First time i have attended this fishery and you could see straight the way its well looked after with superb cut crass areas surrounding the perimeter complimented with excellent pegs on boarding.
The troops amassed in readiness for the expected draw but before that could be started the 'draw' for donated prizes was undertaken and many people had donated various items of fishing tackle and bottles of good stuff.
The morning was cool as the bank holiday weather experts had predicted compared to a year ago when the record weather of 29 degrees Centigrade was recorded. The night before saw the weather hover above freezing so what affect will this have on the proceedings ?
Today was a chance to view the brand new Halkon Hunt attire so MAS lads donned their optimum fishing regalia , their apparelled piscatorial clothing. L-R , Phil Ackerley , Mick Carr , David Mellors.
The MAS stitching on the arms of the pole jacket was very outstanding.
MAS - Purchasing manager Mick Carr - striking a pose , vogue, vogue, vogue !!
I drew peg 5 which had the wind side and angled into me but like any carp dominated water it had features i could mug a fish or two (well , so i thought ?).
I set up a Maurizio Schiepatti HYDRA 0.75gr to a 3.5lb bottom to a TRABUCCO 666 16's hook. Also a Maurizio Schiepatti DRACO Carp 0.3gr for up in the water set at 2ft deep in a depth of 5ft.
For the margin i set up a Sensas CCX float 0.3gr to 5lb line and 14s hook for hopefully expected mugging margin fish .
Match kicked of and in first 15 minutes Mick Carr on peg 2 took 2 feeder rod carp and i noticed way to my left a pellet waggler carp was taken but not much else . I had fed a top 6 line with ground bait and corn and caster and also my margin line with the same . After 15 minutes on the top line i decided to fish the same distance but up in the water . Maggot on the hook , first drop in , down it went a 10oz roach ! .....Umm , what shall i do ?continue on this line attack and build up a back up weight for an expected carp catch later? So i decided carry on but with the chance of a carp up in the water i placed the rig on a tight 8 elastic . For the next 3 hours i just caught roach and even close in however the gudgeon were coming of the deck to feed . I knew that the guy to my right had 2 small carp and lost 3 foul hookers. Others in my section were the same with either one or two carp. However i kept the trickle of corn and caster being added to the margins and waiting for some tail wagging .
Into the last hour and the roach were getting larger and i was catching on caster and 15 minutes to go a noticed tails so i went margin hunting .........nothing , mistake ? Come the weigh-in it proved costly as most weights were 7-9lb in the section , come to me and i had 10-3 of Roach only to be beaten by angler to my left with a barbel and a carp by a margin of 4 ounces , something i could have surmounted if i stuck to those roach in last 15 minutes , hindsight its a beautiful thing if you get it right . Second match on the trot i have been beaten with ounces to the section.
Mick with his 2 carp + bits
If only !
Massive well done to David Mellors with a 47lb 2nd place catch , he didn't have his first significant fish till 13:00 pm !
Great net from the canal-master
The day's top 3 with organiser Colin Talbot. Note that Dean Cherrington also took a section prize. Another MAS lad John Kilby came 8th overall with 23lb .
