Scratching Around!

Saturday saw round four of the Ranskill teams of four league, and from what I heard in terms of how the venue had fished the previous week, it was going to be a tough one! Our skipper Mark Holmes had been on a midweek match and blanked, along with another two of the five anglers that had fished! A 4lb weight had won the match, and that was when five anglers had the lake to themselves, so its fair to say I was far from optimistic!

I drew peg 30 which is something of an all or nothing draw- and it was a nothing kind of day. I opted to fish long pole with bloodworm, as often there are a few skimmers to be caught around the area, and I also planned to chuck a bomb out and a maggot feeder to see if any carp or ide were in the area.

To cut a long story short, nothing worked for me, I couldn’t muster a bite over my bloodworm, and my tip refused to budge with the feeder in open water, or the bomb which I threw to the island in front of me. I say refused to budge, it did move once in what I thought was a ‘carpy’ liner, I left it, and then it happend again, you can imagine my dismay then when I struck into a two ounce roach! Then again, I must admit I was slightly relieved just to avoid the blank! I ended up with two ide and two roach for 15oz, which put me fifth in my nine peg section. To be fair, all the top end of the lake fished shocking, with a couple of anglers blanking!

Well done to Rotherham Paving who won the day with an impressive 5 point tally, including three section wins and the individual match winner in Zac Lawton. They have set themselves up as the team to beat, with a ten point lead over their nearest rivals after just two rounds! Mind you, those Rotherham lads can’t half draw, they only went and pulled the same four pegs that had won the match the previous round!

 Lindholme Winter League

That night, the temperature dropped down to minus six, and it took me a good ten minutes to defrost the car the following morning! Matt’s road was like an ice rink, but fortunately we managed to get to the breakfast place in one piece- just!

We arrived at the venue to see venue owner Neil Grantham smashing the ice on the lakes with his digger, and all the anglers were huddling together for warmth in the draw queue. Despite the conditions, there was a good turnout however with 79 anglers lining the banks, and with the usual host of stars it looked set to be a really good- if difficult- match.

I stuck my hand in the back and pulled out peg 30 once again- this time though it was on Bonsai, in a reasonable area. I had some good uns to beat however with Trent legend John Allerton to my right, and England youth star Danny Uxley to my left, and with Johnny Kenning also in my 10 peg section. Lee Kerry had drawn John Allertons peg a couple of weeks previous, so I put a call in to him to find out how he would plan to attack it, he confirmed what I was thinking anyway- a long pole approach with maggots and pellets being the way to go.

After twenty minutes my float slid away- I was the first person out of everyone I could see to get a bite. You can imagine my embarassment then when I struck only to find that my line was wrapped around the end of my pole, and my rig snapped! Gutted!

I had to wait an hour for another bite, but when it came fortunately it ended up in the onion sack, and from what I could see the fish would be worth good points, as there weren’t may people catching. The day turned in to a real waiting game, feeding two or three maggots and waiting up to half an hour for a bite, but if I worked my bait enough I always seemed to get one. John and Danny were struggling either side however, and I couldn’t think of anything to do to up my catch rate, as feeding can be the touch of death for F1’s when the weather is cold, so I just kept plodding away.

I ended up with nine F1’s, which weighed 15lb. Fortunately this was enough for the section win and sixty beer tokens for me and Sir Matt to share. To give an idea of just how hard it was, John Allerton finished second in my section 5lb, and Steve Rothery won the section to the left of ours with just 3lb, in fact my 15lb was good enough for 6th on the match! That’s proper tough by Lindholme standards! Hopefully next week I will be able to tell of a few more fish being caught. Tight Lines until then

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Comments
  1. antsants
    December 10, 2008

    what was the winning weight at ranskill and which peg.

    Leave a reply
  2. TomTom
    December 11, 2008

    Hi Ants, Zac Lawton won off peg 24 at Ranskill with a weight of 17-2-0. He caught on the pole and waggler. The Woodseats Winter League on the Sunday was won off 24 again, peg 26 won it on the taxi match on wednesday, Roy Hanson with 18lb, John Mills jr was second of 24 with 11lb. Hope this helps :-)

    Leave a reply
  3. campocampo
    December 13, 2008

    Not only are the best anglers from ROTHERHAM as previously stated but so are the best drawers. 3 section wins 1 second with a first and third place overall still leaves room for improvement, our aim is 4 section wins with the top 3 until we acheive that we are letting our fabulous town down. Long way to go in the peggiest series ive ever fished. Dont be dismayed Tom your will draw no5 and win the round as well by a country margin its easy off that draw int it????????????um

    Leave a reply
  4. TomTom
    December 13, 2008

    You must know you are onto a loser Campo. Ginge says you and Sutty taught him everything he knows, and now he is teaching me. He is even going to teach me how to throw a waggler over Christmas, so you’d better watch out. He has even told me where you get your meal worms from, so I reckon you won’t have win a bean from now on. He is quick to point out, by the way that where he lives is a lot closer to Sheffield than Rotherham.

    Are we having a Christmas side bet next week? Do you fancy a bevvie after the match? Worst individual performer out of me and all your team buys the ale?

    Theres a challenge for you…. :-D

    Leave a reply
  5. suttysutty
    December 13, 2008

    i never taught ginge that cos last time i threw a wag was 1985 and you could get a bite on the tow cos there used to be loads of fish

    Leave a reply
  6. campocampo
    December 14, 2008

    Last time i spoke to ginge he said hed almost given up on you sumot in the sentance mentioned education and pork cant remember it all. We’d love to have a pint with you after the match to try and winkle some tips out of you as ive only fished the place a handful of times and dont know where half the pegs are. We are just winging it at the mo and using our massive ROTHERHAM talant. On the ginge front ask him how many sheffielders hes learnt owt off as oppose to ROTHERHAM, his current skipper is 5mins from my door along with 5x and masson and most of the legendary goldthorpe missfits. Nuff said Tom until you cross the border you have no chance.

    Leave a reply
  7. suttysutty
    December 15, 2008

    hi tom just wondering if you have ever thought of opening a second hand tackle site up especially in these financial depressing times cos i for one is looking for a newish pole but not willing to spend silly shop prices ive had three spectrons in the past which now wouldnt make a gooden between them but i really dont want to down grade but like all ROTHERHAM folk owt 4 nowt just something to think about cheers sorry i wont be fishing sat but warmer climates beckon only under doctors orders promise

    Leave a reply
  8. TomTom
    December 16, 2008

    Good idea Sutty, when the forum gets bigger it would be a nice to have a section dedicated to buying/selling goods, it proves popular on sites such as totalfishing- have u had a look on there for a second hand pole? Have a good holiday pal, see you at Ranskill after Christmas :-)

    Leave a reply
  9. campocampo
    December 16, 2008

    Sutty you are one hell of a tight mo fo. Relying on a 6 year old shimano technium 12.5mtr pole to try and win this winter league is outrageous, you wait while Tom draws one of the pegs youve had and watch him double your catches hes got a 2grander so hes bound to, int he??????????????

    Leave a reply
  10. TomTom
    December 17, 2008

    My pole has more repairs than Campo’s van, and is probably as heavy at 12.5 metres as a Shimano Technium. I hope I draw peg five this week…

    Leave a reply
  11. rolfrolf
    December 17, 2008

    ‘My pole has more repairs than Campo’s van, and is probably as heavy at 12.5 metres as a Shimano Technium’

    Which one?!

    Leave a reply
  12. campocampo
    December 18, 2008

    somehow Tomothy i feel you will end up with all the good pegs you normally do ive heard

    Leave a reply
  13. antsants
    December 21, 2008

    Thanks Tom ,might see you next year going to try and fish some opens at Ranskill

    Leave a reply
  14. RICHARDRICHARD
    December 29, 2008

    SOUNDS LIKE THE ROTHERHAM BOYS HAVE EARNED THE RIGHT TO ATTEND THE ROLF HARRIS SCHOOL OF ARTS FOR DRAWING

    Leave a reply
  15. suttysutty
    December 29, 2008

    we might be good drawers but we fail at colouring it in

    Leave a reply
  16. AlainAlain
    December 30, 2008

    I’ve heard it’s the Rotherham Paving reserves that are cleaning up at Ranskill. Wait till the first teamers get going….Ha!

    Leave a reply
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