Plantations, Horseshoe Lake, 08 May (10 pegs)

With the recent renovation and restocking of the lake only having been completed a few days before this match the rumour mill was in full swing so I had heard everything from there being no fish in the lake to the lake having no water in it and I had also been reliably informed that the owner had removed the sunken bars that can be seen in the photo above.
However, having spoken to the owner in the week it was clear that most / all of the above was a load of crap and that all the work was complete, the fish were back in their home and they even had some water to swim in.
In addition to that, one of the locals had "test fished" it during the week and had over 100lbs out on two different occasions (don't they always say that?) so things were looking good for our match.
In actual fact the owners have now put in corrugated tin sheeting supported by wooden posts on top of the bars, either that or the bars are no longer there and the tin sheets continue for about 8 feet below the surface!
And on arrival at the lake it seemed that the occupants were so pleased with their new surroundings that most of them were celebrating by getting laid in the margins! (not a good sign) And to make matters worse there was a hefty wind blowing down the lake which was going to make things difficult.
As it turned out, the wind got worse as the day progressed which meant that Bob Warren and Mike Smith in pegs 1 & 2 (nearest the car park) were unable to fish out at any length and could only fish down the edge.
In hindsight I would have left these pegs out and just put in the sheltered pegs as there's no point in having a "good" peg if it's unfishable and Bob probably wouldn't have broken his no6 section when his pole blew off the roller but shit happens!
Man of the moment, Alan Healy's luck with the drawbag continued when he pulled out the £72 golden peg, peg 5 which was reasonably sheltered at the back of the "shoe" and an end peg that appeared to be solid with fish. In fact there were so many in his peg that he found it difficult to plumb up!
Sure enough the pheasant beater caught all day long alternating between 13m to the opposite bank reeds and short into open water to weigh in 48lbs 4oz which netted him £132, his second golden peg win of the year.

 

Derek Lucas (above) was close behind on peg 6 which was on the central spit and completely unaffected by the wind.  Derek fished double red maggot on his top4 straight out in front catching mostly small carp around 8 to 12oz with the odd good fish to finish up with 42-13.
Third place went to Chris Szakacs on peg 8 with 41-13 of carp caught on corn.

Full Result:

1. Alan Healy* ..... peg5 .... 48-4
2. Derek Lucas ........ 6 .... 42-13
3. Chris Szakacs ...... 8 .... 41-3
4. Simon Belcham ... 10 ... 35-4
5. Ade Crawley ........ 9 .... 21-0
6. Paul Reed ............ 7 .... 19-8
7. Mike Smith .......... 2 .... 12-8
8. Steve Burgess ...... 3 .... 10-0
9. Bob Warren ......... 1 .... DNW
10. Darren North ....... 4 .... DNW

*golden peg