55 of the top anglers in the country lined up at the clubhouse to fish for £1000 prize money. All the pre match talk was that you wanted to draw the far end of the lake as the wind had been blowing that way for days and all the anglers who had practiced had 'emptied it', so when I drew peg 60 next to the wires I was a 'happy chappy'. Will Raison was opposite me on peg 79 and Cameron Hughes was his favourite peg 69, we all felt before the start that we had a chance, there was plenty of fish showing on the surface, especially in the corner to my right.

Like most of the people in the match, I started by throwing a feeder a long way into the the middle of the lake, 65 turns on a big reel, to be exact, this area of the lake is deeper than most of the lake and is very silty, so I couldnt find any gravel. Second chuck the tip flew around and I had a carp about 3lb a bit later I caught a couple of F1s, then everything went quiet. A quick look on the pole wasnt any better, I never had a bite even though there was a bit of fizzing going on in the peg, this was going to be a problem for me all day. The pegs from 60 to 69 cover a deep corner of this lake and this acts as a silt trap, if you feed bait on top of the silt, before long your peg is fizzing like mad, if you feed a lot of bait you very quickly get a 'jacuzzi', lots of foul hooking and not much going into the net.

This was what happened to me, I was aware of the problem before the start, as I have fished this lake many times, but I am still not sure as to the best way to approach this problem. A lot of people fish paste over pellet, perhaps that what I should have done, as my normal pellet approach was not the best.

The match was won from peg 67, right in the corner, and probably the deepest peg on the lake, I couldnt see him because of the trees, but I understand his peg was like a 'jacuzzi' at times, I believe he fished paste and caught some of his fish down the edge, however he fished it he got it dead right as to win in that company is very hard.

I would love to hear from anyone who knows the answer, I will go back one day and fish the same peg again  and try a few things out and see what happens.

Well done to Peter Humphreys of Rochdale Angling, who won the match, I never bothered the scalesman and went home frustrated and penniless but with a determination to get it right next time.