Mad mikes watersports lake

Mike Nicholls arranged this match on this lake, i had fished this lake probably 30 years ago, i drew next to vic bush that day, we both had one bite each, vic had a small carp and i had a stickleback, we were hoping for a better day today as it had been fishing well on the pegs that were open for angling, namely over on the far right hand bank , the rest of the lake was virtually untouched as far as angling went, there have been plenty of quality roach caught leading up to this match, with roach over two pounds, and even rumoured 3lb fish during the early autumn, and a fair few carp were to be had. Mike Nicholls did the social distancing draw, and everyone was hoping for 1 to 6 or 23 and 24, so when it was my.turn for a peg mike pulled out 12, nearly.as far as was possible away from the rewuired swims, but it was an unknown today so i went to the swim with an open mind, at least we could drive to our pegs which is always a bonus, for company i had venue expert, (he has fished it once) lee macey to my left and long time friend Ray bazeley to right. I must say it's certainly a big piece of water, with a nice colour, but plenty of weed as well.

With a weedbed at 11 mtrs and a strong wind blowing in left to right and plenty of rain in the air, not to many options, so only two rigs, a .4drennan as4, slim pattern and guru wire stem bodied job for abit of stability, dave haines had been round the day before to ensure we could get down to the water safely, but i still felt as though i was up the crane LOL.

As we were told we would need quality roach to do well i only had casters and a few maggots on the side tray,so i fed two lines, topset and two and 11 mtrs. but two hours in and very little to show apart from a few very plippy roach i was wishing i had bought some pinkies, (ye right), luckily i had some lake and thatchers in the van so got off my box and knocked some up, and it did transform the peg a bit as i had a flurry of small rach over then it seemed to die, but then i started to get some small carp,not loads but i felt inwas going to get a bite at any time swithing between the two lines, i ended up with 7 or 8 small carp and some tiny roach for 17lb+ whuch was top weight from 7 round to 22, but beaten plenty of times by the farbank swims and the two swims in the carpark, but i did enjoy it in a wierd sort of masochistic way, woukd i go there again , probably but a few les anglers so we could be squeezed in on the good pegs.