23/07/23 - Avalon

Weight - 99lb 4oz

Catch - 15 Carp, 1 Skimmer

Weather - Breezy start. Light shower throughout the day

Match - Steve Martins Series (13 fished) - 3rd overall

The penultimate round of Steve’s summer series and league leader Tony Gilbert couldn’t make it, however I managed to find him a replacement in the shape of Mark Poppleton. In hindsight, not sure why I did that – lol!

Today’s weather forecast was to be dry and breezy, so I was hoping to have a chance to dry out my kit which was still wet from yesterday. Well, there were more showers, albeit light, than expected.

Leading up to this match the lake had been fishing well, although after yesterday’s rain, I wasn’t sure how it would fish and I decided to focus on paste. I did take a pellet waggler rod, but I never got it out of the bag due to the strong breeze blowing down the lake.

Today’s pegging was on the island, which meant some big gaps in the pegging, so p12 in the middle of 5 anglers wasn’t ideal.

Starting on a cage feeder with 8mm pellet tight to the island produced 2 carp in the first 20mins, but nothing in the following 20mins.

Switching to the 13m line where I had fed a mix of 4s & 6s, catapults 6s over the top, I started on an 8mm pellet which produced a skimmer. A further switch to paste was better as I soon caught carp up to 11lb over the next couple of hours.

The last 2hrs proved to be quite tricky, as the fish seemed unsettled, foul hooking a couple. I had tried to pull back to 12m, without success and I also fed quite a bit of pellet down my left margin for only 1 carp. Those that caught down their margins had at least 1 space peg.

As the 12m line wasn’t working I pushed out to 14.5m and started a new 5m line. Fortunately, the 14.5m produced a couple more fish in the last 45mins, although I never had a bite over the short line.

Come the weigh in I had underestimated what I thought I had and was surprised to weigh 99lb which was enough for 3^rd and consolidated my 2^nd place in the league. Mark came 4^th overall, allowing Tony to maintain his lead in the series. I can’t make the final round at Lodden as I will be on the flight back from Kefalonia after my honeymoon, however Steve Musitano has agreed to step in for me, so no pressure at all Steve!

1.    124-  6 – Pete Ball – p6

2.    101-  4 – Noddy – p5

3.      99-  4 – Ken Rayner – p12

4.      69-13 – Mark Poppleton – p10

5.      68-  8 – Nick Veale – p16