Blythe Pairs Winter League Sunday 4/3/12

This was round 5 of 8 of our pairs league at Blythe Waters on Cherries pool where there was 9 pairs battling it out for the title where my pairs partner Stav and I were lying joint 1st with Carl & Chris and Ollie & Ada in 3rd place, Stav had instructed me to draw again as we weren't doing too bad so into the draw bag I went and came out with 30 for myself and 10 for Stav. We were both happy with our draws as there are fish on both pegs and a good chance of catching a few fish, the day was very wet and windy but at least I had the wind coming off my back but Stav had it blowing straight into his face, nice and cold! I have fished peg 30 already in this series catching 12lb for 3rd in my section but the pool had started to fish a little better with Carl having 38lb off the next peg 29 on the last round, for company today on peg 29 I had Gail the fishery manager who I seem to have a habit of drawing next to or opposite this series I knew that she would only throw the feeder to the central boom today and not hold 14.5m of carbon in the strong gusting wind. I planned to fish up to the boom and down my right hand margin at 3m, as peg 30 sticks out on a point there is no room for a margin line towards peg 29 and beyond 3m to the right you cannot see as the bank goes around the corner. I set up two identical rigs to fish the boom just with stronger hook and line and a shallow rig for up in the water although I thought the water would be to cold today to catch shallow.
Rig 1, 4 x 14 J-range float 0.16 mainline to a 0.12 hooklength and 18 Tubertini 808 hook, J-range 6-10 hollow    
elastic set just touching bottom in 4 1/2ft of water.
Rig 2, The same as above but with a 0.14 hooklength to a 18 Tosciro hook and 13 hollo elastic.
Rig 3, 4 x 12 Maver Jurassic dibber 0.14 straight through to a 18 Preston PR27 hook with a lasso for shallow.
Rig 4, 4 x 12 J-range 0.16 main to 0.14 to a 18 Tosciro hook and Preston 13 hollo elastic.
For bait I had brought the usual array of pellets from micro to 8mm but planned mainly to use micro's as feed with 4mm expanders for the hook, a pint and half of maggots which I planned to use down the edge and the usual team tin of corn which Stav and I split as we only use it on the hook as a change bait.
I started the match up to the boom at 14.5m carefully feeding a few micros as not to overcook the peg at the
start, as I looked up Stav was playing a Carp first chuck on the method up to the boom a good start. I had to wait around 30mins for my first bite which was a 6oz skimmer followed by a 2 1/2lb Carp next put in so at least we were both up and running in our respective sections, the weather with the wind and rain was very cold and I almost felt sorry for Stav and the rest of the lads on the opposite bank, almost! The rest of the match was plane sailing for me with me catching odd Carp and Skimmer at intervals to end up with a dozen Carp to around 6lb, Stav had suffered on the other bank with just 2 Carp on the method and a few bits on the pole but there were a few people in his section with less. I had tried down the edge a couple of times and up in the water for 5mins but neither produced a bite as I got a gut feeling these weren't right on the day, I had a good day in the cold conditions but new that Ade on pegs 32 in the corner had caught well and Carl had drew the hot corner peg 22 in the deep water and Carl knows how to get the best from every peg on the complex as he used to be the manager here. Carl was first in my section to weigh-in putting 29lb on the scales a good weight in the conditions, there were a couple of weights in the teens but noting to worry about Kev on peg 25 had 25lb before it was my turn and the scales read 39lb 7oz which put me in the lead with only Ade to worry about, he pulled his net out and it looked close he had got over 30lb the scales read 34lb odd which gave me the section win, the other 2 pegs in my section had 16&12lb respectively on the disabled pegs 2&3. Stav's 2 Carp went 10lb which was good enough for 3rd in his section as the pegs on the opposite bank had suffered with the freezing cold wind chilling the water, his section was won off corner peg 20 again with 25 small Carp for 25lb the peg has won the section 4 times out of 5? Stav had brought a new set of Gortex clothing and had sat in the rain all day to test it out in-case it leaked and had to go back, the report was good as he said he was bone dry but F*****G froze! Tony in the next peg had tried the old umbrella routine which had worked for around 4 hours until a gust of wind turned it inside out and had him scrambling around doing a Mary Poppins impression much to the amusement of us on the opposite side, I tried not to laugh honest? When all the point had been sorted out in the dry and warmth of the cafe Stav and I had now gone 4 points clear at the top of the league a great result in the harsh conditions bring on the next round.