Sunday September 29^th – Alcove AC v Silver Bream AC – Whitehouse Farm – Frame At Last

I didn’t fish my usual match on Thursday as the Windmill Match Lake was booked out to a club. Instead, I went over to Whitehouse Farm for a quiet, no-pressure session on Margaret’s Lake. I chose peg 14 and had a great day’s fishing, catching skimbos and roach in a nice 35lb net of quality fish. However, it was a very different story on Sunday…

So, this is an annual event between the 2 clubs going way back with bragging rights bouncing equally between both clubs over the years. There were 23 anglers spread across both lakes and as usual, carp would settle any argument. I really didn’t mind where I would be drawn today… as long as it was on Margaret’s Lake. Peg 14 or 17 would have been nice but instead, I ended up on a very autumnal-looking peg 6. Now peg 6 can throw up some good weights so I wasn’t at all despondent with my draw, as was evident by the tell-tale smile on my face.

However, this peg is not known for its nets of skimbos so carp and chub would be my main quarry today. The bigger skimbos and small bream usually inhabit the deeper pegs from 10-15 so I was expecting a top silvers weight from one of those pegs. Pegs 5-9 had island chucks and all can produce some big carp. Peg 17 is my favourite peg on this lake and almost always produces a good weight at any time of year. Peg 6 has a kind of spit on the right-hand side, where a shallow weed bed juts out into the lake. This is a great holding place for carp and I was depending on it to throw up some heavies later in the day.

There was one big noticeable difference in the weather today compared to Sunday. It was fooking freezing in the overly keen east wind and definitely a day for hoodies and coats. In contrast, just 3 days ago it was a warm T-shirt day. Fish don’t like sudden temperature changes, so I was expecting the weather to have some bearing on the catches today (getting my excuses in early lol). So, my plan was to start off with a maggle feeder close to the island for chub or anything else. I also set up a full-depth rig for fishing at 12 metres and one for fishing at 9 metres. Both of these lines would be for skimbos and roach.

My bait table consisted of worms, maggles and casters for the silvers plus meat and corn for the carp. I also mixed a small amount of Scopex groundbait to add to the chopped worm. My hopes were pinned mainly on getting a few carp out from my right-hand edge and so for this, I had my trusty margin pole, which is fitted with a Drennan Bungee, size 25 pole elastic. There are some 20-pounders in these lakes so you can’t afford to mess about. My rig for this line comprised 0.22mm (9lb BS) mainline to a 4 inch, 0.19mm (7lb-6oz BS) hooklength with a size 14 Preston KKM hook. When pole fishing, I usually nip off the hair and stop but not today. I intended to fish a few inches over depth to counteract the wind, so I left the hair stop on. 

On the all-in, I chucked out the maggle feeder to within a metre of the island. 2 chucks later and I was into a nice skimbo of around 2lbs. Soon after that, I had a roach of about 8 ounces and then another skimbo of around a pound and a bit. I gave this a full hour in the hope that the big chub would pile in but they didn’t and my only other fish from this line was a small perch. So, it was time to get some nosh down onto my 2 pole lines. I cupped out some choppie mixed with groundbait, a few micros plus maggles and casters to both the 12-metre and 9 metres lines. Then it was time for a hot cuppa!

I first went out over the 12-metre line but after about 15 minutes, with the wind making the presentation very difficult, I decided to abandon this line. Although I had a 1.5-gram Chianti float on, the wind was playing havoc with my pole at that length. I had a lighter, 1-gram float rig on my 9-metre line and this proved to be just as hopeless so I changed the rigs over. So, I was now fishing a 1.5-gram Chianti on my 9-metre line in 7 feet of water. This was much more manageable. This rig consisted of a 0.15mm (5lb BS) mainline to a 0.13mm hooklength and a size 16 Guru Kaizan hook. My first offering on this line was a whole dendrobaena.

It was soon snaffled by a skimbo in the 2lb bracket but despite there being plenty of evidence, by way of bubbles, it took an hour before I had another. So, that made 4 skimbos and a few bits for what I reckoned to be about 7lbs. That’s not a lot of fishies for 4 hours of hard angling so I had to now focus on the carp down my right-hand edge. I had already cupped in some 6mm pellets of meat in preparation about 30 minutes previous, so now it was time to see if anything had arrived. I baited up with a 10mm pellet of meat and carefully laid it in. A few minutes later I got a little indication that a fish was at home. 

I had a lightning-fast bite and missed it. My bait was gone and I was certain that a carp was the culprit. So, off I went again, and again, and again. FFS! I was defo getting proper bites but just could not hit them. As I was fishing at about 4 inches over depth, I decided to shorten the rig by 2 inches and that did the trick. I hit the next bite and swiftly landed a 5-pounder. About 15 minutes later I was into another. This one went about 7lbs. Then I began missing bites again so after a few more adjustments to the rig, I finally got my third carp. This one was the biggest at around 10lbs plus. There were still about 30 minutes to go before the end of the match but during those extremely anxious and highly fraught 1,800 seconds, I didn’t get a proper bite.

I know there was at least one more carp there but it just would not play the game. Well, that was it. It was a very slow and frustrating match for me where bites were at a premium and every single one was truly precious. I ended up with 30-2-0, which was enough for third place together with some very welcome beer tokens but I feel I should have had a lot more from that peg. Something to ponder on for next time. Well, we beat Silver Bream by 2-15-0 so well done to all the Alcove anglers for their efforts.

Well, I’ll be off to Windmill Fisheries on Thursday for a match I’m really looking forward to. It’s a silvers-only match on the Carp Lake. I have absolutely no idea what to expect. Then next Sunday, with the river out of sorts because of flood water, I’ll be back on the Match Lake at Windmill. Here’s hoping I can catch a few fish! Keep you posted…

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