Beastie Lake, Decoy, peg 24
Lots of snow on Wednesday, followed by rain, meant that the
water was cooled down even more than it had been. Just nine turned out for this
Saturday Open on Beastie, but they included some class anglers – including Stuart
Bracey, Nigel Baxter and Danny Carlton, all of whom are regular framers here.
I must admit peg 24 has form, but I couldn’t master it! I
had a viscious, cold back wind that rocked me about on my basket at times and
kept blowing my pole sections off the rollers – poor Nigel Baxter on 17 had it
almost dead on from his right and I remember fishing on that peg, next to
Nigel, in similar weather a couple of years ago (though not quite so cold),
when it was impossible for either of us to fish more than two sections of a
pole. Today Nigel said afterwards that he had to fish feeder all day, and he
must have been frozen.
I started on a bomb with maggot and got several small
twitches that never developed into proper bites. Then it was out to 11 metres on
the pole with a 4mm expander, but after two hours I hadn’t got a fish. So I
came into top-two-plus-two, where I had found a nice slope which was about four
inches shallower at the top than on the bottom – and the tow was taking the float
from deep water to shallow, which is always the best way.
In went a bait dropper of dead maggot, with maggot on the
hook, dragging the bottom, and eventually got a bite from a roach. Ten
minutes later in came an ide of over 1 lb. Things were looking up, as I hadn’t
seen the anglers on either side catch a fish. Then I saw the angler on my left
unhooking something, but couldn’t see how big it was. He was alternating
between his near pole swim and another at about 11 metres and a feeder, so I
suspected he was struggling.
Roach!
Two or three more roach came off as I broke down the pole –
it’s always a problem when catching small fish at distance, especially in a
strong wind. Then a bite on the drop persuaded me to shallow up by a foot,
which brought some more roach – all around 2-3 oz. Shallowing up further
brought some more roach, and I was catching one about every five minutes, always
hoping that a carp or more ide would muscle in, but none did.
With about 30 roach in my net I went down on the bottom for
the last half-hour and immediately picked up another ide and just two or three more roach, losing some more
as I unshipped. My elastic was the lightest I had – a 6-8 – and although
something like a 3 or 4 would have been better for the roach I wouldn’t fancy
my chances of landing a big carp on that elastic in that wind. A Catch-22
situation.
The weigh-in
The angler on my left had 7 lb 7 oz, so I was pleased to total 8
lb 4 oz, and the angler on my right had picked up two good F1s on a Method feeder in
the last half-hour to add to a single bream plus a few roach, for 11 lb.
Danny Carlton on 29 had fished for roach all day, and took
18 lb 5 oz of them, fishing a long line, which I will do next time if I start cacthing
small roach. He would have won if Stuart Bracy on 12 hadn’t foulhooked a double-figure
carp near the end of the match, adding it to some bits on the pole and three
F1s on the Method, and winning with 20 lb 4 oz. Nigel Baxter was third with mainly
small bream on a groundbait feeder with maggot. When I asked him if he’d cast
to the island he said: “I caught them from all over the swim.”
 |
| The result |
Winter League prospects
So a difficult day but I felt I hadn’t disgraced myself, and
with the next individual Winter League next Sunday possibly not fishing much
better, given the forecast of more snow, I am prepared to look at catching more
of those roach if necessary. It’s on six different lakes, with section points
counting, and anything could happen. Someone will probably get a big weight,
possibly on the favoured pegs on Elm, around 9 and opposite around 16, though
the prevailing westerlies blow onto that bank and it can be horribly cold if
you get snow or rain in your face. The first three or four pegs on Damson could be sheltered if we get the same wind, though the carp here are of a smaller average size than all the other lakes, but it could produce a surprise.
Lous 6 will be a favoured peg, fishing into the
corner with a feeder. Six-Island I don’t fancy in this weather as it’s the
shallowest of the lakes. But Horseshoe, although open to the Westerlies, can
fish consistently in the Winter, especially in the higher numbers where the
underwater lillies are densest. Finally there’s Beastie, which can produce a
winning weight from anywhere, with 26, 29 and 30 possibly the favourite spots if
there’s a raging gale.
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