Langport league rd 5

After practising in the week on Stathe Drain I began to get a feeling that I may be beginning to understand a little about this venue. During practice on Friday I was getting a bite a chuck and a couple of methods seemed to be working quite well. However I am long enough in the tooth to know that practice sessions can be counter productive at times , giving too much confidence . With this in mind I was determined to keep options open . After the last round any sense of real competition between us and the Amigos seemed over as they are now 9 points adrift with just two rounds left. Also the good draws that I've been enjoying have meant that I was top individual in the league with 34 pts from 36. Far more important for me is the £260 from the pools so far!! Going well or not I still hate fishing Stathe , but when acting skipper Vince handed me peg A2 I was fairly confident I would be ok in this peg. I was pretty sure that A1 would win the section but last week Rob Eagle had 3 kilos + of small fish from this peg I was pretty confident I could do a job here. I also hoped that , as he had stood in at the last minute, Brian Read would get a good draw. Bri actually drew a very average peg which yielded him 4 pts. I had Scott Cousins on my left on A1 and for the 3rd time in my section Amigo John Buckingham on my right . The first thing to mention was the wind , vile was the only way to to describe it, just sub gale and straight in our faces. I cupped in some choppie and fished over it for 30 mins. This produced just a small rudd and a ruffe. All the time I was feeding hemp , caster and a little maggot to my right just over middle . Switching to this line I caught a small skimmer and 2 small roach then nothing. Everyone around also seemed to be struggling so I kept plugging away feeding lightly by cup plus a little hemp by catapult. Well it all ended in abject disaster, I had a few small fish for 700 grams . Although the section was very tight I just could not conjure up a few extra fish to give me decent points. The only person I beat in section was my Amigo which was some consolation , but 3 lousy points was hopeless. I blame no one but myself I just did not get it right! Scott duly won the section with 1 Kilo 700 followed by Dicky Bull with 1 Kilo 050 gr. Nigel Easton was 3rd with 950 grms, very close but still a disaster for me . I did not enjoy my day's fishing, but as my mum always says, worse things happen at sea. The good news was that Dickybob had won his section using the worms I had donated to him before the match. I was delighted for Dicky as he has had a poor run in the league this year. Unfortunately Vince's nightmare is ongoing as he collected another 2 pts today. He just cannot seem to get a good draw right now! But at least it means I am not dropped for the final round. With just 24 points I feared we may be last on the day but to my amazement we not only ended 5th but knocked tabletoppers Focus out of the cup , putting us in the final with Yeovil Nomads . It will be a lot of fun on the final day as Focus and Nomads are joint top of the league. I lost the individual lead in the league and am now joint top with 3 others. The team remain 3rd and we are suffering from vertigo from the height. As far as the individual win is concerned I do not think there is any loot on it, only bragging rights and the probability is that one of the leaders will get an end peg and win it. I blew it today , that is obvious. Given a choice I would much rather win the knockout with the team than the individual. Wish us luck and end pegs ! The Amigos finished last and are now bottom of the league. For all the banter we know they will be back next year with a variety of cunning plans to put us in our place. But for the meantime the bragging rights are ours! Nick Collins won the match with 4 kilos from the same peg I had won the previous round.