By Stewart Lister | No Comments
Last updated: Thursday, July 17, 2008

Looks like my life as a match organiser at Oakside fisheries is going to be short lived. Three turned up last week, followed by two this week! Even though I could get in the top three every week with these attendances it really is just not worth the bother, shame Oakside is a great fishery. At least there will be some weekend matches there to have a go at. I guess anglers are not interested in silver fishing and only want carp at this time of year.

With Gwinear out of action for the remainder of the summer there really is a lack of midweek matches in my neck of the woods. I understand Charlie is working full pelt to get Gwinear open again as a fishery, and when he does it will be a lot different from before. I will get into see him soon and if he agrees, I will keep you informed of his progress through these pages. I for one am very pleased that he is keen to get Gwinear back on the map.

Theres gold in them lakes

Well with midweek silver fishing out of the equation I have decided to go prospecting for gold. Or the golden peg to be precise! Currently Janet has over 450 golden nuggets in her possession she is just waiting to give them to a lucky angler, so I have decided to give it a go. Just to remind you of how it works at MP as it is diffrent from other fisheries. The Golden peg is capped when it reaches 200 golden pounds. Another is then started and if not won is also capped and another started. The match winner at the presentation is asked to re draw from the day’s peg numbers and if he draws the peg he won the match from he wins the booty, simple. At the moment the winner makes three draws so in theory could win the lot! Oh, the match has to be an ‘open’ match of at least 10 anglers; private matches quite rightly are excluded from the golden peg.

On Wednesday we just about managed to scrape 10 anglers together, it was difficult to count them as they kept moving around! Well, that was Janet’s excuse, but 10 there were so we had a qualifier. The field was quite a strong one but with only 10 fishing all the pegs were going to be good un’s. I had my dip and jokingly said 47 before looking at it I was gobsmacked to see it in my hand. I had worked out that I had to be in the draw queue in front of Pete Thomas to stand a chance as he had called it home for the last two matches! To be fair it has not really produced recently but you have to fancy it.

I got to the peg to find Duds and Harry as my neighbours for the day on 46, opposite on peg 29 was the other grandmaster Andy Partridge he has drawn this peg four times recently, he now has peg 29 rigs permanently set up in his holdall and the talk is that he only bring those rigs with him!

I have drawn this peg once before a couple of years ago, on that day I had very good weight fishing towards the left of the peg in the margins. So I decided this is what I would do. The upshot was that I wouldn’t have Andy and Harry in my line of sight, so I could just get on with the fishing and keep my concentration intact. I set four rigs to cover my options these have now become my norm for MP margin fishing no need to go through them again. My bait for the day was fishery pellet and Yorkshire bait soft hookers I was going to try betaine 4mm today. I had a few 6mm with me as well

I was ready in plenty of time and keen to go. Janet sounded the whistle and I put a pellet on and dropped in. I had to wait for a bite for probably couple of minutes and could hear the splash of landed fish coming from Harry and Andy’s peg. Before long the bites started and I was quickly into a rhythm netting carp, but they were small some in the 8oz range. After about 40 minutes of fishing in the same spot I suddenly was snagged! I really don’t understand this but I was solid, pulling for the break snapped the line above the bulk shot, bah. Out with an identical rig, readjusted and fishing a little shorter I was back in business.

Spooky

A couple of hours in Harry jokingly asked me to slow down and give him a chance, I couldn’t believe it when I did! Coincidence, or has the great man got divine powers? I was now chasing fish around my peg trying to put a weight together but couldn’t put them together at all. What’s more I found the snag again twice in the remainder of the match. I actually dipped my arm into the lake to try and remove it. I found it was a root and did manage to break a bit off I was amazed to find 6 hooks in the bit I snapped off! Obviously I wasn’t the only one to have trouble with it.

It is really difficult to change your swim around mid match as everything is laid out for efficiency, more importantly if you need to drastically change swim positions your keep nets are a big problem, so I was not left with many alternatives. I managed to keep some fish coming but knew that they were not coming fast enough.

The match ended and I was a little disappointed with my days fishing, I think it’s sometimes about expectations when you draw a good peg and it doesn’t happen, but what the hell I’m out there doing it which is great. I was first to weigh and put 146lb on the scales which cheered me up and I was honestly surprised at that. At least I was leading the pack albeit for five minutes, the time it took to weigh Harry who recorded 150lb. That was close but I do think casting spells is not really in the spirit of the game!

It didn’t last long for either of us, Skip McCabe on peg 5 heaved 215lb onto the scales to take the lead and he managed to hang on to it. Well done Skip a great result. Andy Partridge came second with 201lb and John Waples on a rare visit to MP came third with 167lb. John Sholte also had over 150lb there was a 140lb from peg 41 making at least 5 weights over 100lb and two double tons! What a day’s fishing, I cannot wait until the day that this venue is on song!