Winter League Round 4. 18th December 2011

 

 

 

 

Round 4 of the winter league today and it was also the last round of 2011. The anglers were greeted by a thin coating of ice on the lake today. With it being the last match before Christmas we all brought a bottle for the raffle at the end, one angler would also win the lovely big hamper prepared by John and Pauline.

The draw got under way as soon as everyone was there as we had to break ice today. For the 4th match in a row Team Walker Floats drew peg 10 in B section, so this was the second time for Derek Hammond 😀 It wasn’t long before the splosh of ice breakers filled the air with everyone getting their swims ready for the match. There was no extra time because of the dark nights and the raffle, soup and hotdogs after this match.

Today I was on peg 32 and did not fancy my chances to be honest. I shouted the all in just after half 10 and most people got going but Phil Powell over on 13 was nowhere near ready. Andy Rayment on peg 29 was into some big perch right away and looked to be storming away. Derek on peg 10 was catching small roach at about 9 meters. Steve Waters on peg 7 had fired the bomb across but didn’t give it long before switching to the pole, not long after he hooked in to a carp….

Only problem was the was on his silver fish rig. After about 5 minutes the fish straightened his green gamma 22 hook and said goodbye, probably not even knowing it was hooked 😀 Shortly after he let out another scream as he swung a small perch in and avoided the DNW.

 

After 30 minutes on the tip and watching Derek catching plenty of silvers I thought I would have a go but without bloodworm it was not looking good. I had one bite and missed it before trying to the bush to my left. The float went under and I missed it before going under again resulting in a tiny perch and avoiding the dreaded dnw and Pee taking from Steve. After that and having no chance of catching silvers in the numbers Phil and Derek were doing I decided to sit it out for carp both on the tip and on the pole at 13m. I missed a few bites on the pole line before dropping the bomb back out.

 

Filling in for Neil Riddy in the Crabtree’s team today (he was working) was Mick Chappell and he had pulled 34 out the bag at the draw for A Section. Steve was updating me through the match … “He’s got another” … “And another” “and another” so he was winning A section quite easily. Paul fishing peg 22 had caught a carp early on in C Section so I was letting the team down in B section. 😀

With a couple of hours to go the wind picked up and changed direction, a massive black cloud was fast approaching from my left and I could see a rainbow too. The heavens opened up and we got rained, hailed and sleeted on. This made the last bit of the match very cold and wet 🙁 Not nice at all….. The wind and rain also melted the ice a bit causing everyone’s nice holes in the ice to close up, people were having to re break the ice with cold wet hands to open their swims back up.

With one perch in the bag and 20 minutes of the match to go I decided to wrap my pole rigs up, I had just put the last one on the winder and was picking my topkit up to put it out the way when I felt my rod pulling round :O FISH ON …. The words from the lads in B Section were not very encouraging to say the least 😀 After a short fight A nice fat carp was in the landing net and as I was bringing it in I hit my brolly and it came out but managed to land it again, phewwww. From last to first in the section in 2 minutes.

Some stories as the scales travelled round the lake…

Dave Wightman on peg 2. Had hooked a carp fishing towards peg 3 and struggled to ship his pole back at the crazy angle you have to fish and on top of that trying to keep his pole tip under the ice to stop the line snagging on the edge of the ice in his tight swim. He managed to get it out somehow.

Phil Powell on peg 13 with 5 minutes to go hooked a carp from by the boat on peg 12 only to have the ice close up and leave him nowhere to ship back. After frantic efforts to move the ice with his landing net whilst holding 13m of pole the fish got free.

Same sort of thing for Ian McCullock (standing in for Joff rogers) on peg 16. Hooked a carp and his swim and while shipping back the ice closed up breaking his rig.

Jon Walker on peg 18 had spent over 30 minutes chipping away at the ice to make 20 meter bomb line. He then caught 3 carp off that line to win the section. What a superstar 🙂

 

Results

A Section		Peg	Weight	Team
1st	Mick Chappell	34	67-0	Crabtree’s
2nd	Dave Wightman	2	14-2	Misfits
3rd	Steve Waters	7	3oz	Walker Floats
–	John Bennett	5	DNW	Rolfs Gold
–	Frank Hardie	40	DNW	Drawbags

B Section		Peg	Weight	Team
1st	Simon Mound	32	16-1	Crabtree’s
2nd	Phil Powell	13	14-8	Rolfs Gold
3rd	Derek Hammond	10	14-4	Walker Floats
4th	Andy Rayment	29	7-0	Misfits
5th	Roger Young	9	12oz	Drawbags

C Section		Peg	Weight	Team
1st	Jon Walker	18	37-4	Walker Floats
2nd	Ian McCulloch	16	29-8	Drawbags
3rd	Paul Jay	22	24-0	Crabtree’s
4th	Pete Arnold	24	12-8	Misfits
5th	Mick Lane	26	7-0	Rolfs Gold

DAY TEAM POINTS	POINTS
Crabtree’s	13
Walker Floats	11
Misfits	8
Rolfs Team Gold	5
Drawbag’s	5

OVERALL LEADERBOARD

TEAM POINTS		POINTS	Total
1	Crabtree’s	12+4+9+13	38
2	Rolfs Team Gold	12+7+13+5	37
3	Misfits	7+13+8½+8	36½
4	Drawbag’s	6+11+10+5	32
5	Walker Floats	7+10+3½+11	31½

After the weigh in it was back to the hut for Hot tommy soup and hotdogs prepared by Pauline. I think everyone was grateful for the hot food on such a cold day.

 

Thanks for reading. Hope everyone has a great Christmas and Happy New year. Next round of the Winter league is on the 8th January with the final round the week after.

Cheers from John and Pauline, Eddie and Simon. 🙂