Times had changed since then - as well as a large housing estate built, target species had changed. Alan Scothorne was reported to have done 12lb of roach on the seed, plus a couple of 20lb chub weights had come off the section in the National a month or so earlier.
So it would be interesting to see how the Cashmores Crew faired on the cut………..
Half a dozen casualties had handed in bona fide sick notes, but on Friday night over a pint with Heinzer ‘totting up’ further likely absentees, I reckoned a maximum turnout of 18, but more probably just 15.
Arriving just after 8.00am with Heinzer, pegging was soon sorted, and I chanced my arm only putting 17 pegs in.
It was a tad disappointing later to find out that only 14 stalwarts had turned out - ah well, more chance of drawing a golden peg I thought to myself. GP’s for the day were going to be 8, 11 and 13 - with 11 and 13 potential ‘winners’.
A ‘short walk’ draw was sorted for Tommy Cooper and Brambles. Personally I wanted ‘low’ number - a) I knew they had ‘produced’ earlier in the week
b) some would call it lazy, I’d call it having a dicky knee
Pegs came and went and I was left with peg 8 in KOD’s draw bag. Ah well - a GP to ‘compensate’ for the walk.
Arrived at the peg and to be honest, fancied it for a few. Would it hold any chub? If it did, would they show?
Heinzer was also company for the day on peg 9, with Cotti being a fair way away on 7 as there was a moored boat between us.
Cotti in the distance to my left
Heinzer and Zorro to the right
Set up 5 rigs to cover a number of eventualities (hopefully)
The off, and I fed on the edge of the centre of the bush, down its right hand side, my feet and firtled a few casters and seed down the track.
A quick look to the tree bought a couple of micro sized roach - they wouldn’t go 2 grams a piece.
A bait change saw the first of a number of small kinvers have a nibble, with the far lines being rotated.The sun came up and the kinvers appeared to ‘retreat’ further and further into the shade afforded by the tree………….or was it just the boat traffic pushing them up the shelf………or a combination of the two
An interim look on the inside produced two more small perch and a gudgeon, then nowt.
Heinzer had got me on the rack as he proceded to pick up sporadic clusters of kinvers, whilst I couldn’t buy a bite…………anywhere I even ‘chanced my arm’ playing ‘suicide bite’,
by pushing a rig with no 2 lacky into that tree, fully expecting sods law to prevail and to see the lacky come screaming out of the pole as a wily rub a dub would ‘have a go’ at the 0.06 line and 22 fine wire hook..........but it never happened 
But after a real barren 1.5 hours which had probably only produced 2 bits, and no bites for a good half hour I decided to stretch the legs. Nobody had ‘walked’, so they must be bagging all around me.
I watered the horse and went ‘upstream’ for a gander.
A smile from Heinzer who was picking up a few kinver tigers
‘How many rub a dubs you had KOD?’ as I approached him
A resigned laugh and summat along the lines of ‘You’ve gotta be joking’ was the response.
Ditto the responses from first HaHa
Then big Geoff.
Meanwhile on end peg 14, Sprucey Ducey was having a few bites………………although he chuntered something about a boat going over one of his lines.
Legs stretched for 5 mins, it was back to peg 8.
Well not a lot happened for the next hour, but suddenly with about 15 mins left I started getting bites. Not massive fish by any means, but a bite a chuck literally, well every put over.
Could have done with another hour, or till I’d ‘ravaged’ the shoal of tiddlers, but the final whistle soon blew.
On the presumption that pegs 11 & 13 hadn’t suddenly turned on, it looked like the GP was going to be safe
for another week as news filtered through that Big Baz and Phil B had snared chub.Anyway, the tale of the scales………………
PEG Weight
1 Tommy Cooper 1.1.0
2 Yamo 3.0.0
3 Brambles 0.3.2
4 Big Baz 7.5.4
5 Rich C 2.12.3
6 Phil B 2.9.10
7 Cotti 1.12.8
8 TK 2.10.14
9 Heinzer 1.4.6
10 Zorro 1.8.14
11 KOD 1.13.0
12 HaHa 1.0.2
13 Big Geoff 2.4.1
14 Sprucey 4.2.1
Did I blow a flyer
Did we cop it on an ‘off day’
Did we fish it ‘wrong’
Or
I took it back and bought a Tri Cast 
Didn't know you had any that big 
