Yay! We started on time! I think that may be a first for us.

As predicted, there was a heavy overnight frost on Saturday night. That didn’t seem to deter Illian (Dr) who arrived early having driven up from Yambol. Good man.
Let that be a lesson to you tardy Brits who have only a few kilometres to travel.
In all 13 of us took part and 11 of those were bulgarian. Bravo! Including Nikolai’s wife, Neviana, our 2nd lady competitor.

It looked like the weather gods were going to smile down on us at the start of the match. Sunshine and only a slight breeze. That didn’t last too long. The wind picked up strength and the temperature dropped along with it.
I drew peg 5 for my sins and I have to say, I was quite happy to be there. It’s always far more comfortable on the house bank.
Vlado drew peg 4, alongside me which meant I could keep an eye on him and ensure, that this week he stuck to the rules.

I’d more or less decided what I was going to do at the start. Find 6 or 7 feet of water and have that as my main line. I intended to feed it lightly to begin with, about 4 tangerine sized balls of groundbait laced with corn, maggot and wheat and then top it up when/if I felt it necessary. The waggler being my chosen method. I also set up the pole as a back up just in case the shallower water livened up. It didn’t.
However, Vlado had other ideas.
I should have been warned when he asked me if I thought 10 balls of groundbait at the whistle was enough!

All in was shouted, my four balls ended up as 6 balls due to the first 3 going everywhere but where I aimed (I haven’t catapulted groundbait for a while and I used a new catapult. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.). In went the waggler with corn on the hook and up came the wind. It was almost impossible to see the float as the wind whipped up some quite large waves.
Vlado took the lead with a small grass carp and a taranka reasonably quickly.
After about 45 minutes I had my 1st fish. A nice grass carp of over 1lb.
20 minutes later I had another. I was now well in front of Vlado but with only 2 fish, it’s always a worry if someone starts catching.
Rado drew peg 7, THE flyer. If Rado’s quiet, you know he’s catching fish (or so I’m told), anyway he was quiet, too quiet. I thought it was because I wouldn’t give him an extra 15 minutes to set up. Vlado repeatedly asked what Rado was catching and neither of us believed his answers. So we, Vlado and I decided to drink beer and change to feeder fishing as it’s much easier to drink and fish on the feeder. I also went and put on more clothes as I was cold, the wind was strong and chilling.
For me, the last 3 hours of the match were a lot better than the previous 2 as I was warmly dressed and I had beer.
Meanwhile, Nikolai on peg 6 was plugging away and periodically cursing all his ancestors. He lost 2 good fish which may have made the difference between being in the money and not being so. We’ll never know. The Frenchman was still ominously quiet.
By the time the end of the match came, Vlado had drunk far too much and it was affecting his aim with his catapult. His balls of groundbait kept veering off to the right towards Rado’s peg!
Meanwhile, Gencho on peg 10 snagged a Tollostolob, again. This time it was a big bugger of 14lbs (6.5Kg). Bravo.

I ended up with 4 or 5 grass carp, 2 taranka and a nice beer glow.

Results:

Section A

1. Rado          -     6lb 10oz (3Kg) peg 7
2. Paul            -     6lb 1oz (2.75Kg) peg 5
3. Nikolai      -      4lb 11oz (2.13Kg) peg 6
4. Vlado        -      4lb 9oz (2.07Kg) peg 4
5. Plamen     -      3lb 1oz (1.39Kg)
6. Miroslav  -      0lb 13oz (0.37Kg) peg 1    and Jerry peg 2

Section B

1. Gencho    -     14lb 8oz (6.58Kg) peg 10
2. Bobcho    -     5lb 2oz (2,32Kg) peg 13
3. Hristo       -     2lb 8oz (1.13Kg) peg 9
4. Illya          -     1lb 15oz (0.88Kg) peg 11
5. Neviana   -     0lb 3oz (0.085Kg) peg 8
6. Simon      -      DNW peg 12

I had to decide who had won the covetted wooden spoon. I took advice from my female advisors, my wife Sue and Simon’s wife Wendy.
Simon was disqualified from the wooden spoon considerations as he packed up early.
Obviously Neviana couldn’t win it as she was the ladies champion on the day.
It fell to a joint win for the 1st time in the history of wooden spoon awards.

Take a bow last week’s winner Jerry and relative newcomer Miroslav.

The weather looks like it’s improving this week with temperatures into the low 20s, soooo, let’s do it again next week. Only this time we’re starting an hour earlier and drawing at 8.30, fishing 10 till 3. Let me know if you’re coming.