This was my second match of the Winter with the JV club, and I was happy with peg 12, though peg 11 dominated Winter matches last year. There's a big clump of irises and reeds in that swim, which is an obvious holding spot. But the swims from 6 round to 14 are all potential winners in most conditions.
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| We had sun at the start, but later it became so gloomy I had trouble seeing my cloured tips, and had to change them all to black. |
I had John Emerson to my left and Mick Timson on 11, to my right. I had a cut-out each side of me. and right at the start I went into about 18 inches of water to the right , with corn, and thought I had a knock. But 15 minutes later I gave that up. I'm happy to fish this lake in the very shallow margins, but with a cut-out the fish have to come in from deeper water and swim up to the shallow water. Much of the rest of the lake has reeds growing along a straight bank, and the fish can easily patrol along the edge in the shallows, and I think that makes it more likely that they can come to you.
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| Sean Coaten, fishing opposite me, hooked a carp in the first hour. This was his first attempt to land it, but seconds later the fish came off. |
Into the bush swim
Then I went long in open water, where I found 4 ft 2 in, which meant that the water level has risen considerably from the Summer. But like most I got nothing there. My next move was close to a bush to my left, where there was well over 3 ft, and I put in a few casters and hemp, hoping that either barbel or carp (and preferably both) would respond.
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| John Emerson found most of his fish in his right margin. |
It took me a long while to catch another fish there, though I kept getting liners. With an hour left I had landed three more to about 6 lb on maggot, but lost three more foulhooked. By now Mick on my right had found fish on dead maggots next to the irises. He said he'd put a few in and after a while saw dead maggots being swirled towartds the surface, so carp were obviously there, in about two feet of water.
Mick then had a brilliant spell, landing about seven big carp. Meanwhile my first drop into the right margin past the cut-out saw a bite on corn, which I hit, but only a scale came back to me! That was followed by a liner or two. I saw Mick using what I thought was mussel at one time (though I later realised he was just resting his maggot swim), so I tried half a mussel. Immediately I had a fish on which fought very hard indeed, and turned out to be hooked in the side of the mouth...but they all count.
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| Mick Timson plays a carp hooked on dead maggot... |
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| ...and it was a good one! |
I had seen Roy Whincup on 6 land a carp early on, so was amazed when he weighed in only 6 lb 8 oz. Next to him Shaun Coaten had 40 lb 15 oz; I had seen Sean start to catch long after about an hour, but hadn't watched him. I think his fish were mainly F1s and small carp. On 9 Chris Saunders was rubbing his hands after weighing in 8 lb 1 oz - because that meant that Roy would pay him a golden coin.
Round the end of the lake, and Carl White, who organises everything for us, totalled 41 lb 12 oz, which cheered everybody up because Carl hasn't had a lot of luck fishing lately, so it was a very popular result as he was now leading.
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| Carl White with his third-placed 41 lb 12 oz from peg 10. |
The rest of the pegs at the car park end fished hard, and I think every fish caught was an F1. So Mick won, Eddie was second, and Carl third. I missed my section (by double default) by 4 lb, so just one of those lost fish would have boosted me.
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| Winner Mick Timson - his last two carp weighed over 20 lb. |
The annoying thing was that I had fish in my swims a lot of the time, so why couldn't I catch them? I know fish have been difficult to catch for the last few months, but I should have had more. I honestly think I was worth 3/10.
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