Today marked the start of the new POHAS season and the first of our five Winter league matches, which saw us travel to Lindholme Lakes near Doncaster where we fished Loco Lake.
It was the customary 05:30 pickup from the Hoop & Mallet and despite our club member and usual coach driver Colin's absence today, a replacement was on hand and everything went like clockwork.

Compared to previous, this was a relatively short trip and following a brief pitstop at Birch Services, we arrived at Lindholme just after 08:00 and headed straight for the onsite cafe for a much needed breakfast and pick up some bait for the match ahead.
Only twelve members fished today, which meant everyone could at least benefit from some extra space on our 50 peg lake. The 'all in' hooter went at 10:30 and for most, the first few hours proved extremely disappointing with not many fish caught at all. Thankfully, things did appear to pick up slightly during the last couple of hours for some, but on the whole it was a frustrating day.
Bait-wise pellet, corn and maggot were the favoured bait and top methods were bomb/pellet and pole down the edge.

Typically after a breezy, yet dry day, the heavens opened on cue within seconds of the 'all out' and it was a very damp weigh in to say the least, as ever conducted efficiently by Alan and James.
Being the first match of the new 2017/18 season, that means the race for the coveted "Biggest Fish" trophy starts afresh and we had several contenders today including Adam, James and Frank before Alan pipped them all with a Carp weighing a whopping 14lb 11oz. Its fair to say, it'll take something special to beat that - but at least we've all got until September 2018 to try and do something about it!
Golden Peg today was Jim Bates, and the curse continues, although a creditable seventh place, well done Jim!

Due to the lack of food/pub options in or around Lindholme as the three we contacted prior to the match were booked up with parties, we all opted to head straight home afterwards and duly arrived back at 'The Hoop' much earlier than usual at 19:30.
Finally, big well done to Alan Lamb on yet another impressive match win, with Adam Hill second and James Bryan third. We hope to see you all at Lingmere for our next match in a couple of weeks time which is on SUNDAY 15th October.