acorn lakes practice match

22 booked in today but due to some doctors notes being sent to the draw we ended up with 19 , still a good number for a wednesday, we were using paddock lake which has 40 swims on it ,so plenty of room.i let roger andoniou draw for me even though he tends to give me a crap peg , but today he handed me peg 33 which is a bridge swim and anyone who knows this venue will know that the bridges really guarantee a days sport, i had dave roper the other side of the bridge on 34 and to my right was anton page who was miles away on 28, i had decided to fish with some live baits for a change in the shape of worm and caster down the middle by the bridge and up to my right ,still in the middle, feed and fish caster over by the grass on the far bank and pellet and corn up to the empty swim to my right, the worm rig was a 4x14 affair with a 14 6313 on .12, over was a 4x10 with a 16 6313 on .14 whilst the pallet rig was 4x12 on .16 with a xedion hook. at the start i cupped in some w&c on the worm lines some caster in 2 spots across and some pellet and corn to the pallet, i think tom thick on 3 had caught 2 fish on peg 3 before i had finished feeding on his soft pellet approach fished tight across.
i went in with the worm and was getting bites straight away from small skimmers , f1,s and a couple of small carp, i stuck with this for a couple of hours not really going anywhere as tom on 3 and rich coles were catching steadily, so i ditched this line and went over on double caster and began catching small carp , these bridge swims do seem to hold the smaller fish, i was trying to feed with a catty but the strong right to left wind was making feeding hard so i started potting them in but it wasnt as good as the catapult as the fish seemed to be responding better to catty feeding, the pallet swim to my right was hard to fish as the strong wind was blowing the rig back under the pole tip and dack towards me , i did get 4 fish from there including my biggest fish(4lb)and i lost another better fish there, i think it would have been better to fish paste there as the heavier bait would have stayed in position(best take some sunday). the rest of the match was spent on the far bank as the small carp were being very obliging, i think i ended up with about 40 small carp between 8oz and 1 1/2 lb which was ok around me but probably not enough to worry tom or richard, and thats how it ended with tom thick on peg 3 weighing 84.6
2nd went to rich coles on 6 with 70.10
3rd was me with 59.12 peg 33
4th kev molten 57.12 peg 6
5th steve kedge 44.12 peg 15
6th john bradford 40.7 peg 40 and he was top silver weight with 7.7
sunday should be ok as no one should blank especially as charlie barnes isnt going now lol
most people weighed in but fabio harding,s run of form had to end and today he dnw,d and has his ass tuned by the oldest angler on the bank off the next peg in the shape of joe thompson, with joe giving him a lesson in patience and presentation
breakfast is available on sunday morning at the fishery and its about a fiver for the large one. another plus to the lakes is that you can park right behind your swim with 20mtrs being a long walk