With this being my last planned match of the year until the Xmas fur & feather matches and having recently written about my “year of hell”, I was hopeful of a good days fishing and looking forward to going for something other than carp. With 25 booked in and most of the lake taken plus the recent cold spell and bitter wind, we were unsure how the place would fish. Last year Nick ran a silvers match here which I won from peg 11 by finding some decent skimmers and small bream so my plan today was to target them to build some weight up.
After a good nosh-up at the local golf club, we met everyone at the draw and Vince Gould kindly volunteered to draw my peg as I was helping Nick with the draw. Out popped peg 11 which I hadn’t realised was the peg I drew last year until I looked at the pegging plan. Not that it mattered much because having only fished here once for silvers and once for carp, it hardly gave me any inside knowledge other than the skimmers can bulk your weight up.
At my peg I noticed the water level was down a foot or two which meant I was sitting high above the lake which wasn’t ideal. I also had a cold breeze in my face which would make my main line of attack difficult as it involved feeding maggot by hand. Last year the Roach and the few skimmers and Bream I caught all fell for shallow maggot at about 8m and this was how I intended to fish today. However, before I dropped a bait at 8m I also planned to chuck out a cage feeder a few times and also drop in some groundbait at 13m to see if I could draw some proper Bream in.
The whistle went and I shipped out 3 balls of brown and white crumb laced with hemp and corn on my 13m line. Then out went the cage feeder 6 times loaded with the same bait. The seventh cast then had a hooklength attached with a small dendra tipped with red maggot. Within a minute the tip received a tug but I struck too soon and missed the chance. This proved to be the only decent bite I had in half an hour of trying. Around me a few blokes were catching odd small Roach so I wasn’t worried just yet.
My next move was to drop in over the 13m line while loose feeding maggot at 8m to build up a few confident fish in front. Half an hour on this proved worthless so it was time to see what I had at 8m. The first few drop-ins resulted in some hand-sized Roach which was a start but the fish were clearly reluctant to come up too far off the bottom. Having plummed up the area I knew that my 13m rig would be good to fish over the 8m line so I fished on the deck at 8m but still feeding to get them up in the water. The rig had one of Nick’s deck floats on at 0.5g fished shirt-button style so I would be able to detect any bites on the drop. However, it turned out that they just wanted the double maggot bait lifted and dropped within the last foot of water to encourage a bite.
As the match went on the wind in my face became stronger and feeding by hand became a problem. I was catching skimmers and Roach steadily so I wanted to maintain the little and often approach as much as possible. I therefore picked up a pole catty and clipped a sprinkle pot on to my top kit. This would mean that I could feed almost as often as I could by hand but I would also have a constant trickle of maggot dropping over the float. There are some big Chub in this lake and I wanted to keep the bait falling through the water as much as possible to see if I could draw one or two them in.
As the match progressed I heard that Roy Gudgeon had around 15lb of Roach in his net and was catching one a bung. With Nick on the opposite bank apparently doing ok and Bill Gibbins next to me snaring a few I was under a bit of pressure. I tried to up the feed a bit, it was clear that the fish didn’t want to come shallow so I saw no harm in feeding heavier and less often. This would give me more time to concentrate on the float and lifting the rig and may encourage bigger fish to get their heads down. It worked and the skimmers began to look more like Bream and I also snared a couple of decent Perch. With about 2 hours to go the bites tailed off so I stuck on a few sections and followed the fish out. I ended up at 13m but had to switch to a standard catty as the small one couldn’t fight the head wind. I was now fishing over my groundbait line and the pole was being battered by the gusting wind that was now changing direction a lot. Fortunately the deck floats that Nick Gilbert makes are so stable that I didn’t need to fish over-depth or use a bulk near the hook length. I managed to maintain the same lifting and dropping process with the shirt-button rig and began to up the feed amount even further.
My 4th hour proved to be the best with a 4lb slab, a couple of 2lb skimmers and a 3lb Tench all going in to the net. I now felt that I was competing for 1st place and hoped that the better sport would continue. With an hour left I must have been one of the only blokes around the lake to NOT have hooked in to a Carp. I saw a number being caught that were close to or over the double figure mark and were taking some time to land on the light gear being used. The bites were drying up and I feared the worst..............BANG, carp on! I played it for about 5 minutes before the hook pulled.
It took me a while to get the peg back in order and I stuck another couple of skimmers in the net approaching the last half hour of the match. The peg went quiet again and after 5 minutes it happened again...........WHALLOP! This time the fish was bigger and my double 5 slip was being tested to it’s limit. This was the last thing I needed as I was fighting for 1st place and now wasting time playing perhaps the biggest Carp of my season. I tried hard to get it in to netting range but the fish was just too powerful and heavy. With 5 minutes to go the hook pulled and my rig ended up tangled around my top kit. Without a spare to grab and only a few minutes of the match left I decided to drop my cage feeder over the 13m line and pray for one more slab to increase my chances but alas, they just didn’t seem to like groundbait................weird!
The whistle went and it was clear that most had struggled for anything other than Roach with the odd bonus skimmer or Perch and nuisance Carp. Roy Gudgeon put a very challenging 21lb on the scales but fortunately the needle some how pushed around close to 25lb when I weighed in. This proved to be the best weight and FINALLY a decent result to finish my season on.
Last year I caught mainly Roach with a few odd bonus fish. Today I caught a decent number of bonus fish with the odd Roach thrown in. I like this venue, 2 wins out of 2 might have something to do with it but it is peaceful, attractive and you never know what you are going to catch next!
Tackle used:
NG Decker 0.5g no eyes, 5 rubbers, dotted down
No.8 shot grouped in pairs shirt button style with 2 no.10 droppers on hook length
0.14 Fox Micro rig line
Size 18 B510 pre-tied to 0.104 hook length
Preston Slip no.5 doubled down top 2
3 pints of red and white maggot laced with turmeric
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