Landgate Lodge - Sunday 30/01/11 Rover

After missing a week of fishing (which luckily wasn't a match week) for a lovely weekend away with friends, I was itching to get out and fish our 2nd Winter League match at Coppull Mill on Sunday. I was really looking forward to get back on the bank, and also to try out the prototype floats that Nick Gilbert (http://www.float-store.co.uk/) had sent me free of charge as I know he is waiting for the review - apologies Nick! Imagine how gutted I am when Breamcatcher posted the news that the lake was frozen and the match was off - I'm becoming convinced our Winter League organiser is allergic to the cold! My disappointment lasted only a few minutes though as I decided to go to my local club water at Garswood Hall AC to fish the Sunday Rover. All wasn’t lost...or was it?

Saturday was a busy day getting things done, but managed to get out to the Tackle Shop for bait and then thought I'd go check out the lake (maybe this should have been the other way round but I was going to fish regardless!!!).  When I parked up on the car park I noticed how lovely and still the water looked - however it is very hard to get a ripple when there's over an inch of ice covering the entire lake!!! Even the margins were frozen and as I am was lacking an ice breaker - I needed to make one and quick! That 100m of rope I bought for £1 7 years ago and an old 5lb dumbbell weight from the back of my dad's garage were soon made into what turned out to be a decent icebreaker!

I collected my tackle from the parents (I really need some storage place at my gaff!!!) and spent the remainder of the night tying rigs and hooklengths in preparation...oh and thawing out my worms! Sunday started to a nice sausage barm listening Fisherman's Blues on TalkSport (I don’t think there are quite enough adverts on there!!!) as I made my butties and flask of tea and set off for the draw hoping to match (no pun intended) the draw I had a few weeks ago - Number 1 on the rover. This wasn't to be as I came out 17 - then came the call "REDRAW" much to the displeasure of the guy who had already drawn peg 1 - oops. I moved up 3 places and drew 13. Now it is 2 years since I was last a member of Garswood and not far off 10 since I fished any of the Landgate lakes so needless to say my knowledge of the pegs has gone completely - as was shown by me picking peg 19 a peg that was 4' deep when the 6 to my left all had over 6'.

So I set out to my peg, listening to the usual statements of "I bagged up on there last week", "good peg that one", etc, etc. I was greeted with reeds/rushes running out 6 or 7 metres and open water everywhere else. I decided to clear a channel to the side of the reeds where I was hoping snare a perch or two and some open water to 13m (I aimed for 14 but came up short) that would give me a 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock swim. After 35 minutes of throwing in my breaker and scooping out sheets of ice I was ready to start setting up my peg. I decided to feed chop and caster to the rushes, groundbait and pinkie to the 10 o'clock and a loose feed approach of maggot and pinkie to 2 o'clock. Groundbait was 25% Green SwimStim and 75% Bream-X, and the chosen rigs were a 4x10 pencil float dotted down to nothing for the 13m swims (both had the same depth) and a short 4x8 float dotted down for the reeds swim. The match was delayed for 15 minutes to 10:15 while everyone finished breaking which managed to leave me 2 minutes spare for a quick brew before the all-in.

I began by potting a small ball of groundbait and 12 pinkies to 10 o'clock, around a dozen maggots and pinkies to 2 o'clock and a small pot of chop and caster down the reeds. I was envious of the guys to my left who had over 2' more water than me but was still hopeful. The first 30 minutes on the 10 o'clock line went without a touch so I gave 2 o'clock a spell of 20 minutes - nothing. I had already decided to rest the reeds line for at least 2 hours due to the disruption close in so went back to 10 o'clock. Immediately I hooked a nice skimmer around 6oz which managed to shed the hook at the surface which I was gutted about! The swim now went dead for an hour. Meanwhile, a small skimmer was landed next door but one, and the guy immediately to my left was catching small roach steadily to around 2oz. A small top up of groundbait and pinkie kick started the swim just as Jeremy Bates was telling me how Andy Murray had lost another Grand Slam final without winning a set, and the cricketers were getting a good arse kicking down under - so far the sporting scene for me wasn't looking good. Time for a quick sarnie (Cheese and Chilli Jam for anyone interested) and back out at 5 past 12 and immediately got a small roach of 1oz or so from a single pinkie. The next 5 put ins heralded 5 more fish before the swim went dead. I switched to double pinkie - nothing. Tried maggot - nothing. Switched to 2 o'clock - nothing. I decided to pot in a small amount more of groundbait and pinkie and decided to have a go at the reeds. I started on a small piece of chop, then switched to caster but after 20 minutes I hadn't had a touch so went back out long. Again I immediately began catching on single flouro pinkie. I switched to a maggot and got 2 better roach of around 3oz before the swim died again. Time was marching on and to my left and straight opposite fish were coming out quite regularly and looked more like the 3oz kind than the 1oz kind. Again nothing from 2 o'clock or the reeds but after a 15 minute rest the swim picked up again.

At 3 o'clock with only 15 minutes to go, I got snagged on the ice bringing in a small roach that got off and left me in a right tangle so I decided to warp up as I knew I wasn't in the frame. I decided to weigh and my 20 or so roach weighed in for 1lb 4oz - enough for joint 10th on the day although a there were a few DNW's out of the 21 who fished. 5lb 3oz won followed by 4lb 15oz followed by a 3lb weight for third. Speaking to some of the guys after the match it appeared everyone struggled to string bites together, so either the fish were backing off under the ice shelf, or the frequent temperature changes (when the sun went in it was bleedin' freezing!!!) switched the fish off. All in all a decent day out and I'm now looking forward to Sunday's Winter League match where breakfast is available!!! An extra 20 minutes in bed for me!!! I may yet manage to worm Thursday afternoon off work and will make a trip to Coppull Mill to test out the floats if anyone fancies it!