Whinwhistle winter league-final round

Whinwhistle winter league- 22/03/09

Today saw the last round of the winter league at Whinwhistle fishery. After winning my section last time I was on 14 points after 8 matches and couldn't be caught in 3rd place but wasn't likely to catch Richard or Derek in 1st and 2nd (11 and 12 points). This meant that I could effectively enjoy this match with no real pressure, although I had a play-off with Andy Shanks in the knock-out cup for 3rd and 4th place which would be worth a share of the golden peg money that hadn't been won. After breakfast I was ready for the draw and as always was hoping I would avoid The Rail but inevitably pulled out R10. Not what I wanted but atleast it was starting to warm up a bit and a few pleasure anglers had caught on there in the week by all accounts.

I couldn't quite believe I had drawn The Rail AGAIN but was a bit more optimistic this time around. Andy Shanks had drawn the end peg flier on Keepers lake so I knew I would be up against it in the knockout. As you can see in the picture's peg 10 is around 14.5m across with two little stick-ups at around 13m. I had Oscar Wylde on the next peg so would have a laugh if nothing else. I decided to target a few different area's as despite the rumours of people catching in the week my first target was to simply catch a fish. I finally settled on four line's- one at 11m to the base of the tree,one at 11m straight out down the track,one at 14.5m right over and one down the inside at 5m. The two 11m line's were fished with the same rig in around 4 and a half feet of water. This was a 4x12 KC Chimp on 0.14-0.12 and an 18 Gama Pellet shotted with a spread bulk of no:10's. The 14.5m rig was exactly the same but around a foot shallower so a separate rig was assembled. The inside rig was a 4x10 Scone AM Wellard on 0.12-18 B911. All three rigs were on doubled 5 slip. For bait I had some micro pellet,4mm hookers,a pint of maggot and a pint of caster. On the all-in I flicked 6 casters down the edge,cupped in a pinch of micro's and caster on the two 11m line's and a pinch of micro and 3 grains of corn at 14.5m. I went straight down the edge on single caster but after 5 biteless minutes it was onto the 11m line's where I remained biteless. This is par-for-the-course on the rail so I wasn't too bothered. After 30 minutes I went out to 14.5m with a 4mm expander and after 5 minutes I had a small bite and lifted-hooking a fish a foot or so off the bottom. After 10 seconds the hook pulled which was disapointing. I went out with the edge rig set a foot off bottom and started to flick a couple of casters out every minute or so. No bite's were forthcoming so it was back on the deck and I continued to flick the odd caster over. After five minutes I had a bite and this one wasn't foulhooked. After a few minutes I panned a small carp of about 2 and a half pound. Phew-section points secured as I had avoided the blank. Around half an hour later I had another bite on pellet and soon landed a slightly smaller carp of about 2lb. No more bite's from anywhere in the next hour saw me feed a pinch of bait on all three lines. Two tiny skimmers at 11m broke up the boredom slightly but they were gone as quick as they arrived and I was once again biteless. At around midday I had a positive bite down the track at 11m and hooked what was obviously a decent fish. It raced off around the stumps and seconds later the 0.12 hooklength was snapped. I was gutted by this although I was still comfortably winning the section as apart from a few bits no-one had caught. Over the next 3 hours I went through the motions but didn't manage a bite off any of my line's and the time was really dragging. News filtered through that bob Mapes on Peg 4 had caught a few little stockies and probably had about 4/5lb. I knew this would be close to me and I would need one more fish. At five-to-three I went out to 14.5m with a single grain of corn and 30 seconds later the float vanished and I was attached to another carp. A couple of minute's later I netted a 3lb+ fish with a minute or two to spare. Walking along the bank it was clear how hard the lake had fished. My 3 carp and two tiny skimmers went 8lb 4oz which was enough for the section win with Bob's 4lb 7oz enough for second. Andy fished a blinder on Keepers to weigh 19lb of roach and 11lb odd of carp for 31lb and a lake win. Derek Pickard won the square with 13lb,with Richard coming second with 12lb. This left them level on points but after a weight countback it emerged that Derek had won the league-talk about tight! As expected I finished 3rd overall. In the nine matches I had 4 section wins,two 2nds,a 3rd and two fourths. What ultimately cost me was drawing The Rail six time's- 1st and 2nd only drew on there once in the whole series.

Back to the lodge and after a delicious complimentary meal of chicken and chips it was time for the presentation. I picked up just over £140 for my troubles along with a nice trophy to round off a profitable series. They're a great bunch of lads and although the fishing was often very tough I enjoyed it nonetheless