Harescombe Thursday costcutter

Havnt been here for a while so was looking forward to it as its a place you normally get plenty of action, even with the recent weeks arctic temperatures weights up to nearly 70 lb have been needed to win, but with 18 in attendance that may make a difference today, after Andy's normal nice breakfast in the fishery cafe it was draw time, I went in about halfway through and pulled out 22, which is on the far bank, for company I had Andy Powell on 21 and Martin hook on 24, the picture below of the normal long walk at this fishery.

Main attack bait wise was going to be maggot ,fished at 4 and 8 mtrs as this seems to be the way to go at the moment on this lake, and a rig for down the edge in 3 feet of water, I decided against the far side rig as I felt it may be to cold , big mistake today,
At the start I fed all three lines and began on the 8mtr line, Andy started across and had a few better carp , as did Ryan summerhayes opposite on peg 10, I had a few f1,s on double maggot, but it was difficult, I think the numbers of anglers on the lake was having a bearing on the days sport, although most anglers seemed to be catching odd fish , no one was setting it alight, . Only Ryan was catching regular with most of his fish coming to dobbed bread fished across to the far bank, seen below netting another.

At the end Ryan seemed to have it sown up , but it was quite tight really, Ryan did win with  49.7 and ten pound behind was Jason Powell on peg 2 with 39 lb
3rd Andy Powell on 21 had 36.14
4th Mike Nicholls on 13 with 33.8
5th me with 32.5
6th lee"smiler" Waller on peg 4 with 30.7
It's a shame we can't get a lake like this in or around Bristol, as these f1 lakes certainly produce the goods even during the coldest weather, get anywhere near Birmingham or above and the lakes are full of these obliging fish making for consistent action.
Picture below of fishery boss Andy price returning some of Ryan's fish after the weigh in.