As the anglers gathered at the draw news had filtered about Jon Walker's massive 352-00 winning weight on the previous weekend's match, so confidence was high. With over 20 anglers now attending the Wednesday opens, it will only be a matter of time before one lucky angler gets the first 400-00 weight of the year.
The area the anglers wanted to be in was the small lake as the wind had been blowing into it for the last two days ,so pegs 40,2, 4,5,7,and 8 were most wanted. As the anglers one by one drew their pegs you could see the happy ones as they were off to their pegs like a shot.
Whithin a minute of the match starting Mick Chapple who was on peg 30 was into a fish which eventually went 13-08 and then proceeded to catch to catch five others ,so it was 6 - nil to Mick. Further along was Trevor Stanley on peg 32 who was happily catching carp and after 3 hours was about a 100lb in front of me ,as i had not caught a single fish {not very good i thought}.
Around the rest of the big lake most of the anglers had one or two fish but not more than that, so when after 3 hours John came and invited me to the hut for a coffee he did not have to ask twice as i was not catching. Sitting there drinking my coffee gave me plenty of time to watch Trevor, Mick, Ray on peg 7, and Mark Chard on 8 all catching fish so after about half an hour i decide to go back and fish for the last hour and a half.
My plan was to fish paste only and feed heavy a just see what would happen and as i layed my float in it just kept going resulting in my first fish. After that i had lots of bites as the wind had died down and i could see my float properly which was a great help as before what i thought were liners were actually bites which i did not strike on. Each time i went in was followed with a big handfull of pellets which drew more fish into my peg and resulted in me catching bigger fish than anyone else {up to 15-08} which helped amass my board weight of 121-00.
At the all out i was happy with my hour and a half's effort, but frustrated with the previous 3 and a half's hours fishing as i always do well at the end of the match but never at the begining so i will have to work hard to beat my PB of 211-08.
We started off weighing in Trevor on peg 32 who i was convinced had over 200lb but was surprised when he finished with 154-12 so it was next on to Mick on 30 who was claiming 60lb but ended up with 75-12. Next it was me and with a 121lb board weight to add to my net weight i was hoping for at least 150lb and was very pleased to end with a very hard earned 169-04. As we went around the big lake i was in first place and then we got to weight in Phil Powell one of the Wednesday Cartel members and i was chuffed to see him weigh in only 78lb so it was one down two to go. Next up was Mick Lane who was giving me some abuse from across the lake on peg 15 when i was not catching so when he only weighed 123lb you guessed it he got some back. The final danger man was John Bennett who i saw catching a lot of fish late, and i was worried he might of just caught me at the end but he only had 127lb so i had beaten all of the members of Rolf's team gold so i was extemely happy.
Then reality hit me as we weighed in the small lake to find Mark Chard on 8 had 187-12 for third place, Jeff Edwards on peg 4 had 230-03 of fish caught on pellet and paste for second place and finally Chris Telling who was on peg 40 had 241-04 again all caught on paste at between 13 and 6 metres fishing on the deck for first place. In ten minutes i had gone from first to fourth and was still happy as i had had one of my better days and had caught on paste PERFECT
The one thing that still strikes me about Rolfs is that you could win a match from most pegs in just the last hour with over 150lb, where else can you do this ?.
The paste anglers are starting to catch big weights of fish closer in now the water has warmed up so expect the weights to nudge the 400lb mark over the next three weeks.
John Bennett has asked my to remind the anglers that there is a limited number match {20 places only} on the 1st of July and that the lake is closed to pleasure anglers on this day so sorry for this.
Until my next report tight lines Eddie T-Green.
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