Group Therapy- A Week at Gwinear

I have had a word at the local surgery and booked the eight anglers myself included into the next group therapy session that they are holding, we all must be mad. We are in the middle of the worst storm in years in Cornwall and we go fishing! Good job not that many turned up as the wind machine was working overtime. Pegs were chosen that gave us some protection from the wind and hopefully would provide a good days fishing. I took the last peg in the hat and was chuffed to get 34 on the back of the island. The peg Harry Billing won the last match from!

As I crossed the bridge I had a chat with Harry who was on peg 28! Looking at his peg I joked that we should hire a crane to help lift his nets out at the end of the match. It did look good with the wind blowing into the bridge.

Down In The Deeps

The good thing about 34 is that the depth is the same at 6 metres and 13 metres so no need to set that many rigs up. A ¾ gram Capri was my choice as the swim is deep. And a 4 x 12 KC Carpa 2 for the edge. The peg is actually off the ‘festival pegging’ and is situated opposite peg 15. There are no features on the peg other than the depth to give you an idea I needed to use a top two plus the fourth section of my Tournament pole I do not use the number one section. The match started and I had my first fish on the first put in on 8mm pellet but the fish was very small a ‘Newbie’ this year’s stock fish. They were not going berserk as well, at the end of the first hour I only had 5 in the net. Talking to the other anglers I gleaned that I was on track on numbers if not weight! I had looked over my shoulder and seen Harry netting some monsters, in fact one of them actually broke his landing net head as he lifted it from the lake, come to think of it, it has suffered from overuse recently!

WWF

I persevered catching some at six metres and some at 12 ½ metres but never really got going, it was more like a wrestling match than a fishing match! In fact, I finished the match with 31 carp and weighed 50lb so you can see the stamp of fish that I was getting. Normally I would have expected at least 85lb if not 90 plus for that amount of fish. Again, I struggled for bites on the inside line. For struggled read none!

As predicted Harry romped the match with 103lb. He didn’t have that many carp but he had seven lumps that probably went over 70lb. Mark Lazell on peg 52 was second with 75lb and Gavin Hancock was third with 53lb including the biggest fish of 12lb 6oz. If there was a prize for most I would have won but has it happens my daughter has to starve as I won precisely nothing!

As I walked back to the car park I decided that I didn’t want to draw a peg that Harry had fished previously as he leaves no decent feeding fish in the swim!

I think the weather was the winner today, it has no doubt had a huge effect on the fishing. My barometer at home has been all over the place showing high and low pressures every other day, I just wish it would settle down.

Saturday Sweepstake

Saturday arrived and I was back at Gwinear for another go, it was a big relief to see that the driving wind had stopped, it was tipping down but at least we all could put a brolly up if wanted!

I drew peg 27 for the second time in a month. The only problem was that peg 36 was in this time, and to comply with local rules (so that peg 36 is not interfered with!) I could not fish over towards the far bank, this cut down my options. I really do not know why this rule is in place as peg 36 is one of the best pegs in the country never mind Cornwall!

Don’t Follow Harry Syndrome!

I decided to fish a little further out today as I thought the fish had backed off into deeper water because of the colder weather. Rigs were set up to fish at 6 metres and 12 ½ metres both angled slightly to my right. I was also going to fish at 14 ½ metres towards the bridge my usually half and three quarter gram Capri’s were assembled.

I also set up a 4 x 10 KC Shelf to fish long towards the bank. I had three pints of pellets as feed some 6 and 8 mm also a tin of corn. John Waples had drawn 36, the peg everyone wanted and Skip McCabe was on 28, it would be interesting to see how he got on following Harry! Harry had drawn peg 32 on the other end of the island and another fancied area. I couldn’t help but think no one would have to follow him on Sunday’s winter league match, as 32 would not be in the hat!

Swapping and Changing

The match started and true to form a small stockie obliged with a bite first put in and another quickly followed. That was it on that line, no more bites for 10 minutes a change to the 12 ½ metre line saw a few more fish with the odd bigger one.

I had 8 on the hour mark and six the following hour. I had to rotate around my chosen lines and kept the fish coming in fits and starts averaging 6 an hour. I hooked a real good fish on the 14 ½ metre line and it tore off under the bridge trying to get into Skips peg, unfortunately the line must have touched the lower part of the bridge and it cut my line above the float.

I did catch a ‘contender’ for the biggest fish, it was eventually weighed at 13lb 2oz but unfortunately Eric (sorry do not know your surname) took the food out of my daughters mouth by taking that accolade with one of 13lb 5 oz! Only joking, well done mate.

The Power of 36

John, after a very quiet opening 30 minutes found the fish, and then there was no looking back a procession of carp were fed into his keepnet, he stopped Harrys attempt at four wins on the bounce by taking the honours with 120lb, he was second though with 100lb. I managed third with 85lb. Skip suffering the curse of following Harry managed 4th with 77lb after a very late charge.

There was a bit of good humoured banter flying around and one of the quips is worth repeating. Skip was telling us that he got his nickname after he moved back to the UK from Australia, John Waples as quick as a flash said ‘Oh I always thought it was where you lived!’ Laugh, I couldn’t hold my pole still for about 10 minutes after.

Sunday saw us back at Gwinear for the last round of the winter league. It was also to be the biggest test of the venue this year as 27 anglers lined the banks. My team SPRO Select are laying second to Harry’s team Mossella Garbolino. We are 15 points behind and need two of his anglers not to turn up if we are to overhaul him! We do have a 12 point gap on Dares Devils the team in third place.

The winter league is only small by comparison to the rest of the country but, there is a lot of pride on the results. A disappointed Mark Lazell has had to work today as its White Acres opening weekend, Roy Booth has taken his place he joins Mick Heacock in our three man team.

I picked up Harry and ‘Duds’ and had to warn Harry that I might have to leave before the match finished! Vivien had gone to Spain on a weekend break and my 4 year old daughter woke in the early hours with earache. She was being looked after by some of our friends which had been arranged for a couple of weeks.

The Draw

I lined up to draw for the team it is purely random affair with three section bags to draw from. I drew Mick A section peg 34 on the back of the island. I was pleased with that as I had fished it recently and could give Mick the lowdown on the peg as he is not a regular at the venue. Next dip in for Roy and I drew peg 10 another peg that I had fished recently which I thought a good section peg. My turn and out came peg 47 the last peg in the banjo.

In all the years I have fished at Gwinear I cannot ever remember fishing this peg. I know it can be a good peg in the summer and when the fish are down the edge it can be a winner – but was not sure about this time of the year, the chat at the draw was not in its favour.

We drove to Gwinear and as we drove past the Specimen Lake I could see that the wind was very strong blowing down the lake, it had swung completely around over night and was now coming from the North. It would be blowing right to left into my peg, happy days I was hoping the carp would follow the wind.

Searching

I had no knowledge of this peg so had to spend quite some time with the plummet. I knew that there is a bar in the middle but I couldn’t find it using 14 ½ metres. What’s more I could hardly hold the pole at that length it was that windy.

I decided to concentrate on two main lines at 11 metres one to my left and one to the right. In the deepest water I could reach before the pole became unmanageable. I also set an edge rig up to fish in 3’ of water. I also setup the obligatory straight lead. At the last minute I set a waggler to fish down to the left about 20 metres away towards the bank. I had never done this before at Gwinear but it ‘just felt’ the right thing to do.

Early Start

We were due to fish 11am until 4 pm but a 10am a message was going around the lake that we were to start at 10.30am instead, I was ready so it didn’t bother me at all. It was also fortunate for me as will become apparent in a second or so!

The match started and I potted a dozen pellets on my pole lines, this is not my normal method here but I was unsure of the peg and wanted to know exactly where my feed was. As I was putting some bait in I could see Steve Bass opposite me on peg 50 playing a carp! I had just struck up a quid side bet as well!

I baited and dropped in on my left hand swim and the float settled and disappeared, a little lift and I was into a good common I netted it and it looked to be about 6lb. Out again and the float went straight down the plug hole this time a mirror of 5lb. Out again and a slightly smaller one was safely netted, the swim was solid! I was just putting the fish in the net and my mobile rang.

Early Bath

It was our friends telling me that my daughter was not very well and they had to go out, I had to pack up. I risked two more put ins and caught two more carp! I packed up in record time and was home looking after Francesca before the match was an hour old! I left my net but reckon I had about 20 lb. It is a little disappointing to leave the match before the end but family has to come first, after all fishing is only our hobby.

The Aftermath

The most important thing is that Francesca is recovering from a nasty ear infection and responding well to antibiotics.
Well the team had a disaster! I was not that surprised to learn that I weighed 22lb.04oz but was surprised to learn it was last in the section! We initially thought that 30lb would have been a good weight in that section. Just shows what we know really. I needed 11 ounces for another point, if only I had stayed for 5 more minutes!

Mick somehow put his back out and was unable to hold a pole for most of the match and he finished well down the bottom of the section. Roy was the only person to score reasonable points he had about 40lb for 4th in section.

Team wise we were relegated to third place by 1 point, hence the comment about five more minutes! Harrys team managed to hang on to first place but also had a poor round. And Skip McCabe’s team Wallabies moved up to second place. Never mind it was an enjoyable league. That’s my team fishing over until October; its now individual all the way, with the odd exception of a few pairs matches.

Gwinear fished really well with weights from all over the lake. It was very encouraging. Individually Steve Bass won the match from peg 50 with a weight of 116lb (The peg opposite me!), Harry Billing was second with 102lb from peg 25, Rob Fuller was third with 99lb (ouch!) from peg 36 and Charlie Shaw guesting for Dares Devils was fourth with 98lb from peg 28.

My only concern is that these are pellet weights and the Van Den Eyde festival in two weeks time is pellet barred. I better try and get some practise in with corn. It’s difficult though when you know that the float is going to go under with a pellet on the hook!