It was to be three matches at Trewater’s for me this week starting with the Saturday open, which was to be on the bottom lake. I asked Bob Dac to draw for me and was delighted when he showed me end peg 54 a swim I have never fished this swim but always wanted to!
There was a nice ripple on the water, the sun was shining and I thought it would be good day to fish up in the water for the better F1’s. I wasn’t going to concentrate on them for the start as I have not managed to work out how to keep them interested for the duration of the match. It was going to be a pellet and paste start at 5 metres followed hopefully by a couple hours of slappers!
Putting on a pellet rig and plumbing slightly to my right I was amazed to find that the swim was about 2’ shallower than the rest of the lake, there seemed to be a slope that shallowed from left to right. In all the swims that I have fished at the farm, this is the only the second one that I have come across with any pronounced depth variation the other is around peg 43 and that variation is due to erosion as there is a water inlet.
Follow the leader
I watched Ian Ridgeway fish my peg last Thursday when I struggled and I knew that he caught on paste at 5m winning the lake with 42lb. I wasn’t about to change a winning formula that much, so my match plan was formed. At the start I fed a large ball of Green Betaine Ground bait and started with a 6mm soft pellet on the hook. Amazingly I didn’t get a bite but I noticed that Pete Thomas aka G10 was catching to my left. After a few minutes my first fish was landed which was a small F1 this was followed by a few more. After 30 minutes it was paste time, I found I had to wait a little longer for bites but the dollop produced slightly bigger fish including a few carp around the pound mark.
It was nice fishing but I had the urge to try and improve things! I had been pinging a few pellets out to the 11m line and was I keen to catch them shallow. Ten minutes later I was back on the paste disappointed with the lack of response never mind I could always try later. Back on the short line and I had a steady match catching in some good spells. The bigger fish were not playing ball but it was an enjoyable match. I did have another go shallow but never had a bite which I found strange.
Just in time
Towards the end I was having a run of smaller fish on pellet they were around the 8oz mark but they definitely slowing down, with less than 5 minutes to go, I put a bit of paste on and was delighted to see a nice bit of elastic shooting out of the pole as I lifted into a bite. It was my best fish of the day at around 2lb; I just netted the fish as my alarm went signalling the end of the match!
Bob Dac was first to weigh and he recorded 40lb to take the lead, it lasted until we reached Andy Partridge who had 55lb 12oz a nice net of fish that he caught on his top two. Andy managed to hold on to the lead until we reached Harry Billing who put 62lb on the scales another great bag. As we walked around weighing the other anglers Andy asked what I had. I joked that I had 56lb and was going to steal second place. As we got to my peg I asked one of the other anglers to weigh my fish for me and couldn’t quite believe it when 56lb 4oz was called – how important was that change to paste in the last couple of minutes!
Match two
Some days you just have to hold your hands up in the air and say it was my fault I didn’t catch! You cannot blame it on bait, the fish, weather or anything else for that matter. Wednesday evening was one of those sessions when I got it completely wrong. I stood in the car park looking over the lakes chatting with some of the anglers and I could see a nice ripple around peg 34 and more importantly as far as I was concerned a few fish topping in that area. I mentioned that is where I fancied tonight.
I held the draw bag out to Roger Cannock to have a dip for me and out came 33 fantastic I thought, a bit of that Billing peg prediction was finally rubbing off! I got around to my peg and I really fancied it, I set up for a shallow approach. I did put up a paste rig but I did it with no conviction, they were having it shallow!
The Doldrums
The match started with a drop in wind, all of a sudden the lake in front of me resemble a mirror! Still I thought I could catch shallow and started pinging pellets at my 11m line. I did put a bit of paste on first and caught a few close in but all I wanted to do was get out long and fish the wrong method!
I managed to get some fish as I’m sure they wanted to be shallow but with the flat calm lake they didn’t get confident enough to feed properly and were spasmodic. I did have a couple of good fish of around 3lb which kept me interested but I knew I was doing it wrong. I actually finished well down the field with 22lb. Even though I caught little, I really enjoyed just been there! It was a great evening very warm and sunny; I don’t think I took my sunglasses off until 8.45pm a fantastic summers evening.
That’s the way to do it!
Clint Elliot on the other hand did do it correctly and recorded 54lb of paste fish to win the match followed by Roger Cannock with 40 pound plus. Most had a good bag of fish and it looked like everybody left the fishery having enjoyed the match.
Saturday
There was a better turn out on Saturday and I put both lakes in spreading the anglers as much as possible. Once again my fate for the day was decided by one of the other anglers and I found myself on peg 47 on the bottom lake. Walking around to the peg I was a little disappointed to once again find a flat calm peg with the wind off my back.
I wasn’t going to make the mistake of Wednesday evening and planned to catch on the deck with shallow as an option later on, hopefully the wind would change giving me a ripple. I started as I normally do with some ground bait and waited for the first bite which took a long time coming. In fact all of us in the calm water were struggling. I actually phoned Skip after an hour, he was out of sight on peg 38 to find out how he was doing ‘slow, I’ve only got about 5lb’ was the reply at that time I don’t think I had 5 fish!
It did get better by working around three swims I managed to end up with 31lb mainly skimmers. I caught on paste and pellet,I did manage a few up in the water but it was just too calm to keep them there. I managed to beat all the anglers in the calm water, just! Billy Arch had 30lb that he caught in between whistling his way through the match on peg 49. We were way off the pace though Skip winning the lake with 75lb of mainly paste caught fish and 50lb plus took the second place on the lake.
The middle lake fished absolutely brilliantly with young Kurtis from way up north winning that lake with 107lb from peg 19 all caught shallow. He had a clue that the fish were up in the water when he started on the paste and F1’s were having it on the drop! Second was 89lb from peg 22 again a shallow approach was best. I have to apologise but I have misplaced the result sheet so I don’t know these two young anglers names, sorry lads but you had a great match well done, they even pushed Harry Billing out of the prize money as he had 84lb form peg 26 for third on the lake.
A question
I just want to finish this off with an observation; I have noticed it for some time now and wonder if some match anglers do not take enough pleasure out of our sport? I know we go match fishing for the competitive element, otherwise we would just pleasure fish. But surely we enjoy the sport as well? Recently I have noticed some anglers after a good match reply to a question of ‘How did you do?’ with a nonchalant shrug of the shoulders, grimace and say ‘I’ve had a few’ then later struggle to pull out their nets with a ton plus! What’s wrong with saying I have had a great match, really enjoyed it today and look like they have enjoyed it, rather than looking like they have just finished a very boring day at work!
Slightly different for me next week I have the Wednesday match down the farm and I am then going up to Yorkshire for a long weekend to be pools fodder on a couple of matches that young Tom has booked us into, should be fun!
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Very valid observation about miserable anglers who catch loads Stewart, there are quite a lot around Sheffield.
no tom it not just the anglers who are miserable from sheffield its the whole set of dee dahs that are miserable i say blow the toilet up with no escape routes
Stu – My sentiments exactly. See it all the time, ‘how have you done’ – ‘crap’
end result 130lb.
And they are still frowning. Its quite pathetic really. If you cant take pleasure from catching 100lb+ and winning money, or the match then I’m afraid you really are in the wrong sport as it obviously doesnt do anything for you.
some of us are happy with 20lb lol
Ah, I dream of 100lb plus. My joy is in just being out there and on the odd occasion I do win something, well, its just a bonus. Cheers Stewart
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