Sunday 2^nd February – Winter League Round 5 – Georges Lake, Whitehouse Farm

As is usual nowadays, I fished the Costcutter Open at Windmill Fisheries on Thursday. It was the first of the 2025 Costcutter 500 qualifiers and surprisingly, it was a nice dry day. However, the fish were still having none of it with a few DNWs on the weigh sheet once again and generally, some pretty low weights all round. I think 12 turned out for this one including all the usual suspects. I drew peg 20 this time, which wasn’t exactly a peg to get all excited about. The previous week I drew peg 21 and didn’t get a bite all day, so I wasn’t getting my hopes up for this session. I had Andy Greenham for company on peg 18 and Kev Bush again on peg 23. Kev keeps following me around this lake but I still won’t tell him any of my secrets… lol!

So, with the match underway, I had set up just the one pole line at 10 metres to fish to my right and to my left. It was pointless setting up an edge rig as it was still too clear and too cold. I also set up a bomb rod for fishing punched bread or maggles right over. I might have poled up to 16 metres if it hadn’t been so bright. Well, after 2 hours and not one single indication, I was getting well and truly pis*ed off. Then I noticed Andy land a carp. He was fishing a waggler right over but he had the advantage of fishing to the edge of the island, which is a little bit sheltered. I had started on the bomb and bread and then maggles right over but hadn’t had any indications whatsoever.   

But… I knew they must be there somewhere! I put the pole down and picked up the bomb rod again to have another go with maggles on the hook. I started over to my left, as far as “permitted”, and with each successive cast, I moved to my right about a metre at a time. Then I did the whole “cast and seek” thing in reverse. At around 2.30pm, enough was enough and I had decided to pack up but then I noticed a little quiver on the tip. I waited and waited but nothing else happened. Well, it was worth one more cast at least, so out I went again. Less than 5 minutes later, the tip quivered and then bent round very slowly and stopped. I’m thinking…FFS! Was that a bite?

So, I struck into it anyway and low and behold, I was in. Finally, a carp of 5-9-0 graced my landing net. It was small consolation and meant I was now just 5 carp behind Andy (LOL), who won the match convincingly with 35lb. Well done to him. Gary Bedford managed a controversial second place with 30-12-0 from peg 6 again, and my old Legion clubmate, Kev Murch was third with 21-10-0. The man of the match for me was Paul “Barney” Barnfield who won top silvers with 7 ounces. I won top silvers a couple of weeks ago with 8 ounces so Barney had to go one better. There’s no reason why next Thursday shouldn’t be just as hard if not harder. 

Winter League Round 5 – Georges Lake

We were on this lake only 2 weeks ago for round 4 of the Winter League, when I won the top silvers prize with 5-5-0. The fishing was hard then but today we all expected it to be much better as the weather was warmer and there were only light winds forecast. At the draw, Match Secretary, Jason and his glamourous side-kick, Julie, got someone to draw for them. Dave Rugman had been doing the honours in the past but with Jason getting so many plum draws, it was about time someone else drew for them. Tony Cook stepped up to the task and only drew out pegs 18 and 19 on the dam wall. These are 2 of the deepest pegs on the lake and are usually stuffed with big skimbos and F1s with quite a few carp lurking in the margins. I’m not sure how much they paid Tony but this certainly looked like an “inside job” to me.   

I was busy chatting when I finally got to the drawbag and there were only 2 peg numbers left. So, in I go and out comes peg 1. Ta-dah… That’ll do nicely! The last time I drew this peg it was blowing a hoolie right into my face. I was only able to fish an inside line then but today was going to be different. When I finally arrived at my peg, after pushing my barrow down the muddy track and into the boggy field, I was quite happy with how everything looked. I had lots of options, with a small bush to my left, a reed bed to my right, overhanging trees diagonally opposite, and with nobody on Peg 2, I had plenty of room out in front. I also had a good vantage point in that I could clearly see Jason and Julie and I could also see the “danger man”, Andy Brookman, on the far side.

Now, the problem with having too many options is knowing what to do first and what to focus on. With a cold breeze picking up and blowing from left to right, I decided not to bother fishing to my left by the small bush. Instead, I set up 2 identical rigs for fishing out in front to my left and to my right at 11 metres. The only difference between the 2 rigs was hook sizes. One had a size 18 and the other a 20. Also, the small hook setup was on a 5 elastic and the 18 hook setup was on an 8 elastic. One for fishing maggles and pinkles and the other for fishing corn or expander pellet. Jason won the last match from this peg, with some big quality skimbos caught on corn. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. I also set up a rig for fishing down my right-hand edge, just off the dead reeds. This short rig was attached to a top-kit with a number 18 elastic fitted… just in case.

Finally, I had a bomb rod set up for fishing, maggles, corn or bread right over into the corner and along the diagonal bank. On the all-in, I cupped out a golf ball size of Swimstim F1 Sweet groundbait to both of the 11-metre lines and then I lobbed out the bomb with a disc of 10mm punched bread. For the first 30 minutes I probed the far side edges with bomb and bread, then corn and finally maggles but there were no signs of any life there. Next, I went over my right-hand line with a single maggle on the hook and had a small roach right away. After that, I started putting in about 10 maggles after every fish. I had a few more roach and then a couple of small skimbos averaging 8-10 ounces each before the bites dried up on that line.

A look over the left-hand 11-metre line with corn and then expander pellet, produced no interest at all and so I decided to abandon this line completely. Looking around the lake I could see everyone was struggling so it was obvious that this was going to be yet another hard day. I carried on flogging the 11-metre line with maggles and pinkles and managed to find the odd small roach but not much else. Then… oh no! Andy Brookman had hooked a carp on light gear and was slowly, slowly coaxing it toward his waiting landing net when suddenly he and the fish parted company. Aw… Poor Andy… I did feel for him (LOL). Well, him losing that fish was a relief, because it would have meant an instant win and lots of pressure on the rest of us.

Well, it was time to look down the edge with bread, corn and maggles. Maggles was the only bait that produced a positive response from a cheeky, chunky rudd of around 4 ounces. I carried on catching these lovely rudd and the odd roach on this heavy rig until I got into an almighty tangle. FFS! Just when I had a nice rhythm going too. So, I quickly set up a 4.5-metre whip and carried on right up until the end of the match. I caught a steady stream of nice 3-4oz fish at 3 feet deep in 4 feet of water and could have carried on much longer as there were obviously a lot of hungry fish there. Regularly putting fish in the net was the name of the game today as most people were finding it tough. Even the Maestro himself, Jason Pitman, was having a hard time on what was undoubtedly one of the favoured pegs.

So, come the end of the match, that unfortunate man who lost a carp earlier, (who are ya?), more than made up for his loss by finding some big quality skimbos. Andy ended up winning the match easily with a total net of 17-8-0. Well done to him for his fine performance and a lesson in superior angling for the rest of us. The “Old Soldier”, Dave Rugman, whipped out a few bonus skimbos together with a load of small roach for second place with 7-2-0. I was third with 5-8-0, picking up the top silvers prize once again. Happy days! I think I’m currently in 4th or 5th position in the league so I’m not going to win it but there is a chance of picking up one of the minor prizes if I do well in the last match, which will be on Margaret’s Lake in 3 weeks’ time. Well, it’s back to Windmill again on Thursday for more excruciating punishment and then back on the river at Barton Farm on Sunday 9th with the Kingswood RBL. Keep you posted!    

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

If you enjoyed reading this blog then be sure to join the Fish Wag Facebook group HERE for blog updates. Please Like and Share… it’s appreciated! Check out my older blog posts below…