Well what can I say we wait all winter for an ice free day and when we get one it rains.  It not only rained the wind blew, any sensible person would be tucked up in bed and quite a few of our regulars did just that. At one stage we had 20 ready to fish until 2 bailed out wishing to wait for a warmer drier day. They will remain nameless there is no way I would say KERRY and RON were fair weather fisherman, no they turn up most weeks so I suppose we can accept it this once.

Fair play to Phil and Carl who at least waited for the draw before bailing out. Those that stayed I take my very wet hat off to you, my waterproofs let me down and once I got cold that was it.

Those that fished for 5 hours had varied results; far and away the best of the day was John Warman fishing an end peg at the top of the right hand bank knocked out 24.1kg with some sizeable fish. Well done John, 2^nd and 3^rd were a bit closer with Dan Warman just edging out Bob Francis 14.8 to 14.5 kg. Bob Atkinson just missed out on the frame with a good bag of small fish for 14, 1 kg; Ian Ritchie was the only angler from the left bank to reach double figures with 11.6kg. Sam Robson was top junior with 2.2kg.

I would like to name everyone that turned up but they know who they are. Many thanks for your support lets hope the weather improves before the next one. To view the league table click here: images/uploads/28THFEB2010(3).pdf

Its winter and it tends to be a bit colder than in the summer, this was obvious when we arrived at the Monks complex and found all the lakes frozen solid. It was then that the Bulldog spirit appeared and everyone marched off to lake 3 to ensure we had a lake to fish on, chains, lumps of iron and even car jacks were attached to any rope that was laying about and the ice was cleared, along with a bit of help from a boat. We were able to start on time, a very good effort by everybody.

When it comes to the fishing…. that was a bit poor with a large amount of blanks and only 3 anglers breaking into double figures:

1^st James Young 28.2kg

2^nd Ian Ritchie 12.4kg

3^rd Stu Atkinson 10kg

But really everyone was a winner just for turning up and having a go. I think we will draw a thick line under all the rule bending that went on, it was good to see the Blean sense of humour come out on a terrible day. One person worth a small mention was the refugee from the teams of four Jim Miles tactic of loading up the ice with so much bait. Was a cracking idea, shame it didn’t work.

Hopefully next month will improve and we can all catch some fish see you all at Lavender.
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