Sunday 8^th December – K&H RBL AC Christmas Match, Bitterwell Lake

I’ve finally realised that Christmas is on its way… because we had our Kingswood RBL Christmas match on Sunday at Bitterwell Lake, near Westerleigh. I always like to keep Christmas in December but sometimes I even forget it’s December until I’m reminded that it’s time to put the Christmas tree up…lol. More on that in just a moment… Meanwhile, life and fishing have been going on as normal with the usual Thursday Costcutter match at Windmill Fisheries. Here’s how it all panned out…

Windmill Fisheries Costcutter Open – December 5^th

This one turned out to be a very damp, and for some, a pretty dismal affair too. Those fishing for silvers had a real hard time of it and those fishing for carp, battled it out with just one good carp separating the top 5 places. In recent weeks and despite my ‘killer cough from hell’, I had managed to return some respectable weights so my mojo was on the up and up. At the draw I was feeling quite ‘chipper’ and not really too fussed about what peg I would draw. So, into the bag of dreams and nightmares we go and out pops.. peg 8.

Well, what can I say… this is the peg I fell in on last year and although I have drawn it once since, I still had an uneasy feeling about it. So, today, it was finally time to face my demons and get over it. I had clubmate Kev Murch for company on peg 10 and the only other angler I could see was Kev Bush on peg 11. The wind was blowing steadily down the lake toward us and there seemed to be a lot of colour in the water. A few carp were crashing about on empty pegs 6 and 7 and also under the tree opposite peg 9, which was at least a good sign.

I decided to fish a maggle feeder over to my right in open water and just one line out in front at 8 metres. I also set up a margin rig for fishing about a metre out from my right-hand edge in 4 feet of water. It was too shallow on the left-hand margin so I didn’t bother with that one. It would have been okay in the warm summer months but I was sure the carp would prefer to stay in deeper water today. So, all in all, a very simple plan of action was coming together. On my side tray, I had F1 Sweet groundbait, maggles, pinkles, meat, corn and 4mm expander pellets… and I was all ready and fired up to go.

On the all-in, I lobbed out a very small Drennan Black Cap maggle feeder over to my right. On the business end, I had a size 16 Guru Kaizan hook to a 12-inch 0.17 Guru N-Guage hooklength. Within a minute of tightening up the mainline, I was getting liners. Now the problem with liners when you’re feeder fishing, is the fish could be anywhere from a couple of metres away from your rod tip to the actual feeder itself. So, in this case over a length of 30 metres. As that was going through my mind the tip bent right round and I had a carp on. Fook me! That was quick! You usually have to wait at least an hour for your first fish on this lake.

Well, I wasn’t complaining but around 20 minutes later, I foul-hooked one and after that it was liners only, so I decided to rest that area for a while. My next plan of attack was the 8-metre line. I cupped out a ball of F1 Sweet groundbait laced with micros and followed that in with a single grain of corn on the hook. I gave it 10-15 minutes but got no response so I changed to double red maggles. I also gave that 15 minutes and still nothing. Next, I tried 2 pinkles on the hook and once again, there was no response so I changed to 4mm expanders. Well, I was fast running out of options with only meat left to try. I had both 4mm and 8mm pellets of meat with me so I tried an 8mm first. Nothing!

So, all that was left to try before going through the whole menu again, was a 4mm pellet of your finest Co-Op-bought Spam and… Bingo! Carp on! This was a chunky 10-pound mirror and used all of its weight to great advantage, staying deep and refusing to come to the surface. Well, I just held on and finally won the battle of wits. So out I went with another meat pellet and I was getting lots of indications. Strange though, to think the carp were there all along and they simply ignored all my other offerings. Well, the float dipped out of sight and I was in again, only to lose this one… as you do! FFS!

At this time, I decided to feed my edge line with micros and meat and take a look every 15-20 minutes to see if there had been any arrivals. Meanwhile, I re-fed the 8-metre line and I’m soon back over it with a small piece of meat on the hook. Now, there’s something else that’s strange… I could only get bites on 4mm meat. They completely ignored the 8mm size. Okay, so about halfway through the match and I’m motoring now with another quality fish in the net followed by 2 more before the bites tailed off. A quick look on the inside line didn’t produce so out went the maggle feeder again. It didn’t take long before the tip was bent around and another carp safely netted. Then another one was hooked and lost and defo a foul-hooker.

So, we’re now into the last hour and I’ve got 6 carp in the net and grieving deep down inside for the 3 that got clean away… lol! Losing carp is inevitable right? Well, it is for me… Anyway… Another look down the inside and wham! The float had only just settled when it shot under and I was in again. This was another biggie of at least 9lbs. So, in goes more feed and back out onto the 8-metre line for another one that was waiting for me. This was also a really hefty fish and it seemed to take an age to get it up in the water, which resulted in me putting on too much pressure and pulling the fooking hook out! FFS! When will I ever learn?

Well, it was back down the edge for another one and I made no mistake in taking my time with this precious 9-pounder. So, with around 15 minutes left, I hooked and lost one more before the all-out. I thought I might have done okay but felt I needed just one more… yeah any one of those lost fish would have done nicely. At the end of the match, it began raining quite heavily, which as you know is a fooking pain in the ass when you’re trying to pack away your kit. Before the end of the match, Kev Bush had packed up and gone home. Kev Murch reckoned he had about 30lbs and I thought I had about 50lbs. Come the weigh-in, I had 53lbs and I was sure I had won the section.

Anyway, turns out I had won the match but fook me it was close. I would estimate there was just one carp separating the top 5 positions. So, it was a soggy end to the day but at least a win in the bag finally. I’ll be back again next week.

Kingswood RBL Christmas Match

Our annual Christmas match was once again held at Bitterwell Lake but it was a close call whether it would happen at all thanks to Storm Darragh. Paul Isaacs, the Fishery Manager, had closed the lake on Saturday and I wasn’t sure if it was going to stay closed on Sunday. We also had a meal for 12 booked in at The Mill House pub in nearby Emerson’s Green so it was all hanging in the balance. Thankfully, the match went ahead as planned even though the wind was still a bit lively around the lake with trees swaying and creaking in the strong, ice-cold winds.

Everyone arrived early and then Paul and our match secretary, Ian Brice, walked around the lake and selected suitable pegs. The favoured pegs were on the car park bank, which is also known as the ‘sunny bank’, as this area was the most sheltered from the wind. The bank directly opposite was getting the full force of the wind so I defo didn’t want to be drawn over there. At the draw, myself and Jason held back until there were only 2 peg numbers left in the bag. He insisted on having the last one, which turned out to be peg 12… on the cold, windy-in-your-facey bank… lol! En route to my peg, I couldn’t help but notice that Alan Maggs had drawn peg 30 in the corner, which looked like a mill pond. I was sure he would win from there.

When I got to my peg, which was peg 27 on the car park side, I once again had Kev Murch, on peg 28, for company. John Treasure was to my left on peg 25. He fished the feeder all day, unlike many others who opted for a short pole, myself included. I could easily have got away with fishing 10, 11 or even 12 metres but chose to fish a comfortable 6 metres. In hindsight, I probably should have fished longer as I wasn’t in touch with any skimbos on the short line. So, I decided to fish 6 metres to my left and to my right with maggles and pinkles only, and 4mm meat to my right-hand margin.

I also had a maggle feeder rod set up for starters and gave that 30 minutes of my life for no reward. A change to fishing the pole with pinkles brought an immediate bite from a small roach so I was at least off the mark with all fears of blanking now put firmly aside. By the end of the hour mark, I had 2 roach in the net and as far as I could see, there wasn’t much being caught anywhere. Jason and Clive on the opposite bank were suffering in the icy cold wind although Jason was now into some skimbos. I alternated between both my left and right-hand lines with maggles and pinkles. Maggles were producing the most responses but hooking the little fookers was a real challenge.

I checked down both my edges for carp and tench but never really believed there would be any sign of them. Kev to my right was catching the odd small roach too but I was sure I was ahead of him on weight. The 3 anglers to my left were all struggling for bites but on the roadside bank, there was more skimbo action from Tony Welsby. Meanwhile, I’m trying every trick in the book to get bites but those I managed to hit produced only tiny roach. I did manage to find a bonus 3-ounce perch in the last hour but that was quickly snuffed out by Kev’s monster 10-ounce roach. So, it looked like Jason and Tony were running away with it and unless anyone latched onto a carp, it was going to be all over for the rest of us.

Paul and Jason weighed everyone in and as expected, it turned out to be the Tony and Jason show! Tony won the match with 4-5-0 and Jason was a close second with 3-12-0, both of them having some decent-sized skimbos in their nets. Kev’s big roach helped to propel him into third place with a total of 1-11-0, which proved too much for me and my 1-2-0. I thought I might finish in 4^th place but later found out that scallywag, Leigh Wakefield, had landed a cracking 9-ounce perch right on the whistle and so had pipped me by an ounce. The man’s a scoundrel!

Well, with the match thankfully over, it was off to The Mill House pub for hot food, drinks and festive prizes for everyone. Defo the best part of the day. Well, that was the first of several Christmas matches for me, the next one will be at Whitehouse Farm next Sunday. Keep you posted!

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