Huntstrete main lake

Bathampton gave us permission to fish on the main lake at the Huntstrete complex for a silvers only match, which is appreciated as it's been fishing really well for skimmers and bream all year with nets approaching three figures with fish going to nearly 8lb, so we were looking forward to it, with Dave Gillard being housed by the nhs at the no it was left to Mike Nicholls and me to sort out, we arranged to get there early and sort the pegs out, well just for a change I was there early whereas Mike went via hungry horaces in speedwell for brekkie, then tried to blame it on the traffic, so I did it and in hindsight should have out more pegs on the right hand bank further down the lake, but had been advised that a lot of the break were at the near end. Pegging done mike was soon getting the draw underway, into the disc bag and out comes peg 12 for me, proper peg 25, which cheered Paul barnfield up no end as it was close to where he had practised in the week and had caught 70lb on the method and white 10mm white boilie, with fish to 7.11. For company I had Jeff Grant to my left and Dave Poole to my right. Autumn seems to be fast approaching with the leaves starting to drop and change colour.

Even though Paul had caught in the feeder, I decided to fish the pole and wag, especially as the wind was of our backs in the main, so I set up a wag for corn or
Pellet, a close caster rig as there are plenty of small roach to be had normally, but after a couple of colder nights and heavy rain I wasn't to sure it would be a skimmer and bream fest that we were hoping for. But I set up a couple of long lines at 14 mtrs, one to the right at 1o'clock angle for chopped worm and caster, with groundbait, then another line to the left at 11 o,clock angle with soaked (in lake water) micros in groundbait.
On the all in I put 3 balls to the right long line with the w and c in, and two balls to the left with just micros. And started feeding a few 4,s on the wag line.
I started short on caster but never had a bite, I perhaps should have gone a couple of meters further out as Dave started getting some small roach from the off, also Jeff was into a skimmer on the feeder virtually straight away, and followed it up with another quite quickly,  it not having a feeder rod with me that was never going to be an option.
I went out on the worm line with a piece of worm, but never had a touch, so I went over the same line with maggot, small roach were a problem on that so a switch to caster resulted in the same, back on a worm piece and the plippy peaks were now on that line a rash,
So I swapped rigs to the soft pellet rig to the left, I lowered the rig in and was just thinking of putting another shot on the float when it shot under and a skimmer was on, a nice fish of about 1 1/2 lb, back out and I had a run of about 5 fish before it went a bit quiet, so a small ball of g bait and I went over the worm line, small roach still in attendance, so back over the soft pellet line and another skimmer, then the small roach developed a taste for it, so switch to corn helped, although the roach were tapping it about they weren't as keen as with the soft pellet, as I had thought it wasn't fishing to well, in fact I think there may have been a blank at the other end, I just kept plugging away on the two pole lines adding off skimmers and small roach, I think I only had 4 skimmers over the worm line, the micro and groundbait line was definitely better, the wag was no good I had one small roach on a banded pellet, and my smallest skimmer on a piece of corn, and I missed a bite,  by the end I thought I may have approaching 30lb, and judging by conversation,s I could here from the other end of the lake that would probably be enough today, when the scales arrived with steptoes  love child in charge, (James buckle) Gary Bowden was winning with 13lb, my fish pulled the needle round to 27.12,

which was enough to win on the day, Jeff to my left was second with 18lb,  so this end was the place to be, probably due to the fact the water is half the depth of the other end of the lake , only three foot.
 Weigh sheets below as normal, showing how hard it was in the deeper water at the other end.