Deja Vu at Whinwhistle

If you read my blog from the last round at Whinwhistle you'll know I drew the dreaded Rail lake on peg 14- the worst peg on there. Arriving this morning for breakfast I found out I was lying in second place overall in the league and hopefull of a good draw to push on. Chatting over breakfast it emerged that at 5pm on the Saturday the only peg on the whole complex still frozen was 14 on The Rail. Into the drawbag I went and out came......................Rail 14. I looked at the coin in disbelief as I couldn't believe I had drawn it again. Last time out I had 6 fish for 2oz and 2nd in section which shows how bad it is. I can honestly say I have never ever been so disapointed with a draw,I seriously contemplated going home but as it would result in 10 points I had to try and catch a fish to get some potentially crucial points. As it was milder than last time I expected the other pegs on the Rail to stand more chance of catching,particularly down the other end where league leader Richard Allin had drawn the Rail for the first time- end peg 2. I set up a few very light rigs and a lead rod but to be honest once again I wasn't even expecting a bite. I fed a nugget of groundbait at 14.5m in front and 16m to my left,with a nugget going on top of the shelf at 5m to my left where there were a few straggly branches. I was hoping to catch a few micro perch here as there was a bit of colour in the water following the weeks rain and was a bit of a throaway line. After 45 minutes I hadn't had a bite off either long line so dropped in down the edge with a single white pinkie on 0.8 bottom and a 24 Black Gama. After 5 minutes the float disapeared and I struck into a snag. But then the snag started to move away from the edge and a ghost carp of around 3.5lb wallowed on the surface before plodding into the channel. I played this fish like my life depended on it as I knew it would be worth mega section points. After around 3 or 4 minutes the tiny hook pulled out and the rig pinged back. I didn't swear much honest!!!! Why is it always in the really hard matches that you lose decent fish?!
Over the next four hours I went through the motions and managed 4 fish for exactly the same weight as last week- 2oz! This was only good enough for fourth in section this time as Richard on the end had 4 little carp. I packed up in double quick time and didn't even go to see how the other lake's had fished- that's how fed up I was! All in all a crap day on a crap peg that has probably ruled out any chance I had of winning the league as Richard is now 5 points ahead with only 2 matches to go.