Not before ice delays the start!
After their first scheduled match of the new season was cancelled two weeks earlier due to a frozen lake, WEAC found themselves down the A23 at a milder, but somewhat breezy, Standridge view lakes.
Another clubs previous days match on the water had been won with over 70lb, with good backing weights, so expectations were fairly high, but this match proved to be a harder nut to crack for many, with some anglers failing to break the 10lb barrier and the previous days winning peg not producing a single carp.
1st on the day, drawn on peg 15 in the bay, was lan Farmer who finished with 42lb 05oz, which included a lovely ghosty of around 8lb. lan caught a few silvers and a couple of carp early on pellet at 8m, but it wasn’t until a switch to the inside line on corn over micros that saw his catch rate increase. Returning occasionally to his other lines for the odd fish, lan caught steadily down the edge until the final whistle.
Drawn next to the island down the left hand side, Martin “The Paste” Smithers, spent the first part of the match fishing close to the island without success, but a change to fishing in the open water after a couple of hours saw him start to catch on meat and small pieces of paste. Martin’s catch rate slowed down in last hour and he ended up putting an ounce short of 32lb on the scales for 2nd overall. It was first timer on the venue, Danny Kirk, who came in third with 21lb 10oz drawn at the far end of the lake. After a couple of carp on his first two casts on the method, Danny’s swim went dead so a switch to the pole was needed to start catching again, but the same as Martin, Danny’s last hour proved to be a struggle as his swim dried up. Coming in 4th only 3oz behind Danny was Pip Knight from peg 3 with 21lb 7oz all caught on the pole.
The only downer on lan’s day was when he hit his head on his van after the match, but at least it made lan’s travelling partner Ray “The Fish” Smee laugh. Who needs mates like that?
| 1st Ian Farmer | 42lb 5oz |
| 2nd Martin Smithers | 31lb 15oz |
| 3rd Danny Kirk | 21lb 10oz |
| 4th Pip Knight | 21lb 7oz |