Last pre lockdown matches

Firstly went to shiplate with chris fox for an open on the main lake, i had peg 12 drawn for me today, but with a cold and strong north easterly blowing in and across, i new any sort of float fishing was always going to be difficult, and so it proved, i set up a skimmer rig to fish 8 and 13 mtrs, ut it was impossible to stop it going through hard with the wind, i had a few small fish, roach and blade skimmers, but it was never going to happen on that, a waggler for meat at about 25mtrs, again it was like fishing a.river, so no good, so just over an hour in i was off my box setting up a lead rod, i had two carp for about 20lb in two chucks, then apart from a lost small carp or good skimmer, that was my lot, didnt even bother to weigh, so deemed a blank, well done john page on 13a who won on the day with 115lb, meat on the lead was the main bait for him.

Top silvers went to dom Sullivan on peg 7 with just short of 16lb.

Momday and it was back down to plantation main lake again for a silvers only match, i did the social distancing draw and ended up on permanent peg 31, to be fair i wouldnt have been to upset on any peg today as with only 13 fishing, i didn't think there was a bad peg in the draw, normally 30lb is needed to win these matches, but it had switched off a bit in the last couple of weeks, mainly down to the weather probably, for company i had mr D Shipp on 32 and phil morgan was my closest competitor to my right, des said we wouldn't catch for at least 40 minutes, so we had a quid on that, and also a quid on who came out on top, Only two rigs today, a bulk rig hopefully for skimmers, and a lighter rig with spread shot in case the roach came off the deck, and sometimes the skimmers want a lighter on the drop approach, the light and reflection was horrible, with a gusty wind from the left didnt help, so i chose just two lines, one at 5 mtrs which was foing to be a loose fed caster line, and the other was at 13 mtrs for groundbait, so at the start i fed a couple of balls at 13 mtrs , but started on the short line, just to try and get an early quid off des, but no bites there in twenty minutes, so just to catch i put on a pinkie and went over the groundbait, and had a small roach, pound up at the mo, and in all fairness des was nearly right as it took him over 40 minutes to catch, the lake fished to recent form, it was a bit of a grind, constantly switching between the two lines jist to keep odd bites and fish coming, it was a case of catch a few fish from one line then having to go to the other, hard but enjoyable, at the end i thought des had probably won but trig up on 19 had caught plenty of small fish plus a bonus big perch and skimmer, but des had caught quite a few 8oz skimmers plus small fish, id had a few skimmers, but more roach, in the end it wa des who came out on top with 13.8, trig was second with 12.13 and i had a level 12lb for third, so quite close. Weigh sheet below.

Well thats the end of match fishimg for at probably 7 or 8 weeks, at least the angling trust managed to get us out on the bank for a bit of pleasure fishing, providing we stay local, ive no doubt some will push it , arguing as to what is deemed local, to be fair i dont know. all i know is that i have spoken to quite a few people recently who have had the virus, and i have a couple of friends who are in hospital with it at the mo, so it is real and dangerous, a massive percentage of sufferers will recover, but a small percentage may not recover and lose the battle, lets all hope its none of out relations or friends, please stay safe everyone, an