One To Forget…

Sundays match was one of those that you just want to forget. It was doubtful at one point that I was going to get fishing at all this weekend as, it looked at like I was going to have an airport run to contend with, but I managed to get out of it at the last minute, so it was Lindholme Lakes for me and Matt Godfrey. As always at Lindholme, the company was fantastic, there was plenty of banter and everybody had a few bites, but for me personally the match was a disaster.

To set the scene, me, Sir Matt and fellow Sheffield angler Simon Cartmell had been out for a few pints and a curry the night before, and though we didn’t have a late one as we wanted a clear head for fishing, the collective by products of me and the auborn one processing chicken jalfrezi and garlic naan bread in a confined space left my bedroom smelling like a cross between a Saudi Arabian sewage plant and that Catmeat Flavoured bait additive that Sensas make.

After the haze cleared, we loaded the car and headed off to McDonalds for a breakfast, as we anticipated the café being rammed with anglers, with it being the week before the all important Angling Times Winter League Semi Final. Two bacon McMuffins later and a hash brown for good measure, and we were stood in the queue for the draw. In went my hand and out came peg 38 on Bonsai. The mighty Alan Scotthorne was behind me in the queue, and he pulled a horrible face when I asked him what he thought of the peg- not a good sign! Joe Carass was slightly more optimistic, he said it was feast or famine on the peg, and I just had to hope it was a feast day!

Sir Matt had drawn a similar feast or famine peg in 51, he had a lot of water to go at on a day when most anglers had very little, but he was hardly in a noted area. When I got to my peg I felt like leaving my gear in the car. The main reason for this was that my peg was surrounded by what can only be described as a small lake, the platform was clear , but all around it was muddy water. When I looked at the peg itself it was equally unappealing. I was the only angler out of the ten on my bank who didn’t have the point of an island to chuck to, having instead a very bland piece of bank around 16 metres away.

On a different day, I would have fancied the peg for a long pole extraction, but on Sunday the wind was horrendous, and I knew that unless it dropped, the long pole was out the window. After negotiating the smelly, muddy water around my peg I finally managed to get my box on my platform, and a method feeder rod and short pole set up. It really was horrible though, having to wade through the cess pit every time I wanted something out of my rod bag or carryall. The wind was blowing a hooly as well, and trying to set my pole rollers up so that my pole was safe, and keep my topkits safely fastened down, but out of the sludge was eating up valuable pre match time.

At the all in, I was not ready, so slung the method out while I finished putting the numerous backshots on my rigs that were needed to make presentation half right. To my surprise, when I picked up to recast, there was a fish on. A further five followed in the first half an hour, and I began to think the peg might not be so bad after all. But then, bites stopped, and I couldn’t follow the fish anywhere, and until the middle part of the match it was just a matter of sititing and waiting until the tip went around. Boring, but I couldn’t see as I had a lot of choice, I never had a sign on the short pole, and from what I could see there wasn’t a great deal being caught.

Around half way through the match the wind turned around, and started blowing off my back instead of across me, and given the nature of my peg I knew I had to get on the long pole. I could just about hold it at 16 metres, so I plumbed up two lines in around 3 feet of water. Pellets were the bait of choice, and after kinder potting a few in, I was soon shipping back with a fish on.

Sport was by no means hectic, but by switching lines I was catching steadily. At Lindholme, it is generally fairly easy to gauge how many fish in your peg- when they are there you get liners, when they are not you don’t. Every time I shipped out seemed to follow a similar pattern. I would tap my kinder pot, feeding perhaps, 30 micros. I would then have to wait around five minutes for a indication, after a couple of movements on the float I would generally get a bite and catch a fish.

This made me think I was feeding too much, as they were evidently backing off when I fed, so I cut down on my feed. No bites. Maybe then, they just wanted time to settle, so I tried feeding one line, letting it settle and fishing the other, but again it just didn’t seem right. Best bet was feeding the line I was fishing and just sitting and waiting.

I lost probably five fish, a couple of which I thought were foul hooked, but I was still frustrated. Why is it some days everything seems to go right, and others everything goes wrong. The theme continued at the weigh in, I put 33-14 on the scales, and 34-3-0 would have been enough for some default section coin. I feel I must add the top three weights in the match were also from within my 10 peg section, with the angler to my left winning the match with 51-0-0. In my defence, he was fishing to a completely different island too me though, and he did have a lot more room.

So in the space of a match, I was blown off the bank, got snowed on in the middle of march, drew a peg in the middle of a cess pit, lost enough fish to win some money, and had a right battering off the next peg. Lets just hope that things pick up next weekend!

Semi On!

Next Saturday is the Angling Times Winter League Semi Final at Lindholme, with eight teams of ten fishing, and the top three qualifying. To say that these are the semi finals, I am surprised at how few anglers have been practising. The only teams making a concerted effort have been Maver Barnsley, Daiwa Cleveland and Browning Quaker, though a few Triana anglers have also been practising over the last couple of weekends as well.

People talk about team fishing dying, and a lot of anglers losing interest and I have never really had an opinion on it, as I am perhaps too young or got into fishing too late to remember the ‘good old days’. It does make you wonder though, with three teams qualifying and only three teams really putting the effort in to practising, I think the result can be easily predicted.

I reckon it will be close between Maver Barnsley and Daiwa Cleveland for top spot, but if I had to stick my neck out it would be Barnsley to win, with Cleveland second and Quaker third, and probably Triana a close fourth.

It could just be me walking around with my eyes shut, and I do only fish the venue on a Sunday, but looking at results from other days tells a similar story, to quote Tommy Pickering ’same old faces same old pegs’.

I would be really interested to know why more anglers aren’t bothering to practise. Is it because they don’t feel they can compete? Is it too far for a lot of them too travel? Or is it just that qualifying for a final on the River Nene is no incentive to do well?

One things for sure, they can’t expect to turn up without practising and expect to do well given the quality of teams that have been practising and the calibre of the anglers that fish for them.

Maybe I’m wrong but I will be interested to see the result next week, and if it is as predictable as I think it is going to be. Anyhow best of luck to all who are fishing, especially F4F bloggers Matt and Joe.