Sunday 19^th January – Winter League Round 4 – Georges Lake, Whitehouse Farm

There are 2 matches to report on today, the first being the Costcutter Open at Windmill Fisheries at Westerleigh on Thursday 16^th January. The fishing here has been exceptionally hard over recent weeks with the carp shoaled up in pockets around the lake. That means you could be on a shedload or nothing at all. As for the silvers… me thinks the cormorants might have been having a feast during the cold mornings and early evenings. There just doesn’t seem to be any in the lake.

Only 9 anglers braved the ice-cold conditions for this match, so they were well spaced out on both banks of the lake. I drew peg 16 and was quite happy with that. I had Kev Bush for company again on peg 18, and ‘new kid’ Simon Stacey on peg 14. On the opposite bank, I could see Gary Bedford on peg 6 and I could just make out John Williams on peg 9. When I arrived at my peg, I was a little surprised to see how clear the water was. That ruled out any thoughts of inside-edge work and so I had to have a quick rethink about my tactics.   

The bomb and maggle/bread/corn was definitely the order of the day but I scaled right down for my 2 pole lines. For my 14 metre line right across to the island, my rig consisted of a size 18 Guru LWG hook to 0.11mm Guru N-Guage mainline and a .2 gram Chianti float. Top kit was fitted with 8-10 MAP TKS hybrid elastic. The only other rig I set up was for fishing down the middle in 7 feet of water. This rig consisted of a size 18 Guru LWG hook to 0.11mm Guru N-Guage mainline and a .4 gram Matrix F1 slim float. That was it. All set and ready to go.

On the all-in I chucked out the bomb with a single 6mm disc of bread to the edge of the gap between the islands. I only gave that 10 minutes before changing to double maggle. I didn’t have to wait long before I noticed a liner, which was quickly followed by a fast wrap-round on the tip. I was into a carp but it came off after about 10 seconds. So, I went straight back out to the same spot and within a couple of minutes I was in again. This time the fish was properly hooked. Well, we were only about 16 minutes into the match and I had a 5lb carp in the net already. A nice positive start.

Then nothing! No more liners and no more bites. So, I had a look right over on the 14-metre line, first with bread and then maggles. There was nothing doing there either. I had cupped out a small nugget of groundbait and a few maggles to the 9-metre line at the start, so I had a look over that with maggle on the hook and then pinkle. Nothing again. So, we’re 2 hours into the match now and I noticed Gary opposite land a decent size carp. He was fishing bomb and maggle right over toward the reeds at the edge of the island. So, out went the bomb and maggle again. This time, I searched all along the edge of the island but there were just no signs of life anywhere. Except…

I noticed a little roach swirl on the surface about halfway across. Gary was now catching carp with impunity… one after the other, after the other… FFS! It was making me feel sick but he was revelling in it. He was enjoying every moment while us mere mortals could only watch and weep. With only 2 hours of the match left I couldn’t stand it anymore. The inaction on my part was driving me insane. I had to do something drastic or at least something different or just pack up and go home. So, I pondered my options for a minute and then another tiny roach swirled on the surface. That was it!

I went over to my holdall and picked out one of my canal topkits, fitted with a number 4 elastic. To this I attached a canal rig, which consisted of a size 22 hook to 0.7 hooklength and 0.10 mainline. The float was a slim 0.2-gram Chianti. On went a single pinkle and 6 pinkles went into the small cadpot. Out I went and on the second put-in, I had a 1-ounce roach in the net. After that it was a roach a chuck… not! LOL… I was chasing these tiny roach up and down in the water over the best part of 2 hours. Around 4 or 5 had fallen off during that time but I ended up with 8 in the net.

Come the weigh-in it was obvious that Gary had caned it and I was sure John Williams had put in a strong performance too. By this time I was past caring but quietly hoped nobody else had caught any silvers. When all the results were in… Bingo! I was the only angler to weigh in any silvers and so my meagre 8-ounces was more than enough to whip some ass! A nice pick up and happy days. Come on you silvers! 

Winter League – Georges Lake, Whitehouse Farm

It was round 4 of the Winter League and what a fooking cold day this was! I was so glad I had my hand warmers with me but my feet were feeling it before we even had the draw. So, talking of draws… Match Secretary Jason and his little helper, Julie, had Dave Rugman pick out their pegs and both were on fliers!.. again. How do they do that? Jason got peg 1, arguably the best peg on the lake and Julie got peg 19, which is usually stuffed with carp and F1s. There’s something very fishy going on here… LOL. So, I picked out peg 14, which is halfway up the right-hand bank and there’s nothing very special about this peg. However, I still had a job to do.

The edge lines didn’t look like they were going to come into play and so I ignored them in favour of 2 12-metre lines. One was to my right and one to my left at 6 metres apart. I set up 2 similar rigs, both at full depth, which was about 5.5 feet deep. Both rigs were set up with 0.4-gram pencil floats and 0.12 mainline. One rig was on a topkit with a number 4 elastic and one had a number 6 elastic. One rig had a size 22 hook and the other had a size 20 hook. Bait choice was pinkles and maggles. I did bring some corn too, just in case. My groundbait was a 50-50 mix of F1 sweet and Thatchers original. Skimbos and roach were the target species.

I didn’t think the carp would figure in this match but a bomb and bread approach at the start had to be a consideration. On the all-in, I cupped out a 50 pence size ball of groundbait with about 6 maggles and 10 pinkles to my right-hand line. To my left-hand line I dropped in 10 maggles only. Then I lobbed out the bomb with an 8mm disc of bread on the hook I had a few chucks without any signs and so after 30 minutes I was onto my right-hand pole line with double pinkle on the hook. I got an immediate response from a 6-ounce skimbo. Lubbly jubbley!

This was soon followed by a string of small roach before it went a bit quiet. So, onto my left-hand line where a small skimbo of around 4 ounces snaffled my single maggle. As the skimbos were obviously feeding, I began to top up both swims with the same mix of groundbait plus a few maggles and pinkles after each fish I caught. After about an hour, I had a steady rhythm going, working both swims and changing baits continuously. Double pinkle was best at first but then single maggle proved to the bait of the moment. Double maggle was a no-no but a single red scored well. I kept up the momentum, even though a carp had been caught on peg 8 by Pete Watkins.

Andy ‘Bagger’ Brookman was on plum peg 11 and I was sure he would knock out some of the long lean chub that live there but he only had 1 of them. He did however, have a couple of chunky F1s. The only other captor of note was Jason on peg 1 who had some good quality skimbos. I was happy to just carry on banging out as many small fish as I could. When it went quiet, I fished with a single pinkle on a size 22 and had most of my fish on this set up. I also had to push the pole out an extra metre when I felt the fish had backed off. I certainly put in a full shift today. On the next peg to my right was Dave Rugman who was fishing the whip and he was doing really well. A little too well I thought as I saw him bag a skimbo, which must have been well over a pound.  

With about an hour to go I felt I was doing okay. And although my feet were feeling like 2 fooking blocks of ice by this time, I had to totally focus on the job in hand. The thought of being at home soon, in the warm, eating my Sunday dinner and watching The Antiques Road Show kept me going. I know I had caught a lot of fish but many of them were small roach and I could have done with a couple of bonus skimbos. The ones that go around the 2-pound mark would have been nice but it was not to be. My best skimbo of the day was only about 12 ounces. And so now the moment of truth…

Pete’s carp was only 5-10-0, which is tiny for this lake. Andy Brookman didn’t have many fish but they were solid and totalled 6-1-0. Dave Rugman on the next peg did well to catch 4-7-0 on the whip and my net weighed 5-5-0. Well, surprise, surprise, Jason had found some big skimbos, which helped propel him into first place… yet again. His 6-8-0 net was enough to push Andy into second place and me into 4^th overall but 3^rd in the payouts for taking to the top silvers prize. In the money again… LOL. Happy days are here again!

I’m booked onto the Windmill Costcutter match again for Thursday 23^rd and then I’ll be heading out to Barton Farm at Bradford-on-Avon for a RBL club match on Sunday 26^th. I really hope the river is fishable this time… keep you posted.   

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…