LAST week was a mix of joy, disappointment, action and complete satisfaction as my match calendar saw me compete in four events in five days.

First up was my second attempt to qualify for the Fish To Win final at Monk Lakes and the draw bag was kind to me again when I pulled out peg 57 just one peg away from my favourite peg 56.

I threw back 40-50lbs at the end before heading off home scratching my head in disbelief that two good pegs in consecutive weeks had performed so badly.

However two days later I was back at the fishery competing in the individual National of the Spread Eagle club and when I pulled out peg six on lake one I knew I was going to have to work for my fish as that bank had not been producing of late with 70lbs a good weight.

It was a case of déjà vu as the first two hours produced eight small carp, but I kept working away on my margins lines before the fish turned up.

Sport was not frantic but I started to catch and despite losing a big lump near the net I put 68lbs 4oz on the scales just missing out on some section coin.

Some polite pegging put pegs 21 and 20 on their own and both anglers made no mistake with weights of 169lbs and 155lbs.

For the following day's team match we had drawn just one decent peg 56. Needless to say I was not the lucky one to draw the said peg but at least I was on a good part of lake two on peg 71.

Using pellet shape pieces of meat I kept a steady flow of carp up to 7lbs in the net coming, but it was in the last 30 minutes that decided my overall position.

I lost three good carp on the trot after lengthy battles and when the scales arrived at my peg I knew I should have been weighing in at least 25lbs or more.

My weight of 94lbs 8oz won me my section and fourth overall but with 102lbs taking second place and 124lbs winning I missed out again. The team produced four section wins out of six, but we still managed to come second after one of our members let us down badly with a poor display.

The following day I was back on home turf at Bury Hill and I made no mistakes from peg three weighing in 93lbs 8oz which consisted of 34 bream, one tench and one very big Crucian Carp of 3lbs 14oz a new PB.

The fish weighed just 10.5 ounces off the British record.

The big crusty fell to a soft 6mm expander pellet on the pole at 13 metres over a bed of micro halibut pellets and the fish certainly made a fitting end to a great week's action.

I managed to keep the fish coming by alternating between feeder and the pole and at the end I had nearly doubled the next best weight so it was a convincing win if I say so myself.

I still have a couple more Fish To Win qualifiers to concentrate on plus a few more opens to keep my eye in.

Tight Lines

Russ Evans is Advertiser Sport's angling columnist