Avalon silver's league rnd 3

Travelled with Jason Radford again today for this and we stopped on the way at Landsend fishery for one of di,s lovely breakfasts, which also served to increase the personal ballast as storm Brian was going to be blowing nearly 50mph and I didn't want to get blown in did I !!!!!!!
We got to the fishery and found Brian wasn't going to disappoint and was howling straight up the lake, it was meant to blow slightly off the left hand bank later in the day so a draw on that bank would be advantageous, especially towards the end of the day, Vic Bush wasn't fishing today, and he probably won't be until next May at the earliest as he was on holiday I Greece last week and noticed someone drop a Euro, and in his haste to get it snapped his Achilles tendon, (ouch), so he is house bound with his leg elevated above head whilst laying down, get well soon matey, he had Joe McMahon reserving for him today.
I had last peg in the hat today which turned out to be peg 10, so at least I was on the desired bank, for company I had gabe skarba on peg 9 to my right and Martin McMahon on peg 11, so the three way pound side bet was struck. With it being so windy I set up an open feeder to fish towards the island if necessary, and two 1gram pole rigs, one double bulked with a 16 hook, and the other conventionally rig  with a bulk and three droplets and an 18 hook, I have switched hook patterns from my favoured 6313 muddy hooks to the guru f1 maggot hooks, although not as strong as the middy pattern, more more than a match for most silver scenarios.
With it being so rough I decided to fish 5 and 9 mtrs, and adjusting the rig by about a floats length to fish the left hand side at the bottom of the near side shelf.
At the start I cupped in two balls of groundbait on both the 5 and 9 mtr lines, and one ball down the edge , I then chucked the feeder out, that last all of 15 minutes, and I think gabe and Martin gave it even less time than that, so I picked up the 18 hook pole rig and went out in front at 5 mtrs, Martin to my.left had gone down his edge and had a small fish, I went out and had a 12 oz skimmer and gabe was yet to get off the mark, but I couldn't beget a bite then, so I went out to 9 mtrs and with the wind blowing the rig through to fast I couldn't get a bite there either, Martin had a few small skimmers down his edge , so I followed suite, and had a few small skimmers and roach, so at least I was putting something in the net, then I fell behind very quickly with Martin getting a good perch and a tench from his edge and gabe had two skimmers, then I had a good skimmer down my margin, but gabe added a couple more, so at this stage my squids were looking dodgy, but these affairs are never a Sprint, more like a steady marathon, and slowly I started to claw my way back then overtake my neighbours, catching on double maggot fished about a floats length overdepth , so by the end I new I had beaten them both, Gabe was first to weigh and recorded 17lb , my fish went over 27lb.

Then Martin's went 18lb, so the squids were safe, second on the day went to no3 McMahon on the end peg on the far bank with just short of 22lb, (how many is that on the trot now Joe). Considering how bad the weather was it fished quite well, with fish being caught all round, its a good venue for a silver's league as it is impossible to predict where the winner will come from, probably due the fact its the same depth all over in every swim. Weigh sheet below.

Off to todber manor tomorrow for the second round of the pairs league with Ken rayner, and Judith is coming along so more pictures courtesy of her . The forecast is for a little less wind so hopefully some better tackle control will ensue, my turn on homeground lake which I have never been on before, as the wind is westerly tomorrow I hope Judith draws me a peg with a bit of shelter.