Things are looking up!

Magpie Lake, Pidley, peg 32

This was a 12-entry Over 60s match, with showers and very strong Westerlies forecast, getting up to 33 kmph. But they didn’t happen – it was reasonably warm for January as I unloaded the car; I then walked 20 yards and hail came down. Before I had dumped the first lot of gear and walked back to the car the hail had stopped. As I got back to my peg with the second lot of gear the rain started – so up went the umbrella, at which point I realised the wind was from the North! Then the rain stopped and I might as well not have put the umbrella up...and within an hour the wind had abated a little. Then the sun came out; then it rained a little – and it was changeable all day long.

Peg 32 has an island at about 20 metres – I put up 14.5 metres of pole and was way short. So the first 30 minutes saw me on a groundbait feeder with maggot, with just one little nibble. Then it was out to 14.5 metres with dobbed bread punch, and it felt fine, but no bites. So out to 8 metres with the punch over some micros, Still not a bite, and I couldn’t see anyone else with a fish. The wind by now was strong but not too bad, especially as I was behind my umbrella – the anglers who had it in their face must have been very cold, though.

Some net roach

One went a couple of pinkies over the micros, and in came 4 oz net roach. The next 30 minutes saw two more, and I started feeding pinkies. Odd roach came, and I upped the feed to hook maggots. By moving the depth constantly from the bottom, to a foot off and two feet off, I nicked half-a-dozen more nice roach, but the same number came off as I was playing them in. The elastic was 6-8, so I felt it would handle a carp if needed.And  I decided to keep putting something in my net rather than changing to pellet or bread and targetting the carp exclusively and The four or five anglers I could see seemed to be really struggling.

I managed to get the odd roach on top two, where the water was the same depth as at 8 metres. But the water was clear and it appeared the flashing of hooked fish upset the rest of the shoals. But I kept on, hoping a carp would muscle in. Eventually, 75 minutes before the end, a 4 lb common took the bait a full section short of where I had been feeding, and I played it very, very carefully!  But no more. One more fish and two missed bites and the wind suddenly increased...and the last hour saw me biteless! Adrian, on my right, said the same thing happened to him. I tried the 14.5 metres swim again, potting in some micros and fishing maggot and bread, but by now it was dead.

 

A difficult match was had by all!

Surprisingly I totalled 11 lb for third, with 12 lb second. Adrian, to my right had 5 lb of roach, and Ken on my left was a DNW. So a satisfactory match, which always gives one a bit of confidence. Perhaps I’m not completely rubbish after all.