The winter individual league at White Acres is one series that gets most people out on a Sunday down in the SW. This year it is a 16 match series with your best eight results to count. Normally it is an angler with a near perfect score that takes the spoils at the end of the series. The results are based on section results and with small five man sections and some very good anglers taking part those important section wins are not always that easy to come by. The opening round saw 45 anglers brave the wind and rain for the first match that was to be held on Pollawyn Match Lake, Sycamore, Python and Trelawney. Normally the fishing is of the highest order with some huge silver fish weights; everybody was hoping this year was going to be no exception.
Veterans Haven
Clint was holding the bag of dreams as I had my dip, out came peg 12 on the Match Lake. I was not really that excited about the peg as I thought there were much better ones in this particular section but as I have said before, there is nothing that can be done about that number that sticks to your hand as you dive in with hope of a flyer!. When I went to record the number it all of a sudden it looked like a difficult task that lay ahead, I saw I had Harry Billing, Mike O’Gorman and John Hethrington in my section. Harry and Mike had just recently finished fishing the veteran’s festival at WA and finished first and second overall! The pegs in my section were 12, 14, 16 31 and 33 and according to Mike the far end was solid with not only skimmers but those high bank carp, Oh man I nearly gave up and went home!
The armoury
I thought it would be a pole match but felt I had to have a go for an early carp, just in case they were living down the arm. My tackle comprised of a method feeder which was going to be fished with a mixture of micro pellets and groundbait and either corn or pellet on the hook. I set up pole tackle to cover the deep water at 11m which was my favourite .75 gram Cralusso Capri float to a .10 Xedion hook length and a size 16 Milo T213 hook. I had a .5 gram version for fishing the 5m line with identical terminal tackle. I just couldn’t help myself setting up a shallow rig as roach were topping all over the place. My last rig was a J12 float again with the same terminal gear to tackle the edge in around 4’ of water where I hoped to catch some quality perch and silvers. On my bait tray I had three pints of casters, some maggots a few micros and hook pellets some worms and two kilos of Ground Bait, I have settled on the mix that I used last year which is Yorkshire Baits Green Betaine and Swimstim mixed.
At the all in I cupped four balls of GB containing some worms and caster s on the 11m line and a couple at 5m. Baiting with a 6mm pellet I cast tight to the island with the method hoping for a couple of early carp. Within a couple minutes the tip went round and as I picked up the rod I could immediately feel that distinctive nod of a Bream! Not exactly what I expected but I wasn’t complaining as it was around the 2lb mark. I fished the method for the next 20 minutes but unfortunately I never had another bite. As some carp had been caught a couple of swims to my right I felt I had to give it a few minutes longer to try and stay in contention..
Any Billy’s about?
Picking up my edge rig I baited with a single caster and had a look down the edge where I had been loose feeding casters. I missed a bite first go and second drop resulted in a 12oz Roach which was really nice to see. A few smaller samples came along before a nice bit of J range pink elastic came out of the pole tip as a better fish made a bid for freedom, I thought it was a carp and it took it’s time coming to the net but I was chuffed to see a 3lb plus Tench in the net, a really nice looking fish. Staying on this line I took a few more Roach and some Perch around the 8oz mark plus a big Billy of around 1 ½lb. Unfortunately it was one of those days when the hook just would not stay in the bony mouth of those Perch. I must have lost 5 or 6 fish and some of them were a good stamp, they felt around the pound mark as I played them briefly. Every time one comes off the hook you just know it’s going to cost you!
This was a really enjoyable match despite losing a few fish on the close line. I caught on all my lines including some nice bream and skimmers from the 11m line a few small Roach and Skimmers from the 5m line. I even caught some good Roach shallow and at one stage thought I was going to get a huge weight of red fins but for some reason they backed off towards the island, well out of reach of the pole. They were topping there all through the match some big fish as well.
I had drawn the scale so at least I would see all the fish that had been caught on the two sections on the high bank. I started with Harry on peg 33 and he put around 32lb of quality skimmers and perch on the scales to start the proceedings. There were some other impressive skimmer weights in the next section but some of those anglers had to fish for carp as eventual match winner John Waples had 75lb of them from flyer peg 27, those around him having to forsake the silvers. Moving back to my section John Rennie on peg 16 recorded 40lb 12oz of carp to take the lead until Mike O’Gorman on 14 heaved 42lb 8oz of skimmers onto the scales; it was a lovely net of fish. My turn came and I fell agonisingly short with 40lb exactly and I was left ruing those lost Perch.
I don’t know how I felt after that match I had a brilliant days fishing for silvers but only managed third place in the section! As I walked back to the car park I reflected on the match and I have to say that despite no result points wise it was a brilliant days fishing, catching a net full of fish like that is what it is all about, I just hope I can have a few more of them but next time I don’t want to play catch and release!
Tuesday at Gwinear
There had been a hard frost on Monday morning and even though Tuesday was frost free I thought it was that time of year when things need to change. Rooting around in the garage out came my thermal boots for the first time since last winter and I also made a flask of coffee to take to my peg!
Not many people turned up so it was decided to fish on phase one only and I plucked peg 1 from the bag. I wasn’t unhappy about drawing this peg as there was a slight breeze blowing down to my end of the lake and I have seen this peg have some good results so I went to the peg with some confidence.
Will it be Bream or will it be Carp?
I fancied a two pronged approach today figuring that take the spoils the winner would need a mixture of skimmers and carp so I set up accordingly. I had some groundbait and casters along with chopped worms and a few micros that were going in at a slight angle to my left at 6m in around 6’ of water. I also plumbed a line at 13m straight in front in the deeper water, my last line that I fancied plundering in the last 90 minutes was an edge swim at 13m to my right simple, perfect or so I thought!
Having fed at the start I went straight out to 13m with a cad pot and dropped a few micros and 4mm pellets around my float, a couple of minutes later I had one of those old fashioned sort of bites when the pole was wrenched into the water! But as I started to play it I soon realised that it was foul hooked, playing it carefully with the pole low I was hoping to get into the net but unfortunately the carp managed in its bid for freedom. Never mind putting a another 6mm pellet on I was back out and within a couple of minutes I had another bite, this time in the mouth and a 4 pounder was in the net. That did my confidence no harm and I was quickly out expecting another but absolutely nothing happened! In fact I never had another bite on that line. I must have caught the scouts for the shoal as the rest never arrived.
No Bream today
Looking on my 6m line with single caster was just as bad I had one bite which I thought I missed, I lifted the rig completely out of the water to see if he bait was still on only to see a very small fish hanging onto the caster, as I shipped it back it took a breath and dropped off and that was the only excitement on that line!
Mike O’Gorman was to my left and he practically had nothing in the net and with around 2 hours gone, Harry diagonally opposite me was blanking. He did what I had been thinking of for awhile and that was to go and get his feeder rod. Harry set that up and eventually had around five or six fish on the feeder casting it randomly around his peg. Eventually I got off my butt and went for the rod. Fishing in the deep water around the middle of the lake resulted in nothing! I went towards the bank my side of middle and managed two carp on hair rigged corn. Spending the last hour on the 13m pole next to the back saw me land one carp and lose one. My total weight was 11lb 12oz which tied for third with Mark Lazell. Harry was second with 19lb and it was as if Andy Dare was in a different lake as he had around 45lb to win comfortably from peg 8. I was certainly glad I took a flask of coffee with me and was actually wishing I took two! Oh man I hope it fishes better on Saturday in the second round of the KMG winter league.
Tinca Tinca
The good news is that phase one is to receive a stocking of Tench before the weekend approximately 500 of the little tincas are expected to make an appearance on Wednesday afternoon, they are around the 8 oz – 10oz mark, now there is a fish I love to catch and I personally cannot wait for them to put on a pound or three!
Saturday
Friday 13th November was a terrible day weather wise, we had gale force winds and absolutely torrential rain. My preparation for the next day’s match was practically nonexistent as we were without power for the whole evening as the wind brought down a power line, difficult tying rigs by candlelight! Saturday morning dawned to very heavy winds and I actually had a call from the organiser Pete Thomas at 8am wondering whether or not to cancel the match! As we have some people travelling 50 miles or so it was decided that they would be on their way and we should go ahead as the forecast was for the winds to die down later in the day.
Arriving at Gwinear and the winds were pounding the lakes, there was some grumbles from some of the anglers saying that the match should be postponed! In the end the pegging was rearranged so that the majority of anglers had the wind off their backs or to the side rather than face on, every angler would have a feeder chuck. The rules were also changed for the day so that anglers could fish the feeder past the middle, which certainly helped as the pegging had been tightened up keeping us out of the wind.
Poor draw
I did the draw for our team and was disappointed to pull peg 3 on phase 1 out of the bag for Andy Partridge it is a peg that for some reason anglers have struggled on in the last few weeks. I managed peg 48 for Skip on phase two which we thought was a reasonable area, I just hoped that the carp agreed with me. For myself I pulled out peg 17 on phase three. Now I was not that pleased with this one as I have struggled next door on 18 a couple of times the fish seemingly preferring the other end of the lake!
I was told I had loads of room and would be able to cast a feeder to my left into the open water which should help me catch. I went to my peg full of hope but that quickly disappeared when I got to my peg and realised that there is an aerator to my left and because of the cable it would be impossible to fish anything else than the pole. What made the peg worse on the day was that I was blocked in by the angler to my right on the adjacent bank, because of the angle of his bank, his feeder was not that far away from the end of my pole when I went out long! Not only was I the only one without a feeder chuck I was limited as well! Bah, mustn’t grumble too much at least I had the wind off my back and could sit comfortably with umbrella keeping the chill wind off me.
Rigs were assembled to fish in the deep water at 13m with another line at 14.5m to my left. I also had two swims either side of meat 45 degree angles in around 6’ of water the one to my left was past that troublesome aerator. Bait was maggot and pellet with a back up of corn.
Starting straight in front of me I cad potted a few micros and maggots on the 13m line and dropped in with maggot on the hook. Within 60 seconds I was playing a carp which gave a very positive bite. It was a promising start! But it was really false hope as I had to wait for an hour and 15minutes for my next carp! In that time I could see my whole section catching a few fish on the feeder! I had been feeding my two lines either side but not found anything until I went back to the right hand side and I had two quick carp and then all I could muster was indications from this year’s fry! I finished the match with 13 carp two from the right four from my left swim and the others from the two longer swims. The total weight was 27lb and I only managed to beat two in the section of 6. My only consolation was that I beat the two nearest anglers to me all the other weights came from the other end of the lake!
Team wise we had a disaster! Andy struggled on phase one finishing last in section and Skip had 36lb for low points similar to me, we actually finished in last place, not exactly as planned! The match was won by Gwinear followed by White Acres; we now have it all to do in the last six rounds, a real uphill battle!
An apology to the organiser!
I had to phone Pete Thomas the following day as I must admit to having a few words about my peg following the match! I apologised for having a moan at him about the peg as frankly he didn’t deserve it. In the cold light of day it dawned on me that I was probably out of order. Pete and countless hundreds of people like him put on matches for us to take part in week in week out, they are not paid for doing it, they really do not deserve to be moaned at when they spend hours sorting out pegs and working out results on our behalf. Once again mate sorry for whinging!
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