This Sunday I went over to Woodland View for the Sunday Open. With a lot a clubs fishing on various pools across the complex as you get in the summer months the open match saw 22 anglers spilt over Front Dean and Hay pool this time.

Now that the covid restrictions have been lifted at was nice to finally draw my own peg this week. My hand pulled out Hay 8 which isn’t a bad area. Only problem was I’d forgotten to bring my trolley and it’s a bit of a walk from the top car park to Hay.

On the plus side Jason Powell a venue expert who consistently picks up at Woodland View and various other places lent me his trolley up at the top car park which was good of him but the bad news was he’d drawn to next peg to me. It was now going to be tough for me to do well with Jas being in my section. But then it got worse when I arrived at my peg. Kev Slade was setting up on the other side of me. Kev is the main man at Woodland View and always the man the beat, which isn’t very often. So the pressure was well and truly on.

The match began and Kev was soon into fish. I’d caught a few small F1’s and Carp but I couldn’t really see what Jas and Kev were up to. My peg had a Willow tree either side of me so if I was going to be Chip Shopped (Battered both sides) at least I wasn’t going to have to watch them bag up. Being blinkered on my peg also didn’t help. I couldn’t see what they were doing, fishing long, short, shallow or the margins. I really didn’t know how I was doing in the match. I was catching fish OK but because I couldn’t see anyone else I really couldn’t gauge how I was doing. For all I knew I was doing alright. I caught in spells mainly on hard pellets. but I really I was never in the race. The good news is I know why and will put this into practise next time. I caught plenty of fish just the wrong size.

I weighed in 63lb, Kev was 2nd in the match with 180lb and Jas won the section with 104lb even though both were claiming 50lb as we waited for the scales. (Both of them couldn’t lie straight in bed) so I had a right chip shop match (battered both sides) Not really worth me blogging about how I caught my fish this week I got it wrong! I Broke a top kit too, the first time I’ve done that for a few years, but at least it didn’t rain!

So a short write-up this week.