Catch - 11 Carp, 10 Skimmers, 1 Tench
Weather - Cold start, increasingly strong westerly
Match - West Tackle Open - 7th out of 11
I was looking forward to visiting Leech Pool, because it normally produces plenty of bites, however with 11 booked in (it should of been a max of 10, but Mark forgot to include himself when taking names!) there was a couple of really poor draws, particularly in the winter.
As we were waiting for the draw it was noticeable the water was quite clear and you could see the bottom of the lake in the margins! The fancied draw was peg 1 by the farmhouse, which has won the last 2 matches. I drew 10 which is 1 away from cattle drink and normally a good draw. The westerly breeze was blowing into that bank and I was concerned that following 2 cold nights, the wind would be blowing the cold water into this end. Also the match 2 weeks ago Mark drew here and tipped back only 3 carp in similar weather conditions.
Today was a pole only match, mainly because during the last match some anglers were casting across others - sounds familiar! The lake is only about 3ft deep so 1 rig (HB Chump 0.3g) will do, although I set up a 2nd (HB chump 0.4g) in case the wind increased in strength. Plumbing around revealed the depth gradually sloped away and I ended up fishing at 13m, toss potting micros. I also fed groundbait to my right, but never had a bite over it.
I eventually caught my first fish, a skimmer after 40mins, however it had already obvious where the money was going, because Steve Ince on p1 was already catching well, as was Tom on p2.
As for my end of the lake it was all a little desperate. After nearly 2hrs I only had 6 skimmers and seriously considering packing up. Andy Fox on p9 who had come 3rd in the last 2 matches was also struggling, whilst Nick Ince to my left had 2 carp. I couldn't have drawn further away from the fish!
By continually toss potting a pinch of pellet I started to catch a few carp on maggot and when I had 4 on the bounce I thought they had turned up, but the wind dropped completely and my fish disappeared. When the wind reappeared it just got stronger & stronger making presentation very difficult (as you see from the photo). I'm convinced there were fish in my swim and had the wind been sensible I would have caught well. In the end the better weights came from the other end of the lake.
1st 65- 0 - Steve Ince - p1
2nd 35- 0 - Tom Ince - p2
3rd 32- 4 - Mark Poppleton - p5
4th 21- 4 - Ryan - p7
5th 20- 0 - Steve M - p6
6th 17- 7 - Kev Abilgail - p3
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