Catch - 4 Carp, 9 Skimmers, 7 Perch, 6 Roach
Weather - Cold start. Mostly sunny, occasional showers
Match - Open - 4th out of 9 (2nd - silvers)
As a pension specialist, the recent Budget announcement came as a real surprise to everyone and has thrown into question my role with my employer. I have been a big advocate of change within pensions particularly in the “At Retirement” market and there have been improvements particular in the last 5 years. The principle of pensions is to provide an income for the whole of your of life. Now there are various reasons why annuity rates have been poor, including the fact that medical science is prolonging life and there are new products being developed to provide greater flexibility. However, for those who do not have any other source of income, other than the state pension, telling them that they can take the whole fund out and basically spend it is reckless. The press has reported you will only be taxed 20% of the fund (after the 25% tax free lump sum), but some people could unwittingly be taxed as much as 45%, since the extraction of your pension fund will be added to your current income and taxed accordingly. My sincere hope is that some common sense will prevail and guidelines will be put in place ensuring everyone receives advice prior to making any decision. This budget has been more about buying votes and making the coalition look good just prior to next years general election, then the long term stability of the economy. In 3-5 years time the next government will have a problem, because the tax revenue from pension income will fall and will be need to be replaced, which means taxation from somewhere. Also Annuity Providers purchase Government gilts (a type of loan to the Government) to back their annuity products, so by reducing the annuity market effectively reduces Government income from another source. This all has to be paid for somehow.
So my weekend hadn’t got off to the best start and I was in 2 minds about going today, but decided a days fishing was better than stewing at home. The weather had cooled down, with sleet & hail overnight, meaning it was a little chilly at the draw, but at least the sun was out.
The 9 of us were on Match Lake, which fished very well last week, but I didn’t expect it to be as good today due to the weather. My home for the day was p7 which hasn’t been the best recently, but it’s usually worth a few fish. For company it was nice to see Martin Pettifer on p5, who no doubt would be targeting the silver population and Dave Hodgson was to my right on p11.
Because of the sleet/hail overnight I wasn’t sure the fish would be happy to feed on the deck so the intention was to start on top of the shelf feeding caster and couple of bites of meat, whilst letting the other swims settle. Meat/hemp was feed by the p8 pallet & at 5m, whilst micros & 4s were fed at 13m to my left.
Rigs for the day:-
* HB billybob 0.1g > .12 > 16 B911 (top of the shelf)
* HB chump 0.3g > .12 > 16 B911 (pellet down the track)
* Ackoo carrat 0.3g > .14 > 16 B911 (meat)
Starting on double caster by the island I immediately had a few inductions, catching a perch, before losing a foul hooked carp. Another perch followed, then I had 9-10lb carp, but it was obvious the carp weren’t feeding properly. They were just swimming around the island and I lost my 2nd foul hooker.
After 50mins I hadn’t added to my tally and everyone seemed to be struggling, expect for Andy Hembrow on p16 who already had a couple of carp and Martin to my left had a carp & skimmer.
The pellet swim produced a pound skimmer and a couple of small roach. A look down by the p8 pallet produced 2 perch and 2 carp on meat. Must admit I thought this area would be quite productive throughout the match, but surprisingly these were the only carp I caught here.
By the half way point I was struggling to get a bite and decided to dump a pot of caster/meat on the corner of the island, just to make something happen – it didn’t and I soon didn’t bother with the island for the rest of the match, concentrating on the pellet and meat swims. With the meat swim failing, I really needed to catch on pellet. So far I hadn’t feed anything to my right by the island. Since a few carp where starting to show themselves between Dave & myself, some pellet was potted in at 14.5m at the bottom of the shelf and I started to regularly catapult 4s over the top. 
It was becoming obvious that Andy and now Mike West on p13 would frame, which just left the silvers up for grabs, but unfortunately Rod Wootton on p18 seemed to have that sewed up, catching skimmers. It seemed the fish had moved into the sheltered & warmer part of the lake. By swapping left & right I started to catch a few skimmers on 4mm expander, I also managed to lose a couple, including one were the line wrapped around the tosspot, preventing the elastic coming out. With 30mins to go 2 handfuls of caster was fed to my right, which produced my biggest bream of the day on double caster, so a nice way to finish.The weigh in went as predicted although I thought Dave had beaten me, but ended up losing as many as he hooked.
When I got back to the car, the left rear tyre was nearly flat. Thankful Dave Wescott had a mobile compressor and managed to re-inflate tyre which should get me home. However a big thank you to Keith Fielder who kindly repaired the tyre – much appreciated.
1st 122- 4 - Andy Hembrow - p16
2nd 111- 8 - Mike West - p13
3rd 47- 0 - Rod Wootton - p18
4th 45-12 - Ken Rayner - p7
5th 40-14 - Dave Hodgson - p11
6th 34- 0 - Dave Wescott - p20
Silvers
1st 32- 0 - Rod Wootton - p18
2nd 21- 0 - Ken Rayner - p7
3rd 20- 2 - Martin Pettifer - p5
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