Billy's Fishing Blog » Billys Fishing Blog March 26th

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Welcome to my fishing blog… March 2023

March 26th – Whitehouse Farm Rover Match – A Love Island Experience

I love these rover matches and the lower the number I draw, the more I love them. So, everyone is asking everyone else what lake and peg number they prefer today, and I said I wanted peg 14 on Margaret’s Lake. I didn’t mean I wanted to draw number 14, which is exactly what happened, leaving me to watch and wait as all the best pegs were selected.

Jason drew number one and made no hesitation to select Margaret’s 14. My next choice would have been peg 13 on Margaret’s Lake but Glynn Sage grabbed that one. I would have been happy with either peg 9 or peg 6 on Margaret’s but they were soon snapped up too. I hadn’t even given Goerge’s Lake a thought but if push came to shove I would have reluctantly walked off to peg 1, 18 or 19. However, they were all gone by the time it got around to my turn.

When I looked to see what pegs were left on Margaret’s, I noticed that everyone had avoided peg 17. This peg hasn’t been fishing at all well lately and I have had 2 pretty grim matches on this one but in the past, it has produced some cracking winning weights. I thought to myself, surely I couldn’t have 3 bad days in a row on this peg… could I? Anyway, throwing caution to the wind, and as there wasn’t much else to choose from, I decided to stick my neck out and take a risk. So peg 17 it was.

The water level was up and there was quite a bit of colour in the water, which was good. The forecast was for showers and there would be a northeast breeze blowing right into my face… which was bad. Looking around the lake, I could see that pegs 18 to my left and pegs 16, 15, 14, 13 and 12 to my right were all occupied. I thought it was a bit tight considering we were fishing on 2 lakes and had plenty of room. At least I had an island chuck, as did pegs 14 and 13.

I was really hoping the chub would play ball today because I didn’t think there would be many carp caught. I wasn’t sure if the skimmers would feed but I would still set a table for them just in case. I decided to feed a 13-metre line straight out in front, and a 9-metre line slightly to my left. I had about 7 feet of water on the 13-metre line and probably 6 inches less on the 9-metre line. I would also try the inside line to my left. Other than that it would be an out-and-out island assault.

At the all-in, I cupped out in a small ball of groundbait consisting of 50-50 Sonubaits Sweet Skimmer and Super Crush Expander on the 13-metre line. A little of both sweetmeal and fishmeal laced with dead red maggles should do the trick. On the 9-metre line, I cupped in a small ball of Supercrush Expander and micros. More of the same went into the margin swim. I planned to leave the pole lines well alone for at least an hour and then top them up again.

My feeder rod was a Tyson Feeder with a 30-gram Drennan blockend feeder. Reel choice was a Shimano Sahara 4000 filled with 0.18 (6lb BS) Matrix Horizon mainline. I prefer this line as it’s quick sinking and it’s just what you need on a windy day. So, I baited the size 16 LWG Guru hook with 3 maggles and away we went, casting to within 2 feet of the island. Nothing on the first 2 casts so I pulled back from the island by about a foot and then made contact with a large roach of about a pound.

A couple of casts later and I hooked into my first chub, a nice 2-pound plus fish. I hadn’t seen anything else caught at that point and so I thought I had taken an early lead. A couple more casts later and another nice chub threw himself at the bait and surrendered without too much song and dance. With around 5lb in the net and almost an hour gone, I was sure I was winning at that stage.

I topped up all of the pole lines and went back out to the island as before. It was about 15 minutes later that I got another fierce bite but the hook pulled out of that one. It was definitely another chub. So I decided to rest the feeder line for a while and check out the pole lines. On the 13-metre line, I baited up with a single live maggle and caught a small roach straight away but I couldn’t get any more bites there so I moved onto the 9-metre line.

I had been feeding groundbait and micros here so I put a small grain of corn on the hook and lowered it in. Corn over micros can work really well on Margaret’s Lake. It was about 10 minutes later when I had a bite and a nice 12-ounce roach was netted. There was no sign of anything else after that. I decided to try the inside line with corn on the hook, laying the rig tight against the inside slope. I did get a few indications that fish were resident but I didn’t get any proper bites.

I noticed that Jason was now catching from the island and might be tempting my chub over to him as I faffed around on the pole lines. So, I quickly got back out to the island again with the maggle feeder. I didn’t have to wait too long before I was in again with another chub, which was slightly bigger this time. This one didn’t give up easily and tried several times to get around the back of my keepnets. I finally netted him and he looked all of 3 pounds and maybe a little more. However, I noticed that Glynn was now catching carp and Jason had another chub too.

I felt my early lead was slipping away but there was nothing I could do about it. With about 90 minutes left, I hooked into a real angry fish, which turned out to be an F1 of nearly 3 pounds. At this point, I reckoned I had about 12 pounds in the net or maybe 13 pounds with a push. However, no more bites for more than 10 minutes prompted me to have another quick look on the pole lines. I could hardly hold on at 13 metres with the gusty wind so quickly gave up on that. There were no signs of life on the 9-metre line.

I carefully lowered my corn-baited rig into the inside margin line and within a minute I had a very fast bite. Then I had two more bites in quick succession. I was sure there was a carp there and thought a nice double-figure carp at this stage would propel me into the frame. So, I persevered, ever aware that precious time was slipping away. I was getting indications but nothing positive so I lifted the rig and lowered it in much closer to the bank and then… mayhem!

I had a very big carp on that had no intentions of hanging around. It shot off towards peg 18 and then out towards the island where we eventually parted company. What came back on the hook was a huge mirror carp scale about the size of a Tetley Tea bag. I had not long made a cup of tea and my used tea bag was on my side tray so that’s how I was able to compare. Well, foul hookers are the story of my life [in more ways than one :)… oh don’t get me started :)].

Now, with less than 30 minutes to go, I had to give the margin another try, just in case it had a friend who was wondering what all the fuss was about. Evidently, it didn’t so I decided to chuck out the pig for the last 15 minutes. That got me a late skimmer of about 2 pounds so I’m glad I reverted back to the island. I knew my old love island wouldn’t let me down again! Well, that was it… It was all over and surprisingly I put 17lb 12oz on the scales. I kept telling everyone I only had about 9lb… oops!

I finished third on the day with my old mate Glynn finishing second with 21lb 9oz, which included 3 small carp. The overall winner was John Dursley with 2 big carp and 4lb of silvers from Georges Lake for just over 29lb. There are no club matches for me next week, so maybe a trip out to Windmill for the Sunday open. I’m not sure yet but with £100 up for grabs for anyone who can bag 50lb of silvers, I just might be tempted. I do love a challenge. Stay tuned to our Fish Wag FB page for more updates.

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