That was Hard!

Man, it was good to get back on the bank today after a two week break, we were at Oakside for the Kernow Match Group teams of three winter league. I had missed one round and the team had slid down the table after a poor draw at Billy Knotts fishery so we needed to get our campaign back on track. We had a good result last time we fished here so I was hoping that a reasonable draw would give us a kick start and get us moving up the league table.

At the draw the best I could manage was peg 35 for myself, it’s on the shallow road bank side of the lake and produced a pound on the last round! Mick Heacock was on peg 10 he was up against it as to his left were the more consistent pegs with very good anglers on them. Nigel Taylor had peg 20 with the better pegs to his right. Oh man, we would need a miracle to pull this one round. There was no doubt about it the break had done nothing for my drawing ability, sorry about that lads!When I got to my peg I was really interested in what the water temperature would be it must have dropped quite a bit in a couple of weeks. I got out the thermometer only to find I had left it on last time I used it and the batteries were flat! I had to resort to the old fashioned method of dipping my hands in the lake and I discovered it was ‘kin freezing! The lake was flat calm and there was some roach topping just past the middle. I decided to set up a 6 gram Cralusso Rocket set at 3’ deep to have a go for them as I thought it would be a slow start and I was hoping this would nick me the few roach that would make the difference. I was always going to start on the crumb feeder so that was the next thing assembled. Pole wise was going to be a two 4 x 12 J8 floats from the J range as the swim was only about 3’ deep. Both had a 20’s middy T6313 hook to .8 Xedion hook length. My Groundbait was Mosella All Round Select and Euro cup. For bait I had a few casters, maggots’ pinkies and squats.

You can’t land your rocket there!

At the all in 3 balls of GB were cupped in at 12 metres there was little food in the balls – just a few squats and a few casters. I then went out on the feeder with no indications after half a dozen chucks. My next peg neighbour Trev Conroy was faring no better on the feeder so I decided to have a quick look on the pole. Nothing after a couple of minutes, so I picked up the Rocket. I had a couple of casts around the distance I had been fishing the feeder with no bites.Roach were still topping a long way out so I had a cast to the middle, Man, do those floats go! After a minute or so I had a bite but I missed it! There was a lot of line to pick up on the strike, never mind it was encouraging. Another cast and another quick bite that I also missed. Now they had my attention and I was wishing that I started on the float. I launched the Rocket again and as it landed I heard Harry on the other bank enquire as to whether he should feed it for me! Now, I have no idea whether or not I was past the middle but I do not want anyone to think that I was pushing the rules so I decided to stop fishing that line. I changed to a 2 gram Rocket light and fished closer to me but I had no bites, it was a shame, I would have loved to have caught a few on the big waggler. Everybody seems to be pole mad these days, I could not believe that nobody set up a wag on the other bank it was crying out for it, perhaps anglers no longer pack waggler rods with them?

Back on the feeder and I was just studying a motionless tip. Trev on the other hand had 6 small roach to his credit all caught on the feeder about a rod length from an island. It was looking like the nugget side bet was going his way today! I reached for the pole to have another go. Shipped it out and laid the rig in the water and the float buried at last after 1 ¾ hours I had a roach in the net! It seemed ages before I got my next bite but when it came so did a few of his brothers and sisters! For the next 1 ½ hours I caught steady putting about 25 into the net, it never went mad but I was starting to enjoy myself. I was even put the freezing wind out of my mind that had started to get stronger as the match progressed. The fishing was getting slower I am not sure why, maybe the cold wind had caused the shallow water to drop a degree or so, I certainly wasn’t dipping my hand in again to test it!The whistle went and to be honest I was pleased as I was shivering so much I couldn’t hold the pole still! The scales came and I was amazed to hear that Roger Naylor was winning the section with 4lb 7oz. Not the fact that Roger was winning the section you understand, the low weight surprised me I thought the other end of the section was going to be so much better. I thought it would be close between us but unfortunately for me I was five ounces short. I did prize a quid out of Trevs pocket though!

Overall Mark Lazell won the match with a brilliant 33lb of feeder caught skimmers. In fact his weight was more than the other two sections added together! It did fish hard. As I predicted we fared miserably as a team and now have it all to do in the next few rounds. There was nothing the lads could have done from the pegs they were on. I think I am going to nominate one of the others to draw next time!

One day off and it’s straight into the silver fish festival at White Acres five days hopefully bagging on roach and skimmers! Following that I am at Mawgan Porth for a Christmas match on Saturday and Sunday back at White Acres for a individual league match,. Eight matches in nine days, man I’ll need another break after that little lot!