Sunday 21^st September – Alcove AC Vs Silver Bream AC – Whitehouse Farm – Local Knowledge Wins The Day

I was looking forward to fishing this match, but I just had to have another go at Windmill on the previous Thursday to see if I could get my mojo back. As usual, the lake has been predictably unpredictable, as you like, with wins and top weights coming from any random peg. However, pegs 14 and 16 remain consistent and so they are the pegs you really need to draw if you want any chance of picking up some Wonga. Here’s how it all panned out for me.

The Squealing Of The Pigs!

Anyone who has ever fished the Match Lake at Windmill Fisheries will know exactly what I mean by that headline. It’s pretty gruesome and the experience can play mind games with you if you let it get inside your head. At the very least, it’s enough to put you off your bacon sarnies. With the wind blowing up from the bottom of the lake, the sound of squealing pigs seemed louder than ever…

Okay, enough of that old sentimental fluff and back to the serious stuff. Around a dozen or so turned out for this one, with all the usual suspects accounted for. I thought I’d dive into the draw bag early this time, in the desperate hope I might draw a flyer…LOL! Well, I almost did! I drew peg 11 and with the wind in my face, I was quite content with that. I’ve got a big, open space out in front of me, an island to chuck to, a nice, neat left-hand margin and a nightmare from hell reed bed to my right. Problem is, most of the carp live in this almighty reed bed, which also happens to be a graveyard for pole floats, complete rigs and even a few top kits. I’ve lost a lot of gear them darn reeds!

Well, my approach today was to start on the maggle feeder out toward the island. I would give that 20-30 minutes while I waited for my 2 main lines to settle down. The margin to my left would come into play later and I wasn’t sure what to do about my right-hand margin at this point. I selected a spot out in open water at 9 metres over to my right where I would present paste. It’s just getting a little late for paste, I feel, but maybe just time for last hurrah! Over to my left, and out in front at 11 metres, I decided to fish worm over chopped worm with Scopex groundbait. I also had meat and corn on the side tray for the edges. So, just before the all-in, a carp rolled to my right, just in front of the reeds. Being the crazy fool that I am, I was hopelessly tempted to offer it an 8mm pellet of meat, which it accepted without hesitation… and the result… first carp of the day lost!

So, no more fantasizing. It was time to get my head down and focus on my 2 lines out in front. Well, after an hour, all I had in my keepnet was 2 little perch, both caught on worm. I hadn’t had any indications whatsoever on my paste line and so I decided to ditch that one. About 30 minutes later, I hooked and lost a carp on the worm, which was sort of encouraging and so I plugged away at it until I finally had a 5-pounder in the net. So, in goes more choppie and soon after, out comes another carp of around 7lbs, but then it went a bit quiet. I just couldn’t resist having another look down my right-hand edge with a piece of meat, without getting too close to the reeds. And then bang! Another carp hooked and lost. FFS!

So, it was time to begin priming my left-hand edge with meat and groundbait, while I carried on dangling a worm out in front. Resting the swim had done some good as I had a carp right away, making it 3 in the net, but I knew at this stage I needed to seriously up my catch rate. That’s easier said than done. So, like some kind of crackhead junkie, I just had to have another go at those tantalising carp in the reed bed to my right… Wallop! And another one lost! For fooks sake! It’s virtually impossible to get any of these carp out and so I had no choice but to give up trying. Instead, I began to put more feed into my left-hand margin and then I had a quick look over it and… wham! A lovely 8-pounder obliged, making it carp number 4. So, in went more meat and groundbait and out came more carp.

Well, it began to get too busy down this edge and I lost 2 in a row. The worm line was now completely dead and I knew that more fish were only going to come from my left-hand margin, so I stopped feeding and finally caught a couple more. I think I ended up with 9 carp altogether, which went 60lbs on the scales, but that was way short of the mark and nowhere near enough to get even a faint sniff of the moolah pot. Nothing new there then…LOL! The top weight was just shy of a ton and close second place went to “Moaning Minnie”, John Smith with 97lbs from unfancied peg 20. I didn’t get a copy of the weights before they were removed, but pegs 14 and 16 produced 80lbs and 95lbs, respectively. I’ll be back again soon, I guess.

Whitehouse Farm Interclub Match

We had a total of 23 anglers from both clubs, but Alcove had almost twice as many as Silver Bream, so it was really a no-contest from the start. It was quite a cold morning, but at least rain wasn’t forecast and the weather did improve as the day went on. So, where did I want to draw? Well, either peg 1, 10, 18, or 19 on George’s would be nice or peg 6, 13, 14, or 17 on Margaret’s would defo put me in a good mood. The water level on George’s is gradually returning to something like normal, but as Margaret’s pretty much depends on the overflow from George’s, it still has some way to go and it’s still about 2 feet or more below normal level. I think it could be Christmas before it’s back… (Oops! Sorry, I mentioned the “C” word and it’s only September.)

So, I drew peg 10 on Margaret’s. This is a deep peg and it’s usually home to some of the bigger skimbos in the lake. However, if they don’t show, you’re in deep trouble. I drew this peg back in late July when I finished second with 42-15-0, which consisted of 2 carp, a goldfish, an FI and about 20lb of silvers, including some big skimbos. Most of my fish then were caught on worm that day and so that would be my main approach today. With no island chuck and a snaggy left-hand edge, it was a case of out in front and down the right-hand margin only. So, I set up a worm rig for fishing at 11 metres over to my left and a catch anything with any bait rig, also at 11 metres over to my right. Both swims were 7 feet deep and my right-hand margin was 3 feet deep.

On the all-in, I cupped out a small ball of groundbait with chopped worm on my left-hand line and just a ball of groundbait on my right-hand line. As usual, Scopex was my groundbait of choice. I did set up a feeder rod, but it never came into play during the match. I started by fishing over the chopped worm line and after about 15 minutes, I had a small roach, followed by another and then a tiny perch, which is never a good sign. With the first hour gone, it was painfully slow and even the humble maggle failed to attract any attention. So, I put on some paste and went onto my right-hand line. I gave that 30 minutes before throwing in the towel on paste. With that, I began feeding corn and micros on this line. I then spent another full hour on the worm, but I only had a couple of small perch. It just wasn’t working.

Both swims began bubbling and that encouraged me to keep going, but as much as the fish were blowing, they just would not take a hookbait for some reason. I tried scaling down, but it made no difference. I think they might have become too preoccupied with the groundbait and micros. Well, whatever, I didn’t get a single skimbo. With both long lines completely and totally unproductive, I had to now focus on my right-hand edge. I began loose-feeding meat while I tried the left-hand edge with corn. There were no signs of life there, so on my first put-in on the right-hand edge, the float shot under and I immediately thought… carp. However, it turned out to be a small chub of around 10 ounces. On the next put-in I had another about the same size and then 6 more soon after.

I was sure the very next dip of the float would result in a carp but it just never happened. Instead, I had a couple more small chub to finish the match. I ended up with just over 5lbs of fish for a poor day at the office, a slap round the head and a kick up the bum. The best weight shout on Margaret’s Lake went to Pete Turner of Silver Bream with 30-06-0 from peg 14. Second was Tony Welsby on peg 17, which produced 27-07-0 and third was Julie Taylor on peg 7 with 18-09-0. A surprise specimen perch of 3-11-0 showed up for Steve Sewell, who also took the top silvers prize with 11-12-0. Well done to all the framers and to Don Searle who won the match with a total of 44-03-0 from peg 1 on Georges Lake.

Well, I’ll be back on the river next week. Staverton is beckoning and as always I’ll be hoping for a lubbley, chubbley day. Keep you posted.  

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