Rolfs Spring league - Match 2

Today is match 2 in the spring league at Rolfs lake in Oxfordshire and I'm quite looking forward to it even though I am fishing the section with the dreaded peg 10 in it

The weather this week has been fantastic settled warm and dry so hopefully the fish will be having it now !

Upon arriving at the lake it was a fantastic sight to see some areas of the lake almost black with moving Carp even peg 10 had its fair share crashing about in front of the platform

This week Paul is back to join myself and Steve in Team Assassins Paul is fishing A section I'm in B section and Steve has C section

At the draw Paul pulled peg 40 out which was black with Carp then it was my turn to try and avoid the dreaded peg 10 as I approached the bag Rolf informed me I had no chance of getting it this week as it had been left out due to 1 team being short of a member so peg 10 was removed with renewed vigour I dived into the bag and came out with peg 9 Steve had a great draw when he pulled in form peg 24 out of the bag

So with Paul on peg 40 and Steve on peg 24 we were at least assured of a few points this week

All week I have been thinking of trying paste this match if the weather held and as it had I had made up some paste and a few rigs in case I drew a decent paste peg and as I had drawn peg 9 which is a decent summer paste peg I decided to give it a go today

I was so certain that the paste was going to work that I set up the Lerc with the red hydro power tops and I didn't bother to set up feeder rod to fish the usual bread but I did set up a waggler rod with a pellet waggler not that I thought I was going to need it today
Plan was to fish paste tight to the bush to my right at about 6m

And I also had another rig set up to fish pellet out in front at 8m and the pellet waggler to fish out to the middle if needed

On the all in I shipped a pot of pellets out in front at 8m and another along the bush to my right at 6m then on with a lump of paste shipped it out along the bush and cupped it in over the top of the pellets and waited expectantly
Then I waited a bit more I tried different size lumps of paste I fed paste I fed pellets I even tried it up in the water but after 2 hours I still hadn't had the slightest bit of interest
For the next hour I tried fishing pellet out in front at 8m with no joy and also the pellet waggler also with no joy
Looking around the section they all seemed to be catching with the exception of Frank on peg 32 opposite me who had caught a Carp first put in then not had a bite since
So I needed to get a Carp at least to keep in contention so I kept on feeding the paste line and after giving up on the pellet lines I went back on to the paste in the hope of snagging a Carp
With an hour to go and still no bites it suddenly dawned on me that I was heading towards a blank and 0 points and all I needed for 2 points today was a fish of any description so I quickly grabbed the Armageddon top 4 out of the rod holdall and set a silvers rig up to fish maggot at 4m on the second put in I had a Roach in the net and 2 points in the bag from then on up to the whistle I continued to catch small roach and skimmers almost 1 a chuck
At the weigh in I was way behind in the section Franks Carp went for 9lb then there was a 25lb and a 30lb and Phil won the section from peg 28 with 50lb I managed to weigh 4lb 14oz
Paul had 33lb from peg 40 for 3rd in section and 4 points my 4lb 14oz gave me 5th in section and 2 points and Steve had a fantastic result with 212lb from peg 24 for first in section and 6 points and won the match as well

Giving Team Assassins 12 points today

We also came in second place today in the team event beating SPRO on weight so we had a most welcome bit of coin to pick up for once
Just a shame I got carried away with trying to catch a Carp for 4 hours again instead of going for silvers from the off but I'm probably too old to learn now

Still it was a nice day and for once we are off the bottom of the league