08:00am and time to draw from the roadside. As nobody wanted to draw first, in fear of getting the scales on Peg 1, I put my hand in the bowl and stirred the cards around and pulled out Peg 4. I was happy with that as it's just off the main flow and right on the edge of the bream bowl where there was Bream caught around 3lb's on Wednesday. It's a peg I know reasonably well as I fished it back on Monday and I knew at 13m there was a snag/weed.
Again, from fishing the peg on the Monday, I knew I was faced with no more the 6' of water so the rig was a Drennan Tipo in 1.5g with an Olivette and 2 droppers, main line of 0.10 Matrix Power Micron (2.16lb) to a Matrix Power Micron 0.09 hook length. Hook choice was a size 20 Matrix Super Match all of which was connected to a Matrix Solid 6 Elastic. I decided to fish as light as I could get away with to try and get more bites. Once I plumbed up I tried the rig and it sat perfectly and the added water from all the rain wasn't pushing it all around the mill pool so I was happy and confident that presentation would be spot on.
Bait on the day, I had a pint of Bronze, half a pint of Mixed and Pinkie in the same tub, worm and some Castor. I also had half a kilo of Sonubaits Supercrumb River to kick it all off with which I would feed with no particles.
With a few minutes left I made up 3 golf ball sized balls of ground bait ready for the all in. My plan was to fish single pinkie to start and if the fish were feeding confidently switch to normal maggot, Castor or worm. The "All In" was called and I cupped in the 3 balls of ground bait and went straight over with Pinkie. Within a few minute's the float was pulled under and a Roach was netted.
I then started being pestered by minnows so I switched to normal maggot. Single white on the hook and the float kept burying. I had noticed by the time I'd had 6 fish in the net none of the others had hooked anything. I also noticed that they all balled in at least 4 big balls of ground bait too. I didn't let that bother me and I kept my head down and focused on getting bites of my own. After an hour I had roughly a dozen fish.
I potted in another 2 balls of ground bait of the same size, golf ball sized, and returned with single white. I had a half hour spell of Roach around 3-4ozs and then 2 Roach around 12oz's+ came to the net to boost the weight.
I was slightly holding back by this point as float was moving a little bit more than I liked. But the bites kept coming and it was one a chuck. By this point I was flying and coming back every time with a fish, OK they were not massive but at the pace they were coming I was bagging up. The rest of the match flew by and I had 3 more nice fish around half a pound go in the keep net before the "All Out" was called.
I could see the league leader the whole match and I only saw him land a few small fish so I knew I had beaten him which I needed to do to pip him to top spot and frame to take 1st place in the league standings. The scales soon reached me and I was told I had 1lb 15oz to beat to take the lead which I did. I came in with 4lb 10oz's of mostly Roach along with 2 Minnows! I packed up the rest of my gear and headed back to the road.
I loaded up the car and poured a cup of Coffee, which was needed as I was very thirsty, and headed to the front car for the results. Again, I knew I had beaten Rich who was leading the league but I really needed to frame. I knew my weight and the 1lb 15oz weight so I was slightly nervous as I really would love to win this Winter League. 3rd was Steve with 2 or 3lb something (sorry I genuinely can't remember his weight), Chris was 2nd with 4lbs 5oz's which meant I had won the match by 5oz's and taken the lead in the league standings.
I couldn't be happier with how I fished today. I fed no loose feed (this shocked everyone when they asked what I fed!), kept everything lite, fed ground bait little but often and made sure I didn't rush things. The result meant a lot to me for 2 reasons, obviously I took the lead in the League and because it's fast approaching the anniversary of my best friends death. I really wanted to win for her and win the league for her so I dedicated the win to her :)
So the final round of the Winter league is a week today and I am so close to winning it. It would be 2 trophies this Winter campaign and my 3rd overall in 2 winter league's. I've loved fishing the rivers be it the Dorset Shield or Stalbridge Angling Winter League as it's nice to get away from the commercials and scale down for some Silvers.
Next up: Stalbridge Angling Association Winter League Final Round at Kings Mill on 22.02.15
My Home For The Day, Peg 4
Not The Biggest Of Catches But A Win And 1 Step Closer To The League Title
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