Round 5-Whinwhistle winter league

Sunday 7th Februrary

Sunday saw the fifth round of the Winter League at Whinwhistle. Due to the arctic weather over the past few months a round was cancelled and this was the first league match since December 6th. Going into the match I was tied on 5 points with 2 other anglers but ahead on dropped result (my worst result so far is a third in section.) After a delicious breakfast I was ready for the draw. I had fished for a few hours on The Square the day before and fancied a draw on there but it wasn't to be as Keepers 15 was in my hand. Although I would have preferred to be on The Square I was happy with my draw as it was a great skimmer peg and if the carp didn't show I would expect it to win the section. The match was also a knockout round and my opponent (Daryl Eckett) had drawn on The Square so I wouldn't know how he had done until after the match-not always a bad thing. A couple of pegs to my left was Andy Shanks so the usual pound side-bet was struck-up. His peg could be hit and miss as it wouldn't compete with mine for silvers but he had a great far bank swim where there is an electric post going into the water. For whatever reason this always holds carp and they tend to be big. The day before I had witnessed how good Andy can be fishing the method and I must admit I fancied him for a fish or two from there.


Peg 15 is a great peg as it sits slightly further out than the others,has a good depth and is perfect for silvers. I set up 3 pellet rigs to cover 5 swims. I had 2 lines at 4m at angles of 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock,2 lines at 9m at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock and one line at 13m on top of a bar where it was a good foot shallower. The peg is nice and flat so I used 2 rigs to cover the four shorter lines- the first being a 4x14 KC Chimp on 0.14-0.12 and a 18 808. This was shotted with a spread bulk of 10's and matched to pink j-range and a pulla bung. As always it was plumbed to dead depth,with the 2 nearer lines being around 2 inches shallower than the 2 longer lines. When switching between the lines it would be a case of moving the float slightly to the mark on the pole. My second rig for these lines was a 4x12 Malman winter wire on 0.12-0.10 and a 20 Black gama. This was also shotted with a spread bulk but matched to double 4 slip and would be used for fishing pinkie,single dead maggot or 3mm pellet if it was hard going. For the 13m shallower line I set up a 4x12 KC Chimp on 0.14-0.12 and an 18 Gama Pellet matched to pink j-range and a pulla. Finally I set up a method rod with a small 30g preston feeder and an 8 inch hooklength (fishery rules) of 0.18 to an 18 PR36. This was clipped up tight to the far bank.

For bait I had half a kilo of groundbait for the method,some damp micro,wetted crushed pellet,half a pint of maggot and 3mm & 4mm hooker pellets. Target weight was 10lb-15lb of silvers,with 20lb + if I managed a bonus carp or two.

The all-in was called at 10am and as always I planned to only feed and fish one pole line out before binning it and moving on to a new one. A small golf ball of wetted pellet and a pinch of micro was potted in at 4m to the left before the method was despatched to the far-bank with two dead reds. It's very tricky using the 8 inch hooklength but by layering the groundbait and looping the hooklength you can bury the hookbait inside. It's a fiddly process but worth perservering with. After less than 10 minutes a cheer went out and Andy had hooked a carp on the method to the post on the far bank. After 5 minutes or so he slipped the net under a lump that was pushing double figures. This was a nightmare scenario as that was most of my target weight in his net after just 10 minutes. After 15 minutes I hadnt had a sign so reeled in and repeated the process. I had a savage liner which gave hope but nothing followed. I had only planned to spend 30 minutes on the tip but due to the liner I decided to pot a further 20 micros and a thumbnail piece of crushed pellet on the pole and have one more cast. No bites followed so I switched to the pole as I was now 45 minutes into the match without a fish. First drop at 4m with a 4.5mm expander saw the float bury after 30 seconds or so and a 4oz skimmer was soon in the net. Over the next half an hour I was catching well on this line with small skimmers coming regularly. What was noticeable was how little feed they wanted,and a pinch every fish was slowing things down so I switched to feeding a pinch every 3 or 4 fish depending on bites. The line was starting to fade slightly but I decided to try something a bit different on my right hand 4m line. I fed a full cup of loose groundbait with a few maggots and left it while I eeked out a few more skimmers from the left hand line. Around this stage Andy added a further carp from the far bank,this time a bit smaller at around 4lb. Realistically I knew that the only way I could catch him now was if he didn't catch anymore,but with feeding fish in front of him and 3 hours still to go I knew this would be unlikely. Still, being a league match it's all about points and I had to make sure of second place. No-one else was really catching bar the odd silver,although Oscar had caught a decent perch on the waggler of around 1lb three pegs to my left. The right hand line was slow but there were a few silvers topping so I jumped off my box and got a new topkit & rig (and snapped my rear seatbox clip in the process!). I quickly attached a 4x10 Chianti on 0.10-20 Drennan eyed barbless and double 4 slip. I kept feeding 3 maggots every 20 seconds or so for around 10 minutes while I had another small skimmer from the left hand line. I had 12 roach in the space of 5 minutes shallow but they were mostly less than an ounce so it wasn't really worth sticking with. It was almost time to switch back to the pellet,this time feeding the 9m left line with a nugget of crushed pellet and around 20 micro's. Over the top after 5 minutes and I was soon catching the skimmers again with a few slightly better fish of 8-10oz. Working out a feeding pattern was difficult as they definitely wanted small amounts but not regularly. This line soon slowed so I re-fed with a small amount before spending 10 minutes on the method without a bite.

The pole line at 9m had all but died so I re-fed, this time with a full pot of loose groundbait before trying short again for the roach shallow. I had a few quick fish before going back out to 9m. It took around 5 minutes for a bite but it was clearly a better fish when it came and I carefully slipped the net under a brown skimmer of around 2.5lb. This was a useful bonus as I still had to consider the knockout competition where every ounce could be crucial. I soon looked round to see Andy into another carp,and this one looked to be a good 8lb+. This effectively cemented 1st place in section which left me with a decision to make. Do I keep catching skimmers on the pole or sit on the so far unproductive method and hope for a carp. As I was clearly in second I knew that if I could keep catching skimmers and get into double figures I would be ahead of the others in the section even if they managed a carp. I felt this would be best rather than sitting on the tip that might not go round to then be knocked down a place or two by a late carp by someone else. This,along with the fact that I had every chance of a carp on the pole made me stick to what I was doing and keep adding what I could to the net,only fishing the method if I was desperate.

With 90 minutes to go I fed my 13m line on the bar with a pinch of crushed pellet and a small amount of micro pellet. First drop and the float dipped and a 4oz skimmer was soon on it's way in. Over the next 60 minutes I kept picking skimmers off both lines while no-one else was really catching. With half an hour to go the line died and as Andy had added another lump to give him 30lb+ I saw no point in fishing the method for the rest of the match as I would probably need 3 carp to overtake him. I came off the long line and rested it for 5 minutes while having one last 10 minute cast on the method to try and snare something. No bites saw me back on the pole and by trickling in a tiny amount of crushed pellet I managed to winkle out 4 more skimmers before the all-out was called. I reckoned on having around 12-13lb with around 38 skimmers in the net.

It was very clear that Andy had walked the section and I was certainly second. I just had to hope that I had done enough to progress through to the next round of the knock-out. The other section on keepers was first to weigh and was won with 7lb. I put 12lb 10oz on the scales for 2nd in section,with 4lb odd being third and Andy winning with 34lb odd (4 carp). Daryl had caught just 2lb on The Square so I was comfortably through to the knock-out and added 2 section points to go with my two 3rds and two 1sts. With 4 rounds to go there are no 4 of us tied on 7 points with a few snapping on our heels on 8 & 9. It's very close and a lot will depend on the drawbag from here on in.

I am not fishing this weekend as I'm whisking the mrs off to Paris for 5 days. The following weekend I have got the next round of the winter league on the Sunday and on the Saturday I will either be going to The Big One tackle show or fishing the open at Greenridge Farm.