End of year struggle....

Early last week I called the tackle shop at Witherington Farm to see if there was a match 'on the board'. 'Yes' said the lad,it's on Cottage but it's fully booked'. 'No problem,put me down as first reserve.' I checked on Friday and was still first reserve so decided I would drive out there in the morning,if I got on the match great,if not I'd have a few hours fishing Sellwood (one of the other lakes). I pulled into the carpark at a little after 8 to find it was rammed with cars........strange! I got chatting to a few of the lads I know and it soon transpired that the plank in the shop had got the dates wrong,it was actually the Teams of 4 this weekend. So not only could I not fish the match I couldnt fish Sellwood as this was to be used in the match. So after an hour round-trip wasted I decided to spend the day at Whinwhistle as it was on the way home and I had the car loaded up. I very rarely get to pleasure fish as it doesn't do alot for me but faced with sitting in the hous all day twiddling my thumbs or spending a few hours on the bank I chose the latter. I had a nice day on Peg 1 of The Square catching around 16lb on pole & pellet. With the fourth round of the winter league the next day I tried a few different things that I wouldn't risk in a match situation.

Sunday morning dawned and after a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich I loaded up the car and made the short 5 minute journey to Whinwhistle. I fancied a draw on The Square after the previous day but anywhere along the middle bank of Keepers would suit me. In went the lucky left hand and out came end-peg 10. Now this peg is a bit of a flyer as it has a small bay to the left that usually holds a carp or two so I was reasonably happy. The only trouble is I always target the silvers which has been key to my consistent results over the last couple of years,and peg 10 is a little bit shit or bust as if the carp don't play ball you're looking for snookers. I was less enthusiastic when I got round to my peg to find that the overflow pipe that enters the lake in the small bay was absolutely tonking water into my peg. We have had so much rain lately that it was inevitable but I always find masses of cold water entering a lkae such as this is never a good thing. Setting up I didn't see a single sign of a fish which didn't exactly inspire me and deep down I knew it would be one of those days. I decided I would fish maggot down the edge to my left at 11m,pellet straight out at 11m and a tip rod for casting around in the small bay.

To cut a (very) long story short, I didn't even manage a real liner on the tip all day,and the silvers fishing was very hard. I managed to eek out a few on maggot down the edge and pellet long but I never felt there was any real volume of fish in my area. The water was so coloured due to the inlet pipe which I'm sure had an effect. I weighed 3lb 3oz which was actually enough for third in section so not that disaster that I had feared but I was still gutted at the day. The top 2 weights in section both had a similar weight of silvers but crucially managed a carp for around 12lb and 10lb respectively. If I'm being honest the only thing I would have done differently is fished lighter down the edge as I was geared for carp on pretty heavy gear for this time of year which wasn't ideal and I bumped one or two decent roach, but then if I was to win the section I would have needed a carp anyway.

After the match we had the Christmas meal (hotdogs,chicken legs,pizza,chips etc) and I made sure I had my fill,and then a bit more! It's now Wednesday and I'm still full.....

I haven't got any firm match commitments until early January so there's every chance I won't be on the bank until then so there will be no blogs for a while. I shall mostly be eating too much and getting drunk. Here's to a Merry Christmas and Tight Lines for 2010!