Peg 22
A spare Tuesday and I fancied fishing the Open on Beastie
Lake, although I know I’m well outclassed by those who were likely to be
fishing it. I drew peg 22, with a cool Easterly breeze into me from the right,
and Ben Bell to my right on 24. I would normally have set up a feeder rod, but
fancied a day pole fishing, as the peg was a bit muddy, the rain was falling,
and I couldn’t be arsed to get my rod out of the bag and set it up. Mistake!
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| A little rain at the start turned to heavier stuff from the East (across from the two big trees) and then it largely stopped, but the wind grew stronger and colder. |
Smudge Smalley had said I should be able to catch on a pole,
so I started at five sections, then six, and didn’t get a bite for 90 minutes
until I put on maggot. That produced the occasional roach, most of which fell
off. After two hours I wandered up to Ben, who had two F1s on a pole and was
now on a leger, with banded pellet, but hadn’t had a knock on that. He remarked
that the wind was cold, but I hadn’t thought it was...until a few minutes later
when I did, indeed, start to feel cool. Probably just had a hot flush from the
hormone treatment!!
A surprise F1 from the shallow margin
Back at my peg and I tried maggot in the side. The margins
here have little cover, and the easiest to fish – with backish wind – was to
the right, where it was shallow and I could see the bottom a foot or two from
the bank. However, I suddenly started to get bites from roach and perch here on maggot, where I could
almost see the bottom, and in the middle of these a 3 lb F1 put in an
appearance. I decided to carry on catching small fish, though the elastic was
far too heavy for them really, hoping more F1s would show. They didn’t.
Further forays out on the pole brought only odd roach on
maggot, more than half of which fell off as I broke the pole down. I’d seen
Smudge Smalley on 17 get three carp early on fishing the margins to his right against
the reeds, and I’d seen Rob Goodson on 18 get one fish. I couldn’t see Ben Bell
from where I was, so after the match ended and we had a word I was amazed to
hear him tell me he had 40 lb-plus, firstly on 14 metres of pole and then, when
the wind got up even harder, on a bomb with banded pellet cast to within about
15 metres of the island.
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| Ben Bell - current UK champion after topping the four-match series fished during 2019 by some of the best match anglers in the country. He fished Peg 24 today, and weighed 52 lb 3 oz for third spot. For me it's still a privilege to be able to fish against blokes like him just by paying an entrance fee. |
Obviously I should have tried that, but I’m not yet in
Winter fishing mode...and Ben is the current UK Champion, and about 40 years younger
than me; he weighed 52 lb 3 oz. A whupping, but my miserable 8 lb 14 oz, worth just a "Thanks For Coming", was perhaps
not an actual disgrace, particularly as some didn’t weigh in. Still, for my
next match on Six-Island I am starting as Nigel Baxter fished – size 8 elastic
for roach – he had 31 lb of them on maggot in his fourth placed 51 lb 5 oz, from peg 29.
And I will definitely have a bomb or feeder ready to use.
 |
| The result showed how hard the fishing can be on commercials at this time of year. |
Banded pellet wins
Winner was Chris Barley on Peg 5, who pole-fished banded
pellet at 14 metres and included seven good carp. Mind you, he had a backish
wind. I should have just put on the extra sections and tried at 13 metres – I have
no problem doing that with my Browning Z12. Afterwards John Smalley told me
what I had already worked out for myself years ago – that the fish in Beastie tend
to hang around the open water once the cool nights kick in. In fact fish were
splashing around that area all day. Later they will gravitate to actually go
under the island, where the temperatuyre changes are less marked, and very few ‘proper’
carp will be caught.
So Six-Island tomorrow (Thursday) and rain is forecast all
day with the wind due to change from easterly to South-West about ten o’clock.
That will mess up not only us anglers but the fish as well, unless the wind
suddenly becomes warmer, which it is not forecasted to do. Wish me luck.
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