After yesterday's result at Witherington Farm I was looking forward to the penultimate round of the individual winter league at Whinwhistle. I spent Saturday night staying with family which is around 10 minute's away from the fishery. I woke up at 4am in a cold sweat after having a nightmare of once again drawing Rail 14 for the third time in a row!! I was absolutely praying for a draw on either The Square or preferably Keepers lake as I was confident that I would win my section if I drew either of these two whereas The Rail has been a bit of a one-fish lottery this winter. I arrived at the venue at around 7.30 and sat down to a breakfast whilst telling the lads about my amazing 'two-in-one' method at Withy Farm. I was quite surprised to see that I was lying in third place overall after the last two rounds, with fourth place some 3 points behind. The draw was made at 8.30 and I nervously had my dip half expecting to see R14 but was relieved to see K18 in my hand,I had got my wish and drawn Keepers lake. I started to unload the car and realised I had left my nets at home- TWONK! I had taken them out of my car the night before and left them on the drive way but had got up in the morning and pulled off without realising. Luckily John the owner lent me a set and I got to my peg and began to set up. Peg 18 is a nice peg with a decent depth,although it's where the lake narrows and is around 20m wide.
League leader Richard Allin had drawn the plum peg to my left- end peg 17. I knew he would be very hard to beat from there as he had half the lake free to his left. Nonetheless I had to get my head down and fish my own match. I set myself a target of double figures which would mean good points and hopefully secure third place overall. I planned on fishing a mainline at 10m where I had a good 6 1/2 feet of water. This was to be fished exclusively with pellet,targeting the skimmers which average around 3-4 oz with a few bigger ones hopefully putting in an appearance. I set up two rigs for this line- the first was a 4x14 KC Chimp on 0.14-0.12 to an 18 Gama Pellet and doubled 5 elastic. This was my positive rig shotted with a double bulk of no.10's and I planned to fish 4.5mm expanders. I also set up a lighter 4x12 KC Speed on 0.12-0.10 and a size 20 Gama Black and a doubled 4 elastic with a spread bulk. This was set to just touch bottom and would be used for fishing 3mm expanders. My 2nd swim was a topkit length out where I planned to fish maggots for roach and perch whenever the long line needed resting. Although I had around 6 feet of water here I set up a 4x12 KC Porth on 0.12-0.10 and a 20 Black Gama matched to a doubled 4 latex. This was shotted with a spread of no.11's as I expected to catch through the layers as I would be regularly trickling in 2 or maggots.For bait I had some damp micro pellets,a few 4mm pellets,3 & 4.5mm hookers,a pint of maggot and some groundbait. The groundbait was for the short line and was a 50/50 mix of VDE Secret and Sensas Roach Noire sieved and darkened with Tracix. At 10am the whistle went and I dropped in 5 balls of groundbait about 1m out and cupped in around 50 micro pellets at 10m. Straight onto the topkit rig and I was immediately into small roach and perch. Richard had a few decent roach pushing 10oz which put him into an early lead. I continued trickling maggot in close and was catching steadily. After 30 Minutes I had around 1lb or so in the net so dropped in another small ball of groundbait,put a 3mm expander on the light rig and went out to 10m. On Keepers if you are going to catch on the pellet (which I usually do) you will get bites quite quickly. Therefore I was quite relieved when after just a minute or so the float slid under and a 3oz skimmer was on it's way. At this point I knew I would be alright. I attached a small cadpot onto the pole and decided to trickle in around 10 micro pellets after every fish. Although I was catching well I was getting a few silly bites and catching the odd roach. I decided to switch to the heavier rig,split the 8 no 10's into two small bulks with the nearest 6 inches from the hook. I also laid 2 inches of line on the deck and put a small cadpot of micro pellets in. This worked a treat as although I had to wait a bit longer every bite was positive and the fish were of a slightly better stamp. Around an hour in to the match I was flying and knew I was winning the section and just had to keep putting fish in the net to keep my nose in front. I found the best way of feeding was to put a small cadpot of micro's in,catch around 3 skimmers before the roach moved in which was the signal to feed again. This more positive feeding approach was definitely working as opposed to feeding tiny amounts after every fish. I kept switching between the two rigs to keep the fishing coming and found that I could only catch bang on top of the feed. I tried around it a few tiems but never even managed a bite which was quite surprising. Every now and then the long line would slow down so it was in with a pinch of micro's and onto the topkit line where I would catch a few dumpy roach and even managed a couple of skimmers and 2 perch of 8oz a piece. I lost a perch on this line that was a good 12oz. With half hour to go the heavens opened and the wind was atrocius,I could barely feel my hands. I had started the day in a t-shirt but the weather was awful. I cupped in a golf-ball of micro's long and left it for 10 minutes while the wind settled down. Back on the long line with a 4.5mm pellet and after 2 minutes the float dipped and yards of elastic streamed from the pole. A few minutes later a 2lb tench was in the net which was a very useful bonus. The all-out was called and I was pretty confident I had won the section as I knew I had beat Richard and didn't think much had been caught down the other end. I guessed I had around 15lb. We started the weigh in at the bottom end where there were a few good weights,when it got to me 12lb odd was winning. I felt sure I had that and tipped 16lb 10oz on the scales with only Richard to weigh. His net went 13lb odd which meant I had won the lake. I was pleased as I had beat the end peg which if I'm honest I didn't really expect to do. The maggot line on the topkit was very useful as I probably had 4-5lb of fish off this and it gave me somewhere to go when I needed to rest the long line. Back to the cabin and it emereged that Derek Pickard in 2nd place had won the square with 6lb odd and The Rail had been won with 4lb odd. After I had drawn it twice and had 2oz both times Rail 14 was left out this week! With one round to go Richard is in the lead with 10 points,Derek is on 11 points and I'm in 3rd place on 14 points. Fourth place is on 18 points with a dropped 10 whereas my dropped result is a 4. It's very unlikely I'll be able to catch 2nd place but I don't think I can be caught in 3rd. As they pay the top 5 I will be guaranteed a pay out and just need a good last match to ensure I finish well.
*Incidentally this weekend was the first time I have given the doubled Preston Slip elastic a real good go. It is quite simply AWESOME. The doubled 5 is the best skimmer elastic I have found. This weekend I caught a load of skimmers both days with a few tench and a carp of around 3lb. The bonus fish were no trouble and I think I lost 3 skimmers over the two days-it's incredible. The doubled 4 is lovely for roach/perch etc as it's very soft on the strike but you can still swing decent fish in. I now have this through 90% of my kit's with the only exception being 3 power kits with Wilkie Orange for extreme situations.
No comments:
Post a Comment