stafford moor xmas match

due to the congested match programme leading up to xmas andy seery for the last few years has changed his seasonal match to post christmas so there was 40 booked in, but still there were a couple of no shows, its been a few years since i,ve fished here mainly due to the rising fuel costs (200 mile round trip)and there are the same size matches to fish locally, which is a shame as its a brilliant venue totally stuffed with fish of all species, perhaps andy could pick it up and move it to a field near exeter!!
i will probably try and fit in a couple of trips this year but my match calendar is already pretty congested for 2012, i travelled down with phil(fabio)harding and kev molten so the costs were spread.
the draw had already begun when we arrived and it was good to see a lot of the old faces still there , steve forshaw was there but his travelling partner mal king was absent due to ill health , get well soon matey .
into the draw bag and i was hoping for a blue disk which is a draw on woody,s , preferably between 3 and 12 which would mean the 25mph wind would be off my back, but no out pops a green disk with peg 1 on it which is about as far as you can get from the pegs i wanted to be on.
its a corner peg(square ass again mr gullick)with a long empty bank to my left which goes round to peg 36 and craig(trig)edmunds was sat on that, and for company on peg 3 i had brian shanks who is a regular visitor from bristol.
i set up 2 pole rigs , one for maggot at 3 mtrs if the carp didnt show, a .75 affair with an 18 6313 on .12 and a 4x14 rig with a8313 size 18 for corn at 14 mtrs towards the end bank at the bottom of the shelf, and last thing was a lead rod with a 14 b960 for hair rigged pellet , and no wag rod which i regretted by the end.
at the start i cupped in some 4,s mixed with corn at 14 mtrs and fed some maggot and micro,s at 3 mtrs .
beginning on the lead at about 45 mtrs and feedinf some 8,s as close as i could in the strong right to left wind i began getting some liners and in the first hour 4 smallish carp dragged the tip round to catch me!!!!!!!!!!!! and with brian only having 1 skimmer by now and no one really catching i thought i was doing ok, but apart from 4 people opposite and brian next door you cant see anyone else, the next hour produces 3 more carp on the tip and brian had caught a couple on the wag at depth on pellet and although the anglers opposite had taken a few on the lead and wag it was apparent the lake was fishing hard, halfway through and i had a look on the pole at 14 mtrs with a piece of corn on and first drop i had my biggest fish of the day in the shape of a 10lb mirror, next put in and i had a 2lb tench then the dreaded skimmers moved in, so i refed with a good cup of corn and pellet and chucked the tip back out which resulted in a few more small fish , but it was getting harder with no indications and trig who was opposite had been struggling was now getting bites on the tip , perhaps they moved ,who knows, back on the pole and i had another carp but the skimmers and roach were making it difficult so i decided to change it to a pellet line so i refed with 4, and 8,s ang changed the hook for a 16 b960 for banded 8mm, i threw the lead out but apart from a lost fish it seemes as though the fish had gone off the lead line , i think they moved back along the bank but it would have meant casting into someone elses swim to follow them, with an hour left i decided to get back on the pole and i soon had another carp on pellet, trouble was brian was now catching on the wag and he had even had 3 on the shallow wag and with them being bigger average sizes than mine i was beginning to slip behind, then a proper disaster, i lifted into a bite and the 14 mtr but snapped in half , luckily i managed to catch it as there a fouled carp on the end but all i landed was a scale, so i put a bit more bait in at 13mtrs but apart from skimmers it seemed a waste of time, out on the lead again but no bites ,back on the pole for the last 10 mins and i did manage another small carp and a skimmer. i think i ended up with 13 or 14 carp and a few silvers but with brain having less but much bigger fish i was hoping he would frame giving me the section by befault, it looked as though martin lenaghan was going to win on peg 32 on woody,s as with 90 mins to go he was admitting to 6olb and was still getting bites fishing the straight lead and pellet out to the island, and sure enough he did win with 86.2 giving himm £100 and a long weekend break in one of andy,s lixury lodges
2nd went to brian shanks on 3 tanners with 76.2 on the wag
3rd was me with 68.8 (perhaps the wag would have given me a couple of fish)
4th gary cross 67.10 on woody,s 10
5th adrian clark 53.2 woodys 6
6th p maton 47.10 27 tanners
silvers went to the weston super mare crimper to the stars john page with 32.4 on pine peg 24 with a mixture of skimmers tench and crucians.
the weights were a bit lower than expected mainly due to the wind making float fishing all but impossible for most which was a shame as the float had been out fishing the tip