One Out Of The Frame

Normally the first Saturday of the month means I will book myself into my local match on Theale Pits but due to the cold weather we experienced in October with all the snow and heavy rain we had, meant it had more or less knocked the fishing on the head as the fish seemed to have gone to ground, resulting in me looking for some alternative matches in the surrounding area. The closest I could find was Oakfield fishery near Bicester and having won my lake last week on the first time I had ever seen the place meant it would have been rude not to take the opportunity to go there again though it’s not a cheap day out as it is probably more than 50 miles from me.

Saturday arrived with the alarm going off at 6.15am. With a quick shower and breakfast, I picked my mate up from Reading and we were on our way. The weather was brilliant, sunshine but it was extremely cold. There were 24 anglers present, and these would be pegged between the 2 lakes called Brook and Swallow.

Swallow is kidney shaped and is probably about an acre in size where as Brook is a doughnut shape. At the draw I drew Brook 7, this meant nothing to me but I was informed it was a peg with some form. Setting up there were quite a few fish showing which filled me with some enthusiasm and having had a quick chat with Gary Thorpe he let me know on how he would fish the peg. I opted to fish 3 lines, one at 15 metres right into the sedges at the back of the peg, and one at 10 o clock and 2 o clock again in front of the sedges but this was slightly deeper water. Rig wise for the line at 15 metres with 3ft of water, I opted for a KC Carpa Chimp 4 x 12, 0.15 main line, black hydro through to a Tubertini 175 size 18.

For the 10 and 2 o clock line which was about 4ft deep, I opted for KC Carpa Chimp 4 x 14, 0.13 mainline, grey hydro, through to the same size hook. Baitwise I had some soaked 2mm micro pellet, red maggots, corn and some 6mm GOT expanders with my plan being to catch one fish of each line, refeed and then move to the next line as when I fished here last week, if you took to many fish of one line you could wait a long while to get them back.

On the all in a but a small toss pot of micro pellet onto each line and would top up that line if I was getting bites from it. I managed a few fish in the first hour and word along the bank was that peg 1 and 30 were catching with the rest not really having much. The sun was hindering my vision of the float so consequently I had to fish one handed whilst trying to shade the sun from my eyes. Eventually it moved round and I could start to fish a bit more comfortably. Going into the 4th hour I was starting to get one a bung off each line so my plan was working but the fish were a small stamp. I decided to switch from expander to corn to see if I could get a bigger fish and the next 3 put ins produced 3 fish of about 3lb. After this bites dried up and for the last hour I struggled to get a touch and that was that.

I wasn’t sure what weight I had, but I estimated about 40lb. When the scales arrived at me there were 2 weights of nearly 90lb and 50lb, I knew I had nothing to match this as my estimate proved pretty close with a weight of 39lb 2oz. Gary on the next but one peg had tipped back so there was only one to beat me which was peg 1 and this was the case as he did me by 7lb which meant I finished one out of the money. Still it was an enjoyable day with a few bites. On Wednesday I am off to Ashridge Farm, lets hope it’s not frozen.

Ashridge Farm

Wednesday arrived and pulling the curtains to the side revealed a hard frost, not really what I wanted. To cut a long story short, only 7 turned up and we had to break the ice for an hour to make 7 pegs fishable.

I drew the end of the island and set the bomb rod up and the pole to fish down to the bush to my left at 10 metres and straight out in front of me at 10 metres. On the all in I fed a nugget of bread and each line as there is quite a head of crucians in here and they show well to bread in the winter, and threw the bomb down the back of the island with hair rigged bread. Stuart on the opposite peg was into fish more or less from the start with the rest of us remaining bite less but I was getting the occasional liner. Eventually the tip flickered and I was in, though the test was to come trying to steer the fish through all the shards of floating ice.

After a good ten minutes I managed to get the fish up and it was in the bag, a nice mirror of 16lb, it was certainly a test for my Daiwa Connoisseur Z bomb rod. I managed another 8 fish all on bread and finished up with a weight of 67lb and second overall. Stuart carried on his good start and finished with a 120lb and only one other angler caught, I suppose that’s the joy of winter fishing, you are on them or your not !!!!

Lastly I would like to thank Tom for asking me to join this site and I would like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas

See you soon.