Raygill Fishery, Lothersdale - MD War of the Roses Practice - 10/04/2011

 

Sunday 10th April was a scorching day and I spent it at Raygill Fishery in Lothersdale, North Yorkshire with a bunch of Maggotdrowners as we got in a practice for the War of the Roses on 15th May. This year would be my first fishing the match and we were looking to retain our title on Yorkshire soil. As soon as we arrived on site we were rumbled by the Cleggy (Yorkshire team captain) clan who were also having a practice - no sneaky practice then!!!

A scorching day with flat calm conditions didn't bode well for a day of bagging up with numerous submarines cruising just under the surface not the least bit interested in feeding. We all decided to fish different parts of the lake to cover off all eventualities and try a variety of methods to see which worked well. Me and my travel partner Big Dipper fished the bottom end of the lake on the house side where we had depths of around 6' from 6m out to 13m before it shallowed up.

Due to the narrow width of the lake at this end, we decided to fish pole and I chose 2 swims initially. A long swim at 13m which would be my pellet line, and a closer in line at 8m to try maggot/caster. I began by dumping in a medium sized pot of 4mm pellet long and a few maggots short and went straight in on the pellet line. I spent over an hour on pellet trying different things but couldn't get a bite so switched to the maggot line. I caught steady here all day (and closer in) on maggot and got roach to 6oz with the average around 4oz. Walking round the lake showed the rest of the boys were doing similar with the occasional better fish coming out.

I finished with probably 5lb of silvers over 5 hours which while not a world beating catch showed that once it came to the big day (where carp only count as 1lb) if we all got 5lb of roach we may be onto a winner...watch this space!

Croft Fisheries, Adlington - NW MD Winter League Round 6 - 27/02/2011

Sunday the 28th February and day that turned out to definitely be a day of 2 halves! I had never been to Croft before so didn't really know what to expect other than it was clear, deep and not too dissimilar to Coppull Mill in that respect. I had also been told that there was a dam wall which was the deeper end, and it shallowed up to the far bank to around a foot - needless to say I wanted somewhere near the dam wall for a bit of depth. The weather was mild (ish) but with sporadic winds that were bleedin' cold and heavy showers blowing all over the place. The draw was made at 8:00am, and I put my hand in and drew out 13 - unlucky for some. I am not superstitious, so this didn't concern me in the slightest. I made my way to the peg and had my first view of Croft Lake number 1. I must say I rather liked the venue, however the pegging was incredibly tight with only around 15' between some pegs, and the peg I had was on a towpath between the lake and a stock pond around 8' wide which I knew was going to make shipping the pole in and out a real ballache!

I am still without a pole, as it is taken an eon to get a new number 5 for my Exage BX, so I am very grateful (again!!!) to Ray for the loan of his Exage AX! I assessed my peg and noticed quite a few fish topping throughout the lake, so decided on 3 approaches. I would fish at 13.5m on the deck giving me an extra metre should the fish back off a little. This swim (swim 1) had around 9' of water, so I chose a 1gr hand made float dotted down, to 0.14 main line and an 0.12 hooklink to a B711 size 19 hook. Swim 2 was going to be at around 6m and would again be on the deck. I had just over 7' of water here, so chose a 4x16 diamond pattern hand made float dotted down to the same line and hook. As there was sight of fish on the surface, I also decided on a small 4x12 margin float on a 6' rig allowing me to fish anywhere from 1' with a long line right down to 5 and a half foot in both swims. I had brought a selection of baits including maggot, pinkie, pellet and worm so was satisfied I would be able to snaffle at least 10 points.

The all in sounded at 9:15 and my immediate approach was to cup in a small cup 3/4 full of wetted micro, a few casters and 4mm expanders into swim 1, followed by 1/3 cup of maggot, caster and pinkie into swim 2 and begin to fish swim 1 on the deck with a 4mm expander on the hook. After 30 minutes, I hadn't had a sniff, and hadn't noticed anything come out. Mick Peet to my left was striking furiously on the feeder at what later turned out to be gudgeon but other than that it seemed quiet. A few were opting for the pellet waggler or large loaded crystal - a method I really want to get to grips with this year as it’s a method I have never fished and after my 3 year sabbatical from fishing it looks like if I expect to frame in any match over summer I need to know this. After around 50 minutes I switched to double red maggot on the deck in swim 1 and got my first bite, a very (VERY) shy bite saw a small skimmer around 10oz come to the net. Meanwhile, a few were beginning to catch on the waggler, notably Bernard who seemed to be getting one a chuck and a few smallish lumps (if that makes sense!) seemed to be coming his way, and Matt looked like he was beginning to take a few opposite. Around me things were quiet, with Ray 2 pegs down taking a small F1 and a couple of bits but at least he seemed to be getting bites. To my right in the corner, Noah and Mick Cole seemed to be struggling. After an hour and a half and only one bite and one fish, I decided to cup in some more pellet to swim 1 and then rest it and give swim 2 a try.

I started on swim 2 with a single red maggot and missed a completely unmissable bite  which by the way it went under and the few I had later of the same kind were pairs of eyes - not going to get me any points. I continuously flicked 3 or 4 maggots around the float every couple of minutes when I got a small dip and was into something that took off like a jet. Careering toward Mick's peg to my right it felt a lot bigger than the tench around 2lb that finally came to the net - but what a fight it put up! By now looking around the lake that I could see, I thought I might be lying 3rd behind Bernard and Matt who was catching more steadily and also possible behind Martin who I think had a couple of carp in the net. That one bite proved to be my only bit in swim 2 so at 12:45 I tried back out on swim 1 but there was nothing doing and by now Matt was steadily catching and Martin too seemed to be hitting a few alternating between pole and waggler. Norman was also into the fish on the waggler and gave me a right chuckle with some of his strikes. I'm convinced he almost lost an eye at one point when he looked like he was trying to set the hook into a great white at a range of 300 yards and 200' deep. I just saw a loaded waggler heading like a bullet in his direction...without a fish on the end. I tried my shallow rig on my main swims but couldn't get a touch.

I now realised that the fish seemed to be in an area from Matt round to Ste Leather on the dam wall as these seemed to be the only people catching. I decided to open a new swim (swim 3) 10' to the left of swim 1 and cupped in micro pellet and put a small worm head on the hook. Immediately a dip brought me a nice bream of around 2.5lb - a welcome addition to boost my net. But again, nothing followed it at all. With an hour to go I opened another new swim around 2 sections short of this new swim and fished a foot off the deck and 3' off the deck but could only hit small roach about 1oz. Around this point, Dave Matty hooked what looked to be a large carp and was playing it for around 10 minutes with elastic halfway across the lake. Then a bit of jiggery pokery between him and Tel and a landing net met with plenty of abuse from my side of the bank followed by uproar of laughter as the next time I looked up either Dave's carp had scaled the tree next to him, or it had come off and fired him straight into the tree - selfishly at least I thought he hadn't overtook me :-) but did feel a bit (a tiny bit!) of sympathy for him. With 30 minutes to go I went back to swim 3 and decided to stick it out on double red maggot and was rewarded with 10 minutes to go with a chub about 1lb.

The All out sounded at 2:15pm and by my reckoning I had sixth. Matty was first with 35lb 1oz, followed by Martin with 19lb 12oz followed by Bernard with just over 18. I was delighted to find my net topped that of Bob (who coincidentally missed 10oz off my total when recording it to give me and him joint fourth tut tut) and Norman to give me 4th place leaving me 3rd in the league table and had me leaving Croft a happy man! This happiness ended a few hours later when Wigan were narrowly beaten (but slightly outclassed) by St George in the World Club Challenge! Oh well, there's always next year...and next week at Martin Hall, in Preston. Another new venue for me.

High Heyes Farm (Cattery) Lake 2 - 06/02/2011

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.

Coppull Mill - 3/2/2011

I was really disappointed when our Coppull Mill match was called off last Sunday as I was looking forward to giving it a crack after hearing so much about it but also to test out some new floats Nick Gilbert had sent me after I asked for some heavy floats. So having realised I had some flexi leave at work, decided to take the afternoon off and get in a couple of hours.

I arrived at around 12:45 and was surprised to see 5 men already fishing as it wasn't the warmest of days. A quick call to Breamcatcher to figure out where to fish pointed me in the direction of the car park bank (left on pic) or the right hand bank (bottom of picture) - and that this was the favoured bank. Seeing as this bank he guys fishing every other peg, I didn't want to go between them so picked the second peg from the corner as indicated by the red dot above. 

I decided to set up 3 lines for fishing 2 swims - a 10 o'clock 13.5m line dead depth with the NG 2g float feeding caster and pellet, a 2 o'clock 13.5m line dead depth with the NG 1.5g float feeding maggot and caster and a 0.6g 6' Drennan Roach float for fishing shallow (4' - 6') over both lines. I began by cupping in a few 4mm pellets and a couple of pre soaked 4mm expanders in original and dyed white with Sensas Tracix for hookbait offerings on the 10 o'clock line. I then cupped in some maggots and casters on the 2 o'clock line and began to set up.

I decided to fish the 2 o'clock line first. A single red maggot was baited and I had to wait 30 seconds for the first bite which turned out to be a nice perch of around 8oz - would love a net full of them on Sunday along with a few carp!!! Fish then came steady for the next 15 minutes with a fish a chuck before Breamcatcher himself arrived for a chat - at which point bites slowed off a little...coincidence?? Anyway I plugged away and tried a caster to no avail before getting a few small roach. After an hour and a half on the 2 o'clock line I decided to switch to the pellet line and gave it 45 minutes trying caster, white pellet, brown pellet, half a pellet and didn't get a touch.

Time for visitor 2 as my Granddad arrived on his way home from Southport (the logical way obviously - Southport to Wigan via Coppull) bless him. I had switched back to the maggot line again and was getting a few nice roach and the odd perch. Then bites dried up completely. The weather had changed from blue sky and calm to grey and quite windy and as 4 o'clock approached i thought about wrapping up before I tried a red/white maggot cocktail top and tailing the maggots. Immediately I hooked a lovely perch of around 10oz with a throat crammed with maggots (I was putting a cad pot of maggots in every put in). The next 7 put in's between 4 and half past brought me 7 fish on double maggot with not one of them below 8oz - if only I'd switched baits sooner!!!

Anyway, a nice way to round off the afternoon and much better than spending a Thursday in work!

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!

Charity Farm Lake 4 - Winter League Round 1

 

Welcome to my first blog entry and thank you for visiting. I hope you find it a decent read!

Sunday finally saw us begin the NW Maggotdrowners Winter League after 3 postponements due to the lovely weather we've had since before Christmas! We did attempt to begin the league before Christmas at Bannister House farm however after 2 bite less hours for all but 3 anglers and the ice freezing up the lake faster than we could break it - the match as a league match was abandoned!

I did worry, that having fished my last 4 outings through ice, I may have forgotten how to fish without it - alas this was not the case. The day though didn't begin too well! As I have no storage space at home, all my gear is stored at my parents and I load up my car the day before. So after getting everything ready on Saturday night and a nice 6:30am alarm I left the house at 7:30 to arrive at the lake for 8am and have a good 30 minutes before the draw to wander round and check out the lake. This was abandoned however when only 2 miles from the fishery, I suddenly remembered my side tray was in the garage at my parents and not in my boot. Cue turn around and arrive 5 minutes before the draw so the day could really only go one way from here!

I had never fished at Charity Farm Lake 4 but have walked around so knew the layout of the lake and the fact that we'd be fishing for skimmers but not much else so didn't mind where I drew to be honest. So when I drew out peg 19 (see red circle above), it didn't mean anything to me other than I would be battling a right to left gale for the foreseeable future! 

Upon arriving at the peg, I decided on a 3 pronged attack beginning with a small groundbait feeder toward the island in front, a long pole line at 13m and a short 2+2 line around 5m out. So after mixing up my groundbait (50:50 split between green Swimstim and BreamX with a few casters, pinkies and choppie) I set out setting up my feeder and pole lines. I fished a small running feeder within a loop above a further 2 loops on 0.16 mainline and a 10" hooklength to 0.12 and a PR29 18's hook. For my pole lines, I found around 7' of water at 13m which I chose a 4x14 Diamond bodies float for stability in the waves on 0.16 to a 0.12 hooklength with a PR29 18's hook to a doubled up number 5 latex. I found around 5' at 5m so fished a 4.14 round bodied float hoping the extra weight in the shallower water would assist with stability. This was on 0.16 mainline to a 0.12 hooklength with a PR29 18's hook to doubled number 5 latex.

I managed to get all my gear sorted with 10 minutes to spare so had a hot cup of tea and waited for Breamcatcher to blow his whistle. After cupping in half a pole cup of caster and chop on the 13m line and a quarter cup of flouro pinkie on the 5m line, I sat on the tip for 45 minutes which proved to be fruitless. A few liners but no real takes. So I decided to swap to the pole. After cupping in the same again and a small walnut of groundbait on the long line I baited up with a small piece of chop and had my first put in. 10 minutes later I was into my fish, a lovely pair of eyes on a hook, followed swiftly by another. I decided to feed positively as I was getting bites so put in a cad pot of 6 casters and a few pieces of chop every put in. Bites were steady and pairs of eyes were coming to the next regularly before a couple of nice skimmers approaching 1lb. A period a calm ensued before an 8oz perch and a welcome 12oz tench followed. More small roach came to the next and another skimmer before the swim went a little quiet at midday. A switch to the short line brought nothing on pinkie (strangely as the rest of the lake seemed to catch on pinkie and not a touch on chop!). I cupped in a marble sized ball of groundbait on the long line and a few casters and chop before giving the tip 20 minutes. The liners had gone and I didn't get a sniff so went back to my productive long line. DEAD! Nothing there. I had waited maximum of 5 minutes between 10 and 12 for a bite now nothing. Looking round the lake, not much was coming out - I knew someone had a tench around 3lb and a nice perch of 2lb had been banked and no doubt "I've only got 4 roach" wokkie would really have a netfull on the other side of the island but knew I needed more fish to be in with a shout. As much as this is a social thing for me and to enjoy the craic, I have never met a bloke who secretly competes in everything to win - be it the Christmas quiz at work, a 5 a side match or a winter league match in the middle of January and I am the same! I sat for the next 2 hours swapping between worm, caster, maggot and pinkie but couldn't buy a bite. Then with half an hour to go, 2 bites in 2 put ins brought me a roach of 1oz and another skimmer close to 1lb.

With the all out at 2:30 I thought I had a good chance of getting in the frame! Word came round that 5lb 15oz was winning (must have been 4 bloody big roach by Ray!!!) followed by 4lb something but the question was did I have enough??? As it turns out, I weighed in 5lb 10oz just 5oz short of 1st but as Breamcatcher says, may as well have been a million miles away! Match 2 of the year, first fish of the year and a second place to round off match 1 of the winter league and get me off to a flyer. 

Off to Coppull Mill Lodge next on 30th Jan where I expect a strong performance from Breamy, Cyril, Wokkie et al seeing as its their home water!!!