I fished Horns Dam a few years ago when I stayed on site in my caravan and thought the place was really nice and picturesque. There are 3 lakes, a pleasure lake, a match lake and the old 4 acre dam. Last time I had a great day on the match lake (200lb+ in a full day) but mixed fortunes on the Dam (around 10lb silvers) however this was a match I was looking forward to. I arrived on site 15 minutes before the draw and had a look at the lake which looked ideal in the early morning light. We had pegged out 14 pegs starting with the peg closest to he car park as peg 1 - which is where I drew. A relief to be honest after the wheels on my box broke when I got it out of the car and I did NOT fancy a long walk carrying my gear.
I assessed the peg and had a few approaches however it was hard to know exactly what we would be fishing for. The lake is noted for skimmers and small silvers but also holds some absolute lumps to over 30lb. A brick feature (possibly an old well or extraction system) to my left at 7m which I was sure would have fish around it. Open water in front of me at 11m and an aerator just short of the island for a 30 yard chuck with the feeder. As I set up the pole, it became apparent the aerator bomb rod wouldn't really be an option. As I was on a corner I had Stu to my right and Ste Leather to my left who were both also setting up rods and looking where they cast it would have taken incredibly accurate casting from me (which as Breamy can testify isn't always the case) to not cross lines.
I plumbed up 3 swims. Swim 1 was the feature to my left and I chose a 4x12 inline pencil float to 0.14 mainline, a 0.12 hooklength and a Kamasan B711 size 19 hook. This swim gave me around 6' close to the brick wall where it dipped down. I then had two swims in open water. An 10m swim (swim 2) and a 13m swim (swim 3). I found a very flat bottom here so could use the same rig to search around for the fish. I chose a 4x14 inline pencil float with same line and hook. I had a little over 7' of depth on this line. I also set up a shallow rig to try over the top of swims 2 and 3.
The match started at 8:15 and as this is an out and out fishmeal water due to the amount of carp fishing that goes on, I decided to cup in 2 tangerine sized balls of green swim stim mixed with micro pellet and caster and start with a 4mm pellet over the top. I started on swim 3 to let the close swims settle down after the disturbance. Immediately to my right Stu was into a small silver fish, then another whilst I was waiting for my first bite. I eventually caught a small skimmer (only a few ounces) and this was all I'd had in the first hour so I switched to swim 1 and was immediately into small roach on caster. This continued for 45 minutes but the roach were tiny, 1oz maximum and no matter what I tried I couldn't get through them. Even triple caster brought me a pair of eyes with 2 casters hanging outside its mouth. I then went out to swim 2 and 3 again on pellet but could only get one bite - another tiny skimmer. It was clear that the roach wanted caster and the skimmers wanted pellet, but I just couldn’t find enough skimmers and waiting 30 minutes was just too long for a 2oz blade. Meanwhile around the lake a few fish were being caught but all seemed to be small apart from a rumour that Breamy had lived up to his name and had a largeish slab (a rumour that turned out to be true as it was a lovely bream over 4lb). I tried again on pellet and caster but could only hit small roach whilst Stu to my right had got something right as he was hitting a fish every put in - I later found out on Pellet!!!! To my left, Ste Leather was hitting a better stamp of roach fishing to the same feature on worm - the one bait I hadn't got. He then landed a small eel - not the nicest of creatures but still nice to see one as they seem to have become so rare.
I stuck out the last hour on swim 1 on caster trying to build as big a weight as I could of small roach but struggled to get anything bigger than 1 oz. At the weigh in, the nets were all similar - plenty of bits with a few skimmers to add to the weight. Mine was the same...but with no skimmers (other than the 2 I had at 2oz each). I finished a very disappointing last with 2lb 9oz to pick up another 10 points with what has been a disastrous second half of the winter league.
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