Route 66

I am having one of those ‘runs’ at the moment when I keep getting the longest walk to my peg, Thursday was no exception when I drew peg 47 at Trewater’s farm. It’s nothing like the old days when I think back to some of those walks on the Rivers Thames and Mole or Wallers Haven down in Sussex, they were walks! Not that I mind walking it’s just a tad painful at the moment.

It was another unusual wind free day which makes a nice change from the normal pole wrestling conditions that we often get down here in the SW, we even had a bit of sunshine which was great to see. The water temperature was 5.5c and I noticed that it rose to 6.5c by the end of the match, I hope it rises a few more degrees by the weekend when I get to play on the same venue in the penultimate round of the Winter league.
I set up my now standard tackle for the farm, at this time of year you don’t need a lot of gear and I was soon ready. I was trying a different approach today with ground bait and I went for Yorkshire baits Black Octopus I was still going with garlic soft pellets but had a few others as change bait, I also had a few maggots with me for the hook. Once again I had the Billing fishing machine to my right and Mike O’Gorman was my neighbour on the left so I was on for a good match.

At the all in I fed a ball of ground bait and a few micros and started with a single red on the hook. I noticed way down to my left Andy Partridge was into fish as was Billy Arch. Andy Dare was on the feeder and had an early carp. Harry was starting to find fish on the pole but it wasn’t long before I had a bite and a small F1 got me on my way. Bites were coming at a nice pace and I felt the swim was responding well.
The five that got away!

After an hour or so I had a run of lost fish, I would get a bite lift into it and a nice amount of number six elastic would come out, only to shoot back as the fish shed the hook when I shipped back! I lost four or five on the spin which was annoying to say the least. A change of hook solved the problem perhaps the one I was using had gone blunt? It’s difficult sometimes, when do you change the hook? After one or two lost fish, perhaps if I had been using maggot I may have realised the hook was blunt but hooking soft pellet makes it harder to tell. I just knew though that those lost fish were going to cost me.

After that I had a nice run of fish and got into a steady rhythm. I was feeding two swims the one to the right was certainly more productive than the left. At 1o’clock it was getting noticeably harder and as we were only half way through the match I felt it was time to start another line at 13m. For the remainder of the match it was chasing around the lines putting the odd fish in the net, it seemed slower for everybody. I had a short spell on the feeder without a bite and I noticed that Harry had a go on the waggler again without anything to show for the effort. Towards the end of the match I again was starting to put a few fish together from my 13m line, I was wishing that we finished at 4pm rather than 3.45!

The scales came around with the news that Billy Arch had taken the lead with 30lb of skimmers and F1’s that was until Harry put 39lb of F1’s into the net! I managed 28lb for third place in a tight match and was left ruing those lost fish, note to self, must try harder! Andy Partridge was fourth with 26lb and Chris Hancock fifth with 20lb. The lowest weight on the day was 12lb so it was not a bad match, I cannot wait until the water warms up, what a venue this is going to be.

No match for me on Saturday, I thought I would stay at home at home as it was Valentine’s Day, I had been fishing a lot recently so a family day was in order. The trouble was Viv heard me on the on the phone talking about maggots for Sunday before I had given her a Valentines card. Oh man, wish I had gone fishing!

Back down the ‘Farm’

Sunday came and it was back to the farm. There is a noticeable change in the weather it is really quite mild. I just hope that winter is finally on the way out and soon we get some spring sunshine.

Pete Thomas is despatched to do the draw for our Kernow Match Group squad, but I must admit to standing close by as I didn’t want a repeat of last times debacle when Harry and I inadvertently fished the wrong pegs and were disqualified. The pegs checked and re checked and I found myself on peg 43 a few away from where I fished on Thursday, I was by the inlet pipe and there was a fair amount of water running into the lake. Harry was somewhere behind me in the mid 30’s on the middle lake and Pete had drawn the carp lake.

I checked the water temperature and it was 8c what a change in a few days! I was expecting a good match. Tackle wise was the same consisting of a .4 gram Spro float to small hooks and light lines. I did have to put an extra rig up as there was a definite change of depths in this swim it is a good couple of inches shallower to my left. I put this down to the water inlet scouring the bottom.

I was giving the Yorkshire Baits Black Octopus ground bait another go as it worked on Thursday and I had some garlic pellets as hookers along with a few maggots. For company I again had Andy Gray as my right peg neighbour and Neil Kippax to the left. There were some other good anglers in the rest of the 10 peg section Clint Elliott and Alan Roberts to name a couple.

The power of Garlic!

At the start I fed some GB and went straight over that with a single red maggot on the hook, no immediate bites and I noticed that Andy Gray was soon into an F1 , I must admit to thinking ‘here we go again’, my thoughts going back into last week’s individual league when Andy beat me at my own game! I could also see Martin Jenkinson who was opposite me getting into a nice early rhythm as was Alan. It was time to get my head down and concentrate on those finicky bites.

My opening fish was a small tench which prompted me to change baits to a garlic pellet and I was soon getting some F1’s but it wasn’t as prolific as I would have thought in the warmer water. Just shows what we really know! I was feeding two lines and I found myself swopping between them to keep fish coming. As the match progressed I felt I was edging in front of the guys to my right but it would be tight, it was difficult knowing what had happened down to my left but the chat was that it had been a bit of a struggle, but you can never tell until the moment of truth comes along with the scales, there are some excellent ‘Billy Bulls hitters’ on this circuit!

Moment of truth

I was on ‘scale duty’ with Andy Gray so at least I would know what the results were and I was chuffed to win a tight section recording a weight of just over 25lb. Martin Jenkinson was a pound behind so it was a close run affair. Unbelievably there were three anglers tying for third place with 19lb 13oz and the lowest weight was around the 10lb mark so all in all another good match down at the farm!

Individually the top weights again came from the Carp lake with Chris Hancock recording a weight of around 70lb narrowly beating Mike O’Gorman with 67lb.

Early Congratulations

Harry was second in his section, but unfortunately Pete had a struggle on the carp lake which put us second team on the day behind the Team White Acres who have now won the league with one round remaining. Well done to Clint Elliott, Andy Dare and Mike O’Gorman I think you have led the league from start to finish. We are sitting in third place five points behind Newtown Angling so it is all to fish for in a couple of weeks at Porth reservoir.

Personally, I really enjoyed the match, the farm is fast becoming one of my favourite venues and it was certainly a great way of spending my birthday! The day was complete when I got home to a fantastic dinner and a couple of bottles of vino. England finally found some form with the bat to round off a great weekend, just a shame that Leeds spoilt the party by losing to Huddersfield! Oh well mustn’t grumble.