Butterlake 3rd Sunday of the month Match 21/05/2017

I have recently joined Butterlake a private lake with limited membership and i was really pleased as it looked like a real old school lake with plenty of lily pads and i had been told there were a good number of Crucians ,Tench and skimmers to be had.
The club run 2 matches on the first and third sunday of ach month and Wednesday evening matches during the summer.
The match I fished was  a very casual affair turn up around 8.15 rover draw and start when your ready and fish until 1pm.
Draw was done and I had second choice of 6 anglers these inc Steve and his wife Sue,Barry,Brian and Ray.
Steve chose first and picked peg 25.
I picked peg 3 which looked good with a nice lily bed to the left and being right next to the car park meant i could get set up quickly.
Ray chose peg 12 at the far end of the lake Barry was on peg 16 with Sue on 22 and Brian next to me on Peg 2
I was quickle set up with 2 rigs on the advice of Steve i would fish close in at 2+2 to my right and left near to the Lily's
I was surprised how deep the lake got just past my 2+2 line but instead of doing a third rig i thought i would just get started and see how the day went.
I fed both lines with a small amount of groundbait threw a few maggots over my right hand line and dropped in.
Immediately I had a dumpy Roach followed by a few othersalso a fewPerch then a little Crucian and in the first 20 minutes i must have had sclose to pound which seemed good as the other anglers were either still setting up or hadn't caught
I tried the left hand swim with a single Red Maggot the flaot settled then flew under with a decent fish heading staright into the lily's i kept pressure on and the fish finally worked it's way out and a lovely Tench around  1 1/2 Pounds came to the net.
I went back in and had to waita minute or two but i the nhad a run of small Crucians upto 6oz's
I continued catching small fish on both lines for the next hour steadily and it seemed i was doing well as the chatter was Ray was struggling Barry had lost a Tench and Carp  whilst the other 3 who i could see were all catching small fish but not many.
After2 hours i felt i was doing well but the swims were slowing down so decided to atart a new swim at 6 sections.
I fed it with a decent ball of Groundbait and a few dead maggots and left it for 15 minutes
I tried the Lily swim again but lost 2 decent Tench in the lily's which caused a lot of disruption and ruined the swim so i went on my long line.
First put in settled and the float dinked I struck and another small Crucian soon came o the net this was followed by an hour of non stop bites and I have never seen so many Crucians caught in a day
I heardthat Barry had started to catch well but with everyone else struggling I felt I had a chance of my first payout but also felt i could do with another Bonus fish but it never happened.
I upped the feed on the long line but this killed the swim and i remained biteless for the last 10 minutes.
The all out was called and i thought i would have somewhere between 8-10lb but as most of the fish were between 1 and 6Oz it was hardto tell.
I thought i had caught between 40 and 50 small crucians 20 Roach a few Perch,Skimmers and Hybrids and a nice Tench.
Brian weighed first and had 3lb 6oz I pulled my net out and i felt my estimate was slightly under and so it proved as weighed 12lb 15Oz
Ray weighed 3lb 10oz follwed by Brian who had 8Lb Plus with a lovely Crucian in his net to go into second place.
Sue weighed 3Lb 1oz followed by steve with 4lb+
So finally I had a match win after 3 years of trying.
I really enjoyed the day and was made to feel very welcome the fishing was fantastic and i felt i got lucky with the draw as it seemed there were plenty of fish in my peg.
Looking forward to the next match and hoping to have another good draw.
Next Saturday Robbie is hoping to fish the next round of the Newton Abbot Summer League and hoping more than 2 people turn up as the last round was cancelled due to only 2 turning up only plus point being Robbie and Freddy were given the win so 1 point each.
Hopefully our luck will continue.

Finally a match Win Jenkins Trophy Wheel Pond 6/5/2017

But not for me
After 3 disastrous matches where I DNW I finally got my son Robbie back on the bank for a Match.
I had heard NAFA had been struggling for juniors in their matches over winter and i really like the club so persuading Robbie to fish again was good
We arrived early after picking up our bait from the fantastic Tackle Trader in Newton Abbot.
Unfortunately when we arrived there weren't any juniors there just a rather despondent Pete.
We waited until 9 and luckily young Freddy arrived there was a brief moment when i thought the match was going to be called off but some slight persuading got the match back on but for a reduced 2 hours
Pegs were chosen and Freddy chose 18 and Robbie chose Peg 20 so they could fish close together and keep an eye on each other
Robbie wanted a simple day fishing for everything that swims so he we quickly set up a Pellet edge rig and a Maggot rig at roughly 3ft deep for top 2 plus 2.
On the all in Robbie threw a few maggots in and went straight over and had a bite chuck with small Roach,Rudd and Perch for roughly 20 minutes then he hooked something slightly larger took the bait after carefully playing it a lovely Tench around 12oz came to the net.
The swim quiet so he tried the  far edge but nothing and as Freddy was struggling to catch a Carp and was behind on silvers Robbie went back on his Maggot line and picked off a few more Roach before another larger fish took his bait.
Again Robbie played the fish well and a PB Crucian around a 1lb was Landed.
Soon after the all out was called and Freddy weighed roughly 300g followed by Robbie who had closer to 3lb.
Weight were done by eye as it wasn't close enough to get the weigh net wet.
So a good win for Robbie and now he is very keen again and will be fishing the summer league.
It has been mentioned that if there aren't enough juniors attending it may be called off which would be a real shame but in my opinion if some of the issues that have been around the junior scene had been dealt with earlier more juniors would be around
Looking forward to Wednesday evening matches on Wheel this summer and really hope I improve.