Blythe Pairs League (round2) Sunday 30/1/11

Round 2 of our Blythe pairs league this weekend and after the thaw out last week we were greeted with a sheet of ice on both cherries & bridge pools with only a few pegs free from ice by the aerators after another very cold night at minus 5, with the cold conditions fish & bites would be at a premium. I drew for us putting myself on peg 26 on cherries pool and Stav on peg 7 on bridge which had won the first round with 35lb and he had not got any ice to clear due to the aerator opposite. My peg is normally a good but you need to fish up against the boom which is 16m away and i had got no chance of breaking the ice that far and it was too thick to break with the pole, after clearing the ice up to 11m and around 3m wide i began to set up and lent Stu my ice breaker, now i thought he is going to show me up with his breaker chucking skills as Stu is around 6ft 6 and around 18 stone ( he blocks out the sun) and in his mid 20's (me 41 & smokes too many fags) but after a few good chucks he managed to break out the same distance as me and i felt a lot better. Stu began to clear his ice with his landing net when the head came off the handle! I didn't laugh too much? Luckily i had got a spare so i lent him that one, the thread was flat on his net that he had just brought off a work mate of mine in a job lot of gear whose name i will not mention ( GEORDIE PET, PHIL, DODGIE SELLER OF SECOND HAND GEAR?). Back to the job in hand and i was only going to set up two rigs, one for pinkie and one for pellet & corn the second rig in more hope than anything else as i felt we would be lucky to get any bites at all.
Rig 1, a 0.30gr Preston inter 9 float, 0.10 silstar mainline to a 0.08 h/length with a 22 gamma black hook, shotted with a string of no'8 & 10 stotz, the rig was set just 2 inches overdepth in 5 1/2 ft of water.
Rig 2, 4X12 J-8 Range float 0.12 mainline to a 0.10 h/length a 20 tuerbertini 808, shotted with a bulk of 8&10 stotz & 2 no10 stotz droppers.
For bait it was going to a case of feed nothing but i had brought fluro pinkies,micro pellets, maggots (live & dead) plus a few 4mm expanders. It was going to be very hard as after the big thaw there was no ice left on most of our local fisheries but last night it was -5 and 3/4 of the lakes frozen again (great).
On the whistle to the right of my ice hole i put 10 mixed dead maggs & pinkies, to the left i put 4-5 dead maggs & a few micros, in-front of me at 6m which was at the bottom of the shelf and the same depth as the 11m line so i could use the same rig i feed by hand 2-3 live maggots every now and then.
Too cut a very long and boring match short it was CRAP, i finished up with 12 roach for a grand total of 1lb 0oz 8drams, 6lb won our lake on corner peg 20 with 2 carp and second on the pool was Martin in the next peg with 1 carp & a few bits for 4lb odd they were the only 3 carp caught on the whole pool. The guy to my left had 2oz and the two opposite me failed to break the 1lb mark, Stu to my right had around the bits as me then with 5mins left to go hooked a good fish which looked like a carp but when he got it into netting range he said it was a big perch. It was a big perch around 2 1/2lb i thought with the hook lodged right in it's back! YES Stu had just battered me with a FOUL-HOOKED PERCH in the last 5mins which shot him from nowhere to 3rd on the lake with 3lb 12oz (fair-play). I told him i should be on 10% of the winnings for loan of the ice-breaker & landing net?The rest of the there had been a couple of guys with over 2lb and another couple with a bigger 1lb odd than me so i was going to end up well down on points with poor Malcom on normally the flier peg 10 dry netting due to i think too close to aerator? At least Stav had done well on the point peg on Bridge pool as he had called me after an hour or so saying he had 2 good carp, those 2 early carp were all he had along with a solo big perch for 12lb for second on the lake behind Carl with 13lb. I was 10th out of 14 and a bad cold day at the office i just hope it warms up soon as i am getting sick of this cold shit.