Angling Trust Teams Of Ten River Huntspill.

Back on the Huntspill for the angling trust team match and with seven teams entered I was hoping for a draw near gold corner where the weights were last week, After a breakfast at hilltops we made are way to laburnham house for the draw, At the draw Captain Chris Hook was handed an envelope containing 10 numbers, Traveling partner Don Sutherland was first to pick a peg and chose the top one ending up on peg 14 at gold corner which was the right area' after quick thinking Don said take the next top one as it would be peg 16 in the next section but owe no" Chris decided to shuffle them and I ended up on peg 39, two pegs away from where I was last week" Marvellous!.

The only plus side was I was in the middle section meaning the were no end pegs to contend with, The trouble is with being on the north bank meant it was a sheer drop to the water and unlike most I like to have a pole line on the go as siting on the tip for 5hrs bores me S******S". So I Chose yet again to set my box up down in the water which took ages and was very close to the water by the time I had bumped up and down on my box to make sure it wouldn't move!

 

Already there was a good breeze on the water so I set up 2 pole rigs to again target the eels at 11mts which I thought would be comfortable? an 0.6 and an 0.4 for rig were set up both on 0.11-0.10 and size 20 B520 hook,   

  The only other thing I set up was a feeder rod to start the match on looking for a bream or some skimmers with an 0.11 hook length and an16 B611 hook. At the start I cupped in a palmful of caster and white maggot on the pole line and had 10 chucks with the feeder full of squatts. starting with a bunch of squatt on the hook in had a ruff and a small roach before I started to switch baits but after 90mins adding a 6oz hybrid and a small eel, A shout up to Thatchers star Gary O'Shea who had only managed one eel I decided to try the pole line with maggot on the hook where I had been feeding maggot and caster.

First put in I had an eel of 10oz before the next put in saw me hook a larger one over a 1lb but it wrapped around some weed on the way in and like a Prat' I gave it an extra pull to keen to get it in and it broke my hook length! TORRETS". the next 45mins gave me 6 eels from 4-10oz  before disaster struck and after striking into eel number 7 my 11mt section snapped in half and I lost the eel aswell! There was know way I could fix it so had to drop back half a section which then became apparent there was weed in my way in areas! Won day I will have the dream match??, Things slowed down from here and with the wind now blowing right up the river the rig was a case of now you see me now you don't in the waves" I did hook a couple of eels only to bump them when striking due to the wind so rested the peg and had another try on the feeder.

30mins and no bites had me back on the pole and after another on the first put in and bumping the next it slowed again, I spent the rest of the match swapping between the pole and feeder ending the day with 12 eels and a few bits, Gary sat on the tip all day and had two spells all day when he had a small bream and two skimmers in as many casts which was enough to win are section with ease with 7kg odd, Lance tucker ended up second with 4kg odd (Again Big skimmers on the feeder) and my weight was good enough for 3rd in the section being 3kg 800grams, Back at the results it turned out most of the team opted to fish the feeder all match but for most it didn't work meaning we struggled as a result, Most thought I was mad or very brave to attempt to fish the pole in the conditions but in my eyes although it cost me by breaking my section I did my best to fish for the maximum points available rather than put all my eggs in one basket, I bumped at least 6 eels through the day which would of put me second at least and with a bit of luck by the time we have the super league next Sunday the winds ease and I can present the rig properly?.

It was all about teams today and Thatchers proved there strength by dropping just 7pts between them for an easy victory having 8 anglers in the top two of there sections' Well done. Individual winner on the day was Garbolino backed Ian Didcot guesting for Thatchers finding bream on the feeder from a peg in the 50's ending the day with 26kg. Summery of the day hopefully after a chat with the rest of the team will to keep options open rather than thinking it will work.