Spring League, Nick's Lake 8-05-11

As I drove to Hartleylands my thoughts were on one thing and one thing only......5 points. I was already 2 points off a maximum after dropping my worst 1 point result so with 4 matches left out of 6 I would need 4 section wins to come anywhere near the top of the league. The competition is harder this year and with my mind not really focused on fishing at the moment I was hoping for a warm, calm day and a half decent peg.........and then the heavens opened and dashed my hopes of a comfortable day in the sun.

As I pulled up the rain had eased and the sun was drying things up. Perhaps there was light at the end of the tunnel. Nick anounced that he wanted to draw his own peg which I thought was probably a good idea just for change so out popped 33 for him followed by a load of moaning and groaning as I whipped out peg 8 which apparently was going to win the match hands down (yeh right, i've heard that one before and with most pegs capable of winning I wasn't as excited about the peg as some seemed).

Off I went around the lake and as I walk up the spit I noticed the wind pushing through the islands right in to my face..............great (not). I stood there and told myself that if I wanted 5 points then I would have to bite the bullet and get the method rod out but as usuall the thought of fishing the method all day for small fish had a more than passing similarity to watching paint dry whilst having your teeth extracted without anaesthetic. I looked long and hard at the island and memories started coming back to me about fishing this peg before in a strong wind and being able to draw the fish away from the island and fishing the pellet wag out in to open water. If I could do this today then I wouldn't have the problem of casting up against a very snaggy island with a very uneven bank in blustery wind. So my mind was made up, the wag it would be with 8mm pellets. The shallow pole didn't get a look in due to the wind in my face (too hard to feed accurately and frequently for my liking) and the method rod stayed in the bag. I did set up a bomb rod which goes hand-in-hand with waggler fishing and 1 margin rig and 1 deck rig for fishing to my right at 11m as a back-up line to rest the other swims.

As I was casting and clipping up I noticed the bloke opposite chucking a waggler up to the same corner of the island so I was now more convinced about my approach because there a few anglers that feed as much as me on the wag and I was hopefull of drawing fish away from the island in to open water where I would have no competition. I needed heavy floats for the job at hand and a number of catapults on stand-by because they were going to get a proper hammering today with the wind problem!

For company today I had a pretty tough section. Paul 'the magician' Kell on peg 4, John 'my peg's crap' Pantry on peg 6 and John Robinson on peg 9 (not sure of a nick name for John yet as he's just a very nice chap without anything really to take the piss out of.............but I'll keep looking! So, with Paul Kell in my section (who can turn a puddle of piss in to a swarming black mass of hungry carp) and 2 other very handy anglers, life was not going to be easy but I felt comfortable that for the first time this year I actually knew that what I was doing was the right thing.

So on to the whole plan then, 2 waggler rods at 12” deep and 24” deep, a bomb rod to fish the conker, a margin rig for under the tree and a full depth rig at 11m. Both pole lines would be fed with corn and fished with mussels and I do recall having a few fish from under the left hand tree the last time I fished peg 8.

Now, as I was chatting to John Pantry just before the whistle, that blustery wind suddenly changed (as it often does here) in to the mother of all gales and my mind uncontrollably flashed back to thoughts of the method feeder...............but only for a split second!

So, the match was started and after feeding my 11m line I began spreading pellets over an area the size of a netball pitch and chucked out the waggler to around 6' off the island. I started catching right away and it looked like I could be in for at least a decent day's fishing. Then I noticed John 'nice bloke' Robinson catching very quickly on the method and quite quickly it was obvious that we were going to be having our own little competition (which is quite nice seeing as you can almost pick each other's noses from pegs 8 and 9).

An hour in to the match and I knew John had more fish than me but he insisted that they were a lot smaller than my fish (which is usually the case here). My clicker showed 15lb in the first hour which isn't too bad as I was still building the swim and gradually fishing further and further away from the island.

At the half way mark I had 60lb on the clicker so was now catching around 25lb an hour which wasn't too bad given the fact that the wind was taking my pellets all over the shop but I was concerned that John was ahead of me and I kept thinking about the 11m line and whether it was soild with good sized fish...........but I told myself 'no' and persevered with the waggler.

Around this time John was concerend about the size difference between our fish and I mentioned to him that it is normal for shallow fish to be larger than method fish here so he gave the waggler a go and he started catching well but eventually concluded that he couldn't keep up with me and was better off on the method. I'm not sure whether I would have preffered him to stay on the waggler though because I can usually out-fish most people on the waggler (I did say MOST though).

Time was now ticking down and during the last hour I was itching to take a look under the tree but still I told myself 'no........no no no no NO'. While I was catching I should stay on it and not distract myself with what 'could be'. Still I was catching regularly and now I was about 20-30 feet off the island corner but I wasn't going to win the match, I simply couldn't keep things tight enough.

With 10 minutes to go then I eventually gave in and stuck a mussel on the hook and swung it under the tree. WHALLOP!.........the float went under and a nice 6lb ghosty was in the net. A couple of minutes to go and WHALLOP!.......... a decent 3 pounder joined it just before the whistle went............worth a look then as 9lb in 10 minutes was my best catch rate all day!

And so the scales came round with the words Paul 'the magician' Kell 141lb written on the board.........BUGGER! I reckoned on 125lb and could see John Pantry had already weighed that in and was now wondering whether I would scrape any decent points at all. My nets went 131lb to my relief and John 'nice bloke' Robinson had my bum hole tightened as he got close.............VERY close, with 128lb. I remember saying to John that those last 10 minutes under the tree swung it for me and gave me 4 valuable points.

So, I still couldn't win my section, I still couldn't draw a nice 'mill pond' peg but yes, at least I can now call him John 'bum clencher' Robinson!!!