Back again after my success in my last MFS match here, this time 21 anglers just on Willow lake. I drew peg 5 which had good recent form.

Today I was more confident that we would be able to catch on the pole as on the previous day in the open lots had even caught in the margins. I set up a bomb rod and pole lines at 6 and 13m.

On the whistle I chucked out the bomb and popped up bread, thinking maybe I could nick a couple of bigger carp while all around were still feeding their pole lines. After five minutes without so much as a liner and Lee on peg 6 catching a carp on the 13m line prompted me to quickly reel in the bomb rod and start fishing the pole.

The weather was nowhere near as windy as my previous visit but it was still fairly breezy so I decided not to use a catapult, kinder cupping in some 4mm pellets and a few small expanders I started to catch on the 13m line. Feeding after every 2 or 3 fish seemed to work OK so that's how I continued.

I also fed the margins left and right a few times during the course of the match and fed some pellets on the 6m line each time.

During one slower period I tried the 6m line, caught 2 carp then nothing so back out to 13m.
During the last hour I had a couple of looks down the margins but not for long as there were no signs that the carp had moved in in any numbers.

With 6 or 7 minutes to go I had another go down the margin to my left and managed to catch one carp on dead maggots.

It had been close on fish count all day between myself and Lee on peg 6 which was one of the two golden pegs today and Lee is a regular at Tyler's so I would do well to beat him. Lee weighed in 99 lb and my catch went 121 lbs so although I maybe had 1 or 2 more carp, they were also of a slightly higher average size.

121 lbs was enough for the win with Lee second, well done to Carl who came 3rd from the other golden peg with 94lbs

Carl's annual match at Tyler's Common was upon us, in the 2014 match I had managed a lake win and 2nd overall from peg 4 on Ash, as last year the forecast was for a windy day, into the draw bag and out comes peg 10 on Willow lake, a decent area and next to where Stan was on the last VAC match.

I had a little chat with Stan after the VAC match and some useful info was gleaned, he had caught on the bomb with popped up bread early in the match and had a few good size carp on the pole in the last 30 minutes.

I set up the pole lines as previously for around 6 and 12m. I had enjoyed using my new feeder rod last time so much that I had now acquired it's twin so I set up one for bomb fishing and the other as last match with a banjo feeder.

I started on the bomb with popped up bread and in the first hour I had 6 carp, these were noticeably averaging a bit bigger than on the previous match, the second hour was slower but after that I got in gear with regular carp coming to the net. It seemed all was gong well with not so many being caught by the anglers around me.

I only had a couple of quick looks on the pole and this area seemed to be devoid of fish again.

A very enjoyable match for me despite the wind and some rain, I finished with 40 carp for 81LB and a fairly clear win with second being 57lb and the rest weighing under 40lb.

The results can be veiwed HERE

All close at the top of the league going into this last match, Stan is favourite as he just needs to finish top 3 to ensure victory. I need to win the match AND for Stan to finish at least 4th.
Peg 3 for me today with pegs 1 and 2 not in, to make the possibility of winning the league more unlikely we only have 12 fishing today which is a shame as the weather is quite nice.

I set up the usual couple of pole rigs for fishing at 6m and 12m with pellets and my new Garbolino Maxim 10ft feeder rod with a "banjo" feeder which is a first for me.

After five minutes so on both pole lines with no sign of a bite or even a liner, out goes the feeder. After just a couple of minutes I catch my first small carp and that is more or less how it goes for the rest of the match, fairly regular bites but the average size of the carp being less than 2lb. I had a look on the pole a few times but no indications at all.

I ended with 37 carp for a weight of 63lb which was just enough to win the match so I had done all I could on this match as far as the league points went, this was not enough though as I thought would be the case with Stan coming in 2nd with 56lb. Well done Stan.

Club match report can be seen HERE