Stafford Moor Practice Match.

With the Silver Mania over the weekend Gabo, Ziggy & Myself booked in for the practice open match whilst the women went off to find the accommodation, At least that was the plan? We all decided to meet at the fishery for the 8am draw so we allowed are self's plenty of time stopping for a costa at the services on the way down, All was going well until the country road we wanted to travel on was closed, No issue we will just follow the Sat Nav' FFS" We must of took every poxy country lane going and 30mins later we ended up back where we started!" by now we were quickly running out of time & I tried to contact Gabo to get him to pay my pools & tell um I was running late" Nope' NO SIGNAL".

This wasn't going well so I just plodded past 8 O'clock hoping Gabo had got the draw time wrong? We eventually arrived ten minutes late but they hadn't draw thankfully so got Gabo to quickly pay my monies.

We were soon drawing & found ourself's near the front, Peg 3 on Oak for me which meant nothing as I didn't even know there was a lake of that name" Gabo was in the same boat as he had peg 12 on the same Lake with Ziggy Drawing peg 10 Woodpecker.

 

I did ask a local what to expect as we took the kit out the van & was informed that it would be small fish but so say plenty of bites? Plumbing-up I had around 5ft or so nearly everywhere I tried from 6mts out, I decided to set up a PB1 0n 0.11-0.09 and an 18 808 hook and a PB2 on the same line with an 18 63-13 hook, one rig was to fish pellet over ground-bait and the other for maggot/caster. last up I had a 4x12 Chanti on 0.10-0.08 and an 18 PR412 to fish at 7mts with casters?.

I Started the match feeding two ball with micro & a few Expanders At 13mts & two balls of a Darker mix with casters & pinkie's at 12mts to my right and began to feed a few casters by hand on the 7mt line. Starting here at with single caster I expected bites but after 10mins I hadn't had a sniff', I tried of to my left again at 7mts feeding just a few micros fishing 4mm expander on the hook, After 45min I was still fishless as well as the guys around me, out on the 14mt line again with 4mm expander saw my first fish being an 4oz skimmer followed by three crucian's to 4oz but then I couldn't muster a bite here so re-fed it & tried the 13mt line with single dead red maggot on the hook. A couple more small skimmers then again nothing, So much for getting your head down putting as much in the net as possible". I would love to say the day got better but it didn't I would catch a couple of small fish off each line then wouldn't get a bite for ages, I did manage to net a few carp along the way but it wasn't as prolific as expected that's for sure, I struggled on until the end just adding the odd small fish, Pete Vasey on the end peg to my right had caught a similar stamp of fish but the extra room would of helped I'm sure, He ended up with 6lb odd with me finishing on a level 5lb & the guy on my left had 3b odd, I did manage to take a £1 off Gabo as he only managed 3 fish & didn't weigh' The best weight along are bank turned out to be 7lb odd with 14lb winning the lake from the opposite bank. Winner on the day was Dave Gundrip from tanners peg 36 with 22lb odd. The fishing was a lot harder than we expected it to be which will be took on board for tomorrow's Qualifier.  Ziggy Did a great job of cooking Are tea when we arrived at are accommodation which I can only describe as raveolli'? well similar" but tasted great'.