As the first 2 winter league matches were in 2011, I wasn't eligible to fish in them, but as a Magiscroft AC member for 2012, I made my debut in a 'club match'.
Today was a big match, with 32 people fishing, which meant splitting it between the Island and Top ponds. Today's event was also a doubles match where pegs are paired prior to the draw, kinda like a 'Secret Santa'.
The draw was called and I joined the end of a long line - there were only 9 pegs left and I drew another peg that I have never fished, P29 on the Island pond, which is paired with P7 on the Top pond. James Woodrow (Scottish Internationalist) drew the pair peg - I couldn't have wished for a better draw from a partner sense!
P29 is on the top bend of the Island Pond and I quickly found that there were some steep drop offs on the far shelf, so I setup to fish in a channel on the far side at 15m and a second rig for my usual bottom of the shelf spot at 13m.
When the all in was called I'm was maybe 10 seconds behind everybody else but within 15 seconds of getting my float out to the channel in the far shelf, I hooked into a nice F1 of around 2lbs.
I was using 4 and 6mm pellets but kept getting bites that I couldn't connect with until I hooked a small roach on a 6mm pellet - which dropped off, but at least I now knew that the small roach were the cause of the 'un-hitable' bites. I then moved to using 8mm pellets as there is no way any roach under a pound could take a pellet that big - I still got the bites, but my pellet stayed intact, allowing me to just drop the rig straight back in. Which got me another nice F1.
And then it happened - I had both pole rollers setup to cope with shipping back 16m of pole - and the pole had gotten entangled with a tree beyond the second roller - so rather than pull it past and damage the paint finish on the 16m section, I tried to move it by lifting it from the business end - which promptly snapped my no 5 section.
But all I did was take the top bit of the broken no 5 section and push it through the bottom bit - as all sections are tapered, it fitted snugly and gave a useable, section, only 2-3" shorter.
The 'un-hitable' bites from small roach continued, but ever 20 mins or so, I connected with a carp - I lost 3 through stupidity, but still managed to land 12 F1s and a solitary common carp which at the weigh in, gave me 30lb flat.
The match was won By John Baird Jnr on P23 with 49lb 10oz, Dave Minard was second with 40lbs 6oz and Stuart Dalgliesh third with 31lb 9oz. So 4th in my first club match, and Woody managed 21lb 15oz, which gave us second in the pairs match behind John Baird Jnr/John Perrela.
Full results can be found here.
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