Lovin’ it at Lindholme!

I have fished Lindholme for my first time this year, and after 4 matches, I had never weighed less than 20lb, even though I hadn’t framed or won anything. All that we really want at this time of the year is the float going under and to catch a few fish, which this well stocked venue certainly offers.

On my fourth open match, a 73 pegger, I drew on a totally new lake, the Oasis canal, peg 37, in the middle of the far side. The peg was virtually identical to every other peg on the lake, around 14m to the far bank, shelving from 6 foot in the middle of the track up to around 18 inches across the far side. The great thing about winter carping is that you don’t need much bait. All I took was some micro pellets for feed, a few hookers and a tin of corn. I decided on a line straight in front of me at the bottom of the shelf, around 11m, and then two lines across, where I found the same depth at 10 and 2 o’clock angles. 2 rigs and 2 baits, it can’t get much simpler!

To start the match I fed a kinder cup of micro pellets on all three of my lines, and then baited up with a 3mm expander to start on my 11m line. The rigs were made up on 0.10mm powerline, to a 0.08 hooklength and a size 20 B911 hook. Elastic was number 9 Preston hollo. The track rig consisted of a 0.3g Tomas Walter carp series, while the far bank rig was a 4×10 Carpa Belter float, both shotted simply with stotz, a bulk and two droppers. I always lower the rig in when pellet fishing, bang over the bait, and was pleased to see the float settle o a pimple and then dip under as an F1carp around 8oz took the pellet straight away. It’s great when things start well in a match, but believe me, it’s not always the case! A steady run of these fish came to the net in the first hour of the match. I clipped on a large toss pot, and filled it fully with micros after every 2 fish. Bites were only really small dips and lifts on he float, which is very characteristic of F1’s. The soft elastic stops fish bolting off and they tend come in pretty easy if the pole is kept low. Everybody around the lake appeared to be catching, and after an hour I recon I had about 25 fish for about 15lb. The swim stayed very active for the next hour, and I did pretty much the same, maybe catching a few more fish. I tried corn on two occasions to see if there were any better fish around, but just came back with the same stamp so I stuck to pellets. The third hour of the match saw a few bigger F1’s make an appearance around the pound mark, so I decided to put my second keepnet in. Bites slowed down so I put another toss pot of micros onto my far lines just in case. I was still coming back with a fish every time, but the stamp suddenly got way smaller, fish in the 4oz bracket. I tried upping the feed and laying off it a little, again slipping on a piece of corn, but there didn’t seem to be any better fish around.

As the last hour or so came, I decided to give the far lines a try; prompted by the guy next door who had caught a couple of proper carp tight over. I stared on corn and was back into an 8oz F1 straight away. After two or three fish I got into a rhythm of feeding one of he far lines when I shipped out, then catching a fish off the other, so buy the time I went on a line there should be fish on it. I changed to pellet on the hook in the last half hour, and managed to keep these better fish coming. I bumped a few fish off in the last part of the match, and lost a much better common of around 5lb right at the net! I’d pay for that later!

At the end of the match I walked around the lake with the scales. Steve Rothery put on a cracking weight of 98lb, an awesome days fishing, and went on to win the match, but second on the lake him was 60lb. When the scales arrived at me I was surprised to put 80lb 02oz on the scales. The fish weighed a lot more than I thought, and was even more pleased to find I was second on the lake! I just missed out on the top 4 payout, but won my section and ended up 6^th overall out of 73 anglers, which I was really chuffed with. I missed out on second place by 8lb or so, but there’s no way anyone can complain about 80lb is there? Tight lines, Matt.