WILLOW PARK SUNDAY OPEN MATCH SMALL LAKE

Well Sunday 19th saw me down at Willow Park a place i have not visited since the Army Festival last September.
Having booked in with ir0027 and mini me we sat down to a nice brekie and a cuppa before the match.
Draw time saw me pull peg 24 small lake with advice coming in on how to fish the peg i settled down and deiced to fish two lines at 13m using two trees on the left hand bank as markers. Set up for both lines were a MW power diamond 0.3 gr with 0.14mm line straight through and a maver mt4 18 hook elastics would be Preston 13 hollow. I set a paste line up 6m out to the left with a MW paste float 0.2 gr with 0.16mm line straight through to a size 12 drennan nu hook.
Plan of attack was to use soft hookers (Willis worms)on the hook with 5-8 4mm pellets flicked over the top.
All in was called and away i set on the two 13m lines after half hour float was gone and a small carp was landed happy days. Whilst waiting for my next bite i had a look over a mini me for some strange reason he had got of his box while he had a fish on ! learned later that he hadn't set his landing net up (brought a smile to my face) with 5-8 4mm pellet getting flicked over the top of both 13m lines every 5 minutes it wasn't long before carp number two was in the net.
The next bite came quick and the float shot under out came the elastic and off it went managed to get it under control and started to ship back slowly another run saw the float return at a great rate of knots and no fish(bollocks!)
After re-rigging and plumbing the depth of i went again flicking the pellet out over the 13m line and before long carp number 3 in the net having a look to my right by the looks of things my bank wasn't doing well with the odd carp being landed no one was baggin.
Having had a hour of no action on both 13m lines and the paste line the float went again 13m out same as before elastic shot out and carp number two gone things not looking good with my bank not doing all that well the last thing i needed was start losing carp!. The thing was the carp were there just not there for long more interested in chasing each other round the lake (spawning by the looks of things)
Well all out was called with mini me weighing in 18lb odd ir0027 weighing in 10lb odd (lost alot of fish in one of the corner pegs) and me with a pitiful 8lb dead it wasn't what we hoped for even the hot pegs didn't produce (what a bummer)
well another match fished and another frustrating day don't know whats going on with my fishing at the moment but as i look at it if its good or bad who cares its a day out doing some ting i ENJOY!.

Chalis Tackle Spring Series Bowsaw Lake

Well after missing out on the fisho qual down at viaduct (was on the reserve list 15th might of been able to fish as i heard all the reserves that turned up fished!) had to work at very short notice. Si0027 manged to get down there and have a go drawing peg 1 on spring lake didn't really produce for him (better luck next time mate!)
My next match saw me down at Bowsaw lake on the Chalis Tackle Spring Series ,after traveling down with Si (si0027) in convoy with the rest of the lads as i hadn't a clue where i was going once i left the M3 we all got there in one piece.
With 24 anglers turning up it was a good start to the series. With most anglers having a good knowledge of the place and having fished it before i knew it wasn't going to be easy.I was going into this match blind as i hadn't had time to do any home work on the venue due to work commitments.
Well draw time i put my hand in and out came peg ten didn't have a clue what it was like till i got there. I asked around the lads who had fished down here before about the peg and got a bit of info.When i arrived i looked good with a island chuck of around 40 yards and a nice bit of open water to the front (pegs were a bit close in my eyes) but my main plan of attack was to use the method feeder tight to the island and have three lines on the pole one at 13 meters at 10 o'clock (there was a slight breeze) one at 5 meters at the 2 o'clock and one line down the right margin. All three lines to be fed using dampened 4mm pellet few grains of corn and a dash of hemp.
For floats i decided on using Hillbilly floats on all three lines two critters and a grizzly for the margin all three dotted right down.
Well all in was called and i wanted to start with the method feeder so off i went casting just of the island casting every 2-3 mins for the first couple of chucks just to get some bait down then 5-10 mins after that.
Straight away the rod shot round on reeling in nothing was there casting out again the same thing happened. I was now scratching my head at this one was it liners ? (not the way the rod was going round) out it went again after a few changes to the hook length it went round this time and finally a carp around 2lbs this was the first fish of the day and it had taken nearly a hour keeping my eye on the anglers left and right of me i noticed they had a had a few and i was now behind.
Again cast out and a light indication on the line saw me net a small carp of around 1lb. For the next hour i didn't get another fish from the island. The angler to the left had lost his method feeder on the island and had started on his 13m line to great effect bagging a few carp putting me further behind that was it time to cut my losses on the feeder and get on the pole. Fishing with corn on the hook it didn't take long before i had a bite and carp number 3 in the net (3lb) straight out again saw me net a few chub not of great size but it was starting to bump my weight up. The only problem was both anglers the left and right of me were bagging and looking at the time i had left it was out of reach to catch them up.
I kept going on 13m line catching two more carp and a few more chub,this was slowly turning into another blowout !
All out was called and i knew i hadn't done enough to frame with quite a few anglers getting big carp towards the end ,my other lines hadn't payed off and the feeder chuck was dead.
Having looked back there were alot of things i would have done different (going into a match blind doesn't help)
Well on weigh in it was confirmed i ended up with only 15lb and a rock bottom last of the match !
must be the worst result i have had .
A few lessons learned here and hopefully i wont make the same mistake again. Seem to have had a dip in form at the moment which will hopefully soon end and i can get back to winning ways.