With the Xmas match on next Sunday it was the last chance to get a bit of practice in. But with a heavy frost, first one for a week, it could be hard. Into the mini tea chest and number 20 sticks in my fingers, and it's the first time I've ever drawn a golden peg. Pressure on. Four rigs were set up. A margin rig to fish meat down the shelf a bit. A .75 slim to fish meat at 11 metres at 11 and 1 o'clock angles. The left side being a bit deeper. A .5 slim to fish maggot or caster over ground bait at 2+2. And a .1 Shalla slim to fish across to the island at 16 metres. Plus a light bomb set up to chuck just past the corner of the island. Fed all lines and chucked out the bomb rod, which was set up with a 6 gram Olivette and size 18 on .013 with 6mm pellet. After 15 minutes I'd had no indications so I went on the 2+2 line. That was also dead so after another 20 bite less minutes I chucked the bomb out again. Still nothing. Not looking good. It was about an hour before the first bite on the short line and several blippy roach came to hand. About 90 minutes in and I saw a bit of movement over by the island so I dropped the pellet rig in and managed to get a 3 pounder. But that was it. Kept switching around and around half time I had two quick carp to 6 lb on the bomb. Then another quiet period so it was back on the meat line. Straight into a couple of small carp and a skimmer. I stayed on the meat line for most of the last two hours except for 5 minutes across to the island where I spotted another fish moving and caught it. Three more carp on meat and that was it. Unusually I landed every fish I hooked today, including silvers, and only missed half a dozen bites so I think I did all I could today. I was guessing on 1lb of silvers and 35 of carp and was almost spot on. 35-8 in total for second on the day. Had to be happy with that as it didn't fish great. Martin Rayet won today with 40-11 from 27, which included a fish of 12lb which made the difference today. I did enjoy it, having to think about it and swap about. Kept it interesting.
1st Martin Rayet 44-11
2nd Stu Barnett 35-8
4th John Osbourne, 32-2, Peg 9
Top silvers, Dave Britain, 3-00, peg 24
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