Windy City!

The latest round of the Kernow Match Group winter league took place on Jennies Lake on Saturday and I was looking forward to the day despite the promise of 70mph winds! Harry and I were slightly late for the draw as the A30 had been closed by the police. We knew we were late when we saw Martyn Newstead’s van parked outside the pub! The guy is so laid back he is definitely horizontal, he has settled well into the Cornish pace of life after his move here some years ago. Match organiser John Forster has now taken to telling him the draw is 30 minutes earlier than it is!As we were not there for the start Mick Heacock did the draw for me this week and unbelievably drew peg 15 for himself, regular readers will recall that I have drawn this peg three times in recent months, we really should know how to fish it by now. I was allocated peg 2 and it is an end peg and one that I fancied as there had been a load of carp down that end of the lake for awhile now. Nigel Taylor had drawn peg 46 on the lodge bank, a good area and one that I hoped he could score us some good points from. After a quick team chat it was straight down to the lake to get settled in before the hurricane arrived! I was interested to know what the temperature was going to be as the lake was frozen solid last week. Before I threw it in the lake I noticed that the air temp was 9C and was convinced the water temperature would be much lower. I could hardly believe my eyes when it settled on 8C, I was sure the peg was going to be solid!

My personal game plan was really simple this week, I had a serious dose of ‘man flu’ which had kept me house bound all week and I was still feeling rough with a capital R. I was going to fish for silvers at 5 metres and carp on the straight lead; I also set up a long pole for carp but didn’t really want to fish it. My rigs for the silvers were 4 x 16 Mosella floats to .8 Xedion a 2.70m Spro Escape picker for the straight lead completed my set up.

At the start 4 balls of Mosella All Round Select were cupped into the lake on the 5m line. There was a fair amount of caster in the mix and I also started loose feeding caster on this line. I put a ‘T bag’ on the hook that was baited with pellet and cast slightly to my left away from the island. Within 5 minutes I was playing a 5lb carp. What a start! Mark Lazell was also playing a carp opposite me and it looked like 100lb was on the cards. Five minutes later and next door neighbour Alan Hodgeon was playing a carp, a much bigger sample that was later weighed at 13lb. Unbelievably, they were the last carp that any of the three of us caught! They seemed to have a mad spell and disappear further up the lake.

The weather was turning nasty with the wind reaching gale force proportions and worse it was practically straight in our faces, I am really glad the rain kept off. I spent a fair amount of time looking for carp on the feeder but all I could manage was the odd roach and a solitary tench. I did have several spells on the pole looking for silvers but just could not make it happen I would a get a couple of fish and then spells of scratching around for nothing.

At the weigh in I managed 11lb which put me way down in the section about 3rd from last. The good news was that Nigel Taylor fished a blinder to record a valuable section and match win from peg 46. He had 22lb with some nice tench in his net. Mick Heacock also fished brilliantly to take 2nd in section from ‘our peg 15′ with 11lb which meant that our team Cralusso were team winners on the day! Great result lads you fished well, sorry I couldn’t chip in with a few less points. In hindsight I would have been better off setting up one rod and sitting on my hands all day!

I had really been looking forward to Sundays Real Cornwall Winter League as it was at Trewater’s and I was keen to see the changes that had been made to the venue. Although I was keen to fish and the flu had finally given up its hold on me I could quite easily have stayed at home on Sunday morning. I woke to sleet and very high winds, as I put the last bit of kit in the van the sleet had changed to hail and I found myself really doubting my sanity! But it was a team match and I really had to go.

The changes to Trewater are immediately noticeable; the road has been completed to start with and the third lake is just about finished. From the car park I could see that the streams have been diverted and that they no longer flow into the lakes. Overall the venue looks really good and I couldn’t wait to get going. Pete Thomas did the draw for our Kernow Match Group side and I found myself on the top lake peg 32. Pete was also on this lake about peg 25 diagonally opposite me. Harry was on peg 37 on the bottom lake. Unbelievably he was on the peg that he stated he wanted before the draw! He has an uncanny knack of doing this and in is a constant source of amazement to me.

My peg looked good it was one off the end, the wind was blowing straight down the lake left to right, it was strong but the weather was picking up, the rain had finally stopped. The water temperature was again 8C so the fish should be in a feeding mood. I had a good briefing from Harry on the venue yesterday as we travelled home, so my plan was already formulated. The only difference I made was to concentrate on closer lines than I was going to and this was due to the wind. I found the bottom of the shelf was at 5m and I decided this was where I was going to fish. I plumbed at 11m and found the exact same depth so that was a backup if the wind died. Floats were again Mosella 4 x 16 coupled with small hooks and 0.08 Xedion. I also set up my 2.70m Spro Escape picker this time with a small cage feeder. For bait I had maggots, micros and soft Yorkshire Bait hook pellets plus yesterdays left over GB.

At the start I put one ball of GB on my 5 metre line and immediately went on the feeder tight to the far bank. Andy to my left started on the short pole and had a fish very quickly. Billy Arch to my right was also into fish quickly. By the time they had three each and my tip hadn’t moved I realised that I was on the wrong method! I baited with two red maggots and dropped onto my 5m line and was soon playing catch up. Andy was slowing down but Billy was going into overdrive and catching really well. The fish are mainly small ‘Cornish F1′s’ small tench and carp with the odd skimmer, it was great fishing.

I decided to introduce another ball of groundbait on the 5m line to my left so that I could have two swims going. I would leave this for 15 minutes and then try to take three fish of each line. I guess it was my day, as when I dropped on this line the fish were there and that’s what happened for the next couple of hours. I was swapping between maggot and soft pellet on the hook feeding a sprinkling of micros via a kinder pot and really enjoying the days fishing.

At about 2pm I could feel the swims dying and I decided to feed a ball of GB at 11m, I left this for a few minutes and when I went on this line I started to catch the odd fish, never as quickly as previously but I wasn’t complaining! I managed my biggest fish of the day from this line which was a carp of about 1 ½ lb. The odd smaller sample came until the end of the match including what I thought initially to be a small chublet but owner Mike O’Gorman tells me it’s a grass carp, they are going to be interesting when they have put on a few pounds. At the whistle I congratulated Billy as I was convinced that he had beaten me, he fished a very tidy match.

The scales came and I was really pleased to put 28lb 12oz on them, Billy had 24lb and I for one was amazed, I was convinced Billy had pipped me. I guess I had my head down at one stage and just didn’t appreciate that I had sneaked in front, sorry mate but it was a very good match! Harry was top weight on the bottom lake with 26lb which meant that we had both won our sections and were first and second in the match! Unfortunately Pete struggled from his peg the wind was particularly bad on that side of the lake. We, Kernow Match Group finished second team on the day, one point behind Newtown Angling not a bad weekends fishing! I am really looking forward to next weekend when we are back at Trewater’s on Sunday for the individual league.