Lindholme has been my regular haunt this winter, trying to get as much practice for the WL semi this month, as well as fishing the individual winter league there. Since last time I wrote I’ve been twice, one of the times was in the middle of that mini ice age we had. I drew a very good peg, 43 on Bonsai, where most of the carp weights had come from. However, things had been really poor and the match was won the day before with just 20lb odd. I still though we would be on for a few bites, despite half the lake been frozen solid. The guys to our left were still breaking the ice at 10 o’clock!
There was no wind, so I could fish the full 16m limit, where I just started to go up the shelf towards an island to my right. I fed two lines here, one towards the island, and one in open water. Rigs were very light and simple, Featuring 0.10 lines to double 4 elastics, 0.2g and 0.4g SPRO slim floats, and 20 T-6113 hooks. I few one line with a few maggots, and the other with a few micro pellets. I had also managed to scrounge some joker off Tom, which I fed at 11m straight in front of me, and I had the option to chuck a bomb if I needed to.
Starting on the long pole I foul hooked and lost a carp first drop-guttered. At least there was one there! I then went a long period without a bite, and the only person I saw catch a fish in the first hour was Gary Jubb on 70 peg. I tried the joker line in a bid to catch a fish, and did exactly the same here, hooked a carp and lost it, bloody brilliant! I had my first fish after two hours, a carp about 12oz on the maggot, followed by a small roach. There was only the odd person with a carp or two, and my section looked really slow, so I decided to have another drop on the joker line.
This time, the roach had arrived, and I had a good hour catching really well, probably catching 40 roach for 5lb. With 40 minutes left I had another try on the carp line, and even chucked a bomb around for a while with no liners or anything. I had 10 more minutes on the roach, before sitting it out for a carp for the last 10 minutes. I did something a bit different and fed a good handful of pellets, which was a lot compared to what most guys had been feeding, and fishing a 4mm expander over the top, snared a 2lb F1 with minutes to go! Maybe I should have fed earlier! I ended up weighing in 9lb, which put me 3rd in my 10 peg section for reasonable points, behind Adam Richards who put a cracking 18lb net together, and who weighed a 13lb mixed bag.
Barston
The next match on my agenda was the Barston lakes Sensas League which is fished to international rules. I fished this with Barnsley, and after a dire last match, where only 19 anglers in the field of 60 actually caught a fish, we were hoping things had picked up. I drew in the same section as last time, which was pretty fair, in-between Calum Dicks and Darren Bickerton. It was still very cool, but there was no ice and hopefully we would get a few bites.
The 13m international rules pole limit sees many anglers fish just one line on the pole, and then a waggler swim, which was how I planned to fish. Rigs for the pole varied from 0.4g pencil floats to 1g round bodied patterns for lying line on the deck for skimmers. I fed the pole line to start with by balling in 8 balls of leam and groundbait, containing little feed, and then cupping some balls accurately over the top with some gear in. I then set up a 12g waggler, which I clipped up at 35 turns. On this I fed 20 small sausages of fishmeal at the off, full of casters and pinkies in hope of a bonus fish.
Starting on the pole, things were really slow, which is worrying as the matches are only 4 hours. Callum and Darren had both got 10 fish in the first hour before I had my first one on my light rig off the deck. I had tried for a skimmer with bigger baits, but had nothing. I even had a look shorter and cupped in some leam. People walking the bank said that the whole section was struggling, with the odd person catching roach. At the half way stage, I was way behind Callum and Darren who both had 10 fish plus to my 2!!! I decided to have a serious look on the wag for a bonus fish to get me back in it. The wag is usually a last resort for me here!
Using 5 bloodworm on an 18 B911 to 0.12, I Cast over my feed, where the rig held nice and still despite the wind. The Wind and tow were going in opposite directions, which made presentation easier. After 5 minutes or so I had an indication, which developed and I struck into a fish! I couldn’t believe it!!! After a little scrop an F1 around the pound mark was in the net! Yeah! The next cast, another of a similar size followed, before I missed a bite and had no more indications. It definitely proved that the wag was worth setting up though!
With under an hour to go, I had another look for roach on the pole, and managed one more. With no indications on the wag, I sat it out in the last 10 minutes on the pole for a skimbat, with the big rig and a bunch of bloodworm. With a minute left, the old float disappeared and I struck into another bigger fish! International rules say that the fish has to be out of the water when the whistle goes or it doesn’t count. I Threw the pole back, broke down as fast as I could, before clumsily scooping out another F1 around 8oz!!! SPAWNEY!!! It certainly was a last gasp fish, as the whistle went before I put it in the net. Callum and Darren had both had a late run of small fish, so it was going to be close. Darren Put exactly 3lb on the scales with 20 odd roach. Then, my three brown roach (F1s) and three silver roach also went 3lb exactly!!! Callums went 2lb 12oz!
That gave me a respectable 5th in section. There were some fish caught in the middle of the section, F1s and skimmers, where 8lb won the section. Des Ship had a nice net of roach nearly 7lb too.
The Team did medioka on the day, but were well down in the league after a bad result last time. It’s the Sensas Challenge Final in two weeks, so hopefully Barston will be back to its usual form, and there will be some fish to catch! It’s a cracking venue usually, but this winter has seen fishing hard, like most places really though.
Back to Lindholme…
After a mild week I was well up for Lindholme last Sunday, and drew a nice looking peg 8 on Willows Lake. I tried to keep things simple and just wanted to get some blooming bites for a change!!! I fed a pellet line in open water at 14.5m through a kinder pot, and then had two maggot lines either side of me next to the reeds, where hopefully I would catch some trout.
Things were slow to start off with, but everyone in my bay seemed to be struggling. After an hour an a half I had 11 F1s on my pellet line, all on a 4×14 rig, 0.12 to a double 4 elastic. I had been feding small amounts all the time, but I just didn’t feel there were any numbers of F1s in the bay, as nobody was catching, while in the other bays most people had 30 F1s of so!!! They are small fish, averaging say 4oz, so they tend to shoal up.
I had been feeding my maggot lines by hand, and after trying them, I stayed on them for most of the match, having a proper lovely last two hours fishing. I wasn’t catching fast or anything, but had a right old mixed catch, tench, trout, roach, rudd a skimmer, 2 chub, 2 ide, even a couple of small carp. I really enjoyed it, and just wish I had fished maggots down the edge all day. I used a light 4×12 rig on 0.12, to an 18 hook and pink J-Range elastic, Feeding 20 or so maggots every time. My catch went 23lb odd, which saw me come absolutely smack bang nowhere! I was 5th in the section think. We even stayed for an hour fishing after the match, it was good, the weather was mild and it just felt like the summer might be on its way a bit! Can’t wait!
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That Barston match sounds a bit more like the old ginger i know, catching a bloody F1 at the death, typical init Matt!?
Ding dang do mate! Anyone can catch em during the match, but it takes skill to catch em at the end
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