By Stewart Lister | No Comments
Last updated: Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Following on from a lake win at Gwinear last Tuesday I was keen to get back to venue, there were 24 fishing so it was 8 pegs on each lake again paying the top two anglers (on each lake). I had my dip and out came peg 36 on phase two which is the old peg 50. As soon as I drew I was told that it had some form and in fact there had been a lake win recently from this peg, I was more than happy with the draw. I had Mark Lazell directly opposite me on peg 34 and another angler on the peg to my left so we were reasonably close considering the number of anglers on the lake.

The swim was full of features; the bar that used to be slightly to the left at 12m was still there but not quite as shallow as I remember, there was some weed to my right at about 7m in about 3’ of water and I could reach the bank also to my right so there was plenty to have a go at and I started this match full of confidence.

The right end

Starting on the bar feeding 4mm pellets and fishing red maggot on the hook didn’t have the desired effect, changing over to pellet also resulted in no takers. Mark started catching small carp in the deeper water which forced me to change my line but we were already well behind John Hethrington, who was on peg 25 at the opposite end of the lake. He had started the match like he was keen to catch all the phase two residents! The angler nearest to John on peg 27 was also catching on a regular basis and it looked like it was going to hard to catch those two.

On the hour mark I finally had a bite in the deeper water and my first fish was a small carp, I hoped that several more were going to follow but I was disappointed! My next fish was a decent skimmer and as the chap to my left had about 6 of them I decided to put some groundbait in with some worms and caster and fish for bream. They were certainly bigger than the carp that were coming out and I figured it was my only chance of making any impact on the match. Needless to say it didn’t work and with an hour to go I had about 8 fish in the net, mainly carp that I caught over groundbait!

Deep Depression

Looking over to my right and the sky was black; I thought it must have been coming from The Aussie cricket team camp as they had just been knocked out of the Twenty20 world cup but as Leicester is in the opposite direction! I guessed we were about to get drenched so in the words of Dolly Parton “You’ve got to know when to hold em – know when to fold em” and I was off for an early bath!

John won the lake easily with around 80lb well done buddy. He was due a little bit of luck as he had an accident at another fishery recently. I am sure he won’t mind me mentioning it as it serves as a reminder to take great care if you get tackle caught in bank side vegetation, and have to pull for a break. John had a loaded pellet waggler caught in some rushes and pulled hard to free the float. It came loose and hit him like a bullet in the middle of the forehead knocking him out for a couple of minutes. He was in a bad way for a time and even had to have a MRI brain scan. So if you get your tackle caught make sure that you put the line under your foot when you pull for a break, at least this way the ‘guided missile’ flies back towards you low, otherwise the consequences could be very serious.

Come on England

Wednesday saw the first evening match down the Farm, only nine anglers turned up but England were on the box in a world cup qualifier so I suppose it was understandable most stayed away, I love my football but I’m afraid there was no competition with a chance at an evening match on this venue. I did record the match and drove home with the radio off so I could watch it as soon as I got in though.

Peg Radar

I was running the match and looked around for someone to draw my peg, Harry was standing at the front of the queue and asked if I fancied peg 19, with that he had a dip for me and out came 19! Unbelievable, the radar is back on track. There was a bit of mickey taking as you can imagine, Clint asked him to have a draw for him and asked for peg 36 but I’m afraid the magic only works once in an evening and he had to settle for peg 21 next to me.

Drawing this peg nearly made me change my match plan. I had decided that I was going to fish up in the water tonight and was geared up for this. Peg 19 has form as an edge peg and I have to admit that I was in a quandary as I sat down. I actually set up a paste and pellet line but in the end decided just to feed it and go with the original plan. I had a ripple on the water in front of me and I would have kicked myself if I had gone down the edge and didn’t catch!

Within 5 minutes of the start I was getting indications shallow at 11m and soon had my first fish which was a small carp followed by another slightly larger sample it was no more than 2lb but still a bonus. Before long I was getting F1’s and really enjoying myself. There were a lot of fish coming out and I could see Harry catching well, as was Clint. I just stuck to my guns and stayed up in the water picking off fish in odd spells.

I must try harder

The match went well for me until the last hour when suddenly bites were hard to come by. I’m not sure what happened but they were no longer feeding on the surface or not in my swim! Harry was by now sacking, whilst I felt I was in front of him for most of the match I could feel whatever lead I had disappearing rapidly as he went into overdrive. I did have a look on my close line but all I could muster was a few small F1’s, I must try harder on this line.

The weights for a three hour evening match were very good considering that the average size of fish is in the 8 – 10 ounce bracket. Harry took the lead with a very nice net of fish that went 58lb and he managed to hold onto it. I ended up second 10lb behind and Andy Partridge was third with over 40lb Clint had 37lb to head several weights in the 30lb bracket.

The Farm revisited

Saturday saw the usual suspects line up for the Trewater’s Farm open, there was also a few holiday makers from White Acres in attendance it was good to see them and nice to catch up with what is happening around the country.

I looked for someone to draw for me, Harry was near the front but thought I better let someone else pull out my peg as I didn’t want all the stick when he pulled me out a flyer! I ended up with peg 21 a couple up from Wednesday night and to be honest it wasn’t the one I would have chosen if I had the choice but I was confident as there was a little breeze on the water. It was strange really, I was at the peg sorting out my bait mixing paste and dampening pellets and a few other things, when I next looked I looked up the lake in front of Simon Jones to my right and myself was flat calm! Not what I wanted to see.

Change of plan

I decided against an up in the water start and thought I would leave that until later in the match and by then hopefully the wind would have picked up a fraction. I set two rigs to fish at 5m one for the paste and one for pellet both were Spro mid water floats 4 x 14 I also had two J13 floats to fish up in the water with. I had some Yorkshire Bait garlic micros with me and some Green Betaine ground bait that I was also using for my paste. Some 4mm and 6mm hard pellets along with some soft hook pellets that completed my offerings for the day.

At the start I fed a large ball of GB at 5m with some micros and started with a 6mm pellet on the hook. I didn’t have a bite immediately but noticed that fellow Spro angler Andy Partridge to my left on 19 was immediately catching very close in. He is a real danger when fish are in close; I have seen him have some brilliant weights so I kept my eye on him. Within five minutes I had a bite and it was a tench of 1 ½ pound which was worth waiting for, I had a couple more before switching to the paste which signalled a change in fish to F1’s amazing really.

All change

After 30 minutes I was contemplating changing things around as Andy was catching plenty of fish. 15 minutes later and I actually sacrificed my pellet rig by shortening it to fish closer in as I felt I was falling behind. I re fed and stayed a little longer at 5m before giving my short line ago, but all I had from that swim was a couple of small fish, I wish I had stuck to my plan. After two hours I had a go shallow but had no indications. Back on the 5m line taking a few more fish whilst I pinged pellets out longer.

About 1.30pm I was back shallow and started getting some fish on 6mm pellet I should think I had in the region of 30 F1’s from this line before it slowed. Towards the end of the match I had another run of fish on the paste. I had actually managed to keep fish coming for the majority of the match albeit slowly at times and guessed that I had over 40lb; it was another enjoyable days fishing down the farm.

The scales started with Andy and his 40lb turned into 50lb 2oz he led until Harry Billing took over the lead with 52lb I wasn’t sure if I could beat that but was really chuffed when my net weighed 55lb to win the match. It really was very close; it usual is at this place which makes it very good fishing in my book.

I’m looking forward to this coming week as I am fishing the Preston Innovations pairs festival and get to fish the farm twice as well as Twin Oaks, should be good I’ll let you know how Harry and I get on next week.

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