By Joe | No Comments
Last updated: Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Well I’ve got tons to catch up on as I’ve let myself get really behind with my blogs again and lots has happened since last time!!!!! First up is the winter league semi final. After a really good run in to the match with a couple of frames/lake wins I was feeling really happy with the venue and couldn’t wait to fish it. Basically we had sussed out safe methods for willows and laurels, and oasis. But bonsai was a bit of a draw bag but we had a few tricks up our sleeves for that lake. Ian picked me up nice and early in the morning and a massive howling gale greeted us at the venue!!!! Very nice. I was hoping for a peg with the wind off my back. I was over the moon when Andy Oldham gave me peg 82 with the wind right off my back! Ideal.

I was less optimistic however when I realised my section went round to the 60’s but I couldn’t let this get to me as I had a team job to do. In fairness our draw was good, Lee Kerry plonked his box on 46 (pleases correct me if im wrong Lee) and Mick Vials was on 36 which had some form, Andy Oldham had picked peg 2 out of the bag for himself which he wasn’t pleased about but again he knew what he needed to do.

Our draws on the other lakes were favourable too, I didn’t fancy sir Matt Godfrey’s peg but I knew he would still do well. On arrival at my peg I had an island within pole reach and I fancied this for some early carp before the wind either changed or got stronger. I decided to fish pellets on two swims across one in 3 foot and one in 18inch and 2 maggot lines left and right down the track but hopefully I wouldn’t need these if all went to plan. I kicked off by feeding a few maggots down the track swims and then shipped onto my 3 foot swim and tapped some pellets in, straight away I just had a feeling it wasn’t right for the day, I did have an f1 straight away but the strong wind was pushing my rig up the slope and dragging it over depth. I persevered for another 25mins but just couldn’t make it work so decided to try my maggot swims and do a team job and catch anything that swims.

I dropped in with a single maggot on a size 20 and 0.08 hook length and a lightly shotted maver slim float that was dotted to a pimple. I soon had a skimmer of about 8oz followed by several more and some roach, I then had a small f1 followed by 2 more and I was thinking of a brown envelope!!!!! By alternating my two track swims I was catching a fish every cast and had roach chub ide tench skimmers f1s and mirrors all in a little golden spell, nothing massive but I was building a steady weight for good points. After 3 hours I was probably winning my section as the lads in the 60’s where having a hard match in the wind but I knew it wouldn’t take them many fish to wipe my hard work out. Then for some reason my bites just stopped!!!! No matter what I tried it just wouldn’t go under, I had a sneaky f1 by the island which id converted to a maggot line aswell but nothing would work. And to make matters worse I could see Anthony Stock catching in the 60’s and Tom Gausden on 74 flying with a late run of better fish.

At the all out I was gutted, I think I just ran out of fish in my peg, I weighed 34lb and was 3rd in my section behind the two lads ive mentioned which is a good result but a section win would have been nice. Andy Oldham produced a true captains performance and was second in his section after a big battle with a massive crosswind, I could see him and went straight round to shake his hand, awesome. Lee did awesome (shock) and won his section and Mick came 3rd so that was all good points from our lads on bonsai. We won the two sections on laurels with Steve Barroclough winning his and the match with 92lb of f1’s shallow and Jamie also winning his section on there, Glen won his section on willows with sir matt coming 4th.

Unfortunately Ian and Simon had harder matches on Oasis with Ian 4th and Si well down. We had amassed a brilliant 26 points with second place having 40, a truly awesome team performance by the lads and the hard work and hours spent on the bank certainly paid off for us. I must say Browning Quaker did awesome for second spot and deserved it after putting lots of time in, I was a bit shocked to see Cleveland come nearly last but I think a few bad pegs cost there lads. So mission accomplished and we will be giving it 100% on the River Nene in the final!!!!

Business as usual

The following day it was business as usual and the last round of the Thorne Pairs, we had a good lead over second place and were quietly confident. I drew at west street bang in the middle which Is a good draw but with steve Barroclough on the end peg and mark silman in my section I knew id have my work cut out for sure. After 5 hours id had a match to forget and to be honest after all the concentration from the day before I just couldn’t get myself into the match, I still managed 3rd, but in all honesty that aint good enough!!!! Lee produced yet more Thorne miracles and won his section and the match with 17lb 12oz of roach caught on a top 4kit to hand!!!! What a day. This meant he had won his section in every round!!!!! Truly awesome im sure you’ll agree. We ended up winning the series and it’s a series I really enjoyed with canal being in the form of its life and we were getting plenty of bites when the lads on the commercials where having rubbish days. Bring on next year!!!!!!

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