Avalon 16.02.2020

Todays Match was held at Avalon Fishery. With Storm Dennis making his presence on Saturday evening and forcast well in to Sunday, the numbers were very short indeed with only 10 booked in up until Friday. We ended up with 12 members fishing and to be fair conditions were not overly too bad. The slight wind was blowing directly down the lake and up until the draw the rain held off.

The decision was taken to use both side of the lake as the normal non road side was very wet and really did look to be a peat bog, but after swim 4 the area did firm a little.

To my surprise there was no Danny this week which is the first time since Ive been with the club that I think he's missed a match so i stood in and took the names

I didnt draw my peg this week and with 3 tokens left in the bag, there was Steve King, Martin and myself left to draw. Martin pulled the golden peg and I was secretly wanting peg 1 as to avoid the boggy walk; however with a grin bigger than a cheshire cat, in walked Steve King with nos 1 so I was left with unlucky 13.

The golden peg was drawn and this was peg 16

Draw as follows

Peg

1 - Steve King
5 - Shane Western
7 - Steve Warren
9 - Tony Newell
11 - Tony Fry
13 - Nigel
15 - Dave Tungsten
16 - Martin Western
42 - Dave Allen
44  -George Fletcher
46 - Paul Bowyer
48 - Phil Beards

After a labourious walk to my peg which was only half way along the bank and a required couple of stops I was please to have an end of island chuck, however I have drawn this before and the carp do come in. At this time the wind was ok and the rain had stopped for a bit so I gambled on 2 x 13m lines to my left and righ and a 10m line straigt out in front. I also set up the tip for the island . 13m wasnt out of the question today and on the all in I balled in micros and 4mm to my left and corn to my right which I fed on the hour every hour hoping to get a few stray carp. On the 10m line i did a groundbait and maggot line incase the tip didnt work, again topping up on the hour.

At 9.50 I was just getting my keepnets to put in and the hooter sounded the match which created confusion as this was 10 mins early. Apparently joker King had told the Guru Tart it was time to start and he sounded off (nothing new there then) then decided to check his watch. So with anglers still putting n their nets we did start the match 10 mins early. I fed my 3 lines and then tip to the island. By the time i put my rod down and bairly the bait hitting the bottom, the tip went around and I landed a carp to about 3lb. next chuck I had another about the same size. It then went quiet for 30 mins and to my right I could see Tony Fry into some rod bending action and I beleive that he caught a couple on the bounce.

To my left, Dave Tungstil seemed to be struggling on his 10m line and with the wind slightly increasing I thought to myself should I have bothered with these lines. The start of the next hour saw me have 3 fish by having to cast short of the island and then against the island and had to rotate this through the match to keep me catching. After 1 pm it went quiet for and hour so i tried my 3 pole lines but not a sign so after 45mins I went back on the tip. Straight away another fish,  a better carp to about 6 lb this time then a tench, bream and a couple of carp to the end of the match. My clicker said about 50lb athough Iwas only admitting to 30lb.

To the left of Dave I could see Martin having a good spell to the end with some decent skimmers and a couple of carp. To my right Tony also had a few fish near the end.

I managed to pack up and have a good days fishing and waited in anticipation for the scales. The talk was that the Guru Tart lost as many as he caught and that if he stooped using cotton as a hook length he may have landed a few more, but a few struggled on that side of the bank.

Martin had a cracking net of silvers including a Bream of 5.5lb and I can only appologise for not having any photos to show. It must have been very frustrating for Dave sitting next to him watching him land fish after fish.

Results

Overall

1st -Nigel Coram - 56lb
2nd - Steve King  - 40lb - 04 oz

Silvers

1st - Martin Western - 28lb - 08 oz
2nd - Dave Allen - 18lb - 12 oz

Well done to everyone that turned up and braved the elements. Next week its Viaduct - Cambell. Please contact Steve Warren to book in.

Reminder - Please can you bring your completed membership forms to me ASAP

I have a caravan booked for White Acres - 9th - 14 March if anyone is inerested let me know

Hot off the press - Ive received some pictures today that Im happy to show of the Guru Tart from the recent Avalon Trip

 

20 SECONDS LATER

 

Results

 

Tight lines and thanks for reading