What a Muppett, why do I never learn ?

Arriving with Don in the morning I expected to find the usual 18-20 anglers (which is good on the 28 peg lake, as it gives everyone a bit of room) but found that we in fact had 25 fishing. It was now paramount to draw a peg with some room, and I really wanted the back spit (as you not only have plenty of room but it is also full of fish) or pegs 1 and 2 in the "Bomb Hole" which is a little two peg pond on it's own that joins the back spit to the main part of the lake. In to the draw bucket went the some would say - very lucky hand and out came.........Peg 2, and I was one very happy bunny ! Peg 2 is actually my favourite peg on the lake, it doesn't always produce but unlike the rest of the lake, within pole range you can poke your float against a number of features including a very undercut far bank where the fish swim between the main lake and the back spit, a bridge and a couple of bushes in the water.
In the past when I've fished the peg, it was usually a question of feeding 4 or 5 areas of the peg and just rotating between them and picking off the odd fish here and there. This time I set up rigs to fish both sides in the edge, one straight across against the undercut far bank, one down the middle to my right in open water and one across by the bridge at 16 metres.

From this point on, my match went horribly wrong, and to make it worse, I knew what I was doing wrong but still did nothing about it ! In the past when fishing the peg I have never fished across to the bridge, there are always fish there but it is 16 metres away (which no matter what pole you have is still hard work), it is very shallow and with the wind, the water "flows" under the bridge constantly moving your rig around and dragging it into fish. As I said, I've never fished over there before and still don't know why I decided to do so. Anyway, I shipped out, cupped in a few pieces of luncheon meat and hemp, and the water coloured up, my float danced about before I foul hooked my first fish and it shot off before pulling the hook out. Meanwhile, Ian Summers in Peg 1A in the corner was fishing under the tip of a his rod and catching a fish a chuck ! Just to digress slightly, one good thing about drawing the bomb hole is that it is tucked away from everyon else ( a bit like pleasure fishing) and you can have a nice quiet relaxed days fishing. However, they are preparing to dig another off shoot of the lake at the moment so we had Derek the oldest tree feller (I think he is 76) behind us chopping down trees with his chain saw and tractor, I had Ian Summers singing as he had his radio ear phones in, Derek's bonfire smoke was wafting in my direction and every time I looked round Ian was netting another fish ! AAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH !

Anyway, back to the fishing, the "Bridge Line" was still proving a nightmare, my float was up and down like a yoyo with liners. I did manage to get one fish in the mouth, (about 8lb) but having lost another foulhooker I tried all the other lines but with no signs of fish, whilst nobody else seemed to be catching much except Ian who was now catching on the pole and still singing !
I went back to the bridge and caught another fish but still couldn't sort out liners from proper bites and I really knew that if I was going to fish that line then I should have just set up a lead and fished that over there and just wait for the rod to go round. Eventually a few fish appeared on the inside line (see picture) to my right by a tree that hangs in the water but after 4 quick fish one of them managed to break my float in the branches and after that I never seemed to get the replacement rig working properly - I know it sounds silly but how many times are you bagging and then when for some reason you swap rigs to one you think is identical do you struggle to catch ?

With half the match gone I had 6 fish in the net and although I was having a bit of a mare, I knew that with a decent second half, I could still frame. A quick look across against the undercut bank (the tuft inthe middle of the picture is undercut by about 2 foot) with two cubes of luncheon meat added another fish to the net and then I tried a piece of paste on the same line and had two more fish straightaway. The second one pulled out about 3 foot of purple hydro as I shipped it back thinking it was only a small fish but when took of the top two to net it, it went beserk and shot off to my right under the tree. I had no chance of getting any sections back on so just dipped the pole tip under the water, said a quick prayer and hung on for dear life. Fortunately for me, the fish swam back out of the tree, out into the open water and I soon netted a fish of about 13lb ! With nearly to hours still to go, I now fancied myself to frame as the last two hours are nearly always the best fishing of the day.....WRONG ! I had one more fish in the edge to my right and one more by the bridge and that was it. What a frustrating day, 11 carp for 51-0-0 and I thought I should really have had double that. Ian won the match with 108lb, followed a long way behind by Pete Franklin with 75-13-0 from Peg 26 on the back spit.
Result
Ian Summers.........Peg 1A .........108-0-0
Pete Franklin .......Peg 26 ............75-13-0
Steve Gardener....Peg 19............69-6-0
Paul Taylor...........Peg 25............69-3-0
Giovanni................Peg 4 .............64-0-0
Gavin Clarke.........Peg 24............51-4-0
Dave Pearson.......Peg 2..............51-0-0
So, all in all a very frustrating day when I should have caught a lot more - I think that one of the worst things was that when they make the changes to the lake, the peg wont be there any more so it could be the last chance I had to fish it in a match and didn't do it justice. I am however back there on wednesday so fingers crossed I'll draw it again and fish it properly this time.