The venue was Meadowlands, a fishery I was ‘aware of’, but not one that any of our team had ever fished before.
In fact our intended navigator to the fishery, Roberto D, was the only one of our anglers who had set eyes on the place, having had a trip out there the week before.
I’d booked the team in last March. However a couple of days before Roberto had to cry off due to a family ‘illness’ so Heinzer was called up at the 11th hour to replace him.
With no navigator - and no map - what an ‘oversight’ you’ve guessed it, we ‘got lost’.
I say ‘got lost’ loosely, cuss we couldn’t find the fishery although it was only round the corner 100 yards away. But thanks to a passerby - who’d obviously got the directional skills of Dr Livingstone - we ended up doing an extra 5 or more miles in the wrong direction - ::)before ‘returning’ to our original ‘lost’ position.
Anyway, we eventually found the pub for the draw. A very nice pub indeed.
Loads of anglers were already tucking into breakfasts and we were pointed in the direction of welcoming pots of coffee and tea. Free 
In a pub Unusual!‘Can we order a breckie?’ ‘Yes’ said a delightful young lady - ‘sit yourself down and I’ll be with you’
Within 5 minutes we were all tucking into the double bacon, sausage, egg beans and those little potato thingies………………nice.
What was even nicer was upon enquiring as to whom and how much we had to pay was finding that the breckie was laid on free again!!!!
Anyway - the draw. 15 teams of 4 were fishing. After a little thought, our team name was decided upon…………now who was it that suggested ‘Bum Draw Masters’? Not me honest - but how apt it turned out as all will be revealed.
3 sections were on the Lambsdown Pool and 1 section on the Warren Pool. Now with this match, anglers could be ‘placed’ in their sections. After seeking a bit of prior info on methods/what to expect from the organiser - a bit of a venue crack with 100lb plus bags from the venue to his name - plus he won the same event last year with another 100lb bag - Millie, Cotti and Heinzer - the three Gay baits waggler kings - were placed on the Lamsdown pool where the ‘winners’ were expected to come from, whilst the real Bum Draw Master ‘sacrificed’ himself and elected to fish Warren, which in all honesty would probably be more up my street.
Mille dropped me off in the car park. Guess what……………the longest walk there was to my peg……..
not helped by probably walking the ‘wrong’ side of the pool. Getting there, I’m in a little ‘leg off’ the ‘main’ part of the pool…………..everyone is topping up their tans’ whilst I’m dithering in the shade.
Have a gander here..........
To my right
To my left
Straight out in front
Chatting to the guy on the end peg to my right, sounds like he might be a venue crack - we’re all fishing it blind - he’s fished both pools loads of times.
The off. The bushes/trees to both my right and left are fed, along with a line straight out in front were it drops off from the 2ft 6 ins to be found all around the peg up to 10 mtrs out. The far bank bushes are out of my pole reach, being 20 mtrs or more across.
A look on the long line. Nowt.
The guy to my right……….I can’t see anyone else on the main area of the pool to my left……….. is soon into a 3lb plus tench. 
Then a couple of carp. I’m already 8lb down with nowt in the net. A look on the left bush……………
Nowt.
A look at the end of the right hand tree………float dips no 12 lackie comes slightly out and a 1lb skimmer imitates an albatross as it leaps from the shallow water.
Safely netted I’m only 7lb down.
Pick up a few more skimmers………….only two problems.
a) They are getting smaller
b) The guy to my right matches every skimmer I have with a carp in the 3 to 5lb bracket. :(
I’m getting battered.
An hour or so in and the phone goes. It’s Heinzer.
‘How you doing?’
‘Struggling - how you doing?’
‘Got 4 carp for about 12lb’
‘Good’
‘Only problem is I’m getting battered by the guy on the next peg who’s got 8 or 9’
‘The guy to your right?’
‘Yep’
‘Me too’
Anyway, I plod on. Only have one skimmer off the tree to the left.
Nowt at all on the long line.
A few more skimmers off the tree to the right but the guy next to me is annihilating me.
I’ve been flicking a few caster on a 3 mtr line as a ‘get out of jail’ plan. A spell on it sees a few perch and some silvers, but the bites are dead tentative and they don’t last long and soon tail away.
I’m still in the shade, brrrrrrrrr
but the sun is swinging round and as it does, there appears to be the occasional sign of ‘activity’ with the odd bow wave moving through the ‘gully’ I’m pegged in.All lines are constantly fed and a couple of skimmers and roach show to the rh line, including one skimmer around the lb mark that comes off just as I’m gunna net him. Would that be costly?
The sun moves round and then out of the blue………………..the float dips…………..lackie shoots out and a bow wave erupts down the pool.
Pole dipped.
Pole bending right round. Then that dreaded tell tale sign as all goes slack. He’s done me. New hook on and another look.
Same thing happens, but the next bugger comes off in open water.
Out again and another bite. Got ya.
It aint a bad fish, but having broken down to my top three it leads me a bit of a merry dance trying to get into both of the tree’s to my right and left before I manage to net him after a fair old fight……….thought he might go 5lb.
Trees to the right and left.......taken when I'd nearly packed up
Boyed by this, lets see if I can have another in the last ½ hour.
Well I actually hook another 3.
However 1 comes off in the track again after I’ve got him away from the tree………
and two others smash me in the tree, determined to ‘go that way’ despite me ‘lifting’ into them in that direction, hoping that they’d bolt in the opposite direction.Well it wasn’t to be for me………..I ought to know better and stick to my gudgeon………..
The all out. Just to rub salt into my wounds, you might guess it - chappie on the right shouts ‘fish on’ and adds another carp to the net in extra time.
Pack up and have a stroll round to the ‘unseen’ angler to my left. ‘How you done?’ I ask.
'Unseen' anglers peg
‘Some silvers and 5 carp’
‘Bloody hell’ I think to myself - ‘I’m like a piece of cod - battered both sides’
Scales arrive. A look at the clipboard. There’s a few ‘low’ 20lb weights as the guy to my left adds another 21lb 8oz to the board.
Last but one to weight, I’m thinking I might have around the 15lb mark, which would be enough to finish mid section as it looks like there’s also a few not broke the 10lb mark.
My silvers go 15lb 9oz. The carp is called at a level 6lb.
That makes a total of 21lb 9oz………. Hahaha - I’ve only been part battered - what a difference an ounce can make.
Start lugging the gear back and catch up with Millie.
‘How you done?’
‘17lb odd of silvers, been battered by the guy on the next peg’
‘Don’t tell me………..the guy to your right’
‘Yep’
Back at the pub, I learn that Heinzer has done 27lb for second in section
- that guy on his right - surprise surprise - has walked it. I’ve ended up 5th in section - anyone of those lost fish would have got me 2nd in section to that guy - surprise surprise - on the right hand side who walked our section with 61lb!!!!! But poor old Cotti’s had a disaster, his Gay baits wag has fired blanks and he’s copped for 1 carp only coming in at 4lb odd.
Anyway - the Bum Draw Masters daint disgrace themselves after all, finishing just above mid table in 7th place.
Plus Heinzer’s section money
- split 4 ways - as we were a team - has paid for our day out. Not to mention the free breckie, plus the bottle of pop that was bought to our pegs half way through - what a nice gesture - although I could have done with a cup of rosy lee sitting in that shade all day with my coat left in Millie’s car.
As a postscript - there’s one thing that the Bum Draw Masters do do worse than catching carp…………
And that’s buying winning raffle tickets…………
Despite all of these prizes on offer for the raffle - have a gander at this lot !!!!
we were the only people to win nowt on the raffle - honest.
There were so many prizes, it was untrue and I reckon the only tickets left in the box at the end were ours!!!
Anyway the charity match - for Air Ambulance this year - raised £780 - and all of team BDM reckoned it was a fantastic end to a brilliant day.
Roll on next year - I’ve entered us again -
but I might have to get out the hatchet and chop Cotti out of the team and bring in someone to do a specific job for us. Cruel
No!!!
We have that specific job that needs doing!!!
His replacement will be…………………..
Simps - he can buy our raffle tickets - after all I’ve heard he’s a bit of a dab hand on the raffle front
- what little credibility I've got will be going out of the window 
