Unfortunately, it fished very hard for all of us, by all I mean everyone on the complex
The individual wining weight was 186lb on Ash, with many not breaking into the 100lb mark.
The Joseph James Law team winners were Preston Innovations
Maggotdrowners came 12th overall narrowly being beaten the JJL team
The day itself was an amazing experience with a large number of the top anglers in the country fishing for their respective teams.
Andrew Settle of JJL and his team, along with the Alders Farm Fishery staff and volunteer stewards put on a brilliant day.
It's the first time out of three invitations I've managed to go and even then it was a close call right up to a couple of days beforehand.
The weather stayed good although a bit of a breeze would have helped I think.
My day started with setting off from Leeds at 4:00am after a frantic search looking for my house keys

to pick Peter up at 4:30am and then a brief stop over at the Northampton services for a bit of refreshment - McD's Sausage and Egg
We arrived at the fishery in good time and met up with many names, some of whom were familiar, some known by name only, and the Maggotdrowning team gathered together for one last team talk

Breakfast was provided at the onsite cafe and the introductions were made, opening speeches, team photos, and then the draw. Each team captain was to draw from five buckets, two for Ash lake, two for Pines and one for Oaks.
I was duly given peg 30 on Ash which had a bit of a reputation as being somewhat of a flyer.
Keith had peg 26 also on Ash, I'm not sure if it wouldn't have been a bad idea to swap pegs in hindsight though.
Clive and Trev were on Pines, and Mark was on Oaks, none of whom had favoured pegs.
My peg fished awkwardly to be honest, I either was inundated with foul hookers, or could see the fish feeding in the very shallow margins but even with Peter's expert advice "FEED!" "FEED!"

I still struggled to get them on the hook.
I managed to put 74lb on the scales which gave me a joint 10 points with Gary Thorpe.
Keith managed to put 60lb (ish) on the scales, Clive had a mare with 33lb (?), same with Trev, and Mark - well lets say we had to remove all sharp objects from his vacinity and take away his shoe laces.
After the match there was the buffet, presentations and speeches, and as previously mentioned Preston Innovations came away with the silverware.
There will be a host of photos up later so please check back
