had had 2 carp and quite a few silvers , when the scales arrived it became apparent as to how hard it had fished, brian won with 20.5 which was 2 carp for 10.9 and the top silver weight aswell with 9.12 of roach and skimmers with all his fish being taken on maggot or caster at 16 mtrs over chopped worm and caster,
i was joint second with my skimmer net going 7.10 which was the same as ian dawe who had 1 carp and a couple of bits on peg 24 , although he did lose 7 carp under the tree in the corner
4 th was alan oram with 7.7 on peg 44
5th adrian bishop 4.15 peg 40
6th martin lenaghan whose 1 carp went 4.13 peg 28 and i had his quid he was gutted(but he is lead chucker so it was even sweeter. even though his leads and feeders spent more time in the tree,s than in the water , i dont remember there being a squirrel pool)
i think it should improve once the fish get used to the cold weather , cos last year we broke ice and 100 lb was needed to win and 20 lb to win the silvers and it cant get any harder can it !!!!!!!!
and i got to get me thermal boots out cos me feet was froze. off to landsend lake 4 this weekend and there were blanks on it last weekend , so perhaps it will!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!