Witherington Farm Team knock up.

Next outing was a Browning Andover team get together on Witherington's inner snake lake. This is the first time we had all got together for some friendly fishing rivalry! We had a new face, Ian Madden, and a guest from Crowsport, Justin Watkins with his new z12. After a suitably good breakfast the draw was made and we ventured forth. I was pegged next to our honorary match secretary John Dewberry, so a £1 side wager was on! A sharp overnight frost was sure to make the fishing a little slow for all as the snake is not the easiest place when it gets a little chilly. Three swims, one tight across, where I found some reasonable depth, an 0.12 rig to yellow hollow, down the track with an 0.10 rig to a very soft set yellow hollow, and a margin line, which was an 0.14 to green hollow.
I had some corn, 4mm meat, and some 4mm pellets, plus a few soft expanders. At the all in I started on a grain of corn and fed some chopped corn, it's a trick that has caught me a few fish in the past at Witherington. It took a good half an hour before I hooked my first small carp, it was definitely fishing tricky. I fed a small pot of meat and pellets down the track with the intention of leaving it for a good hour before fishing it. A couple more small carp followed across before it went very quiet. Stu and John either side of me were struggling as well and no one seemed to be setting the world alight so to speak.
Time for a look on the track rig, a couple of indications and a couple of missed bites before I hooked a skimmer on a piece of 4mm meat. I kept plugging away, feeding through a tosspot, putting a few more skimmers in the net. I had been feeding corn in the margins and kept having a look, but there was nothing doing. Not much was doing tight across either so I persevered down the track. Towards the end of the match I hooked quite a lump, I thought I had it under control until it decided otherwise and tour off to the far bank and transferred my hook to some reeds! One last small carp followed for the end of the match. It definitely was a case of working for every bite, and ended up being quite a cold day. At the scales I weighed 14lb odd, just enough to beat John and relieve him of his "golden nugget! " ( I am sure he will get his own back! ) An enjoyable day but tricky fishing for all as the fish never really switched on for anyone.