The battle for the league crown hots up.

As the anglers turned up for the penultimate round of the winter league they were hoping { as the lake was ice free and the temperature was not too bad }that the fish would have a go and make this round better than the last. The battle for the league crown was a tight affair with three teams still in with a chance of team glory which were Pats Lot, Walker Floats and 10 times champions Rolfs Team Gold so it was important that your team members 1. caught a fish and 2. beat your main opponents and 3.stick to your team plans.

A Section.

Today for my sins i agreed to fish round 5 in place of Gary Haisman for the aptly named Woodentops and as i waited in line to draw one thing that never changes is the good anglers always draw well ,with Jon Walker drawing peg 34 [out of the wind } Andy Quarmby drawing peg 6 and Phil drawing peg 37 so at least i had good view of all the top teams in this section. Also in A section was my web partner Simon so he was going to be my target for today as i had peg 40 in the bottom of the small lake left in the bag for me and with a strong wind blowing this way things were not going to be easy.

I would like to say this section fished well but it did not, and all i can say is that Jon Walker managed to put a bag of silvers together to win the section with over 10lb so maximum points for Walker Floats with Phil Powell coming second with two big perch for nearly 4lb so 6 points for Rolfs Team Gold and the rest of us struggled for fish with Geoff Palmer catching one perch for 2-07 and my one perch went 2oz {some things never change} Malc and Andy put a few very small fish together for 4th and 5th in the section ,i came 6th and poor Simon had the dreaded DNW as he was fishing solely for carp and lost 4 so no points but 1 -nil to me ,so  i was happy.

5 hours one 2oz perch perfect.

B section .

This section had the most consistent action with the weights in the end with most anglers getting the silvers to respond . the three main teams were Steve Waters on peg 13, John Bennett on peg 10 and Pat Pritchard on peg 9 so they were all very close together but in the end a fantastic bag of silvers of 21-01 gave Steve and Walker Floats another section win and with the main rivals John and Pat in 4th and 6th place that was a massive result for the team. Also in this section there were solid results for Clive Pritchard on 30 and Earnie Malyon on form peg 32 and a big 2lb+ perch pushed Richard Doolan up to 5th place in the section.

C section.

This was the section to be in today as the carp decided to have a feed with all the anglers in this section catching at least a carp so all was to play for. Also in this section Walker Floats were going to be given a vital gift a one point swing in there favour due to Steve Palmer not seperating his silvers and carp and having over a pound of silvers put back and not weighed which dropped him from 3rd to 5th place.

The main story here was Paul Jay who was on peg 18, who was fishing the bomb into the corner and down the edge and was rewarded with 7 carp to double figures by fishing corn as hookbait. Paul not only won todays match he also won his section and the carp pools not a bad result but is now king of the lake with his weight of 72-00 {well done Paul }. In second place was Rolfs Team Golds Mick Lane with 50-01 from corner peg 21 and with the next three weights being seperated by 10oz Frank Hardie 31-14, Derek Hammond 31-12 and Steve Palmer 31-04 a couple of fish made all the difference. In 6th place was Pete Arnold with 15-12 and Dai Thomas in 7th with 15-10.

Results.

OVERALL LEADERBOARD

With one round remaining it has now come down to a two horse race between 10 times champion and underfeated in years Rolfs Team Gold and the dream team Walker Floats who hold a 3 point lead going into round 6 which could prove vital ?.

Walker Floats {Steve, Derek and Jon } are they ready for victory ?.

I would like to say i enjoyed my first experience of team fishing but with a strong wind blowing into the corner it made presentation difficult it was really hard, but at least i was out of Bennett abuse range so all was not bad. Our 2011 battle will commence at the next open that we fish and as it now stands at 1-1 in the last two years battle i cannot wait to get revenge.

On a seperate issue i would like to say well done to John and his fishery team in keeping the lake as ice free as possible and in doing so has saved the lives of many of Rolfslake’s fish as fisheries around the country have had big fish kills due to their lakes being frozen solid for long periods. It cost John lots of money to run areators and regular trips down to the lake so that others can have a place to fish even if the fishing is difficult at times, and i believe that because of this the fish will respond a lot quicker this year and i expect the fishing to be much better than last year although with a top weight of nearly 400lb it was not a total disaster.

Thanks for reading Simon and Eddie.