| I arrived on the Thursday night to have a look round, as I hadn't seen the venue in two years, following the last ultimate league final there. As I'm walking I can see that the fishing is hard with not much being caught, considering this was an afternoon match it looked like the final weekend was going to be tough.
Anyway I fished the Friday match and drew peg 100. Fair section, I ended up second in the section with 15 lb 2 oz, with 15lb 10 oz taking the section honours, I was quite pleased with the result as I had dropped four or five stock fish that cost me on the day. Believe me everything will be netted on the crucial days. Red maggot over casters was my chosen bait for that particular match.
Saturday morning arrived and all the contestants had to register for 7.30am, draw at 8am, fish 10am till 2pm then 4pm to 8pm. The first draw saw me selecting Island 16, the first peg in my section. I knew absolutely nothing about the peg apart from the fish liking pellet and paste! At the off I decided to cup in groundbait and casters to tempt the skimmers at 5 metres and pellet at 9 metres to try and tempt the carp. The day was really windy and the lake was towing to my left like the River Avon. It was terrible fishing conditions and I hardly caught taking a couple of perch and roach, so I went out on the pellet line. Again nothing, not a bite, but I wasn't the only one it was the same all over. There being only the odd fish caught, and my section showing about 2 lb. I decided to try a different attack, so I cupped in another big pot of pellets and trotted the float down the swim with two hours to go. I couldn't believe it, the float buried and I struck into a fish that didn't put up much resistance coming in as sweet as a nut UNTIL I got it to the top 2 sections of my pole. I then saw the size of it and this caused me to take a bite more time with it! To say it was rather large is an understatement. Well I weighed 12 lb 10 oz at the end with that one fish running to 12 lb! Section won, one down two to go.
I drew for the second match and found myself sitting on peg 70 Island, end peg. This peg is a good peg in its own right so it being an end section peg was a bonus. The good thing about it was the fact it wasn't towing so I knew where my feed was to end up! The all in at 2pm came and I cupped in 1/2 pot of Hallcroft pellet and fished a bag up pellet over the top. Within 15 minutes I was into my first carp that ran to 5 lb. This led me to believe I was on for a good weight but I only caught every now and again. At one stage of the match I couldn't buy a bite. At least an hour and a half must have gone without the fish responding to the bait, which was very strange. Anyway 8pm and the weigh in. I knew the guy on peg 66 had caught 6 carp and a few skimmers. He was admitting to 20lb and I knew things were going to be close. The scales reached him first and he placed 17 lb in the net. I weighed 18 lb 10 oz and another section win. Two down one to go. I went to bed feeling nervous. Could I win it again? One more section win, easier said than done, and another ten grand to spend!
After a restless night I went down for some breakfast, but couldn't eat because of nerves, so I checked out of the hotel and headed down to the venue to register for the final match. At the draw I picked peg 66 Island. Four pegs from where I was the match before and where the second weight in section came from. Not bad! I decided to fish two lines, a pellet line at 12.5 metres and a chop worm and caster line at 6 metres. There were 6 people on two section wins. John Mottershead, Andy Whitehouse, Andy Holden, Neil Mckinnion, Lee Nutland and myself. John was winning on weight being 5 lb clear with ozs separating me and Andy. At the all in I cupped in the worm and caster and then the pellet going straight onto the pellet line, the reasons being that if I caught on the pellet straight away then I would probably stick with it as the carp hadn't really shown for the past few days. After 10 minutes I landed a 5 lber and another around 2 lb, then nothing. As a result I went over the worm and couldn't get a bite. Out went some more pellets and after 5 minutes I was into a monster. I had played it for 20 minutes but the more I tried to get its head up the more it hugged the bottom. After Twenty five minutes of playing the fish in it came. Eleven pounds of pure muscle! An hour and a half to go and I was a complete bag of nerves. Barry Gannon was next to me and I asked him what the angler next two pegs away had caught and he reckoned about 25 - 26 lb. I prayed that the fish would start to feed. In went some more pellet hoping that another big fish would move in. No sooner as my rig went out the float buried. ANOTHER big fish on. This one gave me a bit more grief but I managed to get it to the net after 20 minutes, before it went on another run taking me out to 13 metres. I had managed to see that the fish was foul hooked in the face and that was the reason I was having so much trouble. I eventually managed to land it and to say it was my bonus fish is an understatement! The scales arrived and I placed 28 lb 10 oz in the sling, with the nearest weight to me in my section being 16 lb. Another section win and a total of 3 points. Andy Whitehouse had also won his section and was also on 3 points, weighing 20 lb. I had beaten him by about 6 lb. I had won the ultimate league final again. I couldn't believe it! I was the happiest man on earth. To go to a venue and not practise and win three sections is unbelievable. Some people may say I am a jammy so and so, but I was patient and waited for my bites, sticking to one thing rather than trying different things and confusing matters. I took a chance and it paid off.
Grant Albutt
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