After an up and down winter league campaign with my team Garbolino Ossett, everybody decided to do there own things for a few months until the next team events came up. After pleasure fishing the River Don at Sprotborough a few times through the summer with my mate Mick Lodge we decided to enter a team into the annual Rotherham Winter League on the venue. The league runs for 6 rounds and is teams of 4, with 15 teams fishing, it was definately worth fishing. Our team consisted of myself, Mick Lodge, Andy Geldart and Tony Hopkins and we felt we stood a really good chance.
After 3 rounds we where a point behind the leaders and were being very consistent, then in round 4 our big break came. The river was 2 feet above normal but with it only just being flooded, was full of debris and was pulling like a train!!! We had a reasonable draw but the extra water made it very fair.
I drew peg 19 and got to my peg and really fancied it, there a was lovely looking edge with some brambles that i was sure fish would seek refuge from the current, under. my plan was to fish a light 4×10 float with a little bulk and two droppers in 1 foot of water either side of me then fish a lolly as far out as i could fish without my rig getting covered in debris, this meant fishing just 4m out!!!
It was 4 foot deep here but i still needed a whopping 8gram for the float to sit anything like, i also had a bush downstream about 11m where the flow was a bit steadier, it was only 3 foot deep here so i set up a small 1gm lolly fished 1 foot overdepth. my initial feed was a golf ball of crumb either side with a few pinkies and 4 balls of heavy mix at 4m followed by two big baitdroppers of chopped worms. i also fed the 11m edge swim with a dropper of worm.
The aim was to just catch a fish, so i was relieved as a 1oz roach was swung to hand on the first chuck!!! i had about 20 micro fish in the edge before it tailed away. News on the bank was tht i would be winning the rock hard secton. by this point the 4m swim was ruled out as it was simply too fast so i decided to concentrate on the 11m edge swim, it wasnt brilliant but with some perseverence i manged 6 more roach of about 3 oz apiece which was mega.
In the last hour i managed to lose a lump(why do they always come off when you need them the most??) most likely a skimmer. At the weigh in it proved i was 2nd in my 15peg section with 1lb 5 1/2oz with 1lb 8oz winning the section, team job done!!! it turned out our lads did awesome recording 14 points with the league leaders scoring 30!!! this round proved to be the turning point as we went on to win the league by 11 points in the end!!!
It was very satisfying to win this league on our first attempt and break Daiwa Dons domination of the event. Our team plans on normal rivers was to stick with the pole with 3 basic rigs, a 1gram running rig, a 2gram float designed to be held back slightly, and a 3rd rig was a lolly in whatever size the conditions dictated, a 3gram saw the most use throughout the series for me. usual feeding was 3-4 balls of a dark gorundbait mix(i used van den eynde secret and sensas black lake 50/50) a couple of bait droppers of chopped worms then loose feeding maggots over the top, i usually used around two pints.
After this league had finished my good mate Gary Jubb had asked me if i would like to fish with him in the Thorne pairs, a bloodworm league fished on the sections of the Stainforth and Keadby canal around Thorne. This league attracts many top names- The Scotthorne’s, Ashby, Wardle, Hemmingray, Kerry and Godffrey to name but a few so the competition was always going to be fierce!!! We fished it with a very simple game plan and fed raw joker on one line!!! We felt we needed to monitor one line all match to see when the roach came, as in the hard sections you only needed 4-5 runs of bites to be in contention and we felt by fishing lots of lines you was potentially splitting the fish.
We had a great start to the league, I won my section in the first two rounds coming second individually on the second round, with Gary also doing very well from average pegs. I then had two 2nds a 4th and a 6th in the remainder of the league. going into the last round we where lying second- a point behind Sean Ashby and Kian Wardle and it was all to play for.
Come the day of the match the canal was frozen and it turned into aqua bingo!!! and neither of us drew on any fish!!! I managed a few roach in the last 20mins for 2lb 4oz whereas the other end of the section the lads all had 4-5lb. Jubbs also had a grueller managing a measly 3oz(mostly small stuff!) and our chance of winning the league had gone!!!!
Gutted was an understatement. we still finished a respectable second, with Ashby and Wardle coming out on top and the Scotthorne family in third.
With all the expense of bloodworm fishing and the long walks of the River Don I really fancied a break from team events for a while, and have concentrated on the excellent Lindholme Lakes nr Doncaster. Ive been on oasis 3 times willows once and beeches once, i managed a second on lake from peg 12 on oasis last weekend(24th feb) and a section win with 52lb of small F1’s on pellets fished around 4ft deep, the fish never seemed to settle any shallower.
Last weekend I drew on the largely unused Beeches lake so didnt really know what to expect. I drew peg 29 which if im honest didnt turn me on much!!! I spent the first hour chucking a method feeder around but with no bites felt a change was in order!! I’d been loose feeding maggots at about 14m and felt i might aswell give it a go, first drop an 8oz roach was my reward followed by another and another and another, then an odd 6-8oz chub showed. all the time i was feeding about 15 maggots regularly and felt i was ticking along nicely as i couldnt see anybody catching anything.
I was using a .08grm Fox MP3( if Carslberg did floats this would be it!!!) with an 0.10 hooklength and a 18 hook, finished with a no. 11h preston elastic, this allowed me to swing most roach. after two hours i was really enjoying it, and also had managed a 2lb f1 and a 3lb chub!!
I was so busy enjoying myself that i forgot about my maggot supply-or lack of it!!! id only brought a pint and was running out fast, luckily bait dealer Dave Brettel was opposite me so a quick power walk round and id got some more maggots!!!
I got back to my peg and the fish had gone!!! it took a further 45mins to get them back!!! the last hour was fantastic though with another big chub and more roach following. at the all out i felt id fished a really nice match and thought id had 15lb ish, i was pleasantly surprised to weigh 30lb 8oz of mostly roach for a fantastic day from a poor carp peg.
It just goes to show that sometimes doing something different to the norm can result in a lovely days fishing and a good result, and i know id rather catch a roach a bung than sit with a bomb and corn all day!!!
C ya later for a bit and tightlines till next time!!!
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Tom
