We'll what can i say,I know cold springs to mind got up put all the kit on (thermalls and the like).Walked outside and bam -5 waited quater an hour to defrost the car and load the kit,managed to get to Manor farm which if you dont know is a very popular fishery near Evesham.As per usual the customary abuse at my arrival followed, The weather was nice and clear but very cold ,looking at the lake most of it had cat ice on it so no problem with a few clear areas also,Dave the owner had put the aireators on so it was breaking up well. So to the draw i did the customary pretending to pull a peg out so my mate Tim wouldnt get the last peg in the bag. and i draw peg 6 which is one of the only pegs on the lake with proper ice on it, so there we have it no choice but to fish one 6 metre channel that i had managed to break up. For bait i had brought micro pellets for feed and some 6mm and 4mm expanders for the hook, some worms and caster and finally some red maggots.I made up 2 rigs both 4x14 floats one with 2.6lb wb clarke matchteam through to 1.7lb hooklength and a size 18 pr28 hook, the othe was wb clarke matchteam 3.3lb straight through again to a size 18 pr28 hook.(as you can see i deal in old school lb's and oz's cant deal with this 0.02 and crap i like to see my breaking strains not have to work them out).
Any way the whistle blows and i go staright out with a picnh of chop worm and caster on the lighter rig with a small pinch of worm on the hook,and luckily about 10mins later the float slide under and its a roach about 1oz ,I'm think to myself catch whatever swims so a good start(or so i think).Then Tim who's pegged to my right gets a carp about 4lb,thats my plan out the window, for the next hour i have no more bites nothing so i decide to feed a few pellets just to the right of my worm swim and wait,meanwhile across the lake there are probably four pegs all catching the odd carp.about 12ish i get my second bite on worm which turns out to be a perch touching 2lb so im thinking just keep putting fish in the net and go for the section.Then Nick to my left starts getting a few small carp at 13 metres(typical as i can only go 6 metres out).For the rest of the match i continue catching small roach on the worm for 5lb at the end luckily Nick to my left is 2nd and Tim to my right is 3rd which leaves me with my section by default,at least i get to go home with some coin in my pocket.In the end i felt i fished a good match and got what i could out of the pegs with what i had to go at,all my fish came to the chopped worm line and i found i had to top up with a pinch in the pot every 3 or 4 fish when the bites dried up.Even though i wasn't in the frame i really enjoyed the day.Next match is at Tunnel hill which is in Dowdswell near Cheltenham, so we'll see how that goes.
Untill next time!!!
