Lies, Thieves, and Skullduggery!

Right! Let’s get something out of the way before we get onto the fishing! Regular readers (or should that be reader?) will know that I’m not really the biggest fan of our cross-town neighbours who parade themselves in blue and white on Saturdays. I’m even less fond of them now, as they collaborated with a referee who frankly shouldn’t be allowed to preside over an informal kick-about for seven year olds, let alone the steel city derby, to completely spoil what was turning out to be a really good weekend! So, to all you Wednesdayites who have fallen over yourselves to remind me of the score this week, B*LL*CKS! We were robbed!

Phew, that feels much better! Three matches to report this week, and harking back to the other week when I drew the same peg twice in two matches, I did the same again this week! Bit better peg this time though, and a couple of nice days fishing to boot. Wednesday (don’t you just hate that word!) saw us on a re-arranged Matchgroup 2000 fixture at Barlborough. Same sketch as usual, except that there were a few more in attendance, which would be better for the fishing, Barlborough is strange in that it seems to fish better when there is a few on the lake, I know many places where increased numbers can have an adverse effect, but here it’s different. Maybe it’s to do with there being fewer places for the fish to hide, but whatever the reason whenever there is a good turnout it always seems to be a good match. I drew peg 31, the first over the bridge on the island, and almost ran to it! The Saturday match had been won from peg 32, fishing down into peg 31, so I was hopeful of a few bites.

I made a half decent start, with an F1 and two roach in the first 30 minutes, but it all went quiet after that. My mate Steve Owen was next door on peg 32, and only had a small perch to show for his efforts after an hour, so went for a walk along the island pegs, & when he returned to say I was the only one with a carp it was obviously fishing hard. On the grapevine, the best at the half way stage was venue expert John Mills with four carp, so it was all to play for. I never give in at Barlborough, many’s the time I’ve had late fish to boost me up the placings, and today was no exception.

My peg came good late on, with 90 minutes to go I had an F1, a small carp and six or seven silvers, but a late burst where I couldn’t get in quick enough saw me finish the day with 20lb 2oz, 17lb-plus of which came in that late spell. Unfortunately for me, John managed to snare a few more, and they were big ‘uns too, his 11 fish going 42lb exactly, leaving me just in front of a tight field in second place. It was a typical winter match, one angler running away with it, then a few pounds separating the next four or five.

It was like Groundhog Day come Saturday! For the second match running I’d helped with the organisation due to John the bailiff being on holiday, so I had the last peg in the bag, and once again 31 was left for me! Once again I was dancing across the bridge to calls of ‘jammy get’ and other unprintable phrases, and in an even more incredible coincidence, my mate Steve was on 32 again! I still had the marks on my top kits from Wednesday, and the same rigs came out of the box. Out of habit I still plumbed up, but was ready in double quick time for obvious reasons! I used the extra time to set up another rig for down the track, something to head off the long blank spells I’d been experiencing mid-match for quite a while. If I could pick off the odd skimmer or roach during this time it would all add to the weight at the end of the day. An even bigger turnout meant both the bride peg (30) and peg 28 were both in, and Barney was on 28. This peg can run a bit hot and cold, on it’s day it is a match winner because you have a bit of room to feed a couple of spots rather than having to hammer one line all day, and the F1’s were rolling there when we arrived, so I knew Barney would be one of the blokes to beat.

He started like a house on fire, four F1’s in the first 45 minutes saw him into a good lead, as once again the lake wasn’t giving up it’s riches easily. For me, that was something of an understatement, as over two hours passed before I had any sort of indication! Just as I was saying to Steve that I was staring down the barrels of my first blank of the year, a slight blip on the float got me concentrating hard again, and at 12.25 I had my first proper bite, which resulted in my first F1 of the day. In a mad 10-minute spell, I had that fish, missed two more tiny bites, and had two micro roach that dropped off on the way back, then it was back to square one, no bites or indications. By this time barney had seven or eight F1’s and a big perch, and had a lot of fish lined up, which were causing him problems as he was foul-hooking a lot of them. I find this is quite a common occurrence in winter, as the fish shoal up tightly.

Barney is one of the top anglers in our area, and wouldn’t do anything daft, but still he was getting troubled by hooking fish everywhere but the lip. I commented that it was a nice problem to have, as I couldn’t find a fish anywhere in my peg, but once again with 90 minutes to go I had a bite out of the blue, and a run of fish to the end. Same as Wednesday I couldn’t get the pole across quickly enough at the end, but once again the clock beat me, and as time was called I knew I wouldn’t have enough, even though Barney thought it would be close. As the scales came round peg 8, a noted winter peg, was winning with just 15lb, but there were a lot of double figure back up weights, once again it had been a tight match. The good thing about the Barlborough matches is that they have taken a leaf out of some of the other local venues books, in that they pay out smaller sections as well as the first three or four. While you’ll never get rich winning one of these matches, even if you draw in a less than favourable area you still have something to fish for, and a section win will usually pay for the day for you.

They work on the principle of around one third of the field taking money home, like I said you don’t win big but it keeps it all friendly and in perspective. Barney hoisted a steady 30lb 4oz onto the scales, saying I wouldn’t be too far behind him. I doubted I’d that much but fancied perhaps sneaking second place. Only problem was another regular, Pat Bradley on peg 30 had a couple of lumps in his net, but his 15lb exactly saw him in 2nd place, till my 21lb 6oz separated them. The rest of the island had been hard, indeed peg 36 took the defaulted section with just 9lb. So, two matches, same peg both days, same result, and all in all I was happy with them both. I couldn’t see me ever getting near the 42lb winning weight of Wednesdays match, but maybe if they’d come half an hour earlier Saturday? Or perhaps if I’d caught a few early doors? But of course, everyone can say ‘what if’, and it would do your head in if you let it!

Riverside

Sunday saw Ian and me off to Riverside fishery near Bawtry. A few years ago I had a great run here, I broke the match record and seemed to frame every time I went. Then a flood did a lot of damage, and it has never been the same since. To cap it all, last year’s big flood knackered the job just as it seemed to be getting back on its feet, and reports from lads I know who still fish it regularly didn’t sound good. They were catching plenty when pleasure fishing but matches saw the fish switch off for some reason. I’d had a phone call late Friday saying the open had been won with 14lb, pretty poor to say we’d not had any really cold weather yet, but I’d booked on, and Ian was still keen, so we went anyway. The annoying thing was that the bailiff there stood and lied through his teeth to us, in something of a rehearsed speech about how we ‘only hear the bad news about the venue’, and that the Friday open had been won with 56lb! I told him that my mate had fished the match and said 14lb had won, but he claimed my pal was mistaken, and that I must have heard wrong, claiming 14lb was what he’d weighed in actually!

Anyway, we were there, and had to give him the benefit of the doubt, so it was on with the draw. My peg, 20, put me in the narrowest bit of the lake, with an angler opposite me too, not very inspiring! The area I was drawn in was never very good back when the lake was full of fish, so I didn’t hold out too much hope. I set up both the pole and a waggler, with what I would describe as heavy-duty silver fish rigs, fine enough to get me some bites but with half a chance should I hook a carp. Ten minutes in, that’s exactly what I did! Foul-hooked to be exact, I was lifting out for another drop through and hit a carp three feet off the deck, which steamed off all round the peg before the hook pulled as I tried to stop it going under the next platform.

Great start! I re-fed the line, and moved to another one. I targeted several spots, it was looking like being a struggle for bites, so I wanted to hedge my bets a little first drop on the new spot, and the float slid away, again looking like a dodgy bite. I lifted gently in case it was a liner, but found some heavy resistance on the other end. I had it down as a crucian by the way it was fighting, but it started zigzagging as it neared the net. “Hooked in the tail,” I said to myself, just as the head of a 12oz EEL hit the surface! Thinking back, we did used to catch the odd one when I used to fish here regularly, obviously them come in from the river Ryton that runs alongside the lake. After plenty of trouble at the net I eventually landed the thing, and harking back to my team fishing days simply grabbed the eel through the mesh of the net.

Problem – these new rubber nets are great for carp, but no good for holding eels through! I’m not the biggest of blokes, and this was one long, angry eel, so it must have looked like a scene from one of those old B-movies where they used to cut different pieces of film together to look like it was a bloke fighting a dinosaur, but eventually the eel finished up in the net, more by luck than judgement, and I pressed on with tying a new hook of course!

An hour in I’d only added an ide to my total, and missed a couple of slow bites, the ones you often get from small perch in deep water like this. Of course, by now I’d convinced myself that they were eels, so was trying everything to hit them. A skimmer broke the monotony, and then it was back to the very occasional tiny bites. My bubble finally burst when I did hit one, and it did turn out to be one of those ‘glass’ perch, the ones so small you can see the maggot through them, not exactly good weight builders. I went through the process of swapping lines, trying the waggler at various depths, and picked off odd fish throughout the day, without ever settling into a rhythm as there seemed to be only the odd fish coming over my lines at any one time. Stories filtered down of odd big carp being caught at the other end of the lake, but at our end it was very slow, making me tend to think the Friday night phone call had been right after all. The trouble is, many of the lads had set up and fed to catch a decent net of fish, and many at my end were still blanking with just over an hour to go, mainly due to the information (or more likely misinformation) we’d been given on the morning!

Come the last hour, I was totally pissed off (due to the football result!) and all my pole lines had dried, so I decided to spend the remainder of the match on the waggler and maggot, lightly feeding an area and casting around looking for bites. I’d had an ide and a skimmer from the right hand side of my peg earlier on the wag, so decided to concentrate there. First chuck another glass perch wasn’t what I’d hoped for, but by plugging away and casting regularly I managed to pick off some 2-3oz roach, along with another skimmer, very welcome at 12oz or so. With 15 minutes left, I had a positive bite and the rod took on a nice curve. I was on a 0.09 hooklength to a size 22 Tubertini 808 hook, but fortunately it held firm and a 2lb carp nestled in the net. “That’ll win you the section,” said a voice behind me. It was Jamie, one of the Frecheville lads. He’d packed up early and come for a walk to see what the football result was.

Now how can I put this politely, Jamie is about six foot three, stick thin, and shall we say is a dentist’s nightmare? his gnashers are a sight to behold, especially when he doesn’t have his false ones in, and another of the lads, Sid Whitehouse, once remarked he was the only bloke he knew who could take a bite out of a sandwich and still leave the meat in the middle! When I glumly told him of how we’d been robbed in the derby, Jamie suddenly started jumping for joy. He’s only a bloody Wednesday fan! Let’s just say he realised the error of his way as he beat a hasty retreat down the bank away from threat from me of losing even more of his teeth! Poor fishing, a bad result at the football, and by now there was steam coming out of my ears! Time was called soon after, and the quick arrival of the scales, together with the absence of the owner and the bailiff, told the story. 16lb was easily winning, from the ever-consistent point pegs, with 11lb in second. Third place was 10.12, and when you study the result, you can see that all three anglers were actually throwing into the same area of the lake, taking fish from the same shoal. I was surprised at my 6lb 7oz catch, which was indeed enough to win the section, covering the cost of what had turned out to be an eventful day, with the eel, the foul-hooked lump, the football and all the bankside shenanigans.
A few blogs ago I said my favourite style was probably fishing shallow with pellets, but on reflection if I could only fish one way for good it would have to be across to an island/far bank with the pole for carp, typical snake lake fishing, so this week will be a good ‘un, I’m at Barlborough weds and sat, then off to Aston Park Fishery on Sunday for a Turners Arms open on the newly opened Lantra lake. It’s full of small carp, with an island at 13m, sounds like heaven! See you next week.