As I’ve stated elsewhere on the forum, in the days leading up to this I was having a bit of a squeaky bum time as for a moment it didn’t look like I’d booked enough pegs and we were going to be ‘oversubscribed’.
But I needn’t have feared as a few undeclared casualties failed to materialise as usual.
Arriving relatively early after a stop off to pick up a bacon buttie I was greeted by a fair few already in attendance. KOD was putting his feet up - it was like half a day’s holiday for him today
as the bailiff from DRAC was pegging out, saving him from one of his usual ‘jobs’ 
MrV had also arrived early with the intention of checking whether there were any iffy or ‘tight’ pegs that could be left out, numbers permitting.
Local venue expert Crafty Tafty had joined the crew today for this one and soon made his presence known and we exchanged pleasantries and shook hands…………..was that his first mistake,
should he have given the 
a wide berth instead of coming into direct ‘contact with it’…………time would tell Well time didn’t take long.
With a couple of walking wounded pegs sorted out - poor old Crafty drew an ‘end peg’ and was greeted with the news from the that he’d only gone and drawn on the scales with an accompanying peg down that end.Secretly I wanted an above the bridge peg, but these soon went, not helped by a gypo encampment taking up two of the ‘better’ pegs that had produced 2nd and 3rd places on our previous visit last year. That wasn’t to be though as with a couple of pegs left in the bag peg 14 stuck to my palm.
Didn’t mean owt to me - other than it was convenient as Heinzer had drawn 15 and could drop me off on the way to his peg.
On arrival I started carrying my gear down to the waters edge. Looked clear and shallow. And what could I see ‘basking’ 3ft away from the bank…………………..
Old Essox Lucius. Not a munster this one - about 5-6lb. As well as showing Heinzer it, I did fire off a photo of it to post on here, but on looking at it later it was masked by the reflection of the clouds…..
Time to get my stand and nets in the water. On with the old waders………….
Now I’d a pair of my ‘normal’ thigh waders with me and a old pair of chest waders that I’ve never worn myself, I usually loan them out to the likes of Hotlips on his odd river outings. I’d nearly slung em back in the garage this morning, but was I glad I hadn’t……………as I shoved my right foot into my thigh wader, pulling it up my foot went right through the side at the ‘top of the boot’ bit
……..must have been totally perished sitting in that black bin liner in the garage over winter.As I was going to be standing about 10 yards from the bank in the water I decided on a ‘whip’ attack - sod the wag. So 3 whips were set up. If I started hitting rub a dub dubs, I’d have to scramble up the bank to set up a rod - I’d worry about that if it happened.
My peg
And again looking more downstream
I was set up pretty early, typical as we’d delayed the off for 15 mins, but it allowed me plenty of time to walk up to Cotti to collect my bait off him.
The off…………….a slow start with nowt to show for 10 mins, then I started picking up some micro bleak and odd dace amongst them
Then a better fish
- the whip took on a nice bend as I gently dragged the then unseen 6 ouncer towards me………………. 
Then Whoosh, splosh, bosh…………………old Essox Lucious had hit me……………and this one certainly looked a larger fish to that I’d seen in the margin.
After a minute or so it finally decided to steam off and twang, hooklegth no 1 had gone, along with that bonus fish.
New hook length on and I’m picking up bits again when Groundhog day struck again. Heinzer downstream ‘heard’ the pikes strike as I cussed (just a little)……………only difference instead of just a hook length the rig was trashed as it finally shot back at me.
Now I could end this Chapter 1………………and repeat a similar story in chapters 2 to 11.
Only difference would be that Big Baz decided to knock things on the head and pack up after a hour or so.I’d just tied on hook length no 3 after pike strike no 5 as he pulled up in his van with the window down.
‘You having a few?’
‘I’d be having a few more if it wasn’t for these pike’
Out with the rig and within 5 seconds the float tip buries.
‘Bloody hell it must be solid’ he shouts and then bursts into laughter as pike strike no 6 whacks me…….I ‘play’ the pike for a minute or so - or was he just playing ‘tug o war’ with me………
In fact during the day it struck me - well reminded me - just what you can play on these whips - reminded me of those tincas hooked and successfully landed on the whip on the W&E canal back in the 80’s and a carp of a couple of lb snared on the whip at Drakelow Pump House Pool
Anyway, to summarize, during the match I got hit by 11 pike,
hooked 7 of them and trashed 5 rigs in the process ………………worse thing about it was these were all of my bonus fish that I couldn’t swing into hand - probably 6 ouncers plus - cuss I never put owt bigger than 4oz in the net the rest of the day. So I reckon old Percy Pike probably snaffled 3-4lb off the hook. 
That’s enough of my tales of woe - I’m sure others would have a tale or two of their own to tell if they posted on here - so onto the tale of the scales………..
PEG ABOVE THE BRIDGE
1
2 TOMMY COOPER 0.8.0
3 ZORRO 3.3.0
4 A ROUND 8.2.0
5 HAHA 3.14.0
6 MR V 13.2.0
7 BRAMBLES 2.0.0
8 ABUMAN 6.0.0
9 BULLAH 7.9.0
BELOW THE BRIDGE
10
11 DEAD PEG 11.10.0
12 KOD 4.7.0
13 COTTI 6.9.0
14 TK 11.4.0
15 HEINZER 6.2.0
16 HOTLIPS DNW
17 BIG BAZ DNW
18 YAMO 13.8.0
19 PHIL B 2.5.0
20 CRAFTY TAFTY 4.6.0
