Piking in the fog

The mid day sun through the fog

Today's plan of attack was to head to a local club water with my friend Steve with the piking gear and see if we could net ourselves a toothy old esox. The conditions looked good, being quite mild for the last day of November, and very foggy. We arrived at about 8am and quickly got set up in the thick fog. We were each fishing 2 deadbait rods for the pike and zander, and a maggot feeder in case we wanted to catch some live baits. Steve had a take within the first 20 minutes, but got a bit excited and snatched the bait from the fishes mouth. I suggested to let them run for a couple of seconds just to make sure they have a good hold of the bait before striking, and it wasn't long before his rod was off again and he got the chance to put my advice into practise. This time the hooks were set and the fish was on, and it looked to be a good sized fish. It was at this point Steve informed me that the reel he had chosen for today's predator session was loaded with 6lb line... Muppet! Thankfully the water is deep and the only real snags are on the far bank, which we couldn't see due to the fog, so were fishing about half way across, and he had plenty of room to let the fish run. After a few minutes we got our first glimpse of the fish, and it looked to be a good sized zander. As soon as it saw us it made a dash back down into the depths, but it was soon beaten and with an expert swish of the net by me, Steve had smashed his zander PB with a chunky 7lb fish!

Steve's new PB zander at 7

The business end of a zander

After a few photos the fish was returned and the rod re-cast. I had decided to break the feeder rod out and try and catch some bait fish, but it wasn't really happening. Steve offered me some of his bright red groundbait he'd brought (which is why we have red hands in all the pictures) which I accepted and put 3 balls in the area where I was fishing. It seemed to do the trick and it wasn't long before the tip was twitching giving away the presence of some feeding fish. A few casts later and the twitches finally turned into a bite, but it wasn't the small prey fish I was expecting, having a much heavier "breamy" feeling to it as I reeled it in. A few moments later and my suspicions were confirmed as a bream of around 4lb was slipped into the net. It was a bit of an old warrior and looked as though it had been grabbed a couple of times during its life by some form of toothy predator. It was far too big to become bait, but it meant I wasn't blanking so I was happy!

A battered old bream covered with old puncture wounds and scars

I had a few more skimmers, still too big to be used as bait, and was starting to get the swim going pretty good, when the high pitched beep of my right hand alarm alerted me to some interest in my popped up roach deadbait. I watched the rod tip intently for 10-15 seconds as it twitched ever so slightly as something mouthed my bait. Thankfully it decided it was good to eat, and tried to make off with the roach causing the line to peel off the spool. I wound down and set the hooks and a short battle ensued. At first I thought it was going to be a good zander as although quite heavy it seemed to come in pretty easy. As always with this water though, once I got it up near the surface it woke up and went on a screaming run back down to the depths and I was sure it was actually a pike. A couple of minutes later I managed to regain the line that it had taken, and sure enough a big mottled green shadow appeared from the depths. I could see it was only lightly hooked in the scissors, and thought I'd lost it as it viciously shook its head as I guided it towards the net. Thankfully the hook hold held just long enough to get it in the net, and I had myself a new PB pike of 13lb, and as a bonus it shed the hooks so I didn't have to unhook it either!

My new PB pike at 13lb

The business end of a pike

After a few photos and resting the fish up for a few minutes in the net to recover its strength I released it and watched it slowly drift of into the depths like a green submarine. The rig was a bit battered but it was good enough for another fish, so I re-baited with another roach and cast back to the same spot. It usually takes about 15 seconds for the lead to hit the deck in the deep water and a few turns of the reel handle to take up the slack line. I felt the knock of the lead hitting the bottom after only around 12 seconds this time, and after 5 or 6 turns of the handle the line still wasn't even remotely tight. I was just saying to Steve that something wasn't quite right when the line did go tight, even though I'd stopped reeling! Turns out the donk I felt wasn't the lead hitting the bottom, but was actually a take on the drop, and the fish had swam towards me which is why I had so much slack line! Sadly it must have felt the resistance and dropped the bait when the line pulled on the rod tip, but it was still only mid morning and it was looking like we could be in for a good day.

It wasn't long before Steve's rod was off again, but he somehow managed to miss the bite. It didn't matter though as almost as soon as the fish dropped that bait, his other rod was screaming off! He wound down and the rod hooped over as he felt the weight of the fish. Obviously it had to be the rod with the 6lb line again, and this fish seemed to be going a LOT better than the first, giving him a right merry run around for a good 7 minutes or so. Eventually he managed to get it up to the surface, and a big toothy grin appeared a few feet from the bank. It was a good fish, and I only just managed to fit it in my fox specimen pan net! I helped Steve with the unhooking which was pretty straight forward and took a few photos and weighed the fish. It weighed in at 17lb 4oz, smashing Steve's pike PB! We made sure it was well rested by holding it in the waters edge before it lurked off back into the deep with a slow kick of the tail.

Steve's new PB pike at 17lb 4oz

My swim had been quiet for a couple of hours, and I'd managed to lose the interest from the shoal of bream while helping Steve with his pike, so I decided to up sticks and leapfrog Steve into the next peg. No sooner had I moved all my gear and Steve was in again! This time it was a smaller zander of around 3 or 4lb that came in with little fuss. A couple of passers by stopped to let their children have a look, but decided not to let them stroke it when they saw its teeth! I finally managed to get my rods back in the water in my new spot, and it only took 10 to 15 minutes before I had a take on a popped up mackerel on my right hand rod. It felt a fairly decent fish, possibly another double, but sadly it managed to shake the hooks free about a minute into the fight. Shortly after, as if by magic all the fog just vanished to reveal a bright blue sky with the sun blazing down right in my face. I put up with it for about 15 minutes while I hoped the lost fish would come back for some dessert, but alas it didn't, so I decided to move back to my original peg which offered some refuge from the bright sun. 

Everything stayed pretty dead while the sun was out, bream had been topping across the water for most of the day but even they stopped showing in the bright day light. There was only about an hour left until sunset though, so we decided to stick it out and give it until it got dark hoping the fish would be back on the feed when the bright day light faded into night time. Sure enough, as the sun was setting Steve's rod was off again, and going by the bend it looked to be another good fish. Again it came in fairly easy at first, and then took off as soon as it got remotely close to the surface, showing all the signs of being another double figure pike. A few minutes later and it was under control and it was just a matter of reeling it up from the depths and into the net. As it broke the surface it became clear it was in fact another big zander, possibly even bigger than the first one! It was pretty much beaten so there wasn't any drama on the way to the net, and Steve had smashed his PB again, with a 9lb 6oz fish!

Steve's even newer PB zander at 9lb 6oz!

We gave it another half an hour as it got dark without any more action, and decided to call it a day. As usual I packed everything up leaving my rods till last, and as I was almost done packing away everything else, I heard the buzz of a spinning spool. It was dark by now and by the time I'd located my reels in the light from my head torch it had stopped, and I had no idea which one it was. It clicked a few more turns about 30 seconds later, and the rod tip started to bounce, but not with enough force to take any more line, despite the bait runners being set so light that a gust of wind is enough to take line. I decided to wind down and strike anyway, and it felt like I bumped something off. Feeling rather annoyed with myself I reeled in, but it didn't feel quite right. Turns out the culprit was a small eel of no more than half a pound that had somehow managed to devour the whole roach deadbait and then tie itself up in the wire trace. I felt quite sorry for the poor little fella as he'd gotten himself into a right mess and I didn't hold out much hope of being able to remove a set of trebles from such a small fish. By some miracle though while I was trying to calm him down, he managed to shed the hooks himself, untangle himself from the trace and "swim" across the soft damp grass into my landing net ready to be put back into his watery home!

The sun sets after a good days fishing

All in all it was a brilliant days fishing, breaking 4 PB's between us, and to top it off Steve was so happy he even offered to pay for the kebabs from Dave's kebab van on the way home, amazing! Oh and just in case anyone was wondering, the reason why I have I ridiculous moustache is because I take part in movember, where men grow awesome moustaches for the month of November to help raise money and awareness for male cancers. This year I decided to model my effort on the "Zyg Gregorek" look. If you'd like to donate something you can do so HERE.

River Frome Winter Chub Challenge... Part 2

With the temperatures set to hit double figures and almost no chance of any rain, I thought it'd be rude not to get out on the bank, so I decided to go have another crack at the mythical Frome chub. I had a little look at the river yesterday and it was running much clearer than last time, and with less pace, so this time I opted to go with float gear and try a bit of long trotting with a big bunch of maggots.

I arrived about an hour before mid day to a somewhat foggy river, and quickly hobbled together a stick float rig with a size 12 hook set at around 3 to 3.5 feet depth with a shirt button shotting pattern and began my wander down the river bank for a likely looking spot. I hadn't gone far when I noticed an overhanging tree on the near bank about 20 yards down stream, with the tips of its lower branches just about touching the surface almost half way across the river. There's not a massive amount of cover on this stretch of the river, so I figured a spot like this must be home to a fish or 2. I loaded the hook with about 5 or 6 maggots, and set the float on its journey down stream about 4 feet from the bank. With the river still being fairly pacey, it didn't take long to reach the "danger zone" under the tree, but alas the float stayed in plain sight the whole time. I increased the depth a few inches as the first run through didn't show any signs of catching the bottom, and had another cast.

This time it looked like I had the depth spot on as the float occasionally twitched on its voyage down the river as my ball of maggots bounced its way down the river bed. I was just about to slow the float a little as it approached the tree, when it vanished from sight. A quick flick of the rod to set the hook and the tip hooped over as the fish darted across the river before leaping into the air. I'd hooked a trout, not as big as the one on the previous visit, but it still looked a half decent fish. After a few more acrobatics the fish decided to go deep and managed to find a snag to hide in and everything locked up. I tried pulling from various angles and letting it have some slack, but I couldn't budge it and I had no option other than to pull for a break. It would seem however that I was in favour with the fishing gods, and as I pulled expecting the line to break, the snag gave way instead, and the fish was still on! It took what seemed like an age to reel it in in the strong current but eventually I had it beat and in the net. A nice wild brownie I'd guess at being just over the 1 pound mark, a quick photo and it was back in the river none the worse for its little outing.

I carried on downstream, having a few casts in all the likely looking spots but didn't have any more joy. As the day wore on a mist began to rise from the fields, creating a silky white carpet that seemed to cling to the ground. I'd managed to cover the whole stretch of river with an hour or so spare before sunset, so decided to change over to a ledger set up like I used on the previous trip, and try a few of the deeper pools on my way back up stream. The first pool I tried was the same one that I'd caught the trout from on my first trip. In an effort to try and avoid any more trout, but still remain chub friendly, I used a slightly bigger hook and loaded it with as many maggots as I could. I gave the pool about 15 to 20 minutes, feeding a few maggots every couple of minutes but it didn't look like anyone was home, so decided to move on upstream.

By the time I got to the next pool the sun was getting low in the sky, lighting up the far bank with a fiery glow. I opted to fish in the shadows of the nearside bank about 10 yards down stream, not far from some debris that would offer some shelter to any fishy residents. After a minute or two the rod tip began to twitch ever so slightly possibly indicating some interest from a fish. It continued to twitch for about another minute and I began to wonder if I'd managed to hook a mini species like a bullhead, but on reeling in discovered all I'd managed to do was hook a leaf! I put some fresh maggots on the hook and cast it back to the same spot in a last ditch effort to find the illusive chub. Again the tip started to twitch, but this time it was followed by some more violent tugs. I lifted into the fish hoping for a mighty pull from a big chub, but it wasn't to be and a short while later another brownie was in the net, around 6-8 oz, a pretty typical size for most of the river. I slipped him back and decided to call it a day as the sun set across the fields behind me.

Making wire traces

I'm hopefully going predator fishing at the weekend and needed to make some new traces, so thought I may as well post the process up on here for all to see. Its pretty easy to do, and as well as giving you the freedom to make them the size you want them, it can save you a bunch of money over ready made traces, working out at under £1 a trace, even less if you re-use the hooks and swivels after the wire gets trashed by a fish!

Items needed to make a trace

You will need:

• Trace wire 
• Treble hooks
• Swivels
• Heat shrink tubing
• Wire cutters
• Rig puller

I use a coated trace wire as I feel its a bit friendlier on the fish. I also use semi-barbless trebles for the same reason, and to make unhooking that much simpler. I'm an electronics engineer by trade, so I use the same heat shrink tubing that I use at work for covering solder joints on wires, but I'd imagine the stuff you can buy in tackle shops is just the same thing (but with a higher price tag). For wire cutters I just use my hook cutters that I use to chop the hooks up in the event of a tricky hook hold (be it in a fish or in my hand!). You could use scissors, but I'd imagine you'll ruin them fairly quickly.

Making a trace:

• Cut off a length of trace wire, around 2 ft should be about right.
• Thread the wire through the eye of a hook, running parallel to the shank, leaving a tag end of about half an inch.

Attaching the bottom hook

• Fold the wire over back down the shank, then pass around the outside bend of one of the hooks. Make sure everything is tight and in place, and then whip the wire around the shank back up to the eye of the hook at least 5 times, and than place back through the eye (much like tying a knotless knot).

Attaching the bottom hook

• Cut a short piece of heat shrink tubing big enough to cover the hook shank, and slide it down the wire and onto the shank. Shrink the tubing down with a heat source (I hold it about an inch or 2 above the flame of a lighter, though a heat gun would probably serve better). Pull the rig tight and straight while the tubing cools to keep everything in a straight line.

Tidying things up

• Thread the second treble down the trace to the desired position (this will depend on the size of baits you use, in this case it was for a small roach for zander fishing, so the hooks were fairly close at around 2.5 inches apart), and repeat the same process as for the first hook.

Both hooks securely attached

• Thread a swivel onto the wire to about 15-18 inches from the bottom hook, and then pass the wire back through the eye of the swivel (as you would if tying a grinner knot). Twist the tag end around the trace at least 7 times. This can be done quickly by clamping a set of forceps onto the tag end and spinning them around the trace while holding the trace tight, though you can probably get it neater if you do it by hand. Snip the remainder of the tag end off close to the trace.

Attaching the swivel

• Cut a length of heat shrink tubing long enough to cover all the twists and half of the swivel, and thread onto the trace until only half of the swivel is showing before shrinking down (it just occurred to me you'll want to thread the tubing on before attaching the swivel if it isn't big enough to pass over the swivel easily!). Again pull the trace tight and straight while the tubing cools to help keep everything in a straight line.
• Trim the tag end at the bottom hook, and your trace is finished!

The finished trace

If you plan on popping your baits up off the bottom, you can add a micro swivel to what would normally be the tag end (though attach the swivel first before the hooks) which you can then use to "hair rig" a poly ball to the trace using some bait floss and passing a long baiting needle through the flank of the bait by the bottom hook, and out through the mouth. 

Pop-up trace with micro swivel for "hair rigging" poly balls

I apologise for the poor image quality, now that it gets dark early I had to shoot under artificial lighting which requires a slower shutter speed, and I obviously didn't hold the camera steady enough to get a sharp image. Hopefully they're still good enough for you to see what's going on...

River Frome Winter Chub Challenge... Part 1

River Frome in the Stroud valley

Today I kicked off my new quest, the river Frome winter chub challenge (RFWCC). It might not sound much of a challenge, catching a chub from a river, people do that all the time... But I'm trying to catch one from my local river Frome, and I'm not even sure there are any in there! The last time I saw a chub in this river with my own eyes was back in the mid 90's, so somewhere around 20 years ago. I've heard rumours from various people that they are still in there, but most of these stories involve the infamous "one that got away" and none of them came with any photographic evidence, which in the age of smart phones and digital cameras leaves me feeling somewhat sceptical about these claims. So I've set myself the challenge to try and catch one of these mythical beasts, which are rumoured to go to over 4lb, not bad for a little river you could almost jump across.

I wasn't expecting to catch anything on today's session, writing the day off as more of a recon day before I'd even got there, as it'd been about 6 months since I last visited this stretch at the start of the trout season, and after the recent rain I didn't even know if it'd be fishable. I arrived just before mid day, with a minimal amount of kit in a small backpack so I could stay mobile. The river was pushing through pretty hard, and it had a little colour to it but it looked like it would be fishable in a few slacker areas.
I set up my trusty feeder rod with a simple fixed paternoster rig on a 6lb mainline, with a 4.9lb hooklink of about 2ft. For weight I had a pot of old AA and SSG shot to add as needed, and a size 14 wide gape korum hook at the business end. For bait I'd brought a ball of cheese paste, and a few worms from out my garden. I found a nice little spot with a small area of slacker water on the far bank that looked like it might be the refuge of a fish or 2, and made my first cast with a pinch of cheese paste on the hook.

My trusty old Abu feeder rod waiting for a tug from Chevin

It didn't take long (about 2 seconds) before I realised the water was pushing through a lot harder than I first thought as my rig was washed down stream. After adding a few more shot (7 more AA's to be precise!) I finally managed to just about hold bottom. Sadly my problems didn't end there. The water was flowing through with such force it was washing my cheese paste off the hook within seconds. I decided to give up on the spot and head down stream where there were a few bends in the river which I knew created a back eddy that I'd be able to fish in.
On my way downstream I noticed another fishy little spot by a floating raft of dying reeds on the far bank. I swapped to a worm hookbait as I knew the cheese paste didn't have a chance in the flow and cast just upstream of the reeds. The rod tip was bouncing all over the place as my bait trundled slowly down the river bed, the extra water in the river had me outgunned, and I had no idea if I'd even be able to detect a bite if I got one. That is until I got one! The tip tapped gently, then straightened out as the line slackened before hooping round as something tried to make off with my worm. It wasn't to be, however, as my strike was only met with the resistance of the flow of water. Upon inspecting my now half a worm for tooth marks, it was obvious that the culprit was more than likely a trout that had torn the poor little fella clean in half. As the trout are out of season, I decided to leave him be and carry on down stream to the bend.

2 of a family of swans on the river

Upon reaching the bend there were a family of swans swimming up the river, the young now the same size as the adults but still sporting their fluffy brown-grey feathers. I sat down and had a spot of lunch while I watched them slowly make their way up the river, making sure they were long gone before I cast out as the last thing I wanted was a family of swans diving on my bait. I rigged up another worm, and flicked it into the back eddy to my left and set the rod on the rest. It wasn't long before the tip bounced round violently 2 or 3 times in quick succession as something had become enraged after making the mistake of eating my worm. I wound down and struck into it, and almost instantly it was peeling line off the spool as it dived down stream and made its way across the river. It felt far too big to be one of the little wild brownies that inhabit the river. Had I managed to snag myself one of the legendary chub on my first outing? I managed to turn the fish before it got into the far side vegetation, and now it made its way up stream, still stripping line from the spool. I was just thinking to myself that it had to be a chub to take line the way it was, when it leapt a good 2 feet clean out of the water to my right, confirming that it was, in fact, a good sized brown trout. Slightly miffed by the discovery I almost let it get into some overhanging debris during a lapse of concentration, which wakened me up to the fact that it was a good sized brownie, and despite being out of season I wanted to get it in the net as I hadn't had any brownies much over a pound out of the river probably since I last saw a chub in there! A few bum clenching moments later as it made one last bid for freedom by leaping over some overhanging dead cow parsley I managed to scoop it into the net. It was indeed a nice fish for the river, and I wondered if it'd even beat my long standing PB of 2lb 8oz that I'd caught when I was still in school. I quickly weighed it in at 2lb 3oz and took a photo before holding it in the flow for a few minutes making sure it returned to its watery home fit and strong.

2lb 3oz Brownie. Not the chub I was after but nice to see good sized fish making a re-appearance in the Frome

I decided to move on down to the next bend after all the commotion the trout had caused. The flow wasn't as strong there so I decided to give the paste another go to try and avoid any more brownies. I hooked a small bit of a twig to mold the paste around and it seemed to do the trick of keeping it on the hook. The spot looked good for a fish, but sadly nothing was there, or if there was it wasn't hungry, and after about 15 to 20 minutes as the light started to fade I decided to call it a day.

New quest...

Hopefully I'll be starting a new quest in the near future. It's something I've been meaning to try for a few years now but have been unable to due to flooding, and a bad case of fair weather angling! It looks like it might stop raining for the weekend so I may get chance to kick it off then! I don't expect the first session to go according to plan (mainly because I don't have a plan yet). Think of it more as a reconnaissance mission...

Bring on the RFWCC!

Fishy Fingerz Match

My peg at the final whistle.

Well, I did my first match in over 20 years with the Fishy Fingerz boys at Fishponds in Colwall. I didn't have the best luck in the world for various reasons, but can't grumble about my result. It was a good day out though which is all that matters at the end of the day.

My run of bad luck started with me smashing, and possibly breaking my little toe while getting my kit ready the night before, rendering me barely able to walk and worried I wouldn't be able to get a shoe on in the morning and would have to drop out. Thankfully that wasn't the case...

We arrived at 8am to be greeted by the owner with a cup of tea and a bacon butty for the bargain price of £2. I didn't catch his name but he seemed like a decent down to earth guy and offered some advice for those of us that had never been there before. Once everyone had arrived and been fed, the pegs were drawn. Naturally my name was picked last, so I was only left with 1 peg to "pick at random" from the bag, which was peg 21. We all hauled our gear around the lake to our pegs and got set up ready for the start at 10am.

As promised, I took my feeder rod that I'd won over 20 years earlier in the only other match I've ever entered, but I also took a float rod just in case I needed to get a bait higher up in the water. For baits, my main approach was going to be maggot to try and target the chub and ide which hopefully would build me up a good bag of fish, with a tin of hemp and a few pellets to maybe entice some of the lakes carp into my area. I guessed most people would go the maggot approach, so I decided to gamble on flavouring mine with some sonubaits tiger fish just to be a little different from everyone else.

The "secret sauce" for my maggots

When the clock struck 10, the "all in" call was made, and the match was underway! I'd decided to fish in a shady area under some trees on an island to my left, and on my 3rd or 4th cast about 15 minutes in my rod tip whacked round without any warning and I was into my first fish. After a short fight it was ready for the net, a nice chub of around 2lb. My run of bad luck had other thoughts though, so obviously as I was shipping the net out, the hook pulled. I rather comically threw my rod to the side and used 2 hands to try and scoop it with my net, but it was just a couple of inches too far and with a little "F**k you!" flick of its tail, it returned to the murky depths. Still, from what I could tell no-one else had even had a bite yet let alone a fish, so I wasn't too disheartened, if anything I was feeling more confident.

I kept recasting every 4 or 5 minutes for the first half hour to get some bait down on the deck, filling my small feeder with a 50/50 mix of maggots and hemp each time. Then my bad luck decided to strike again, and I managed to catch my finger on my tin of hemp while loading the feeder, which resulted in my hemp now becoming blood flavoured as a small stream of the red stuff trickled down my finger and into the tin from a rather deep cut. I had no choice but to reel in and go clean it up in the toilets and fashion a makeshift bandage out of toilet paper. I managed to get back to the lake just as the clock struck 11, at which point we all reeled in for a minutes silence for Remembrance Sunday to pay our respects to those that lost their lives to enable us to live ours the way we do.

The match resumed and it'd be fair to say everyone was struggling. By dinner time I'd managed to net 2 ide of about 12 oz, and I hadn't seen or heard anyone else catch anything! Early afternoon my spot seemed to dry up, I hadn't had even the slightest knock on the tip for 2 or 3 casts, and my neighbours had both had a couple of fish out each, so I switched to my second spot in the middle of the channel to my left, which I'd baited with some hemp and pellet at the start of the match. It didn't take long before the tip whacked round again, and I had a nice ide probably pushing 2lb to add to my tally. That was all the spot had to offer though, and by 1pm I decided to switch back to my first spot.

I was instantly getting indications, but just tiny taps on the tip, where as every bite I'd had so far had been a rod wrenching whack, so I figured that a shoal of small fish had moved in over the bait while the spot had rested. As things were slow going I decided to target them, after all a small fish is better than no fish. I set the feeder rod to one side and broke out the float rod, which I'd set up with the tiniest float I could get away with for targeting the ide if they came up in the water, but as luck would have it it'd be ideal for the small silvers too. First cast and the float didn't even settle before it was dragged under by a small roach of maybe 2oz tops, it looked like my thoughts about a shoal of small silvers moving in were correct...

They weren't! I gave it another 10 minutes, but didn't get even the slightest of twitches on the float. I gave it a further 10 minutes or so after, trickle feeding maggots 2 or 3 at a time, in the hope I could find some ide fishing on the drop like I did when I caught my first one during my quest for a big roach. It wasn't happening however, and time was running out. The guys closest to me had had a few more fish out each, and I knew I was lagging and needed to get a couple more in the net if I was to have a chance of winning. I spent the last hour and half back on the feeder and frustratingly missed a couple of big bites. They were so few and far between that it was impossible to keep up the concentration needed to hit the lightning fast takes. I did manage another fish about 15 minutes from the end, another ide of about half a pound, but as the end of the match was called I knew I hadn't done enough to win, but had I done enough to place in the top 6 and win a prize?

I was going to walk round and watch the weighing, as I knew roughly what I had in my net, but then bad luck #4 struck, and the heavens opened with a freak downpour of a mixture of rain and hail, so instead I tried (and failed) to get my kit packed up and out of the rain so it didn't all get soaked through. My bag was weighed last, and came in at 4lb, which was enough to land me 4th place! The winner was Steve with a whopping 8lb, who'd arranged the match (fix!) and had been one of my neighbours I was battling during the match, with my other neighbour coming 2nd with 7lb. My prize for 4th place was a free 48h on a local(ish) carp water kindly donated by one of the groups members, which really does look quite nice... But I don't drive, and thus can't get there unless I can blag a friend into paying full whack to come and join me, so I guess you could call my prize bad luck #5!

All in all it was a fun day despite breaking my foot and almost cutting my finger off, and would like to thank Steve for arranging it and the rest of the fishy fingerz boys who joined in. Hopefully I'll get the chance to have a rematch next year when the fish are a little more hungry and the gods aren't out to get me! I may have lost my 22 year old 100% match win record, but I do still have a 100% match placing record to maintain...

I've entered a match!

My winning bag from 1992

I'll be competing in a friendly match tomorrow with a few guys from the facebook group Fishy Fingerz. It's not the sort of fishing I've ever really done, having only ever entered 1 before at Stratford Park when I was 13 back in 1992! I did however win that match, with a weight of around 3lb from what I remember, so I do have a 100% record to try and maintain! My prize for winning back in 1992 was an Abu feeder rod kindly donated by one of the club members, which was a fair few years old even back then. I still have it, and I think I shall use it for tomorrows match, and hopefully some of the luck I had in 92 will come my way again!