A Breath Of Fresh Air!

Last week’s long overdue win at Barlborough, together with a fishing-free week, saw me eager to get going Saturday for the regular Saturday open at Woodlands Farm. Once again, the talk in the draw queue was all about who would draw peg 36, and if it could be beaten by any of the others. I’d a sneaking suspicion that the pegs reign was coming to an end, I’d won by the narrowest of margins the previous Saturday on it, and although it wasn’t drawn in the Tuesday teatime match, the angler on peg 35 had caught very little, and the fish will usually move down to that peg in search of food if it’s not going into 36! Maybe they’d got fed up of being caught?

Peg 14 stuck in my mitt, initially I was disappointed, but Barney reminded me that on 14 you are fishing up to the side of peg 36’s margin swim, and if you feed it in the right spot you can nick a lot of the fish before the angler there lines them up. This had happened to me the previous week actually, venue regular Dave Smith potted his bait in around the corner from where I could reach with the pole, and had a few at the start. I only managed one big F1 from the margin, and on previous matches when peg 14 hasn’t been drawn the rush bed to the left of peg 36 has been a banker for a good few late fish to top up your catch from across. It was obvious where to feed, a gap in the reeds straight opposite the peg looked very inviting, and the dense rushes and bankside plants would give the swim plenty of cover from the guy on 36, should he move around unduly during the match.

I also fed to the left, again up to a gap in the rushes, and again with plenty of cover. I’d drawn the peg in January, and it wasn’t very inviting I can tell you! Today was a different day though, and I was raring to go. I started straight in front, and my first indication came after five minutes, a good proper ‘guzunder’ bite, which saw me attached to a very angry common that would probably go 3lb or so, a great start. Bites were hard to come by though, despite the fact that there were carp swirling all over the lake. The guy on 36 had his first bite 45 minutes into the match, a rudd, not a good sign. I added my second carp around this time, a smaller common of maybe 1lb-1lb 8oz, but was struggling to put any bites together. It seemed that when I fed any bait the peg would die altogether, so I settled into a pattern of feeding one swim, nicking a fish from the other, feeding it then moving to the other one. A quick look on my track line where I’d fed a small pot of pellets for skimmers only yielded one tiny sample, and my shallow caster line was constantly being disrupted by the cruising carp and F1’s three hours in out of the blue I had a positive bite on the left hand swim which resulted in a 2lb F1.

False Dawn

This proved to be another false dawn however, and it was back to grafting out odd silver fish from both far bank lines. The carp were there; they gave themselves away by the thrashing reed stems deep inside the rush bed, but with 90 minutes remaining I’d almost resigned myself to it being just one of those days. I couldn’t see anyone catching except for the lad on peg 35, whose pole was regularly going back with a fair bit of elastic out, but my position didn’t allow me to see what he was catching. Maybe they were silvers? I looked at my watch and it read 3.29, half an hour to go. I reckoned on having around 7lb at this time, and was preparing my excuses when the float darted under and another F1 was on the way to the net. It was like flicking a switch, and for the last half hour I couldn’t get the pole across quick enough!

The peg had come alive for no apparent reason other than the fish had seen fit to have a chew. And as time was called I was playing my last fish, which was hooked in the tail and netted after the whistle. I packed away rueing the late arrival of the fish, or more aptly their late decision to feed. The scales arrived and in the lead was Joseph Glover’s Jay Broughton with 30lb exactly from peg 2. This is normally a death draw, but Jay had spoken to me in the draw queue before the start and said he was going to attack it with 4 pints of bronze maggots if he drew down there, which he duly did and won the match, so well done mate that was a serious result from the peg in anybody’s book. Pete Holden was lying in second places as I lifted my net out, and I knew it would be close between us, but my 25lb net left me again cursing the latecomers from across in the reeds! Several teens of pounds weights followed, then Barry Gay on peg 23 put 26lb on the scales to separate Pete and me.

It wasn’t looking too good as the scales crossed onto the island. But several keepnets chucked up the bank told the story, it had fished just as hard there as well. The guy on peg 35 was top weight on the island with 17lb, meaning that my weight put me fourth overall, securing the section win, but I was still quietly cursing those carp, and how they’d left it late. Five minutes earlier would have got me second place I’m sure, and I reckon ten would have seen me win it! Match fishing is full of such stories though, and it can often seem that you never have the rub of the green when things don’t go you way for a while, but as my mate Roy pointed out (the lad I drew next to last week) luck evens itself out over the weeks and months, it swung my way last week so I shouldn’t moan too much.

Straight Mile 

Sunday saw me off to Straight Mile Fishery at Brampton, between Sheffield and Dinnington. The venue is a silver-fish paradise in winter, with double figures of roach possible from most pegs, together with a big head of chub and barbel, as well as the resident carp. Many of the venues original carp stocks were decimated a few years ago during a particularly cold spell, and a lot of them perished under the ice. This loss has been to the silvers’ gain though, and only the week before the match record had fallen to a 119lb catch of mainly chub, with several back-up catches of roach to almost 40lb for good measure. The common theme among anglers I’d spoken to (I do do my homework you know! Just so it looks like I know what I’m doing!) Was that you had to keep the bait going in. a light feeding approach would see you pestered by the hoards of tiny roach in the venue, and you had to feed these off to stand any chance of contacting any number of the bigger samples, or preferably the chub.

Chopped worm and caster was the order of the day, and armed with three pints of Mosborough Tackle’s finest, together with a kilo of dendrabenas and two tins of corn, I set off for bag-up city. 1,2, 17 or 18 I was told, these were the pegs you wanted on the strip we were fishing, so I was less than impressed with peg 15, especially as I’d arrived late for the draw due to a couple of over-enthusiastic officers of the law who’d decided to pull me over for a spot check for no apparent reason! ‘Go out last night mate?’ enquired the first, ‘no pal, I was in sorting me tackle ready for today’ I replied, nodding to the fishing gear in the back. ‘Not had a drink then?’ said the second, with an almost smug look on his face. ‘I’m teetotal, except for the odd lager when I go on holiday, doesn’t do anything for me beer mate, fishing and football, they’re my only vices’ I kind of joked, trying to lift the mood and get away for the draw that I was rapidly running late for. My attempts at humour were only taken the wrong way, and were met with a surly ‘you won’t mind taking a breath test then will you sir?’

I’m always a bit dubious when they start calling you ‘sir’, but took the test which obviously came up negative, but still had to wait in the car as they gave my motor the once over, then followed me right past Aston Ponds, the only bit of dual carriageway that I could get my foot down! By now I was super late, fortunately they’d drawn me a peg, the aforementioned 15, which didn’t really do much to pacify me!

So, PC kn**head and PC s***house, your being browned off at having to work early on Sunday morning, that was punctuated by a bit of fun with a perfectly innocent motorist, probably cost me the chance to put my current golden drawing arm to more use! Hope you’re satisfied! Probably a pair of floating pole merchants! Or even Wednesday fans!

Anyway, at the peg I hastily set up rigs for full depth, mid depth and 18” deep, as I’d been assured that the fish would come up in the water and they were the bigger ones when they did. A big pot of chop and caster went in on the whistle, and I was into small roach straight away. I’d been told to watch for a smaller fish as my sign to feed again, and when this came after six fish I stuck to the plan and fed another big ‘un. Back came the roach, but still no sign of a chub. Right on the hour the lad on peg 16 struck into a big fish on the feeder tight across and my float shot under and saw me attached to something much bigger. We both landed our fish at the same time, mine was a chub that looked all of three pounds, while his was a barbel that he claimed would go four, maybe five.

This made things tight between us, though I felt I was just in front. I kept trying different things to see if I could contact the better fish but nothing seemed to work, it was 2-3oz roach wherever I fished, even on luncheon meat tight over at 16 metres. At the half way stage I’d already decided that the best way for me to go would be to try to thin out the roach, building a weight while waiting for the better fish to show. No one around me was catching except for the lad next door, who had a smaller barbel then a carp in quick succession, which probably pit him in the lead at that stage. Remembering the previous day, I got my head down and tried to build a net of roach. By switching between the five metre shallow line with caster and 14.5 metres across I caught steadily to the end, the only variation coming from a 1lb carp that muscled in on the act to give me a brief hope of the chub having arrived.

As the whistle sounded, the guy next door was playing a big carp, again on the tip, and I was wondering if it had been a mistake to go solely with the pole, although my odd look across had only brought more roach action, so I’d left it, figuring that the roach would soon vacate the premises if the carp or chub turned up. I strolled up to watch the lad land the fish, which he did, then proclaim to his mate next door that it was ‘easily six pounds’. This got me thinking; the carp would be lucky if it was three pounds! He looked like he knew what he was doing and had been casting unerringly to the far bank all day, so he was no mug, but was he having his mate on? Or was he one of those rare matchmen who actually OVERESTIMATE the size of their catch?

If this was the case I was in with a chance of beating him! I’d reckoned on having double figures at least, so maybe….
First significant weight was from one of the favoured pegs, peg 18, club chairman Kev Cardwell putting 9lb 6oz on the scales. 17 had 6lb or so, and when the lad on 16 lifted his catch out I really fancied my chances. Word had come down that the bottom end pegs had all caught well, with a suspected 20lb net to come, as well as a couple of mid-teen weights, so I wasn’t harbouring hopes of any more than a section win, but after the start to the day I’d had and the less than favourable draw I would be pleased with that. Peg 16 registered 11lb 10oz, my catch went 14lb 10oz, and surprisingly was winning until we reached the last three pegs.

My mate Dale Clarke pushed me close with 12lb 8oz, leaving the last two pegs to weigh the lad on peg one admitted to a single figure weight, it is a noted carp peg but with the majority oh them spawning it was a bit of a bum steer on the day. Top billing though went to Frank Perryman on peg two with a superb 23lb 8oz of roach, a great day’s fishing in anyone’s book. After all the trials and tribulations I’d finished second, and while I don’t think I could have ever seriously threatened Frank’s weight, if I’d fished for the roach with a proper rig instead of catching them on a set up more suitable for chub and carp I dare say I’d have had a few more, or at least had a more enjoyable day doing it!

I’d got sucked into chasing the better fish after the lad next door had a couple of better samples, and caught double figures of ‘nuisance fish’ together with the two better ones! Anyway, you live and learn; indeed you never stop in this game. That’s the ‘dodgy’ matches out of the way with the Turners now, and I’ve recorded two wins, a second and a section, I’d have taken that when the venues were announced, so it’s onto the more carp orientated matches now, starting at Woodhouse Grange in a couple of weeks. Before then I’ve got the midweeker at Barlborough, then a charity match at Aston Ponds Saturday, then Bank End Sunday. My mate Ian blitzed his section there this Sunday with 75lb on the floating feeder, so it might not be getting written off just yet! I’ll let you know how I get on, tight lines for now.