I have not fished on this snake lake for many many years.
I checked the last couple results, the winning weights had been 120-140lb.
I drew peg 39 and after getting directions from a regular off I went, it was one of the longer walks but with the good paths round the lake it wasn't a hard slog at all.
My peg was 13m across in front and a few metres to the left and right could be reached with the half-butt on so I found 3 spots with the same depth across, 2 spots left and right at 6m and 5m to my left in the margin there was a cut-out which looked perfect.
For across I tapped in Sonubaits 4mm pellets and tried different hookbaits, starting on corn I foul-hooked several carp in the first hour landing 3 of them but just could not seem to get one in the mouth even when I tries a shallow rig.
I then tried the 6m lines, to the left I had potted in corn with a few 4mm pellets and to the right 8mm cubed meat. First bite on the corn resulted in a skimmer but that was the only bite I managed at 6m, I did foul-hook and lose 2 carp even though I had gone several inches over depth.
At 13.50 I still just had the 3 carp and a skimmer so it was time to try down the edge which I had fed a few times with corn, I stayed on this to the end of the match as it was quite good with a further 11 carp going in the nets.
The last 90 minutes was enjoyable but I was sure the angler to my left would have more and so it proved, I weighed in 70lb 12oz which was 3rd in the section.
The top 2 weights came from the area around peg 60, the winner had 140lb.