The draw was to take place at 11o clock and after tying rigs, hook lengths and re spooling my reels earlier in the week i was ready for the 50 mile journey to the west midlands. Arriving at the venue about half 10 and chatting to a few fellow hopefuls about how the venue might fish etc i actually lost track of time and ended up being one of the last to draw!
My destination for the day was to be peg 83, not exactly the best draw in the world! For anyone that knows Barston this is at the far end of the lake on the grass bank on the road side. Looking at what pegs i was competing against i actually started to fancy the peg a little more....
. I had decided after all the low pressure and rain we were having in the days leading up to this event, that the carp probably wouldn't be playing ball and with 4 from each section going through i felt it best to base my attack around getting bites from a few silver fish.Upon plumbing up i found 4 feet of water virtually everywhere i placed my plummet and after some consideration i decided to just fish one line at 14.5 metres with worms and casters. Three rigs were then assembled to cope with the changeable conditions, 4x10 & 4x12 chanti's and a 4x16 round bodied float that i don't know the name of! All rigs were made up on 0.12 - 0.10 matched with a n0 5 elastic through 3 sections. The two heavier models featured a bulk and two droppers, whilst the 4x10 rig had strung n0 11s. I also set up a cage feeder at 30 turns to start my match on and a method rod for chucking long in case any carp decided to feed.
ALL IN at 1pm and i fed my pole line with two golf balls of green swim stim containing about 10 chopped dendys and a few pinkies, plus around 30 loose casters. I then got the 10ft foot rod out and quickly deposited 4 cage feeders of the same bait i fed on the pole. Out with a small drennan cage and two maggots on a 10inch tail i waited for action. Everyone else around me started on the method long, which i kind of expected as this is the usual tactic at Barston. With the weather not being kind though i actually thought this would work to my advantage and any carp in the area would find refuge in my peg, well that was the plan anyway! ::)
Back to the match and after a few minutes of my bait being in the water the tip flew round only to find myself seconds later reeling an empty feeder back towards the bank!
For some reason the hook length had broke! Must have been damaged is all i can say :(, not many get away on 0.18mm silkshock! Back out i had another bite after a few mins resulting in an f1 and then another a short while later, a then 15min quiet spell came which made me try a worm as more of a stand out bait, a skimmer was encouraging but then another quiet spell got me itching to come on the pole. With nobody else catching i decided to look on the pole after an hour which resulted in 3 roach in as many puts for around a pound before all went quiet again! This made me chuck a couple more feederfulls of bait out to the 30 turn line before returning to the pole. I just felt this was right as the fish on the feeder line had responded to the early bait and it would give me somewhere to fall back on if the pole line was to remain unproductive.A drop back on the pole line only yeiled another roach before i was again left scratching my head, a change was needed! Reaching into my box i attached a 0.08mm hook length and a 20 hook and shipped back out with a single caster on the 4x10 rig potted in 6 casters and a thumb of ground bait and whack! UNBELIEVABLE!!! Minutes later i had a 3lb bream staring up at me
, fluke i thought to myself until i did it again next chuck! I couldn't believe the difference that small change made. For the next few hours the pattern was set, and i steadily put quality roach and odd skimmers in net. The swim did however get weaker by the last hour and with still nobody catching i thought i could have a throw on the method long to see if i could sneak any carp that normally switch on during the evening. Even an average sized fish would boost my weight and possibly push me into the frame as i didn't know what was actually winning at this point, other than that everyone was admitting to not a lot on the phone!! 
To cut a long story short it never went round during the last hour, and it was the same for everyone else around me 
.The all out was sounded and the match was over, gladly for some i think as there were cars pulling off behind me about 5 mins after the all out! Anyway, scales came round and i was shocked to find that 4lb 10oz was currently winning my section after 5 pegs
. Lifting my fish onto the scales the needle settled round at 24lb 4oz, ecstatic i checked the board after the remaining pegs hand been weighed which confirmed i had won the section, with 4lb 10 oz coming second, 4lb third and 3lb fourth. 
Back at the clubhouse payout was done with the winner picking up a check for £1000, i was interested to know who had won. Winning from peg 124 with a weight of 134lb was a thoroughly nice chap whom i can't remember the name of! Cracking result for him though as he clearly fished a good match to take the win, as 60lb was second. I was delighted to receive £100 for winning my section, which i now hope to emulate in the four rounds of the UK champs itself! It starts next month so wish me luck!
Lastly i would like to thank Nigel Harry for running a good, fairly pegged match. Good luck fellow anglers!
Lee Wright
