Welcome to my fishing blog… January 2023

January 29th – Boyd Valley Lake – Yipadee-doo-dah!

As the last match, which was due to take place on the Clamp was cancelled, I was really looking forward to this one and, well, it looks like my blanking spell is finally over… but only just.

This was a Kingswood RBL club match, which had been rearranged 3 times due to ice problems, so in a sense, we were all glad to get it over and done with. Most of us had not fished this lake before so we were playing a total blinder. Those that did have some previous, caught better than others apart from one who won the match comfortably and convincingly. A couple of other club members decided to give this one a miss because they didn’t like the colour of the mud around this venue. It’s red… like Mars I guess!

In general, we had a really tough day at Boyd Valley Lake and nothing like any of us were quite expecting. With stories of big bags of carp, chub, barbel, bream and roach still ringing in my ears, my approach was a positive one and in hindsight probably well off the scale in terms of positivity. I drew peg 6, which on the day was at the bottom end of the lake with a pointed end of the island to work with.

My plan was to chuck a maggle feeder to the island for the first half hour and see if any chub were willing to come out and play. I then set up a rig for a 10-metre line, consisting of 0.15 main line, a 1gm Chianti style float, with a size 16 Guru MWG barbless hook to a 0.12 hooklength. The depth at this range was just over 6 feet. At 6 metres, the depth was precisely the same so conveniently, I could use the same rig setup for both swims.

Finally, I set up a heavy-duty rig for my left and right-hand side margins. This consisted of 0.22 mainline, a 0.2gm Guru AR float and a size 16 Guru MWG hook to 0.17 Guru N-Gage hooklength. This was set to a depth of 3 feet and because the bank sloped away so acutely, from zero to 6 feet over just a 3-foot width, I would need to hold this back hard towards the bank. So, I’m all set up and waiting for the all-in. Time for a cup of tea and a few snapshots.

 I started as planned and lobbed the feeder toward the island. My hook was baited with one red and one white maggle. After about 40 minutes without a bite, I gave up on this. At this point, everyone around me was biteless too but I wasn’t overly worried and moved on to plan B. I cupped out a large ball of Sonubaits Supercrush Bloodworm groundbait, laced with soaked 2mm micro pellets and a mix of dead red and white maggles, to the 10-metre line. I fixed a cad-pot, loaded it with the same feed, minus the maggles, and dropped this on the 6-metre line, where I lowered my sweetcorn baited rig.

No bites on the corn so I switched to expander pellet. No luck there. A quick try with meat and not a sniff on that. Then I popped a wiggler on and gave the little fella a hell of a ride to remember… up and down, up and down, up and down. No bites on that either and still no fish caught anywhere else. Hmmm… an overwhelming sense of Déjà vu was now beginning to fill my head… Could this really be… Groundhog Day?

Well, it must have been halfway through the match when Clive, who was on the peg to my right, latched onto a real proper munter of a fish. He seemed to take an age to land it but then when you’re thinking, “this might be the only fish I see all day”, it’s very understandable why you should take your time. He finally netted it to a round of spontaneous applause from what was now a shocked, wide-awake and somewhat enlightened audience. It took a couple of pinkles! FFS!!!

The news travelled like a tidal wave around the lake and suddenly everyone is getting their pinkles out. I decided it was probably a fluke and stubbornly persevered on my 2 non-responsive pole lines, going through the motions and trying every bait I had on my side tray until I noticed something completely unexpected. Clouds of mud were being kicked up just off the end of my keepnet. A carp was obviously grubbing around down there.

I quickly picked up my margin rig, baited up with 8mm punched bread and started dobbing all over the areas where I could see the mud clouds. After a while, I became mesmerised, almost hypnotised by the ochre-coloured water, which just seemed to get redder and redder. Switching from corn to bread I dobbed away for about 40 minutes but to no avail. Then Jason, 2 pegs to my left hooked into a carp. This one was smaller at 7lb but he too had caught on pinkles. Well, that was it… I had to shape up.

I baited my long line rig with 2 pinkles and put it out there. Nothing after 10 minutes so I came on the shorter 6 metre line and after a few minutes I hooked into a carp only for it to fall off about 10 seconds later… a foul-hooker me thinks. Undeterred, I went out again on the same line with fresh bait and waited. A few tiny indications got me excited and my senses were on high alert. Then finally a proper bite and a fish on. However, the excitement soon turned to disappointment when it turned out to be a 4oz roach. I almost got a standing ovation for that little trick.

No sooner had I dropped my fish into my keepnet when Clive was in again with another heart-stopping, monumental mirror carp, which only just fitted into his landing net. It was a whopping 17-pounder to go with his epic 13-pounder and now this was beginning to look like the Clive Purshouse show! A reluctant and mumbled acknowledgment followed. Then, as I started to recite the Lord’s Prayer in my head, and promised to be a good boy for the rest of the month, my float slid away and I was in again… this time it was an even smaller roach than the last one at around 2 ounces. Was someone up there having a laugh?

Well, compared to my last 2 matches I was on a role and it all ended too soon. I was enjoying every second of those last 10 minutes! So now it was time to quickly pack away because we had a table booked for 4.30pm at the Brassmill pub in Keynsham for our late, late Christmas dinner. I weighed in all of 6oz and was just glad to get on the weigh sheet. Back at the pub and Clive was confirmed as overall winner with 30lb 4oz, well done to him. Leigh Wakefield won the top silvers prize with an impressive 5lb 13oz of roach. Jason Pitman won his section with his one carp for 7lb and… low and behold!

I won my section with my 6oz roach haul. On another day, I could have quite easily thrown my fish back and ended up as a DNW. My next match is at Whitehouse Farm on Sunday 5^th February, when we’ll be taking George’s Lake apart… yeah right!

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January 2023

     22nd – The Lido, Fishponds, Bristol

     29th – Boyd Valley Lake, Bitton

February 2023

March 2023

April 2023

May 2023

June 2023

July 2023

August 2023

September 2023

October 2023

November 2023

December 2023

…………………

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