Sunday, November 17th – Winter League Round 1, Margaret’s Lake, Whitehouse Farm

Welcome all! Here’s my captivating coverage of the high-stakes drama that was played out at Whitehouse Farm on Sunday…

We had a maximum of 14 anglers attend this eagerly anticipated event, which was the first of a series of 6 matches to be held on both Margaret’s and George’s Lakes. I arrived in good time despite spending much longer than usual in the ‘little boy’s room’, trying to stem the flow of liquid excrement… sorry… too much information there. Yeah, so antibiotics have unpleasant side effects, right?

Well, my 5-week cough became a chest infection, for which I was given medication and now it’s back to being a plain old killer cough again. Thanks doc! I’m beginning to wonder whether I’ll have to live with this fooking infliction for the rest of my life… seems that way. Every time I feel a cough coming on I do my level best to try and suppress it for fear of having an ‘accident’. Honestly, I wouldn’t wish double incontinence on my worst enemy but… I must admit my pelvic floor and abdominal muscles are getting one hell of a workout… lol!

Okay back to the drama… The draw was like a desperate rush for food rations at a refugee camp, which left me with the last peg number in the draw bag. It was peg 15. So no island chuckies for me today. This peg didn’t fish very well on the Poppy match, the Previous Sunday, and with an icy cold north wind howling down the lake toward my bank, I wasn’t too enthusiastic about catching much from it either. This can be a good peg in the summer months but the fish seem to abandon it in the winter for some reason. Nevertheless, I still had a job to do.

I set up a rig for fishing full-depth out in front at 10 metres. It was 7 feet deep here and just a little shy of that at 8 metres to my right, which is where my other rig was set up for. I did set up a margin rig for my right-hand edge but didn’t really expect to catch from there today. I also had a feeder rod set up, which I only intended to use while I made a cup of tea, which was twice and for about 5 minutes each time. So, on my long line, I planned to fish with worm over groundbait and chopped worm and caster. The 8-metre line was for maggles and pinkles only.

On the all-in, I cupped out a tiny pot of groundbait to the 10-metre line and went straight over it with half a dendra on a size 16 hook to a 010 hooklength. Fook me! The float shot straight under and I was into a skimbo of around 12-14 ounces. After that exhilarating start, I never had another bite on worm during the rest of the day. So, it was maggles and pinkles from then on. I worked both lines alternately and continuously, even starting a new line after 2 hours. FFS! This was really hard work! I was only catching tiny roach and micro perch on pinkles. Others were having a tough time too by all accounts but not everyone.

Clive Hewson was on my favourite peg 17 and had latched into some of the big chub on a maggle feeder from the island. Match secretary, Jason Pitman, found 3 quality carp down his right-hand edge from prolific peg 6 and both Pete Watkins on peg 5, and Andy Brookman, on peg 12, found a carp each to go with their silvers haul. To my left on peg 16 was Kev Murch who drew the same peg in the last match and struggled having caught just a few tiny perch all day. He had fared better today though, managing to find some small chub.

Well, I knew the game was up at around 1 o’clock when I couldn’t get a bite even on a single pinkle to a size 20 hook and a 0.6 hooklength. I spent the last 2 hours in despair and desperation, catching only about 6 small fish during this time. The last hour was a real endurance test for me as I tried meat and maggles down the edge and pinkles everywhere. I was now cold, fed up, coughing continuously and ready to meet my maker… well, ready for bed at least. I was truly glad when the match was over. My 1-12-0 mixed bag was of no consolation, finishing 12^th on the day and picking up a hefty 12 points.

In this league, points don’t make prizes. Less is more! However, your 5 best weights from the 6 scheduled matches are what counts. So, in that match, I have… hopefully, produced my worst result of the series already. That means I can dump that one in the recycle bin and move on. Start as you mean to go on… yeah? Err… no actually, that’s not what I mean. I’ll leave it there except to say… is it just me or is fishing pretty much pants everywhere at the moment?

So, well done to Jason for winning and well done to all the framers too. Our next round will be on Georges Lake on December 1^st and I’m hoping the lake gods will take pity on me and give me a fooking chance to claw back some dignity… Cough! Cough! Well, I won’t be fishing on Thursday as I really need to get this health issue under control and it’s going to be Brass Monkey weather anyway. Forget about Black Friday! The cold air would very likely make me cough so much, that I could end up with a Brown Thursday! However, I have every intention of fishing the next Kingswood RBL match on the river Avon at Chippenham, Sunday 24^th.

It’s only going to be raining buckets and blowing a fooking gale, what could possibly go wrong? Keep you posted.

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