Billy's Fishing Blog » Billys Fishing Blog May 28th

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Welcome to my fishing blog… May 2023

May 28th – Margaret’s Lake, Whitehouse Farm – A Peg Full of Limitations

Those of you that have been reading my blog for some time will know that I don’t just write about my successes. Match fishing is about all the ups and downs, the triumphs and the disappointments and after a long string of section wins, today I was back on a downer. Margaret’s Lake at Whitehouse Farm was the venue for my latest escapade and I always get nervous about this one. This lake has some great winning pegs such as 6, 7, 13, 14 and 17. The rest are mediocre, unpredictable and often seasonal.

At this time of year, most fish prefer to be in the shallower water or up in the water where it’s warmest. So, the last thing you need is to be fishing a swim that’s more than 8 feet deep. Well, that’s what the hand of fate gave me at the draw. For the very first time ever in a match, I drew peg 10. I don’t know how I have managed to avoid it for so long so I guess it was well overdue. Peg 10 is a deep corner peg with no island chuck and a 4-feet deep margin on the left-hand side. The right-hand side is about 3 feet deep and not easy to fish due to the reeds and an overhanging tree.

When I got to my peg and plumbed up, I had 8 feet of water at 6 metres slightly to my right and 9 feet of water slightly to my left. Jason Pitman drew this peg a couple of years ago and did really well, catching a big net of skimmers on worm. Alas! I didn’t have any worms today. I had corn, meat, hard pellet, expander pellet, paste and maggles and thought surely something would be interested in at least one of these tasty treats. Groundbait today was Sonubaits Supercrush Green. I also had some Robin Red micros.

So, I came well-armed but my options were very limited. I felt the edge swims were just way too deep and I didn’t expect any carp to come by, although I would still need to have a half-hearted go for them. I had to then pin my hopes on a 6-metre line and a 10-metre line and pray that the skimmers would play ball. Seeing some carp cruising on the top at about 25-30 metres out made me reach for my pellet waggler rod but with an arch of greenery over my head, casting would be suicide. A method feeder would also be out of the question.

So, on the all-in, I cupped out some groundbait and micros to both the 6 and 10-metre lines. Then in went some corn and micros to my left and meat and micros to my right. With small fish topping at around 7 metres, I set up a shallow rig for fishing red maggle in the hope I could get a few fish in the net early. This brought a few of the new small chub and a couple of roach, before they all moved away. I continued to loose feed that line while I went over the 6-metre line with expander pellet on the hook.

The swim was fizzing with bubbles and I was sure that some large skimmers were about. After about 10 minutes I hooked a small skimmer of about 6 ounces. Then, about 10 minutes later I hooked into a much better fish, which was well over 2 pounds. I would have been more than happy to catch this stamp of fish all day but it wasn’t to be. After that one, I struggled to buy a bite no matter what bait I put on the hook. I tried coming up in the water but there were still no takers. A quick look down the edge only brought a few liners and a few knocks from small fish.

Next, I went out onto the 10-metre line but didn’t get a single bite there. So, I started doing all the rounds, as you do, but frustratingly, there was nothing doing. I could see a few carp being caught off pegs 13, 15, 16 and 17, which were opposite me but not a sign of a carp by me. I could still see carp on the surface well out of reach of my 16-metre pole and although I tried a bit of slapping and dunking, tapping and tickling, I couldn’t tempt any of them to come closer.

With despair fast setting in, I resigned myself to catching small fish at around 2 feet deep on a single maggle, ranging from 6 to 10 metres out. I did manage to catch a few, most of them small chub, but it was hard work. Well, that was it and as usual, if you haven’t caught a carp in these Whitehouse Farm matches then you’re cast out in the cold wilderness of wallowing wannabes… a nowhere man. Well, with the match over and a deep sigh of relief echoing all around, I ended up weighing just 5lb 5oz. Some of those around me though had fared even worse, with 3 DNWs and one minuscule weight all within groundbait throwing distance.

Anyway, well done to Julie the carp queen, who won the match from peg 6 and to Steve ‘silvers’ Dawson who landed a huge 20lb carp and some silvers for second place. The dodgy man of the match award goes to John Dursley who mysteriously managed to land two identical common carp, each weighing exactly 12lb 2oz…hmmm.

Catch me next time, when I’ll be making another exciting excursion into the wild and windy realms of the Windmill Fishery, for some proper carp tangling tactics… all for now.

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