avalon xmas match

with 37 fishing today it was going to be a friendly affair, and everyone had an island or a corner to fish to and with that many pegs in the fish wouldnt have to many places to hide(hopefully), as i was holding the draw tin i let the bridgwater male model(vince brown)draw for me, so he handed me 28 which is halfway up the last island on the right hand side and kept 19 for himself. for company i had the chipping sodbury bit basher (chris derrick)on 29 and andy(the jacket)gurd on 27. now chris was always going to target the silvers as there was 65 quid and a hamper up for grabs whereas andy was going to be maily lead slinging as he is having trouble with his neck and is having problems holding a long pole , these pegs although throwing up accasional weights of carp(moreso in the summer)have more form for skimmers so i thought silvers would give me my best chance of a pick up, i only set up one pole rig which was a .5 grm rig with a 18 middy 6313 on .10 to use at 13 mtrs with maggot over groundait and the same rig would do for 2 lines at 16 mtrs at 11 and 1 o,clock angles, i also set up a wag rig to fish at depth with hard pellet but after several tries during the match it was a non starter as the facing wind blew it off the island quite quickly so i wont mention it again as i never even looked as though i was going to get a bite on it.
at the start i cupped in 2 balls of g bait with some casters at 13 mtrs and some soaked micro,s on the 2 lines at 16 mtrs, starting on double maggot at 13 mtrs i was soon getting bites off small roach as was chris next door and fabio on 30, it wasnt long before andy on 27 got caught by a carp on his lead rod and then les the chub williams lasooed one in the tail. i persvered with the 13 mtr line catching small roach then about 2 hours in i had a 3lb bream which kept me ahead of the silver anglers i could see, i kept trying the 16 mtr lines with maggot and soft pellet over the micro,s but all i had was a few small roach on maggot with no bites on the pellet at all i kept getting odd roach at 13 mtrs and no response at 16 mtrs so with about 1 hour to go i made 2 balls of g bait out of my remaining mix and put a ball into each line at 16 mtrs the 1 o,clock line onle gave me a couple of small roach but the 11 line gave me 3 skimmers for about 2 1/4 lb so by the end i new i had over 6lb but i was surprised to put 9lb of silvers on the scales to win the silvers so i went home with 65 quid and a second hamper in as many weeks.
first on the day went to vince brown with 48.4 of lead caught carp off peg 19 , he also took home £65 plus a 22 inch hd tv
2nd andy gurd on 27 with 15.8
3rd darren north 14.1 on peg 10
4th shane caswell 13.4 peg 24
5th chris fox 11.11 peg 48
6th john bradford 11.8 peg 9
silvers me 9lb
after the match we were treated to home made vegetable soup with crusty bread followed up with heathers home made mince pies, thanks to her and vic for a nice match it was just a shame the fish decided to shut up shop for the day probably down to the frost and several inches of fresh cold water being dumped in there