Welcome to my fishing blog… February 2023
February 26th – Margaret’s Lake, Whitehouse Farm – “Murder At Whitehouse Farm”
Despite it sounding like something from an Agatha Christie novel, my latest match on Margaret’s Lake, at Whitehouse Farm was a shocker, in every respect. I mean the peg, the performance, the result… everything. Am I losing the plot? Well, I feel like I’m living in a different dimension right now as my fishing experiences seem to go from bad to worse. So, while I ponder this strange mystery, here’s my latest report…
We had 14 anglers turn out on this crisp, frosty morning at Whitehouse Farm and everyone was under no illusion. It was going to be hard. I was thinking, with little chance of the carp showing up in numbers, it would be an out-and-out silvers match and with it being so cold, one of the deeper pegs would be preferable. There would be an east wind blowing today so, would a sheltered peg with the wind off my back be too much to ask for? Apparently so.
Well, into the bag of dreams and nightmares we go and peg 16 seemed to stick to my fingers like a magnet. There are 4 pegs on Margaret’s Lake, which I really do not like under match conditions. They are pegs 2 and 3 and pegs 11 and 16. Pegs 2 and 3 are too shallow with nowhere for the fish to hide. On peg 11, although it has deep water, you are hemmed in by pegs 10 and 12. The same applies to peg 16 in the opposite corner, which is a couple of feet shallower and on this occasion, I had the cold, biting wind blowing straight at me all day.
On peg 16, you don’t have an island chuck and so I left my feeder rod in the holdall today. After scanning my limited fishing area in front of me, and taking into consideration the wind, I decided to set up 2 similar full-depth rigs for fishing at 10 metres and 1 rig for 3 metres. On the first 10-metre rig I had a 0.5gram Chianti float with strung-out shot and a size 20 red maggle hook to a 0.11 hooklength. This would be used to fish slightly to my left-hand side with pinkles and maggles.
On the second 10-metre rig, I had a 0.5gram pencil float with bulk shot and a size 16 hook to a 0.15 hooklength. This would be fished to my right-hand side, with about 5 metres between the 2 swims. Each swim was 6 feet deep. So, the first rig would be for targeting roach and skimmers and the second one is for targeting F1s, carp and anything else that swims. Now, on the inside line, which was to my right and about 3 metres out, there was a small overhanging tree. I had 4 feet of water here, which suited my presentation option.
My plan was to try and draw in some quality roach on the short line, as I thought these might make up most of the weights today. My float choice was a 0.3gram pencil style float with strung-out shot and a size 16 fine wire hook to a 0.15 hooklength. I would loose-feed hemp on this line all day with caster or maggle on the hook. On the all-in and using a cad pot only, I cupped out a pot full of loose Special G dark groundbait with 3 pinkles and 2 red maggles to my left 10-metre swim. On the right-hand swim, I cupped out about 30 micros only.
On the inside line I cupped out about 20 grains of hemp and 5 casters. The one thing I didn’t want to do was overfeed any of my swims today. The idea was to gently feel my way into the session. Surely, my “slowly, slowly, catchee monkey” approach would pay off, right? After an hour, I hadn’t seen anything caught from the 8 pegs I could see, so I was cock-a-hoop when I caught a small roach from my inside line on a caster. I then had 2 more soon after before it went quiet.
It was time to try the left-hand 10-metre line with a single fluoro pinkle. As I’m totally focused on my float, Kev Swanston lands a chub, caught off the island on a maggle feeder and breaks my concentration. Then right opposite on peg 9, Whitehouse Ace, Steve Dawson lands an F1. So my plan is falling apart now but I have no other option but to carry on and hope for the best. Meanwhile, Rich Payne on peg 15 to my right still hasn’t had a bite and Kev Murch to my left only has a couple of tiny roach despite giving his island swim a damn good pasting.
I finally get a small roach from the long line and so go back onto the short line again with caster. This brings a better roach of about 4 ounces but nothing for the next 10 minutes. A quick look over the other 10-metre line with an expander pellet gets no interest. Back on the inside for another roach but again nothing after that. I fed a little more groundbait with pinkles and maggles to the left-hand swim and after 5 minutes I hooked into a good skimmer only for it to come off within seconds. For Fecks sake! This is murder!
Back on the inside for a few more roach before Kev on my left finally hooks a chub from the island to save his day. From what I can see, Kev Swanston and Steve Dawson are running away with it. Kev, having now landed another chub and a small carp, while Steve was catching regularly on the wag and on the pole. All I could do was watch and weep. Another look on all the lines and I pull out of another big skimmer. After that, I think I added another couple of small roach from my short line finishing up with just 9 small fish for a meagre 1lb 5 oz.
It was an incredibly hard day for me and I dropped vital points, slipping into fourth place in the league with just one match to go. My only hope is for a win and possibly finish third overall in the league but I think that’s probably a tall order. The top rod today was Steve Dawson with an incredible 15lb 10oz of silvers. Well done to him. So my next match is on Sunday 5th March, when I’ll be at the Clamp, near Coalpit Heath. It’s one of my favourite venues but will it save my bacon? Stay tuned to find out.
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January 2023
February 2023
12th – River Tone – Taunton
19th – Rive Avon – Crane, Keynsham
26th – Margarets Lake – Earthcott Green
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