Third Match Lucky!
A nice day off today so I can finally catch up with things and recharge the very flat batteries.
Wednesday I had a Fish Midlands ticket for the Glebe. Really fancied this match and thought it would fish its brains out with us all getting a bit more room than most qualifiers. However it was a surprisingly tough day by the Glebe’s standards and the expected 200lb winning weights never materialised. I had a frustrating day on 114 with the fish clearly on edge and spooking away from bait for 75lb and a days fishing. Diagonally opposite on 117 and 119 made the most of the wind going their way with John Harvey winning our lake with 127lb down his edges. Well done Josh Palmer winning with 166lb from peg 1.
Saturday I was back to the Glebe on the Fisho qualifier and expected it to fish hard with 100 anglers. Well I was totally wrong as it fished much better than Wednesday with loads of tons, despite the tighter pegging! I had 110lb for a really nice days fishing from 89 but way off the winner. A huge well done to Mark Griffiths making no mistakes from peg 1 with a 250lb catch. Also very unlucky to second placed Dan Hull who caught a great 219lb on end peg 86 on our lake. Think the top six all had over 170lb. Great venue. Weather not so great as it rained all day!
So… yesterday I was up very early in readiness for another big qualifier. Had a niggling thought that I should double-check I’d actually got a ticket… and then realised I hadn’t! Doh! So I made a very last-minute call and got on the open at Tunnel Barn Farm instead, which was on High Pool.
My drawing arm finally returned as I pulled out absolute rocket ship flyer peg 15! All the other drawbags must’ve been on the qualifiers! Never actually drawn it before, but it’s a great peg with loads of water to target.
Thankfully I’ve not messed it up as I’ve won the match with 139lb. The lake’s actually been a bit moody with 109lb second and just 78lb third. Definitely a bit of air pressure and spawning activity to blame. I’ve had a lot of stockies and skimmers, quite a few carp to 8lb and not so many of the big old F1s. Caught on caster shallow, meat short and pellets long. Lovely day. Needed that.
It took forever to pack away as I was totally shattered. I’ve had so many people asking me how I’m getting on which is so nice and really appreciated. Once I sort the fatigue out and can move a bit faster we’ll be ready to win a qualifier or two… IF I remember to buy a ticket!
