Maggotdrowning Individual Champs 2010

Well this year is flying past and the Maggotdrowners Individual Championships have come round again
So once again I'm following the sat nav to another new venue
This year the match is being held at Manor Farm and we will be fishing on Boundary Pool

  

The TomTom seems to have gotten over it's glitch from a few weeks ago and once again got me to the post code that I put in with no problems at all
But for some reason the post code that is on the fishery site is not for the fishing lakes as the site also has a caravan park golf course and other stuff anyway after driving round the stupid caravan site then the golf course and then some other fishing lakes I eventually found a guy that told me I was in the the wrong place and gave me directions to the lake
He did mention that he had loads of people driving round looking for the lakes today Well put a sign up at the top of the road dumbo! opps! did I say that out loud
Once I found the correct place I met up with the other maggotdrowners that were gathering to do battle for the 2010 Individual crown
The general opinion was that we were on a bad lake and it was going to fish poor but to be honest I have fished the Individual Champs for quite a few years and never had a good match the indies are more about having a laugh and a good day out with a spot of fishing thrown in
Might be worth banning Malc 1 year though just to see if the fishing improves ?
Anyway this year you can park right behind your peg result!
Once everyone had arrived Vince got the draw under way I came away from the bag with peg 5 in my hand Tony had drawn peg 7 and seemed to have an idea of where to go so I followed him round to the lake and pulled up behind peg 5
Peg 5 certainly looked ok

As the car was parked right behind the peg

I had my gear out and set up pretty quick
My plan of attack today is 1 line out in front at 9m

Another in the margin to my left

And 1 in the margin to my right

I also set up my feeder rod in case it was a bit hard today
And a quick check with the plummet found I had the same depth all the way out from 9m to 16m so I can go longer if I need too with the same rig
I had an empty peg either side and on peg 7 to my left was Tony

To my right down on peg 2 was Bucko

And on peg 1 was Steve (jessebob) who as we were setting up challenged me to a £1 coin side bet which as Bill G was not here to pay towards my fuel bill I gladly excepted

Further down on peg 9 Vince was getting a few pointers from Buckos good lady

On the all in I shipped a pot of pellets into each swim then went out to the 9m swim with a 6mm cat meat soft hooker pellet on the hook

My rigs today are the same as usual for the 9m swim I have a Jon Walker 0.3g Diamond float on 0.14mm Silstar line with a B911 size 16 hook tied direct and set to fish at dead depth the margin rigs are the same except I have Jon Walker Margin floats in place of the Diamond
I fired a pouch of 4mm pellets out around the float and after around 10 mins I missed a lighting fast bite and on the next 3 or 4 putins I was unable to hit the bites again
So I swapped to a 6mm cube of meat which had the desired effect as soon as the float settled it buried and I soon had a Carp of around 1lb 08ozs in the net
By now my 9m swim was fizzing and over the next 2 hours I managed to catch another 11 fish all around the same sort of size
Bucko on peg 2 was catching the odd silver fish and Steve down on peg 1 was getting a few carp too but looking round the lake everyone else seemed to be struggling to find any fish
After the first 2 hours my swim suddenly died and I couldn't find a bite anywhere both Steve and Bucko were now also unable to buy a bite
I tried both the margin swims with no joy I went out to 16m and had no joy there either even on the feeder I had no bites and no liners
About then Malc came round for a chat but to be fair to him the fish disappeared before he came so I can't blame the Jinx this time

And that was it for my match for the next 3 hours I sat biteless like most other people round the lake

Even Tony was up and walking so things must be hard

Even having the mighty Mugger Morton on the phone couldn't induce a bite

Eventually Vince called the all out and put an end to every ones misery
The best weight I had heard that anyone was admitting to was about 8lb and as I was sure I had more than that I thought I might be in with a chance of getting in the frame
But talking to Fordy he reckoned that he had about 30lb and had caught some decent lumps fishing floaters never thought of doing that
I'd just got my gear back in the car when Vince turned up with the scales and I was quite pleased when my fish moved them round to 17lb 04ozs
Not so sure Steve was as just like Bilge usually does he had to come round and give me a £1 coin
I didn't follow the scales round the rest of the lake but instead headed back to the car park
As usual for this match there is a raffle with the proceeds going to 2 charities Help for Heroes and Cancer Research UK and I had a raffle prize to hand in

Vince soon had the results ready and the 2010 Maggotdrowning Champion is Fordy with a fine 42lb 12ozs 

2nd was Bungee with 27lb 08ozs and I came 3rd with 17lb 04ozs

Vince had a cup for the winner and the top 3 all got medals

Also as the match was sponsored by Tubertini the top 3 also got some gear from Tubertini

For 3rd place I got 2 rubber mesh keep nets (1 Carp and 1 silver fish) a ground bait bowl and a polo shirt

Then it was time for the raffle Bucko's good lady Lynn had been busy selling tickets and we managed to raise a total of £230 for the 2 charities

I had a further bit of luck and came away with 2 raffle prizes

 All in all another great day out with the Maggotdrowing crowd the fishing could have been a bit better but the banter made up for that

And I had a bit of a result with 3rd place a medal bit of wedge for the back pocket and some gear from Tubertini

Big thanks to Vince for running the match and Tubertini for the prizes