By Matt | No Comments
Last updated: Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The last two weeks have seen me fishing matches at Lindholme lakes. I Joined the Winter League along with Sir Tom that’s run alternate Sundays, and there’s always an open match to fish in between.

Last weekend was my first League round, after missing the first two due to other match commitments. Thankfully you can drop 7 out of the 15 matches, its a good job with the way I’m going lately!

The wind was horrendous on this first match, blowing straight down the middle of Bonzai Lake where I was sat on a reasonable peg 60. The feeder was looking like the only option on the day, so I set up both a small inline method, and a conventional small cage feeder with a longer hookliength. I was using identical SPRO 10’ picker rods, matched with red arc reels, so I could clip up comfy at the same distance with both. My method rig had a tiny 3inch 0.14 hooklink, while my feeder rig had a longer 0.14 hooklink of around two foot. I had an 18 B911 eyed hook and hair rig on both rods.

I did get a few sections of pole out and plumbed up, but could hardly hold 11m, so the favourable 16m was going to be fed via feeder!!!

I started the match on the conventional feeder, and had a steady start, catching 5 small carp in the first hour. Nobody was bagging, except Bed Fisk on the next peg, using the method. I switched to this and had a quick run of three fish before things went quiet again. I caught best on a small grain of corn or a 6mm expander on the hair rig. I stuck to the method, casting around to try and find some fish for the rest of the match, catching the odd small carp here and there. After 5 hours of wind, the whistle blew, and things managed to get even worse when it started chucking it down!

I ended up weighing in 24lb, and had a steady day picking up fish and getting a few bites. Mr Fisk had shown us how it’s done, with 45lb odd, on the method feeder as well as a few pole fish late on. I ended up half way in the section, which was a little disappointing, but still it was a good days fishing, and there’s plenty more matches to try and get something sorted out!

AN IMPROVEMENT!

The open match this Sunday saw a much nicer day, both weather and fishing wise. I drew the same bank on Bonzi, peg 68, a decent peg with options for pole and feeder.

After a lesson of Fisky last week, I set up both feeder rods with methods, identical to last week. I also set up three pole rigs to fish at 16m, which was just starting to g up the far shelf. Two were on 0.12 lines to 18 B911 hooks with the Pink J-Range hollow elastic. Two of the floats consisted of Tomas Walter patterns, in 0.3g and 0.5g. My other was a 4×14 more streamlined Chianti pattern, which was on 0.10 line with a 20 hook.

I soaked a bag of micros for feeding on the pole and also for the method rather than using ground bait. I fed the pole line at the start with a few micros and a bit of corn, before starting on the method cast to the corner of the island.

I had loads of indications in the first 25 minutes, but didn’t hook a fish, while others around me seemed to be catching. I then had a really weird bite and hooked the weirdest fighting thing ever. As it came up, I realised I had hooked another length of line with a feeder on and a mirror of 2lb. I hadn’t even hooked the fish, and somehow I managed to get it all in, and made myself a brand new feeder as well as a carp!

I managed another 5 small carp in the next hour, and another feeder! I had been dripping pellets on the pole line, which I came onto after an hour and a half. I had a steady run of fish for an hour, although they were small mirrors around 12oz. a soft expander was the best bait on the 0.5g rig. I managed a couple of F1’s before bites became iffy. I ended up sticking on the feeder until the last hour. I picked up another 4 more fish on this, again on pellets, wrapping micros around the method.

I spent most of the last hour on the pole, and although sport wasn’t hectic, I kept putting fish in the net, when those around seemed to be struggling.

When the scales arrived, 33lb was best in my section. My catch pushed them found to 40lb 11oz (and two feeders!), which was enough to win the section narrowly from Kev Baxter who weighed 39lb from the bottom corner peg. Mind you, I could do with the section results in the league when they count! Hopefully this Sunday will see us have a better day!

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