As much as I was looking forward to the Coppull Mill match that was cancelled, I was hoping this match would also follow the same fate! Now granted, maybe if I'd caught a carp I would now be writing what a wonderful place this is...but I didn’t - so I won't be! I have always struggled when fishing High Heyes Lakes 2 and 3 but have had some good days on lake 1 - pity this was on lake 2!
The day started with a 6:45 alarm clock and an extra 15 minutes sleep than usual due to food being available at the lake (more on that later). So flask was made, waterproofs out and I stepped out of the front door and nearly got blown back in. Oh joy, and seeing as High Heyes is about as sheltered as a North Sea oil rig, I knew conditions would be tough. I arrived at the lake 15 minutes before the draw and had a wander round the lake - which in parts didn't look too dissimilar to the North Sea, especially at the far end. A decision was made to only peg the left bank (1-17 as 17 of us fished) as the wind was so strong that sitting into would have spelled all sorts of trouble - especially if the rains came which was a definite possibility. The draw was called and I was second into the bag hoping for anything above peg 5 and below 14 so was delighted when I drew out peg 2 - honest! The narrowest part of the lake, near the car park (the only saving grace) and what I had been informed was very shallow (Bob - never quote me a building job with those estimations after we had almost 6' in front of us!!!).
I arrived at the peg via the quagmire that was the path having had to dig my barrow out twice and knew I should have carried the stuff but my box is just too bleedin' heavy. I assessed the peg and had an island at 14m and a gap to the left of the island between it and another island. Then peg 3 arrived and I noticed it was Breamy - my heart sank as that could only mean one thing - I was in an area where plenty of pairs of eyes would be present as I have noticed pommiecatcher (I mean Breamcatcher, slip of the tongue there) has a knack of catching these!! I decided on setting up a straight lead for between the islands, a swim up to the island (well, 2' off it) and one 6 sections out. My 6m swim would be a 4x12 diamond bodied float with 0.14 mainline to a 0.12 hooklink and a Kamasan B7111 size 19 hook. The island swim would be a 4x12 pencil float to same line and hook. I plumbed up and found close to the island was around 2' deep so moved a little left to where it dropped off to 4' and decided this would be my first approach. I plumbed up the 6m line and found close to 6' which I thought would produce a few fish. After a 15 minute delay (which I welcomed as it took me 5 minutes alone to tie a 3 loop boom on my bomb rod as the wind was blowing the line all over the place) Dave blew his whistle and we were off!
Well if the beginning of a match sets out your stall for entire duration - the signs were not good! I shipped out 14m to the left of the island with a small cup on my cupping kit containing a small ball of groundbait and a few maggots and casters and 2 grains of corn. Slowly tipped it in and watch the cup fall off the end of my kit!!! Araldite failed me on this occasion! I watched it bob along upturned to the far bank before promptly turning over and sinking. So from now on in it would be feeding everything via a medium carp cad pot. Things started slow for me, and I noticed Bernard to my left on peg 1 was also suffering. It was about 45 minutes before I saw a fish as Pommiecatcher hooked his first pair of eyes - but to be honest it lifted my spirits as it proved there were actually fish in this lake. I had started on a single piece of corn to hopefully mug an early carp and after 15 minutes switched to caster. Breamy was into another roach that looked a little bigger so I decided to switch to single maggot. This produced a pair of eyes immediately which I bumped as my VERY softly set doubled 5 latex was way too big for this stuff. So I promptly switched to a single number 6 and began to hit the pommies. It was now 11am, and after having no breakfast and with no sight of the "food lady" who we were promised would be coming round to take breakfast orders, I was beginning to become like a bear with a sore head!!! I had been consistently feeding the 6m line with half a dozen casters every 10 minutes or so in the hope of building a swim. The owner had said that 44lb had come out the day before so I decided on a positive feeding approach on this line as the fish were obviously enjoying a bit of food. 11:15 and I could take no more - I reached for a barm out my bag!!!
By now, the increasing presence of pommies was driving me mad!!! I was catching them one a chuck no matter what bait I tried, maggot, double maggot, caster, double caster so decided to have a go on the 6m line. After around a 10 minute wait the float disappeared and I struck into what I immediately knew was my best fish of the day so far and it proved to be so as a roach of 1oz came swinging in!!! I decided a quick stint on the bomb rod was required to rest my swims and hopefully nick a carp as news was filtering down that a few lads were into the carp further down. The first cast between the islands brought back a leaf, the second a twig and some line, the third another leaf so I decided to stick it out on the pole as I didn't want to sit for half an hour on a bait that was hidden by a leaf. To my right Bernard was into a carp and I was beginning to think I was the only person on the lake without one! Then in the distance, approaching a bit gingerly on the slippery path, like an oasis in the middle of Sahara was the lady I knew would bring me some scran!!! Things were looking up as I ordered a bacon and sausage on toast. To my left Breamy was consistently hitting some decent fish with roach and skimmers coming regularly and I too was enjoying some sport from slightly bigger fish.
The wind was making life difficult though. My pole roller wouldn't stay upright for 2 minutes without blowing over, my slices of bread for punch had already joined my cupping kit and I just knew my pole was going to break at some point -it just had to (but it never did!!!). We were now past the halfway stage and I probably had just over 1lb of bits in the net as the food approached (Bernard was still trying to haul Nessie in). Whilst munching away on my scran I hooked my nicest roach of the day as a fish of around 12oz came to the net - I was feeling a little better about things until Dave shouted that Mick on peg 5 had already banked a double figure carp!!! I just wanted it to end and if it wasn't a league I probably would have done. With 90 minutes to go my only hope now was that my doubles partner was bagging up on carp further down the lake - and even this hope was dashed when he suddenly appeared with all his kit on his way home!! Beltin!!! Cheers for that one - there's no I in TEAM is there :-) oh well - this was just going to have to be written off as bad job. As the all out sounded, things hadn't changed for me word had however filtered down that Ray had foul hooked a 2lb bream with around a minute to go - could have only happened to him!!!! I had fed off the pairs of eyes with over half a pint of casters and was consistently hitting roach of a few ounces but at the weigh in I was lucky enough to finish bottom of all those who weighed - but at least I weighed in and only had 1- points against my name and not 12! Mick finished first with an incredible 41lb dead of carp - a well deserved win in those conditions. Matty was second with 12lb odd and I think 3rd was somewhere around the 9lb mark. I finished with 2lb 9oz of silvers and severe wind burn to the face - we actually cooked a couple of lamb chops on my cheeks when I got home they were that hot! After Wokkie posted the scores, I am now lying 4th after 2 rounds - a position I would have gladly taken before the league began.
[The Winning Net]
Off to Bannister House farm next week. A venue I have only fished once back in December through the ice where the match was abandoned after 3 hours with 2 perch, a gudgeon, 2 penguins and an arctic fox the only things caught! Hopefully we will fare a little better next week.
Very funny writer - made me smile
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