Short pole series last match

Back to the prolific tobder manor fishery today, 24 of us on hillview , so not to many empty pegs, travelled with Judith today,still no Jason as he is still away on his sabatical. Stopped off at cannards well for breakfast, and not as.good as normal as they have changed the  sausages.to some cheap crappy ones, a decent sausage makes a breakfast, so only a 3.99, I hope they read this and upgrade the sausage.
Got to the fishery with plenty of time, so a chat with Mr candy which is always a laugh and informative,
Steve.and me got. The draw underway on time , I needed a good peg as I was winning the league by one point, over several anglers, with Dean malin leading the charge on a greater weight than the rest of the pack, John Darby popped up in the queue so I asked him to draw for me , and he did good for me, 48, nice . Possibly the second best peg in the southwest behind peg 1 on Shiplate main lake, 😂😂😂.
It's a flyer on the end of the spit on the left hand side, a good right hand margin and plenty of open water in front, but as it's a short pole league(topset and three), the open water was not going to be used, I had joe McMahon to my left on 47, so I have him a chance to get his quid back from last week.
only two rigs out up today, a 4x12 for in front at.topset and one, and a margin rig to my right, plumbing up out in front was not promising as the peg got steadily deeper as I went to my left, the right hand margin was quite shallow but the fish don't mind the shallows, the biggest problem today was going to be the wind as it was blowing right to left and slightly into us on this bank, blowing the rig through, so foulers were going to make it difficult.
on the all in I began out in front and we were all soon catching fish, and it became apparent that it was going to be a bit of a fish race, with most of the fish being 1 1\2 to 3lb with the occasional fish to 6lb, early doors I was ahead of joe, but I had made a mistake by not making a heavier rig up, Joe had begun on the 4x12 but switched to a 4x14 which was a lot better for him, I persevered with the lighter rig which was to light in the conditions, although I was slipping behind joe, it was never to far so I stuck with it(to lazy to change).

It's bad enough being beaten by a school leaver , but when your wife starts ripping into you aswell, it begins to hurt 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂.
Looking around when I had chance, as it doesn't pay to stop to much as it will cost you a fish or two which can be the difference, everywhere you looked there was a multitude of different colours of plastics stretching across the lake. About 2 hours to go I went down the edge where I had been watching fish for most of the match, second mistake.was.not to go down there earlier, I began catching quickly, and losing a few.aswell, it was hard not to foul hook a few as the fish were in such shallow water, also the sun went around making it hard to see the float with the ripple conspiring with the sun to make float spotting nearly impossible. But I was catching well enough, I needed to win my section to secure first place in the league, but with Joe having a few big fish late on I new second was more realistic, and to be fair even without his bigger late fish he would probably still have won the section, I had to rely on the rest in the chasing pack to finish second or worse in the sections, Dean was first to weigh on our scales and he put 240lb on the board, but Martin rayet pushed him down into second in section with 288lb,  the scales.Got round to our section, and as expected Joe won our section with 284lb ,I had 243lb, should have done better from the peg but it's still a good day.

So on the day Martin rayet won with 288, Joe had 284, Chris fox was third with 253, I had 243, Dean had 240, Mike nicholls, 232 and bela bakos made up 6th place with 221,
Top silvers weight went again to Ryan shipp off peg 45 with over 40, which is an excellent silvers weight in the conditions.

As for the quid with joe, he got his revenge this week and I had to hand back the nugget I had off him last week.

Young Freddie wojtyla was pegged behind me on peg 51 and had his best day ever with over 150lb, so well done fred, good to see, and also good to see Clint (dad) for giving him the time and encouragement to do well. Well done both, and they do have some entertaining spats on the bank.

A big thanks to Steve Evans who helps massively with the running of the league, it would probably be in a right mess of it was left solely to me, also thanks to everyone who fished as it's a good bunch and we do have a bit of a laugh which I think is important, people are losing track of the fact what we do is only a game really, don't take it to seriously.
Luckily I held on to first place by one point , so that was good then, weigh sheets and results below, and if my sums are correct, the average weight today was over 172lb between the 24 anglers, with virtually every peg in, that's massive,

What an exceptional fishery this is, John candy and his crew have and are doing a really good job ensuring that all aspects of this sport as far as coarse and speci fishing is catered for, be it carp and cats to good sizes or massive match weights , or if it's just a day's pleasure fishing you won't be dissapointed, well worth a visit, and not a bramble in sight anywhere near the water 👍