This grueller certainly promised be an action packed match as those starving shoals of skimmers and roach were bound to get their heads down on the offerings to be presented to them by the anglers up for this.............wouldn’t they? ::)
Only problem was a dramatic overnight change in the weather – it was down to -3c and the car was white over and the grass ‘crunchy’ as I ventured out into the garage to get me boots and nets
Heinzer was back in tow after his recent op on his hand and picked me up as scheduled.
As we arrived there were plenty on gruellerites already parked up. There had been some concern as to what condition and colour the cut would be in after the infux of snow water 
.........would it be that sh!tty horrible slatey grey colour? :( But a quick glance through the fence appeared to allay any fears – it looked aok.
Off I trotted with Heinzer to peg out and was greeted by Mike E who’d been traipsing the banks from some ungodly hour who reported that fish were topping.
And sure enough........they were. 
‘Migrating the section’ quipped someone, ‘cuss they know we’ve turned up’ 
I secretly fancied pegging (and fishing) the boatyard, dependent on colour, if it wasn’t gin. Didnt appear gin as we wandered down the towpath and the odd light colour stone dropped in the margins went out of sight after they had sunk a foot or so.
But there was one problem – it was still literally freezing down there with a biting northerly wind that cut you in half.
So with 21 or possibly 22 expected we decided just to put one section of 7 in that pound – two thirds of the field would at least find it a little more comfortable and sheltered in the middle section which at that stage was like a mill pond. 
Pegs 8 to 18 went in from the new road bridge to the end of Grove marina with 4 pegs going in past the ‘broken bridge’.
So where did I wanna be today? I fully expected today’s winner to either come from the boatyard or pegs 17 (the middle of the marina) onwards. Just didn’t want to really draw 13 to 16
– decent summer pegs but haven’t shown a lot of form on our gruellers. Draw time and the ‘flyers’ were soon claimed and I ended up with last peg in the bag – or should I say hat – which was 14 – cock on where I didn’t wanna be, :( but at least a short walk.
For company I’d got PhilB on 13 and the Extension and Grueller ‘form horse’, Tavern Champ to my right on 15.
With us deciding to pay 3 ‘money back’ sections of 7 as well as the usual 3 framers, I surveyed the territory and ‘advised’ Tavern Champ that I was the wrong end of our section
to stand a chance today, and he was the wrong end of his section............ As I said earlier my peg for the day is a decent summer peg – there’s the sedges across where that 31lb’er came out from – remember, the one that sprouted legs and wandered off to a local commie.
There was also decent cover across to my right...........although that ‘cover’ is a tad bare at this time of the year with all the leaves off the overhanging branches.In fact because of those overhanging branches, any boat traffic is ‘forced across’ to the towpath, leaving the ‘track’ close in at 4/5 mtrs, shelving up very steeply at 6/7 mtrs where I could only find just over 2 ft of water...........a tad shallower than I really wanted for my ‘primary’ punch lines.......... but I was restricted to that as I also wanted to fish a chop worm line away in the deeper water at 5 mtrs.
Across on the sedges and to the overhanging trees I’d got 18inches which would be squatt lines........wasnt sure whether they would produce with that overnight frost, may do later I thought if it ‘warmed up’ as we set up in bright sunlight with not a cloud in the sky
If those squatt lines didn’t produce, it wouldn’t matter anyway. I’d spent an hour in the garden the day earlier collected some lobbies and red worms. Those coupled with a pre match lesson in feeding the chop off Keef had raised my confidence to such a degree that I was gunna empty it of all the kinver tigers in the area which would be enough to win without those squatt fish....... ::)
To be continued........
Every 2 seconds, he appeared at a different bloody window. If he was on his own he must have walked at least a mile up and down the boat during the match 
