Milemead open.

Sunday 4th July 2010.
Given a half decent draw somewhere along the flat bank i was fairly confident of a few fish. No matter where I drew I was going to fish a paste line for carp and a soft pellet line for skimmers. So i was well chuffed when peg 3 stuck to my hand.
The golden pegs were still in place and we had a fairly decent turnout. After setting up paul got me to draw the golden pegs and you guessed it, first one out was peg 3!! So potentially and in all reality i was fishing for a hat trick of the match, silvers and golden peg. With my mate Kelvin bagging nearly 100lb from this peg in only three hours last week It should have been possible. I stared off well, after cupping in a big pot of 8mm pellets i had 4 carp and ten big skimmers in the first hour. But i was a bit concerned with the lack of carp. I stuck to my feeding pattern of a pouch full of pellets after every fish but by the end of the second hour i had only added 2 more carp and a few tench. With the benefit of hindsight i probably should have stared another line at this point, but i persevered with the single line as i really wanted to attack it for a big weight. Problem is the carp hadn't read the script and with the wind blowing down the other end of the lake i was beginning to get the feeling that there weren't too many fish in the area. So with this in mind i got my head down and made every put in count, even if i came back with a skimmer it was still adding to my overall weight. Third and fourth hours flew by and i had managed to add a few more carp and skimmers and into the fifth hour i was expecting things to pick up. The swim did get better and i continued to add to my tally, but a rum on lost fish got me agitated and i lost my focus and rhythm for a while. I added a few more in a pretty slow last hour and never really got going flat out. At the weigh in I put 75lb 10oz on the scales for fifth, which ordinarily would have probably got me a frame place but it fished pretty well with 3 more 80lb+ weights and a winning 90lb+ weight. Tony ounced me for the silvers so i came away with only a decent days fishing and the clean sweep wasn't to be, still there's always next week.