Match Report - Magpie Lake, Pidley 18 April 2010

A great turn out of 19 members attended the first match of the campaign at Rookery Waters. Magpie lake was the venue and with reports from those who had been down in the week previous, spirits were high and a good match was hoped for. Whilst the weather was improving, the water was still chilly so a more cautious approach may need to be considered, with a pellet approach suggested to be a good choice by those who practiced.

The match was pegged on pegs 1 – 20 with peg 15 left out as it is pretty tight in that corner with anglers on 13 & 14. The match was split into 2 sections. Pegs 1-10 in A section and 11-20 in B section.

The sun shone all day with a light to moderate wind blowing into pegs 15-20. Although the conditions seemed reasonable for a good days sport, the fishing was really quite hard. Probably due to the time of year, a slight ground frost first thing and the fact the water is still yet to warm up significantly. This is not surprising since it has only been 6-8 week since the winter snow disappeared.

On peg 8, Steve “The Pheonix” Goodrum fished pellet shallow for 34lb 8oz. With the ripple on the other side of the lake the fishing was difficult and at 13m he did find it cosy with Pete next door on that bend. His weight was hard earned and enough for 3rd place.

This could have been different had the bailiff not asked Steve to stop fishing the Pellet Wallger saying it has been band, only for us to discover it is the Bagging Waggler that is not allowed on Magpie and the Pellet Waggler is an acceptable method to use. There seems to be some frustrating confusuion between the venue rules and the bailiff's understanding of them. The owner has apologised for the confusion.

Tony “AT Tony” Grigorjevs drew peg 19 and he also had to work for his 35lb 4oz of carp to 4lb. Fishing at 16m towards the vacant peg opposite, Tony fished on the far bank slope in around 3ft of water, with most of his fish falling to corn over small pots of pellet and corn.

Jon “Jonty” Wilson drew peg 2. In the first hour he had 2 fish in the net lost 2 fishing at 11m on the deck with expander over pellet at the bottom of the slope of the sunken island at the left hand extremity of his swim. All the time he fed 4mm hard pellets little and often at 11m to his right in the only ‘open’ water he had. With no further indications on the deck, a switch to the shallow line proved decisive. It was by no means hectic but he slowly began to put a few fish in his net and ended up with 49lb 10oz to win the section and the match.

Result

1st – Jonty 49lb 10oz
2nd – AT Tony 35lb 4oz
3rd – Steve Goodrum 34lb 8oz