. needless to say i thought i'd all the time in the world stopping here and there and then putting the sat-nav back on 
. For some reason it said destination 1 hour 10 minutes i paniced a bit as time was getting on and followed the sat-nav realising 20miles down the road it was putting back on the orginal route ::) ::) ::)by this time Joe Roberts had phoned me and my reply was "yes i think i'm close" 
::) 
as i drove up a private lane to the fishermans arms 
not another car or van in sight and a knew i was late but no signs of any fishermen 
At this point a young lady knocked on the window of the Van 
Hello you cheeky girl i said ::) ::) IN MY DREAMS !!luckily she thought i might be lost as she realised that by the name on the van it was a little too far to deliver the weekly shopping 
but she was spot on where rothley was in leicestershire .She gave me some great info on where i needed to go but i was still 20 or so miles out the way 
next phone call toJoe was his answer phone so at this stage i didn't know where the draw was or if i had even got a peg
. when i did get into the town with it being both banks and a oneway system i was now on the magic roundabout with very little fuel lucky for me Jenko jumped out from behind a phone box and said "Your partner is next to me and your on peg 37 on the other bank and your next to swino anyway i found the spot and parked up with half a hour before the match began
as i arrivied Swino said i didnt even know you were fish until you turned up here
and gave me some in sights to how they bagged up in the week off the very same pegs 
i put two or three rigs on and then doctored them set up what i could and i was just about ready for the off .bareing in mind i hadnt fished here for 20 years and when i looked at my section it was like a Bait-tec and Drennan line up ALI O was on the end peg your Mr bates on the next me then Wayne with Steve Winters ,Graham barry with Barry Wiggington followed by Joe Roberts and a few others
This is looking down towards the town bridge section as you can see the match jumps from bank to bank.
Not the most the best looking peg ive drawn but it sounded fish filled
As it started to rain Wayne shouted up i had desided to keep it simple fishing 6/7 metres with bread and some hemp a little futher out i put two 250 ml pots in think that would start it off and watched what others put in quite a bit more .i'd taken loads of bread to be fare so i would put more in if needed
anyway where ever you looked everyone started to catch but my next problem was being so high off the water and using light laggy i had to net every fish and these roach put up a good scrap
i looked a cross at Wayne his was a little tighter than i was using and could get them in quicker for a hour it was one after the other yet i had started to get a odd spell of no bites so i'd feed again and fish the other line sometimes this would work but still had these spells and no one else seemed to have them i was doing something wrong some where chatting as we fished Wayne asked what i'd put in i just said pure bread not the canal mix but a little courser i remembered what choppy had told me about punched bread mix but i had'nt put enough in the mix as Wayne's mix looked like pure white G/B went straight to the bottom .big mistake i think . 
i then started to add hemp to the bread which helped and my catch rate improved .I did try hemp as i was told it often worked in this coloured water and perhaps another thing i shouldn't of wasted time on
As the match went on and the rain got even heavier it was becoming increasingly hard to keep your hook bait dry and the other problem was the amount of times i hooked my landing net just silly little things that slowed me down time and time again
but still the fishing was good .what i had found is the fish had sometime moved down the peg once i had cottoned on to this i was starting to put fish together fare to late to compete with Wayne or the others .Its ok getting information via phone calls but i really should of gone and had a practice as the lads all a round me could ring all the changes leaving me to work them out .At the the end of the match i was disapointed not to of competed with the others but i had a great day chatting to Wayne and the others rolling back the years and the hurrendous weather couldnt of ruined the day 
22lb something
Wayne's 41lb 9oz i'll not forget that weight for a long time
Great laugh with Barry Wiggington and Graham Barry
Steve winters fished a blinder half on the whip again great sport and Wayne didn't half give him some
although this part of the river fished its socks off either end sections were pretty poor so its a little famine or fest but then again Wayne couldn't fish the Glen as it was flooded so all the pegs went on the Town Welland!! BUT I'VE BOOKED ON FOR THE NEXT ONE IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS
Told You the mix !!! That's a big roach area so can be better cupping hard balls less often and sometimes going to 5mm punch and a 18 hook. Fish 0.08mm hooklength and 5 through 3 set pingy. Those roach will back off but feed a ball then go down your peg. You should catch a few then its back over Your feed again. On those pegs 6/7 joints is a bit too far, when its coloured 5 joints max on those pegs unless its a struggle. Fishing like this and keeping a close eye on the level (best to put a marker in .), the stamp of fish (sometimes the smaller stamp need it a lot more regular). Also stamp your bread when the rig is settling, it saves time.