AAF Gp2 Fur and Feather,

It was time again for the fur and feather run by AAF gp 2 at Witherington Farm Fishery, and as there were only 33 of us we were going to all be sat around the inner and outer snake. Kev ran the proceedings with his ragtag team, John, Chris and myself (must stop volunteering) and all went well, a fantastic breakfast was dispatched (don't tell the missus) side bets were made and the draw was on. A section was the inner, B and C were on the the outer, I was drawn B2 on the outer snake, four pegs up from the car park on the right hand leg. 

Getting to my peg I had Kev sat to my left on the flyer end peg, John sat on the wides at the corner to my right so straight away I was against it and looking at best for third in section. Thinking that I knew best I decided to set up a method rod, light skimmer rig for the track, a heavier rig in case the wind picked up, an across rig and a margin rig. I prepped my pellet , mixed my groundbait (50:50 Mussel Betaine feeder and Etang both sieved) and nipped of to the shop on a brew run and was still almost ready for the all in. 4 bvalls of groundbait were shipped onto he track line and then across I went trying to dob a carp at 16m, I managed a couple of small roach on bread and triple maggot so went onto the groundbait line at about 45 minutes. This was a good call as I managed to start to put a few small skimmers and roach together, the rig I was using was a 10-11 MW F1 slim on 0.16 mm mainline to a 0.10 bottom and an 18 Tubertini 808. This was working well and I was starting to enjoy myself, Kev to my left had been struggling until he started his 4th line and started to hook and land a few carp.

My silvers would never keep up so I had to start looking for a carp in my mind so out went the method with pepparami on the hair and 2 mm pellet around the feeder, not alot happened really, by sitting it out for the carp I watched my match tick away as the tip stayed motionless, I managed a couple of small carp by casting to various spots across and I had a few more silvers to try and keep in touch with the rest of the field but basically I blew it. 

This was hammered home when I watched none other than Father Christmas (Graham) slipping the net under his 4th or 5th carp with an hour to go 4 pegs to my right. I was resigned at the end, but it was really only a fun match so I chucked the tip out and packed up my top kits and pole with 30 minutes to go, in this time I had a small carp and my groundbait line suddenly turned into a Jacuzzi, lesson learnt?  Probably not!

The all out was called and I helped out on the scales ( well I was packed up), Kev took top honours in my section with 25Kg, I had 7 and a half and managed to ounce John Goddard from my right ( although he had me on the ropes until my last gasp carp).  Overall Kev won it, Si had 22Kg for 2nd, I managed 8th overall and took a quid each of Tony and Pez (Christmas money sorted) a box of mince pies and a tub of chocolates. Nice.

Many thanks to Kev and his team for running it and I can't wait until next year.