The Rough With The Smooth…..

Saturday saw round eight of the Ranskill teams of four Winterleague, and after a dissapointing performace last time, I was looking to pull my finger out and get good points to keep me in contention in the individual rankings. The team draw put me on peg 14, a good peg in a decent section, but with flier peg 13 to beat in my section, I knew I would have my work cut out to come back with a section win, especially as the angler sat on it was Bryan Edwards of Triana fame, a good angler who has done well at the venue consistently through the winter.

I opted to fish long pole with chopped worms, and maggot feeder, as I expected the ide to show in numbers with the warmer weather moving in. Unlike almost everybody else at the venue who tends to like to start on the feeder then come on the pole later on, I like to start on the pole then go on the feeder later, as the pole line tends to die around half to three quarters of the way through the match. On the pole, I fished a 4X12 Preston Chianti to 0.10 mainline and an 0.10 hooklength with a size 20 B911 hook. Shotting was spread out down the line to give a natural style fall through the water.

On the tip, I fished a medium sized drennan maggot feeder with an 18 inch hook length and a size 18 B911 hook.

My first couple of hours went to plan, with a steady stream of small roach, skimmers and ide coming to the net on the pole. Sport wasnt frantic, but by regularly kinder potting worms I felt my peg was getting stronger, with a few bigger samples starting to put in an appearance. Most of my bites were coming on the drop, and I found it paid to keep laying my rig in if bites didnt materialise within say, 30 seconds of the bait settling.

As is often the case at the venue, as the last couple of hours approached things went quiet on my chopped worm line. It was time to pick the feeder rod up. The wind was quite strong, and I was fortunate on the pole as a big tree was providing me with a bit of shelter. My first chuck on the feeder was a bit wayward to say the least, and I was amazed to see the tip quiver, a quick strike and I was attached to a dead weight, soon a 2lb ide lay in the bottom of the net. Most welcome!

I had a couple of smaller samples, and soon discovered there was no point waiting longer than thirty seconds, if the tip hadnt quivered by this point you wouldn’t get a bite, and so had to reel in and recast.

I took probably, 12 big ide in the last hour and half, and when the scales arrived I felt I had fished quite a tidy match. 19b was winning my section, and I second to last to weigh in. I was chuffed when my fish went 26-12-0, but didn’t think I would have enough to beat Brian on peg 13, as he seemed to have caught all day. His fish must have been a little smaller though, as his net only went 23-7-0and I was chuffed to have won the section, and scooped 5th overall in the match, which kept me at third in the individual league, and only a point off second.

Sir Matt had been fishing with Barnsley at Lindholme that day, and they had qualified for the final by quite a few points so it was pub time for us that night for a bit of a joint celebration. He decided to take me in the roughest pub in Kiveton though, and I spent most of the night guarding my pint with my back to the wall. Still, we managed to come out unscathed after a few pints, and after stepping over the blood and glass on the pavement made it back to his for a few hours kip before our the Lindholme Winter League the following day.

Round 12

After a hearty breakfast at our usual haunt in Kiveton, we descended on the venue. The sun was shining, there was a slight ripple on the water and it looked as though summer had finally arrived! With 60 odd on the match over three lakes, we all had plenty of room, and I was chuffed to draw peg 65, in a little bay all to myself. The only reservation I had was that the wind was pushing across me quite hard, so presenting a bait shallow would probably be quite tough. My section was also tough once again, with Marc Jones, Johnny Howard and Rob Hitchens to beat!

Phil Morgan had fished the peg a few weeks before, and he advised me to base my approach around fishing pellets long, and follow the fish out as the day went on. I had to do it a bit shorter than he said with the wind, and I also planned a chopped worm line short, and a line long down the edge. I opted not to feed this from the start, feeding either pellets or chopped worms once I had an idea whether it would be trout or F1′s that would be my main quarry.

The all in sounded and so began what was by far the most frustrating match I have had this year. Everything worked, but nothing seemed to work for very long! After a few fish on the pellet long this dried up, so I tried the worm line. Two trout straight away then nothing. Back on the pellet two fish quick then nothing. Sandra Scotthorne who was on the point above me was catching well shallow by now, so I thought it would be a god idea to try this, a gamble I know, but not a deal was happening. Five in as many drops made me think I had finally sorted it out, but then this dried up. I tried deeper nothing, went out another section nothing.

Down the edge long on worms and caster, and you guessed it 3 fish quick and nothing. It really was pull your hair out time. The only consoling factor was that everyone at my end of the lake seemed to be in the same boat. Marc Jones had only had a couple of fish, and Rob Hitchens was also struggling.

I was pleased when the all out was called, and was chuffed to beat all the anglers in my section at my end of the lake with a measly weight of 20lb, but still only ended up 5th out of ten as the anglers at the top end of the lake had bagged up.

The only consolation was that my mate and Leeds legend Andy Geldart had extracted big style on Willows to win with 90lb, meaning I yet again managed to avoid buying a beer in the pub!

I’m off down Cornwall for two weeks tommorow, so need to help by drawing arm, improves, or it could be a glum two weeks! I will update you on how I have got on when I get back.