| Charity League Fourth Leg
Moorlands Farm
As usual I had made the 85 mile trip to Moorlands to get there for about 7:30 am as there were a few things to sort out on the day, but there was only Gary there when I arrived. I decided to get some breakfast while I waited for the others and as I walked I saw Gary Plant just getting started on one of the biggest breakfasts I had ever seen. I don't think he had been fed for a while too. I decided to go for the sensible sized one which still allows you to move afterwards.
People were starting to arrive now so it was best to get the food out of the way rather than have to wait in a queue for it. Dianne was not going to be helping us (totally running the match for us) on this event so that meant we had to write down all the names and peg numbers before we could get to our pegs. I don't mind doing it but it takes ages and it leaves no time to tackle up. We had to wait for a few teams but in general everybody was on time or near enough. I had heard a few rumours, which I think has upset quite a few people who fish this league and they are concerning cheating! I think most people are aware that there is a bait limit at Moorlands Farm and this works out at one pint an hour! However, since there has been some abuse of the two pints of pellet limit, John Talbot has reduced this to one pint per match. I have heard now that one team has pulled out of the league because they have witnessed members of another team using more than their limit of pellets. Whether this is true I am not sure but it causes tension when allegations are made. During the match, anglers who were using pellets, were checked but I don't think anyone was over the limit.
On a more positive note, the venue fished very well and there were some very good weights. We drew peg 15 which was not that good on the day, Grant was on Moors peg 19, Gary was up the far end of Meadow where he is every week, Clive was at the other end of the Meadow and I was on Bank peg 18.
I did fancy it because the wind was blowing down that end but I thought I was going to have a right battering. The peg to my right has two empty pegs to his right, which makes it a very good draw as every peg is in. I think there were some weights the previous week from that peg too as Clive was in that area and had a shafting. I suppose you can only do your best so I thought about fishing it light on the waggler as nobody else had set it up. Les Thompson was on peg 16 so he had some room down the edge too and he had set the waggler up. When the whistle went every body cupped some bait on the pole line but I left it and went out on the waggler. I fed some caster and started off fishing two feet deep with corn. Second cast I had a bite, which felt big when I hooked it. It was coming in nicely towards the net and I thought that I was going to get this one really quick. As it came up near the surface I scooped it with the net but then I realised that it was too big and it swam out again. Ten minutes later I managed to net it.
It was one of those long Mirror carp that fight a bit but it only went about 9lb. I was feeding casters while I played that fish and when I chucked out again I had one about 4lb on the drop. That one didn't take as long though and I was fishing and feeding caster now. I am using these new hooks by Middy which are dark grey in colour but have a matt finish to them. I think they are brilliant for shallow fishing as they do not reflect light. I managed to catch six carp in the first hour, then they went and I struggled for the odd fish throughout the match on the waggler, but nobody was catching around me either so I didn't mind. Les was catching a few now but he had lost as many down the edge and the guy in between us was really struggling for bites. The guy to my right had only one carp and a bream and the angler to his left had the same. The fancied areas were catching well with Mal Watson on peg 23 and Andy Newton on Peg 24 and the bloke opposite on peg 9 were all having a few. Les kept chanting every time he landed one as he was closing the gap between us now but he managed to speed up his catch rate when the carp turned up in his peg. He weighed 64lb, the guy in between us weighed low double figures, I weighed 55lb and the guy to my left put about 12lb on the scales. I knew I wouldn't beat Les Thompson because his peg has some form but I was surprised at what I weighed from that area which has been crap lately. Just goes to show that sometimes a different approach can work.
Our team didn't do too well though and I think we are out of the running now. Grant caught some fish but he was on a bad peg in a good section, Clive and Gary had the same problem and I am not going to give Gary any more stick because he has had loads lately. Gary has had a few bad results lately through fish coming off the hook and everybody gets that from time to time.
However, there are people who walk around Moorlands Farm to watch the weigh in before they embark on the afternoon match, which John Talbot runs. As I was watching the weigh in, two familiar faces turned up to ridicule other anglers and to generally compound their misfortune by taking the'piss'. Namely Bob Marklew and John Cockayne who arrived in fine form to have a look at how it was fishing. John must have thought that the weather was going to be warm because he was wearing what can loosely be termed as shorts! It looked like he had forgotten his shorts and borrowed a pair of Bob's casual trousers - in Burgundy! Together, Bob and John looked like a 'Stan and Ollie' revival. Those shorts well what a sight! They were in perfect contrast to the white sticks of flesh hanging down from underneath them. I told John that they looked like two fluorescent light tubes, which he took very well. I think I got 'arc eye' from them. There was a woman taking photographs of her son's catch and my remark about having my picture taken with the monkey went down really well with Bob.(Like a dose of rabies in the guide dog centre) If it was not for some deftly contrived foot work I would have been heading for the pool -head first! They weighed in some old chap on bank pool, who promptly yanked his keepnet from the water and proceeded to cascade his catch down the rings, from the bottom to the top ring, amid screams from John Talbot to stop. I thought this guy was going to 'cop' a life ban. This bloke just looked around casually to see who was shouting - and carried on tumbling them down. I was in fits of laughter by now and I know I shouldn't laugh because there is a strict keepnet code at Moorlands and it is only to ensure that the fish do not get mistreated, but it was funny. I suppose that to the fish it is the equivalent to a water slide.
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