Langport league rd 2

Langport league round 2 and the team are at the Arms eager for the next round and lying in ambush to bait any unsuspecting Amigo who may pass by. The Chief and Russ seemed to be in animated conversation about something so I slide over in case its team tactics that I should know about. Alas nothing of the sort only the price of Thatchers cider being discussed. I once asked the captain about tactics and he replied that he thought they were little mints you could buy from One Stop. I was hoping to avoid the top 2 sections because this time of year the pike are often so active it gets like fishing in a crocodile pit at the zoo. The bottom 3 sections are not as bad normally. God smiles on the righteous and I draw C6 at Coombe. I know this area reasonably well and there is just one peg in the section that I do not want. I think its C5 but I am not sure. Alas when I arrive at the peg its the one I did not want. I am not going to make pitiful excuses before the match and oddly enough I had came second in the match from this peg last year. I had fished the peg in exceptional circumstances when a huge raft of floating duckweed ruined most of the section and there were loads of roach hanging around the edge of it, allowing me to fish shallow and catch 5 kilos. The reason I do not like the peg is because it is wider than most of the section and its on the inside of the bend. It catches the wind a bit more and the bottom is uneven . I suspect the shelf goes out further here and its very deep, plumbing it up I found it was all over the place. Add to that that its a very uncomfortable bank you can see I am not thrilled to be here. On my right is Chard Remain's skipper and slightly reformed lager lout Jamie Rich. Jamie recently appeared on the Al Murray show in Pub of the Year. On my left is Trotter's Pete Edwards I do not know Pete very well but he seems a very agreeable sort of guy. Peg 1 in the section is favourite for a few bream if they show and I am sure that bream mugger Darren Kempson will not hesitate to go for them. I set up 2 whips ,a pole and the feeder . On the whistle I put in 5 babies heads on the inside plus 2 3/4s over. I was expecting a bit of a struggle but nothing like this , just 5 tiny roach in the first hour . The feeder failed to get me out of jail either, no one that I could see was setting the world alight but everyone had at least 3 times what I had. I could not really see Jamie on my right because he was hidden in the boondocks. However Jamie always counts his fish and I'd heard him take his shoes and socks off ages ago so he must be past 10. Drizzle now turns to heavy rain and I consider a newspaper over my head and a Hamlet cigar. Last year I won the 1st match and then came last in the following round, looks like a re run. The second hour improves very slightly . I feed in a different way and fish further down the peg. It is not how I had planned to fish but needs must to make a bite or two.I was supprised to see both anglers on my left investing a lot of time in fishing for a bream. With this in mind I kept plugging away hoping just to sneak off the bottom of section if they failed to snare one. By the end of the 3rd hour I thought I'd got a kilo and bites were beginning to come, but the fish were very small. Switching to caster , I had a run of slightly better fish + a chublet of 250 grms then they backed off and it was back to maggot and tiny fish . The last hour was no time to experiment, a small fish every put in and hope for the best. Steve Lovell weighed nearly 5 kilos from peg 8 and Jamie 2.5kilos nextdoor.It was a relief when my weigh went 3 kilos+ .To my supprise that beat the next four anglers on my left but we had heard that the bream strangler on peg one had done the business and sure enough Darren had 8kilos of them for 2nd in the match.This gave me 7 section points for which I was grateful but I still could not figure out that awful start especially when other people caught well early then faded out. I really mulled this one over , good recovery or bad match plan? Not sure! Wayne Buckingham was my Amigo to beat and mission accomplished.Weston's Mick White did the donkey work for his team by winning with 17kilos +. The biggest plus was the team result all the lads had done well and without a section win we had come second and were now top of the league. Terminators top ! unbelievable! The Amigos had a wretched time and where last on the day and are now last in the league I was slightly concerned that they seemed genuinely a bit fed up . They will bounce back .They always do, but for now they had to endure plenty of mickeytaking.