The week between Christmas and the New Year has now become the home of the Match Fishing Scene South Xmas match and for the past two years has taken place at Lizzard Lakes at West Drayton - not the most picturesque area I have fished but in the right conditions the lake can fish very well. Last year was rock hard with the lake being mostly frozen over, and on a very cold day Hathers pipped me to first place by a few ounces as we both weighed in 9lb odd, with my roach net plus 3 small carp all falling to punched bread. 
Things were looking good for this year until the recent cold snap knocked the fishing on the head a bit but whatever happened, it would be better than last year for most. Match day arrived and after Hathers picked me at 6.45, we arrived for our pre match brecky stop, Poppins Restaurent in West Drayton at just before 7.30, where we met up with most of the days competitors, including Terry Turnip and Sparky ! After a hearty breakfast we followed Rick to the fishery just 5 minutes away and then whilst Rick sorted out the draw stuff I went round the lake to peg it with local expert Macca. Having been given a run down of the pegs, I was hoping to draw pegs 1,2,3,13,14 or 22-25. As I stood holding the draw bag as the draw took place I could see all the pegs 
I fancied being drawn until there were just 2 left and only myself and Justin Case (Paul Laws) to draw. I quite fancied Peg 14 as it was the end peg on the right hand bank and had a fair bit of room to go at. In went JC's hand to the draw bag and I was slightly relieved to seem him emerge with Peg 5 !Baitwise, I had pinned my faith in Bread, as I'd caught carp on it last year, some liquidized bread for feed on the pole and some casters for an alternative roach bait. I set up a straight lead with a size 14 B911 hook to 0.18 G Line to fish with three discs of 10mm bread on a hair rig. I also set up two pole rigs one to fish for carp with bread at 8 metres (which I only had a few roach on) and a rig to fish for roach at 13 metres at 10 and 2 o'clock. On the whistle I fed all lines with some casters and one with a pot of liquidized bread and lobbed out the lead towards the end of the lake to my right. Those in the know had all said that you should spend the first hour fishing the lead to hopefully nick a couple of carp so who was I to argue as one carp could be worth a lot of roach. After a minute or so the wind gusted and blew my top kits towards the lake. I stood up off my box to retrieve them and when I sat back down, my rod was almost off the rest and I soon netted a 5lb carp - not a bad start at all. 
In the next hour by casting about the peg I had a further 8 carp from 2lb to 8lb before it died completely. I spent the next few hours switching between the pole and lead but only added a few roach and one skimmer to my nets before nicking another 3 carp in the final hour on the lead. We started the weigh in at my peg an after a couple of weighs (which included my bulging roach and skimmer net of 1-6-0) my total weight was recorded as 42-2-0 which fortunately for me (and Hathers who I was going halves with) was enough to take the top spot ahead of Nick Darke 28-8-0 and Darren Wright with 27-4-0. All in all the lake fished a lot better than last year and whilst I would rather have caught on the pole, it was nevertheless nice to win and pick up my first MFS Champions League points as I try to qualify for next years final at the Glebe. Not sure what is happening Sunday as I had a desperate call from my mate Plummers who is desperate to get out fishing, so I'm searching for somewhere for us to go.
