cheddar claypit open

cheddar ac run one open each year and this is the first time i have been able to get in on the act, we got there about 30 mins before the draw and andy france walked us around and pointed out the fliers, but to be fair they all looked like fliers to me with lots of features and good margins in each swim , it must be said that this lake is probably the best kept and good looking venue i have ever fished on, the members certainly seem to put a lot of effort into the upkeep.
into the drawbag and out comes peg 9 , a proper flier according to everyone and it did look nice with a dig reed bed 11mtrs to my left but i was advised not to go near it as the fish dive straight through as its growing out of 5 foot of water, the word was that i would catch down my right hand margin and out in front in open water at 13 mtrs so i set up 2 4x14 rigs both with 16 hooks on for banded 8,s over 6,s. the good thing with this lake is that it is 6 foot all over except for the big weed bed where it was only 5 foot, at the start i cupped in 6,s at 13 mtrs in front ,down the edge and fired some 6,s towards the weed bed , first drop in at 13 and the float kept going and i had a fouler which i landed and as it was about 10lb it was very handy, next put in and another fouler was on the end but this one came adrift under the pole top, then i had a couple of skimmers before it went quiet, so i started feeding with a catty but that never really worked and looking around the lake as far as i could see no one was getting much, 90 mins in and dean wandered back to the van and got the method feeder rod out and proceeded to start catching on a BOILIE,(whats it coming to), my best way of catching was to iether feed with a pot or put several pouches in , drip feeding seemed to be a no no with the fish not wanting to respond to it so it was a case of dump feeding and catching what you could over it before feeding again, i had no bites from the right hand margin, i managed a hit and hold one from the reeds but it was only about 3lb but i did have several good skimmers on the 13 mtr line so i thought i had about 55lb at the end , i thought rod wooten next door had beaten me next door but it turned out that his fish were smaller than mine even though he had more carp than me ,as i think he had 9 to my 6 but the silvers may make the differnce, and thats how it ended up with me coming first on the day with 62.11 made up of about 19lb of skimmers and 6 carp making up the remainder
2nd went to dean malin on 19 with 59.9 which included the top silver weight on the day of 24.4
3rd rod wootten 56.1 peg 7, he would have won if he hadnt lost a big fouled double that he played for 30 mins before it came off at the net
4th russ peck 55.3 peg 10
5th mike west 47.3 peg 2
6th andy france 46.4 peg 21