cider farm

it was supposed to be a talk angling and bus company pairs match today ,but as the bus boys had an important meeting about closing a depot they couldnt make it , so i said i would take it over so as they didnt lose there deposit. we still managed to put 26 anglers on the bank so its another reasonable turnout.
steve lippett drew for me and handed me peg 40, as i havent been here to often i didnt ave any idea as to what the peg was like, but as i was next to venue regular rod wootten on 41 i thought it would probably be ok, to be fair it lokked good with an island opposite with 4 ft reeds growing off it, so i made up a 4x14 impact 4 with a 16 b960 to .16 for hair rigged pellet, the same rig would do for down the edge each side as it was the same depth . a 4x10 for over by the island to my right as i had bare bank to fish up to , and a dibber for shallow just in case , both rigs on .16 with the usual b960.
starting over against the reeds opposite it wasnt long before i was getting liners but no matter what i was really struggling to transfer anything into a bite , and the reeds were going potty, i did manage a couple of fish from the reeds but it was full of snags , no matter how i fed it i just couldnt make any sense out of it , even with odd fish showing and the reeds knocking i couldnt get a sensible resonse on the deck or shallow so dumped a big pot of 6,s in and went some where else!!!!!!!!!!.
a quick look down the margins each side rusulted in a couple off carp then it went quiet there so i turned my attentions to the right hand island,i took a few fish befor it went quiet , over to the reeds again but a snag had now appeared, 2 foot off the bottom where i had cupped in my pellet, it wasnt there just now so i decided to quit that line and concentrate on my margins and the right hand island . chris davis on 38 was now catching regular by fishing behind the weeds and dragging all his fish over the top, it seemed a bit brutal but it was effective, and funny cos those of you that know chris will bne aware of his tantrums , and ater pulling for a break again as he had snagged the reads again the float came back and hit his finger , he was off his box nurseing his finger and kicking his rod bag and swearing loudly(never a dull moment next to chris).
by rotating around my swim i kept odd fish going so by the end i had 26 carp and 1 skimmer and i thought i had upper 40 lb, i seemed that it would be out of chris and ryan summerhayes on 20 who had been catching steadily down his right hand margin on paste .
as itturned out chris davis,s skull dragging technique had paid off as his net went 77.11 peg 38
2nd was 15 year old ryan summerhayes with 69.12, some one to watch in the future me thinks
3rd phil (fabio)harding on 46 with51.8 and another 2 quid off me to boot
4th was cyril darks finest carpet fitter mitchell artus with48.6 off peg 58
5th tony rixon 46.10 peg 40
6th rod wootten 43.11 peg 41
silvers went to dean maln on 28 with 13.3 on maggot down the edge he had 4 good skimmers and lots of little roach and rudd.
its a nice venue that has matured well its just a shame the reeds have got such a good hold as the fish spend most of the day in them at the mo, hopefully they will be more inclined to come out and play as the weather and water warms up