Rolfy,s rip off

Back on withy pool at huntstrete again this week, but not before a stop in the Toby inn in whitchurch village for the help yourself brekkie, 4.25 and very nice too, ten minutes from pub to lake, so nicely timed for the 8.45 draw. Twenty fishing again today, so a good turnout for a none to easy venue at the moment. Early into the draw bag , hoping for a draw at the car park end of the lake as there are a lot of small fish at this end, but no such luck, peg 54 again, one bite last time, but there was a slight bit of colour in the lake so maybe it might be better This time I had no one to my right, and match organised , rolfy, to my left on 56, why he put that in I will never know, oh yes I do, Mike Jones talked him into it, serves him right then, I probably wouldn't have even walked to it lol.

My peg looks lovely with two islands to fish to, and it certainly has a reputation of being a good carp swim, so I set up a lead rod to fish along the rope that stretches between the island at 20 odd mtrs, to be honest the rope this end of the channel could be done away with, but leave the one at the other end in place, a silvers rig for 13 mtrs just in case, then a couple of pole rigs to fish at 16 mtrs to the right hand island, one to dob bread off the deck , then another to fish various baits on the deck in the same area, and it was a nice depth with about 4 ft of water, then a .6g as5 to fish slightly to the left and to the right where it was about 8inches shallower, after feeding some groundbait on the 13 mtr pole lines I began on the dobbing rig at 16mtrs, but 30 minutes later with only a small roach showing a bit of interest, which I shook off, I tried the groundbait lines, but nothing to show there either, starting to look like a bit of de ja vue, Rolfy was yet to catch, but Jeff Francis on 57 was getting some silvers, so at least that peg was fishing to form. I then spent the next hour ,(I think cos I lose all track of time on this brain numbing method), for nowt, so after a try on the deep rig by the island for nothing, it was back on the silvers line, and bugger me if I didn't miss a bite, it must have been the shock, then I had a run of small roach, and I began to enjoy myself, then out of the blue I had two skimmers in two drops, one about a pound, and another over 2lb, then it went quiet, with only very occasional bites , all this action came from the right hand side, I only had one missed bite from the left, very strange, I don't think the fish want to be that side, and poor old rolfy only had one lonely small perch.
So back out on the lead, and the top actually went round and I had a carp safely in the net, but at 5lb it is probably the smallest carp in the lake, no more bites , so back on the pole, I had a couple more plippy,s then I hook a decent carp, which I play for a while before the hooklenth breaks, it felt like a good fish too, so back on the tip for the last 45 minutes, and with 15 minutes to go I hook another carp which again feels like a good fish as it took a lot of pressure to keep it out of the snags in the channel, it's all good with everything under control , when the hook pulls as I'm thinking of looking for the landing net, I thought that may cost me , certainly not winning as Mike Jones had three big carp, but definitely a placing fish, I thought I may get another, but apart from a liner just before the end that was my match over and done with , my carp as I thought was 5lb on the nose and my silvers went 5.4.
As it turned out Mike Jones won with 27lb , Glyn sage was second with 15lb ish and Ray bazeley third with 13lb odd, and Mike nicholls won the silvers with 12lb of waggler caught roach and small skimmers, weigh sheets below, but before that just to let people know, Charlie Barnes,s funeral is to be held at the mendip crematorium on Thursday 8th March at midday.