Sunday 2^nd November – Alcove Poppy Match – Whitehouse Farm

Well, it’s a bit later than I had hoped, due to club meetings on Monday and Tuesday evening, then fireworks with the young family members on Wednesday and before I knew it, I was fishing a match at Windmill Fisheries on Thursday. So, here it is, finally, my latest match fishing summary.

We had 19 anglers attend the Alcove Poppy match, each putting a tenner into the RBL coffers, so a big thank you to everyone involved on behalf of the RBL. The Alcove Angling Club will make the donation up to £400… by order of the chairman LOL!

I was quite looking forward to this match and didn’t really care where I would be drawn, except I didn’t fancy pegs 11 or 16 on Margaret’s Lake. Well, I drew peg 12 on Margaret’s and trundled off to see what I could do on this unpredictable peg. The wind was blowing straight down the lake and was in my face all day… it was a damn cold one too. I had my hoodie up all day and I had to put my coat on after an hour. Anyway, this was deep water, but not as deep as it should be, as the level is still down by almost 2 feet below normal. At 6 metres I had about 5 feet and at 9 metres I had just under 7 feet. It’s usually about 9 feet out there. I wanted to fish at 13 metres, but the wind dictated how far I would be able to go out, with 9 metres being the limit today.

So, I set up a maggle rig for roach at 6 metres straight out in front and a worm rig for skimbos at 9 metres over to my right. I also used the same rig for fishing corn over micros to my left, which was exactly the same depth. My left-hand margin didn’t look like it would produce anything, but I still went on to feed some corn and micros later, just in case. My right-hand edge looked like it would be brimming with fish and so I fed some meat and maggles in 3 feet of water, just under an overhanging branch. I didn’t have an island chuck, which is just as well because the overhanging branches behind me would have been a terminal tackle graveyard, knowing my luck.

On the all-in, I cupped out a small ball of groundbait and some chopped worm over to my right. Then I put about 10 grains of corn and a few micros into my left-hand swim. While I waited for that to settle, I began loose-feeding maggles on my 6-metre line and fishing single red maggle on a size 20 to a 0.10 hooklength. In just under 30 minutes, I had 3 small roach. That indicated to me that I was in for yet another hard day. So next, it was out over the chopped worm line with a half a dendra on the hook. I had to wait about 15 minutes before I had my first bite, which turned out to be a skimbo of about 6 ounces. It was another 15 minutes before I caught another one, which was a little bigger at about 10 ounces. This wasn’t going well.

So, it was time to check out the line to my left, with a single grain of corn. I gave that 20 minutes without so much as a sniff. FFS! Was I in for another fooking struggle or what? Oh yes! Wherever I seem to go lately, the fishing has been absolutely sh*t! Well, it was a charity match after all and so I had to be philosophical about it and just bite the bullet. So, another hour on the worm brought a couple more small skimbos, but the best was probably only about 12 ounces. I was expecting a shedload from this peg, with skimbos averaging around the 2lbs mark, but it just wasn’t happening. I had another look over the 6-metre line with maggle and that only produced 2 micro perch. So, back onto the worm line for another couple of small skimbos before I noticed a carp being netted from peg 8 up the right-hand side of the lake.

Soon after, I saw another carp being netted from a different peg on the right-hand side. Well, that meant it was time I took a serious look down the edges. If I were to get any chance of framing, I needed a carp. The left-hand edge just didn’t look like it would entertain a big carp and so, having given that all of 10 minutes, my focus turned to my right-hand edge. I lightly fed micros and meat, but there were just no signs of a carp or anything else, for that matter. And that’s how it ended. Pegs 6,8,9 and 10 all had at least one carp in their double-figure weights and so that’s where the money went today. The rest of us only had a few pounds apiece, with my net only weighing in at 3-10-0. So, a very disappointing day, but I really felt for those fishing on Georges Lake, who had a much worse time of it.

The top weight on Georges Lake was just 4-8-0, which fell to Barry Summers from peg 1. Well done to him. In a close second place was Anthony Hole with 4-04-0. The top weight on Margaret’s Lake and winner overall was in-form Tony Welsby on peg 8 with 27-15-0. New kid on the block, Alan Oram was second with 18-02-0 from much-fancied peg 6.

Thursday 6^th November – Windmill Costcutter Open

There were 16 anglers in attendance for this one and with the best weights in recent matches coming from the deeper water, that’s where everyone wanted to be. The term ‘deeper water’ refers to the top half of the lake and includes pegs 1 to 6 and 18 to 25, with pegs 22 round to peg 2 probably the most favoured. The weather today was very mild, with the air temperature hovering around 16 degrees C and only a light breeze was forecast. So, everything looked set for a good day all round, but then this is Windmill. It’s unpredictable and the fish can be very moody, and very often totally reluctant to feed until the last 2 hours of a match. So, into the draw bag goes the trusty hand of fate and out comes peg 18. Well, I wasn’t too displeased with that, but I would have preferred to have drawn a little further up the lake.

Nevertheless, I had a job to do and although I didn’t have a cunning plan this week, I was going to try something a little different. As I seem to catch most of my fish on meat late, down the edge, I had decided to try fishing meat out in open water. Here’s how it panned out…

When I arrived at my peg, the odd carp was topping right over in the gap between the 2 islands, so I set up a bomb and maggle to target them. I also set up a worm line at 11 metres over to my left at 10 o’clock and a meat line over to my right at 2 o’clock, which was also at 11 metres. I had 2 edge lines, left and right, both at 2 feet deep, but I preferred the right-hand edge as there was more reed cover there. For these 2 lines, I would fish corn to my right and meat to my left with a little sprinkling of micros in both. So, on the all-in, I cupped out a ball of chopped worm, dead reds and micros to my chosen worm line and 8 4mm pieces of meat plus micros over to the meat line. Then I chucked out the bomb and maggle to a position just off the edge of the island.

I had a bite on the maggle after about 5 minutes, which turned out to be a small roach of around an ounce. A couple more chucks only brought a tiny perch. So, with half an hour gone already, it was time to try my worm line with a half a dendra on the hook. Well, I faffed about on this line for about an hour and caught only one tiny perch. That’s typical of what I’ve been catching on worm just lately and I really don’t know why. At first, I thought maybe I wasn’t putting in enough choppie, but 2 weeks ago, I put in half a kilo of worm and only caught 3 micro perch. I wasn’t going to do that today and so I gave up on this line altogether. I was just wasting my time, and with the matches now reduced to 5 hours duration, time was too valuable to waste.

So, it was time to check out the meat line. I had been topping up this line with small amounts of feed and so when I dropped my rig in, fish were there but bites were very finicky. I thought it must be small fish messing about with the bait. The float was moving very slightly one way and then the other and there would be a little dink and then it would quickly dip. I missed a lot of bites, but still wasn’t totally convinced that it was carp that was playing about with the bait. For the next 20 minutes or so, I began making a few little adjustments to my rig. I moved the lower no.11 drop shot to within 4 inches from the hook. I also set another inch on the depth and I added a further no.11 to the rig so that the float was well shotted down, just like you would if you were fishing for skimbos. Well, that made a difference.

With the bait lying on the deck, the fish would have to lift it and move the lower tell-tale shot, which resulted in an early indication on the float. And so… Bingo! Carp on! All that messing about with the bait turned out to be carp after all. It just goes to show that those typical fast carp bites don’t always happen and so you have to adjust your rigs accordingly. Anyway, I had one carp in the net after two and a half hours. I dropped in again and within 10 minutes, I had another, but it then went a bit quiet, so I went onto my edge lines. I had no indications on the meat to my left, but I did get a very fast carp bite on corn to my right. So, I gave that another 30 minutes but didn’t get another bite there… so more time wasted. With less than 90 minutes left on the clock, I decided to give up on both edge lines and just focus on the meat line out in front.

On my very next put-in, I was into a carp right away. I also noticed the swim was now bubbling, which was very encouraging. So, now I have 3 fish in the net with an hour to go and I knew that some anglers were really struggling for bites. The “new” guy to my left had told me he hadn’t had a single bite all day and I hadn’t seen much else caught up to that point. Then all of a sudden, I noticed the 2 anglers opposite both playing a fish and realised the happy hour had arrived. On my next put-in, I hooked another carp, which was quickly followed by 2 more, giving me 6 so far. Then I killed my swim stone dead by dropping in a pot full of feed. With 30 minutes left to go, I didn’t get another bite. I was sure I could have had another 4 or five in that time, but I guess the feed dropping down over them just sent them packing. A costly lesson learnt.

Well, my 6 carp went 30-08-0 and I needed at least 2 more to frame. Well done to Lionel Legge, who won quite convincingly with 60-07-0 from peg 1. In second place was Pete Greenslade with 44-13-0 from peg 23. Section wins went to Paul’ Barney’ Barnfield and Tim Hadland with 41-12-0 apiece. I’ll take the lessons I learned today into my next match on Windmill, which will be on Thursday, 13^th. However, before that, I’ll be taking part in the annual Poppy Appeal Open on the Bristol Avon between Chequers and Newbridge. This is a 100-pegger and the match usually raises a couple of grand for the Poppy Appeal. It’s a very worthy cause, which I have been involved with for over 40 years. If you want to know how it goes, then watch this space… keep you posted!

——————————————————————————————————————————–

Hey guys! I really appreciate you all reading my weekly blog and thanks for all the positive comments. It’s nice to know you enjoy reading about my rants, my ups and downs and my general take on events. Please keep those likes coming and don’t be shy in sharing, as all this stuff helps to keep my blog on top of the Google rankings. Cheers!

NOTE: If reading this blog on a PC, you can enlarge the images by right-clicking on them and selecting “Open link in new tab”

If you enjoyed reading this blog, then be sure to join the Fish Wag Facebook group HERE for blog updates. Also, please Like and Share… It’s very much appreciated! Check out the links to my older blog posts below…