End On A High

Sunday was the 10th and final round of the Packington Winter League. Although I’ve had a brilliant few months matches, things certainly haven’t gone my way too much at Packington. I was on Siblings for the final round. My two other goes on Sibs saw me catch just 9lb from 17B and a whopping 3lb 15oz and last on the lake off 2A. Understandably my expectations were not too high returning there!

I was quite happy pulling out 17A though. Even happier when I saw the lake had finally got some colour. Two rounds ago you could see the bottom 3m out and watch fish swimming by with their mouths zipped tightly shut! Maybe I’ll actually catch today?

Only issue was the master Lee Richards was next door and he gave me a battering last time I was on Sibs. (Everyone on the lake gave me a lesson, to be honest!)

Kicked off at 14m with pellets in 2.5ft and it went under first chuck. It kept going under the next two hours and I couldn’t believe how good it was. Mostly smallish F1s with an odd better fish.

Also had a few down the edge and one short. Thousands of tiny roach in front of me, so all I could catch on was pellet, fishing a 4mm Sonubaits expander over fishery micros and a bit of F1 and Supercrush Expander. Best rig was a 0.3g F1 Slim with a 16 X2 hook and 8-10 Slik in a 2m Short Kit.

After a lovely day’s fishing I’ve totalled 76lb to win Sibs and come 4th in the match. Nice end to what’s been a tricky old league for me. Well done Dave Roberts winning the day with 106lb from Little Gearys and just behind him was John Burchell on Molands. Thanks to John and his team for running such a competitive series in all sorts of conditions. Finally, a massive well done to Lee Richards comfortably topping the league overall and a deserving champion.