Robin Hood AC - Summer League - Hayfield Lakes, Doncaster

The first match of the league for Robin Hood AC is now upon us and it took place at Hayfield Lakes Doncaster.  We had Little Adam's lake, pegs 1 - 33.

The Draw
By the time of the draw, there were 24 of us in attendance so the decision was made to leave out all of the corner pegs.  It was also the first leg of the knock out and I was up against Chris 'Lurch' Moorhead as his choice of venue.  Chris was 2nd in the draw and promptly pulled out peg 26, which put him one off the corner with the River Torne behind you.  I put my hand in the bag and drew next to him on peg 25.  my travelling partner, Daz 'Frontrow' Harrison drew next to me on peg 24.  I wanted to be on pegs 13 - 19 or pegs 29 - 3, wind in your face or off your back.

The club have also introduced a new team structure in order that team captains and other members can try to assist one or two of the other members.  In my team I have Craig McKenny (Peg 3), Andy Limbert (Peg 17), Charlie Colefax (Peg 31) and Eric (The Pheasant) (Peg 9 ish).  Dave 'Penfold' Webster drew peg 18, Mrs Webster drew peg 30, Paul 'Woofer' Clough was on peg 29.

I arrived at my peg and said to Lurch, I am next to you so that I can keep an eye on you.  He promptly put on some headphones and ignored me.  I think he had paid Paul McKenna to do a self help tape for him titled - HOW TO STAY AT YOUR FISHING PEG or judging by the way that he was singing during the match, it must have been the radio tuned into Radio Luxembourg.

Rigs
I set up two pole rigs, 1 deep shallow (set about 5ft deep) and the other was to fish on the top 5 at about 7m out in 5ft of water.

I then set up a Pellet Waggler rod, again set to fish about 5ft deep and the obligatory bomb rod.

Bait
For bait, I had some 8mm & 6mm hard feed pellets.  Some 6mm expander pellets and a tin of corn.  I also mixed up a quarter of a 2kg bag of groundbait.

That's it.  I was ready.

The Match
At the start of the match, I watched as everyone launched a feeder or bomb out to the middle of the lake.  I picked up my pole rig to fish at 7m and baited up with a 6mm expander pellet, then shipped out and waited....and waited....and waited.  After 20 mins, nothing, not a wrap.  No one had a fish on my bank.  Both Mr & Mrs Webster had caught a carp each.  All the while whilst fishing short, I had been feeding 8mm pellets out to about 25 yards (mainly due to the wind, which was blowing from right to left and slightly diagonal).

I decided to chuck the bomb out and waited, and waited, and waited some more, all the while, I had been catapulting a couple of 8mm pellets out over the top.  After about another 30 mins or so, Lurch was the only one to catch a fish, a roach on worm at about 10m.

Onto the pellet waggler now.  I cast out and after about the 5th or 6th cast, I got a liner.  I shallowed up to about 2ft deep and cast out again.  I put the rod down so that I could feed and the float shot under.  I WAS IN.  Finally, I had latched onto something.  After a 5 min tussle, a ghost carp about 6lb was soon in the net.  I shouted over to Lurch 'Hey up Chris, you got some catching up to do now' and he still ignored me.

I would love to write that, that fish was the first of many, but alas, no.  No matter what I did, I could not get another bite throughout the match.  Going in to the last hour, I went back on the 7m pole line and baited up with a 6mm expander, shipped out and waited.  The float dipped, then dipped some more, and again.  Finally it went under and a roach of about 2oz had finally whittled the pellet down to a size that it could get in it's mouth.

I re-baited and shipped back out and waited.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lurch's elastic out of his pole and after a very brief tussle, he had a bream about 3lb ish.

Gulp, best concentrate.  Hope he doesn't get any more of them.

After about 10 mins or so, my float shot under and I was attached to something bigger than a 2oz roach.  When you know that the fish will really count and bites are at a premium, you play fish in slow motion, compared to if you were getting lots of bites.  After about 10 minutes, I had a mirror carp about 6lb to go with my other carp that I caught nearly 4 hours ago.

Over the remainder of the match, I managed to snare a couple more roach and skimmers.

That was it.  Match over.  Thank god.

They started the weigh in from peg 22 and Frank had 1 carp and a couple of bits for 13lb odd out of the corner.  Paul 'Castaway' Wilson weighed in 10lb (1 carp and some bits) from peg 23.  Frontrow had 9lb (1 carp and some bits) next to me on 24.  I plonked all of 12lb odd on the scales.  Now it was Lurch's turn..

He weighed in 6lb odd (for 2nd last - only beating someone who did not weigh in.).  I was 6lb in front and had won the first leg or our club knockout.

Then the scales got to the pegs that had caught and there were 30 - 45lbs abundant.

Full Result

1. Dave Webster - 55lb (Peg 18)
2. Paul Clough - 46lb (Peg 29)
3. Mark Wright - 45lb (Peg 8??)
4. Michelle Webster - 40lb (Peg 30)
5. Stuart Wilson - 35lb (Peg 5)

Best 4 weights from my team where:

Craig McKenny - 33lb
Andy Limbert - 32lb
Mike Herrington - 12lb
Charlie Colefax - 10lb

Lindholme next week.  Can't wait.  Hope it is better than it was today. :-)

Thanks for reading.

Tightlines.