The last couple of weeks..

Robin Hood AC have had two matches in the last couple of weeks with the first match being at Lindholme Lakes on Oasis Lake.

The club had from peg 1 through to peg 26 and were double pegged then an empty peg.  There was an open match on the remaining pegs and they were pegged with a couple of empty pegs both sides.

Due to making it through to the Semi-Final of the club knockout, I was up against Paul 'Woofer' Clough, which needed to be fished over 2 matches.  We both picked our venues, I was going to have my first leg today at Lindholme Lakes and Woofer selected Woodlands Lakes' Wagtail Lake in a couple of weeks time.

Donkey wasn't here so there no quids to play for.

I put my hand in the bad and pulled out peg 21.  It didn't mean anything to me.  I spoke to resident venue expert, Gregg 'Beanpole' Norris about the peg.  He said that if they are there, you will win the match, if not you will really struggle and that peg 22 is probably the worst peg on the lake.

GREAT!!!

I arrived at my peg to find that I had John 'Macca' McCall to my left on peg 20 and my arch nemesis for the day Woofer to my right on peg 23.  Travelling partner Frontrow Harrison was on about peg 12.  The two Dave's had drawn end pegs 2 (Horsfall) and 26 (Webster).

Before the match even started, I decided to play with fire.  I said to Macca (who is a staunch Leeds United supporter), that it was my youngest son's birthday and that I had got him a new football top.  He replied 'Oh yeah, nice, did he like it?  I replied 'Yes, especially when he saw the Manchester United badge'.  Macca's replies are unprintable.

The weather was warm and sunny with a strong breeze blowing over my shoulders, but also swirling from left to right or right to left.

I set up 3 rigs..

Rig 1 was a 4 x 12 Carpa Chimp for the margin.  This was set up on .17 Preston Powerline mainline with a .15 hooklength and a size 12 Colmic B501 hook.  I had approx 2.5ft of depth in this swim.

Rig 2 was a 4 x 14 Carpa Chimp for fishing across to the front of the sedges.  This was set up on .15 Preston Powerline to a .13 hooklength and a size 14 Colmic hook.  I had approx 18" of depth on this line.

Rig 3 was my mudline swim and was a .3g Garbolino DC6 float that I had adapted and cut down to be a smaller float.  This was mounted straight through on .13 Preston Powerline to a size 14 Colmic hook.  I went as far over to the farside as I could, but was still about 12" short of the mudline due to the sedges laying down on top of the water.

For bait, I had some 6mm BaitTech Expander pellets, some 8mm cubed meat, some corn and about half a bag of Sonubaits F1 Sweet Fishmeal groundbait to which I also added 1 bag of Lindholme Lakes' own micro pellets.

I was ready.

At the all in, I baited up my across swim with meat and put some meat and groundbait in a tosspot.  I went over to the farside and lowered the rig in and waited.

And waited...

And waited.

I re-baited and waited some more.  I could tell that today was not going to happen.

I brought the rig back, swapped from meat to 6mm expander pellet and caught a .....Roach.

I went back out to the farside, the float shot under and I was attached to a large angry carp.  It shot off to the left and I had to follow it with the pole.  I got the pole back halfway and the the carp and white hydro elastic was about 2 pegs down the lake - extreme apologies to Macca followed as he stared at me with a face like thunder - I had to grovel apologise as Macca is somewhat bigger than I am LOL.  I managed to turn the fish and got the pole back to the top two, but alas, the fish was still on the farside bank.  I started to pull the hydro back through my side pulla and all of a sudden, the fish came off.  I can only assume that it was foul-hooked due to the way that it took off and also that it came off when I put any sort of pressure on the fish.  It really was not going to be my day.

The wind hindered presentation, especially when trying to fish tight over in my little 8" gap across between the sedges.

I swapped and changed swims and managed to get a few fish together, but not even nearly enough.  Macca at the side of me was fishing across to his mudline and was catching fish.  You could even see their backs out of the water and they were slurping the pellets off the mudline.  I could not get tight enough over to do this.

That was it, time, end of the match.  Thank god.

I also could tell that Woofer had also struggled, it was going to be close for the first leg of the knock out.

Dave Webster on end peg 26 was first to weigh and set the standard at 56lb odd. The scales arrived at Woofer's peg and he plonked 20lb on the scales.  I had that...DIDN'T I?  Fingers crossed time now.

I lifted out my two nets and emptied them both into the weigh sling for a total of 28lb odd.  Good enough for nowhere, but good enough to have an 8lb lead going into the second leg of the knock out at Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk.

Chris 'Lurch' Moorhead has now got a new nickname - Casper - now you see me, now you don't.  He left early - AGAIN!!! LOL.

Frontrow put 36lb on the scales to win my section.  Stuart Wilson then raised the bar to 60lb odd.  Last to weigh was Dave Horsfall from end peg 2 who put 66lb on the scales made up of mainly barbel with some carp mixed in.

Full Result

1.  Dave Horsfall (Peg 2) 66lb odd
2.  Stuart Wilson (Peg 8 ish) 60lb odd
3.  Dave Webster (Peg 26) 56lb odd
4.  John McCall (Peg 20) 54lb odd