Close, But Only Half A Cigar!

With only one match on this weekend due to working Saturday, I was really looking forward to the Lindholme open match on Sunday, and though the weather was cold I still expected a few bites. The turnout was slightly disappointing, with 25 anglers turning up for the match, which was to be fished on Oasis Lake. Just because there wasn’t many on the match didn’t mean it was going to be easy however, with the top four places being paid out I still had a really tough job on my hands to pick up any money given the company! Fellow anglers included Steve Rothery, Alan Scotthorne, Gary Jubb, Andy Oldham, Lee Kerry, Ben Fisk and John Kelly! As 25 peggers go, its fair to say the standard was pretty high!

I drew peg 29, which is on the back straight of the lake and not normally the best of areas. I had Gary Jubb on the peg to my left and around the corner, and Paul Cross to my right at the other end of the back straight, so at least we had plenty of room. I decided to fish maggots and casters at the bottom of the far shelf at ten oclock and two oclock, as this is an approach that has stood me in good stead at the venue. I also plumbed up a line in two and a half feet of water in case I had to follow the fish up the slope later on in the day. I started the match fishing down towards Gary to my left, and was rewarded with an F1 of about 12 ounces after a ten minute wait.

This set the tone for the first half of the match to be honest, if I sat and waited eventually the float would go under with an F1 attached, I was feeding sparsely as there were obviously a few fish in front of me, and the worse thing you can do is feed too much and make them all back off. Gary Jubb was also catching well however, and we were having plenty of banter, especially when he slipped the net under a couple of 3lb mirrors!

Looking around the lake, there were not a lot of people catching, and when Lee Kerry came and sat behind me as we went in to the second half of the match having had only one carp about 4lb I knew things were tough. We had an interesting chat about F1 fishing, and he gave me some valuable advice which made a noted difference to my catch rate. I really like having good anglers sit with me while fishing, especially when like Lee they are willing to give feedback as to what they think you are doing right or wrong, as often they see things that you can’t see yourself.

As the day wore on it seemed the fish were more and more reluctant to feed, and it seemed both me and Gary were struggling to keep the fish coming. In the last two hours I had only six more fish, taking my total to 25 fish. Gary finished with 23, but with them two big mirrors I had a sneaky feeling he had done me.

When the scales got to me, Steve Rothery was winning with 28-12-0, and Jubby was lying second with 28-6-0. Sadly, my fish came up just short and went 25-14-0. This was third until Andy Oldham dropped 28-5-0 on the scales to push me down to last in the money.

Still, I had a thoroughly enjoyable days fishing, and was pleased just to pick up money in that kind of company. To be fair, I think I fished quite a tidy match all in all, I didn’t lose many fish, and the only way I feel I could have improved on my weight was not to have tried across. I probably gave it half an hour when the going was tough, and never had a liner so I sacked it, but maybe it would have seen me snare another couple of fish. It is frustrating to think however that another 2lb would have seen me pick up £120 instead of £20!

Roll on next week, I have got the Ranskill teams of four league and the Lindholme Winter League to look forward to!