Commercial Matchman: Chuffed!

Horseshoe Lake, Decoy, peg 7

Alarm for 5.30 am, take my pills, load up the car because I can’t eat for at least half-an-hour after taking the pills, check I’ve got enought bait, have egg on toast whilewatching a recording of Match Of The Day, put on layer after layer of seathshirts...I’m now ready and rarin’ to go!

This was the second round of the Tony Evan-organised Winter League with temperatures in the wind forecast to drop below zero, and my usual target was to not come last on my lake. The lakes are to be: Horseshoe, Six-Island, Beastie, Damson, and Elm (in plave ofg the originally-advertised Willows). The Great and the Good are there, with Chris Barley drawing one of the really-fancied pegs, Elm 9.

There’s no obvious feature that seems to attract fish to this area, as Elm is a simple strip lake, but these pegs three-quarters of the way from the car park seem to hold more fish than other areas of the strips, especially on Elm. And when you put an angler of Chris Barley’s ability on a good peg it’s odds-on he’ll do well.

The wind was blowing down from the West, though it had more north in it than had been forecast, so it was quite cold, stiff, and into our faces from the left on pegs 1 to 9. Peg 5 has quite a good reputation, as has 13, but on a day like this, with cold clear water and sun, anything could happen. In fact pegs 5 and 7 are shaded from the sun by bushes behind us, so we didn’t feel its warmth at all.

I started with a small feeder holding groundbait and dead maggot with live maggot on the hook and had two small roach in the first half-hour, the second of which dropped off as I picked up the landing net – the rule here is to net all fish, though a lot of small roach are swung in to prevent what happened to me!

Bream!

Out to five sections where it’s well over 6ft deep, after outting in some 4mm pellets (I had managed to leave all my micros at home) and a small bream took a 4mm expander. Then I lost a foulhooked fish which left me with a scale. About 75 minutes after the start I had a look in the deep water near the side where I had put in some live maggots, and almost immediately hit a 2 lb barbel. I had allowed the bait to drift into the side of a big drop-off, hoping the fish would gather there.

In fact they seemed to be a little farther out, and over the next couple of hours I managed a few F1s to 3 lb, some bream to 2 lb, and the odd ‘proper’ carp, all on maggot after I had put in a bait-dropped of them because I wasn’t sure where my loose-fed maggots were ending up. Incidentally I fed live maggots because they are heavier than dead ones, and I hoped they stayed in the swim better. All those fish came fishing several inches overdepth. A look back on my original swim brought no knocks at all and presentation there was becoming difficult because of the wind.

The angler on my right on peg 5 had several bream fishing well out during my early blank session, and now he, like me, had to abandon his long line permanently because the wind had got up. At four sections he was now catching bream steadily, and then I saw some bigger fish came – he was obviously well ahead of me. The angler on my left seemed to be trying several different swims, on feeder and pole, so presumably was struggling – but with my hood up and turned away from the very cold wind, it was difficult to keep track of him.

A beautiful carp

The fish would take a bait only if I dragged it slowly to one side, but odd ones came provided I kept putting in a few maggots. However I wasn’t sure whether the blank spells were because the flashing of hooked fish was upsetting other fish, or whether they were actually backing off. Usually I get a feeling about what is happening under the surface, but today it was just a case of pldding on provided I was getting an occasional fish. In retrospect I should have tried a rig in the deeper water a couple of metres farther out, but when you’re catching odd fish it’s difficult to make that decision.

With about 20 lb in the net I tried a rig to fish just tripping bottom, with two Number 11s four inches from the hook, as when the wind died a little there appeared to be a tow. When I managed to pick this tow up I caught fish, one of which was the most beautiful sparkling bronze common carp of about 10 lb in immaculate condition. In the last 30 minutes three or four more big F1s came in, all on maggot, and I really felt I was starting to bag when the shout went up for the end. Altogether I had foulhooked, and lost, just two fish, and was left with a scale on the hook each time.

The angler on Peg 5 had 63 lb 2 oz and I was surprised that the first two, on pegs 1 and 3, had really struggled. The angler on my left had 29 lb, so I was pretty chuffed to finish second in my section – a better result than I could have hoped for in this sort of company.

The results are below – Chris Barley showed his class with an incredible 189 lb, fishing long, to win. He was asked what bait he used and apparently replied: “It wouldn’t have mattered what bait I used – the fish were just there.” What he could have added – but didn’t – was: “But you’ve still got to catch’em”. And land ‘em!

This was typical Winter fishing, with some lakes much harder than others, and fish holing up in some stretches. The fact that so many fish were caught shows the level of skill these anglers have. Next one in two weeks, and I have our last midweek club match with Spratts on Cedar this week. The forecast is for it to be very cold again. Several times I've had less than 10 lb in this match!

My lake sheet was very faint – so here are the weights (my section in bold):

Peg 1 11 lb 6 oz

Peg 3 3 lb 4 oz

Peg 5 63 lb 2oz

Peg 7 49 lb

Peg 9 29 lb 3 oz

Peg 11 22 lb 3 oz

Peg 13 65 lb 5 oz

Peg 15 14 lb 11 oz

Peg 17 20 lb 11 oz

Peg 19 56 lb 9 oz