Sunday 14^th December – It’s Snakes & Ladders Time! I’m Down The Slippery Slope On Windmill Lake And Up The Stairway To Heaven At Whitehouse Farm

It’s been a tale of 2 matches last week, beginning with an unusual draw putting paid to my plans at Windmill on Thursday. Anyway, we had 13 anglers turn up for the Windmill Costcutter and as usual, I wanted to be drawn in the deeper water. Pegs 1, 2, 22, 23 and 25 are the pegs to be on at the minute, as the carp seem to have shoaled up on these deeper pegs. That doesn’t mean you can’t catch on any of the other pegs. It just means there are currently more carp on the deeper pegs. Maggles seem to be the in-bait on all of the pegs and light rigs are producing the most bites. It’s simply a case of getting your rigs balanced. My preference right now is for a no. 8-10 elastic in the top 2, with 0.15 (5lb BS) mainline and a 0.12 hooklength.

So, onto the draw and fook me! I pull out peg 19. I can’t ever remember peg 19 being in ever! I have certainly never drawn it before and I have never fished it. For a kick off, I didn’t like the platform/pallet as it was out too far into the water. Made me feel a bit seasick and I was constantly alert to making any quick moves in case my box slid off the edge. The weather forecast was for rain showers and although I did bring a brolly with me, it didn’t come into play. Well, based on my last few match experiences here on the Match Lake, the carp don’t want worm, meat, or corn and they will not come into the edges for some reason. So, I set up 2 rigs for fishing on the deck at 11 metres. One at 10 o’clock to my left and one at 2 o’clock to my right.

I also set up a waggler and a bomb rod. On the all-in, I fed both pole lines with a very small nugget of Black Lake and Scopex groundbait plus 6 or 7 dead red maggles. Then I flicked out the waggler right over to my right toward the gap in the islands. I gave that 30 minutes, firing loose maggles over the top, but got no response. I gave up on that method because there was quite a tow on the water and I just couldn’t get the presentation right. So, it was out onto the pole line to my left with a single live maggle on the hook. After 20 minutes without a bite, I changed to double pinkle, which brought me a 2-ounce roach. That was the only silver fish I had all day. I topped up both lines and then went out on the bomb and maggle to where I was fishing the waggler earlier, but after 15 minutes, that rod went up the bank too.

So next, and 2.5 hours later, I went onto the right-hand pole line with a double maggle offering. I got a few tiny indications and knew there were a couple of fish there, but I thought they might be small roach at first. Getting restless, I decided to strike at any indication, which resulted in a foul-hooked a carp, which was soon lost. Undeterred, out went the rig again. Within 10 minutes, I managed to hook and land a carp of around 8lbs on quite light gear. Seemed to take an age to get the fooker to the net but patience paid off. About 20 minutes later, I hooked another, but it shot off like an express train, never to be seen again. Then, within the last 40 minutes, I managed to land 2 more, one of which was a good 10-pounder.

I ended up with just 3 carp for over 27lbs and nowhere. As expected, the top weights came from pegs 25 and 23, with carp caught on the wag and mag. Well done to Angling Legend, Andy Greenham, who finished up with 59lbs for the win and Nick Sanders, whose 51lb net was enough for second place and a section win. Kingswood RBL clubmate, Kev Murch, was third with over 41lbs, which included a big skimbo and a few small roach for the top silvers prize. It was nice to see Gerry Welsh back on the water, too. Gerry finished the day with a creditable 35-14-0 for 4^th place and a section win. Next Thursday is the Christmas match and the weather forecast looks horrendous!

Alcove AC – Xmas Match – Whitehouse Farm

Having drawn peg 13 on Georges Lake last time, I was hoping for a draw on Margaret’s Lake for a change of scenery. I also much prefer Margaret’s Lake as I think it offers more options, especially if you draw a peg with an island chuck. So, I was hoping to draw maybe peg 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, or even 17 on Margaret’s, but what do I end up with? Peg 14 on Georges Lake! FFS! If I had to be on George’s, then I would at least have preferred either peg 17, 18, 19, or peg 1. Well, you get whatever your sticky little fingers attach to and you have to just get on with it. When I got to my peg, I was pleasantly surprised to see that pegs 12, 13, 15 and 16 were not in today. That meant I had loads of room and thought I might be able to draw some fish into my peg.  

The wind began whistling diagonally over my left shoulder, so a waggler setup was a must. I also set up two 13-metre pole lines. One out in front and over to my left to fish with maggles and pinkles and one in front and over to my right to fish chopped worm. Then out came the 4.5-metre whip for searching short both to my left and right. I had about 6 feet of water at 13 metres, which was a nice depth to work with. For both 13-metre lines, I used a topkit with a no.6 elastic and I had a 0.5 Chianti float rig with a size 20 hook to 0.10 for maggles and pinkles and a similar rig with a size 18 to 0.12 for fishing bits of worm. On the all-in shout, I dropped in a small nugget of Black Lake groundbait and a few dead reds to my left. Then a small ball of chopped worm, or a “worm bomb” as it’s often called, to the 13-metre line over to my right.

While I waited for everything to settle, I used my whip to find a few small roach on an inside line on my right. Bites were very slow, but at least I was getting some bites. The inside line on my right was full of snags, so I didn’t hang around there for very long. Instead, I focused on my right-hand side for about a dozen small fish before going out on the pole. I started on the worm line, but after 15 minutes, I hadn’t had any indications whatsoever, so that line was abandoned. A look over the maggle line brought an instant bite from a roach of around 2 ounces. Again, bites were very slow in coming, so I dropped in some more feed and went back on the whip.

The whip line had died, so another look over the worm line with both worm and maggle brought zero, zilch, nada. I could see from looking around the lake that not much was being caught until Kev Swanston, who was opposite me on peg 3, caught a big goldfish. That one fish instantly dwarfed my total catch and so I had to try something else. A few drop-ins with pinlkes brought a couple more small roach from the 13-metre line, but with just over 2 hours left on the clock, I needed to up the catch rate. So, down went the pole and I reached for the waggler rod. I chose a spot about 25 metres out and sprayed some loose maggles over the top. The wind helped me hit the mark… most of the time.

It took about 15 minutes before I began to get bites and they were from a better stamp of fish. I had a couple of net roach and one good perch of around a pound before latching onto a good-sized skimmer of just over a pound. So I carried on with this method until the all-out, catching quite steadily, although most of the fish were in the 1-3-ounce range. I kept hoping for an F1 or a crucian or even a carp, but it didn’t happen. On the all-out, I reckoned I had about 3.5 lbs. However, the scales said 5lbs exactly, which put me in first place with just Kev Murch and Rich Payne (the annual angler) yet to weigh. Kev had a lovely big perch, must have been close to 3lbs, in his net and an F1 along with small roach. His net weighed 5-14-0 and Rich managed to find 2-3-0 of small fish despite being almost blown off the water during the day.

Well, it proved to be a really tough day on George’s Lake, and those on Margaret’s Lake hadn’t fared much better either. Nigel Johns took the spoils on Margaret’s and overall, having found the only carp of the day, weighing in at 9-7-0 from favoured peg 6 to boost his weight to 11-3-0. That “bad boy”, Andy Brookman, finished second on the lake with 8-14-0. So a George’s Lake second place for me and a nice pickup plus a Christmas prize… happy days! Well done to all the framers and to match secretary, Jason Pitman, for organising the match and for his thrifty Xmas prizes shopping extravaganza.

Well, my next match is the Costcutter on the Windmill Match Lake next Thursday (18^th). It’s also the Windmill Christmas match. It’ll be 5 hours of sitting it out in torrential rain… luvverrrly! Then on Sunday, 21^st, I’ll be fishing the Christmas match on Bitterwell Lake, a stone’s throw from Windmill. It’s an all-in match, so watch out, you carp, I’ll be gunning for you… keep you posted!

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