Billy's Fishing Blog » Billys Fishing Blog July 23rd

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Welcome to my fishing blog… July 2023

July 23rd – Whitehouse Farm – George’s Throws Up A Fist Full Of Fivers

Today, I was fishing at a charity match at Whitehouse Farm. It was held over both lakes and the charity that was to benefit from our endeavours was Cancer Research UK. The match is named the Ian Chapple Memorial. Ian used to be the Alcove club match secretary until his death from cancer some years ago now. He was a very likable chap and I had personally known him for many years. I always think of him while fishing this match.

So, we had a pretty good turnout of 28 anglers, which meant an even 14 on each lake. That’s a good number for both lakes allowing Tony to leave out some of the poorer pegs and ensuring everyone had enough room to swing their cats, so to speak. As usual, much banter preceded the draw along with a few shifty looks and some Chinese whispers. As my trusty hand of fate entered Pandora’s draw bag, out came all the troubles of the world in the form of peg 2 on Georges Lake.

Now, I’m not a big fan of peg 2 on this lake and so I had to drag myself to my swim but hey it was all for charity right? When I arrived at my peg, I had flippin match ace, Andy “Bagger” Brookman on peg 3 and Richard Manning on the Wonder peg 1. I was beaten before I even started but hey it’s all for charity right? The only feature on Peg 2 is a bush to the right, which holds a few roach and rudd. Occasionally, a carp might visit but only very occasionally.

So, my plan was to target the silvers all day with a quick look down the edge about halfway through the match. The wind was blowing right in my face and it was going to get stronger as the day went on so no long pole today, Instead, I opted for a 7-metre line slightly to my right and a 6-metre line over to my left. I would also set up a shallow rig for fishing just off the edge of the bush.

For the 7-metre line, I selected a 0.5-gram Chianti-style float rig with a size 16 Guru Kaizen hook for fishing with worm. I like these hooks for worm fishing as I find the shape helps to stop the worms from wriggling off too easily. This swim was about 5.5 feet deep at that distance. For the swim to my left, I chose a 0.4-gram pencil float rig with a size 16 Guru Super LWG hook. I intended to fish tares on this line.

For the short rig, I selected a 0.2-gram dibber to a size 20 Guru LWG. This would be for maggles up in the water. Finally, I set up a 0.3-gram dibber rig with a size 14 Guru Super LWG hook for fishing the edge with corn and meat. This rig was for my margin pole, although I was pretty sure it wouldn’t see any action.

On the all-in, I cupped out a ball of chopped worm, soil and dark groundbait about the size of a golf ball and dropped it over my 8-metre line. Next, I cupped out a generous handful of hemp together with about 20 tares to my left-hand swim. I cook my own tares and have mastered the art of getting them to go pretty damn black, which seems to do the trick wherever I use them. I would also loose-feed maggles down to my right, just off the edge of the bush throughout the day.

On my first put-in over the chopped worm, with half a dendrobena on the hook, I had a roach of about 3 ounces. On the very next put-in, I had a skimmer about a pound and a half. That got Andy Brookman’s attention! Over the first hour, I had a few more nice skimmers and I reckoned I had close to 4 pounds. Then the swim began to slow down so I started alternating between both the left and right swims, catching some nice 12-ounce roach on tares to my left. By the end of the second hour, I thought I had about 6 pounds in total.

During the third hour I was struggling a bit on both lines so I decided to top them up and focus on the short line with maggle. I did catch quite a few fish here but they were not of the stamp I was expecting, only averaging 2-3 ounces. I probably put another 2 pounds in the net during the third hour. I had a quick look down the edge with meat and then corn but there were no signs of life except for a small perch that wolfed down a 10mm chunk of meat. He must have been really hungry.

Now with 2 hours left, Andy was making a stand, catching some real quality skimmers on corn. So, I went back out onto my worm line and started trying corn but I had no takers on that. I did have a couple more nice skimmers around the pound mark on worm before it went quiet again. I also had a few more small roach on tares but my luck was fading as I had to work really hard to bring fish into my 2 swims.

Meanwhile, Andy had them going on corn with some 2-3lb size fish coming late, leaving me in his wake. By the end of the 5^th hour, I reckoned I had about 10 pounds but both swims were now confirmed as dead so I spent the last hour chasing bits by the bush to finish the match with 13lbs 5oz. Andy ran away with it in the end winning the lake with 23lbs 9oz. However, my weight was enough to win the silvers prize on the lake and top silvers overall so I had a nice little pack of beer tokens to go home with.

Legion clubmate Kev Murch was first overall on Margaret’s Lake with 3 hefty carp for 45lbs, while Legionnaire Jason Pitman finished second overall with 39lbs 11oz of chub and carp. The Legion also had a silvers winner on Margaret’s in Ian Brice who weighed in 9lbs 10oz of silvers and Glynn won a section. So a pretty good day for the Legion lobbers. My next outing is next Sunday when I’ll be visiting the Warwickshire Avon at Stratford for the RiverFest Qualifier… Keep you posted!

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