Sunday 8th January 2017 - Trinity Woodlands

After the New Year celebrations it was back to the serious business of winning the £1 from your mate. 26 eager anglers arrived at Woodlands, some happier than usual and some moaning more than usual, but all agreed it was going to be hard fishing. The hut was full of chatter and bullsh*t and Bob, Danny and Tony did a good job of staying calm among it all. The was only one golden peg today and that came out, peg 9. At the draw my hand came out with the same number. It's the second time I've had the golden peg at Woodlands but so could I bring home the money today. If it was then it would be by winning the silvers because I had already decided to fish the waggler as my main line.

Peg 9

I set up my 11ft carbon active rod with a crystal waggler and a size 20 hook to fish caster, maggot and soft pellet. The water was deep, about 8ft. I then set up a tip rod with a small cage feeder but this never saw one bite. Lastly, I set up a rig for the margin on a top 3, but that again never registered a bite.
So, the day was all about the waggler, fished at about 15m, dotted down to a couple of mm. It took about 30 mins until my first bite, which I missed. Feeding caster and alternating the hook bait, I found that caster was all the fish were seriously interested in.
In that first half hour there was a couple of carp found by others, while Chairman Bob hooked two in two put ins but both breaking his rig. That seemed to kill his swim and he had a quiet time after that.
My second bite produced a lovely perch of about 2lb so that raised my hopes. I continued to have bites but only from small roach about razor blade skimmers.
Steve King was next to me and seemed to be having success on the tip with a cage feeder, getting small skimmers but more regularly than me. He was then interrupted by a carp which ruined his swim for a while. He had another later on and these plus his silvers gave him 4th on the day.
I reckoned on about 4lb with 30 minutes to the whistle but then had some great luck with a nice bream and perch in two casts and my total came to 7lb 2oz.

I had been watching Danny pull in regular silvers for most of the match and reckoned he would take the prize. But Paul Bowyer was across from him on Peg 15 and had done better. His second silvers win in as many matches. We all thought that the overall winner was between Eric, with 3 carp and Tony who had a couple of huge carp. However, the Great Western, fresh back from his Norwegian Xmas snatched top spot by 11oz.... Nice one!!

I got 3rd silvers and noted that there was some unusual £1 wins. Kev got a carp to take the nugget from Horny Beards who had caught a 2oz skimmer..... or was it a tin foil wrapper. Poor old Phil suffered his second defeat at the hands of his Pi mucker, Shaun Larkham. Danny secured his nugget from George but will have to wait for the coin from Bob who went home early.

It was an entertaining day even if the fish were scarce. See you soon chaps.