More winter league success - Andy Bennett

Saturday was the seventh round of the Partridge Lakes winter league and, after round six, Team Guru was leading the league by 13 points.

With it being freezing cold and the ice melting into the lake, the fishing was going to be rock hard, so a good draw was needed, as always in winter.

We drew some shocking pegs, unfortunately; 15, which was last in the previous round; 42, which I managed third off last round, so not too bad; then 52 and 96, both very tough pegs. In my opinion, we were looking at a 20-point score, at best.

Well, fishing doesn’t always go to plan and because it was so hard, the team managed to actually win the day with 10 points from, what was on paper, our worst draw by far, so we were over the moon.

We had three lake thirds and then the top performer on the day, Franek, managed to win Lake Three with 29lb from peg 52. I personally managed 20lb, to be beaten by ounces for second, but luckily it was still enough to put me top of the individual league with one round remaining and a guaranteed top-three finish.

On the team front, were now 20 points clear, so barring a total disaster it’s looking like we will also win the league.

Sunday was the second round of the individual league and, after winning the first round, I was really looking forward to this again. On the day I pulled out peg 6 on Willow, which is a decent peg and gives you a good chance of the section as three of the pegs you’re against are in a corner and very hard in winter.

I had a cracking day’s fishing - very similar to the last round - although I caught a lot more silvers this time, including two roach over a pound. I managed 16 F1s for around 30lb plus 25lb of roach and skimmers to finish with 56lb, which was only enough for fourth overall on the day as there were three other 60lb weights.

The F1s were caught on pellets long at 14/16m and in-between them I kept dropping short, catching a few silvers on maggots at 6-7m, before going looking for an F1 or two when the wind allowed. This give me a comfortable section win with 23lb next best.

This means I’m now leading the league with two wins and a combined weight of 120lb - so far, so good. Roll on round three.