Weight – 7lb 13oz
Catch – 2 Perch, 1 Mirror Carp, 1 Bream, 1 Crucian
Weather – 1st mild day, cloudy & windy. Lake covered in thick ice.
Water Temp– 4.5c > 4.5c
Match – Open – 6th overall, 2nd in silvers, 2nd on lake
Today was suppose to be the 4th round of the Lands End Winter League, but Mike had decided to cancel the match, due to thick ice still covering the venue. Tony Rixon decided to run a knock up on Sydney’s & Johns Lake for those that still wished to fish. Someone had to win the money, so I decided to fish.
19 of us had turned up for the 9am draw and fishing would be from 11am. Everyone wanted Sydney’s lake, but I drew peg 41 on Johns Lake. At least it was a deep peg, but the lake was very clear and I fully expected a tough match.
On arrival at my peg, I found a boat in the water and a sledgehammer on the bank. Obviously someone had already tried to test the thickness of the ice. Well I quickly jumped in the boat and set about bashing the ice, nearly tipping over at 1 point when I over extended with the hammer – which brought some amusement from those gathered on the bank! I got as far 9m, but others wanted the use the boat, so I had to settle at 9m.
At 11am I was ready, but because the ice was so thick, not everyone was, so the start time was put back 30 mins. Since I was ready to start fishing, I decided to go in search of an icebreaker to try and break the ice up to the aerator at 14m. I stood on the spit next to the aerator & it took me 25mins to break the remainder of the ice, which meant I now had a long channel, but loads of floating ice that proved problematic for most of the match.
At the all in I cupped in some chopped maggot & predator plus at 10m and a pinch of micro pellet & maggot at 14m. I only set up 2 rigs a light Jean Francios 0.2g, with .08 bottom & 22 silverfish hook attached to 4 latex and Roach 4x12, .13 bottom (later changed to .10), 20 B911 attached to doubled 6 elastic. Both rigs were light for the 6ft swim, but due to the water clarity I wanted the bait to look as natural as possible, plus I wanted 2 rigs as security just in case a few carp show.
After nearly 90 mins I was still biteless. I had swapped swims & rigs, but felt the fishing under the aerator would offer the best chance of catching. So far I had been very cautious with my feed, literally a pinch of bait every 30 minutes. Eventually I caught a perch on double red maggot on the heavy rig and then another on the light rig, before my little catching spell came to an end with a Crucian.
I really needed a few more to show, because I could see Tony Rixon & Garry Wall catching on Sydney’s and the word on the grapevine was everyone was catching on Sydney’s. So I just kept plugging away on the 14m line, still feeding a pinch of micro pellet & few maggots, hoping for the crucians to show in numbers, or even a bream.
I kept rotating rigs, trying to be patient. Fortunately I landed a 3lb carp on corn (heavy rig) and lastly a 3lb Bream on single maggot on the light rig, which pulled plenty of 4 latex, which was interesting in the ice. With that Bream, I knew I had beaten Alan Oram on peg 68, who had managed a few crucians and I was hoping I could claim the 1st or 2nd silvers prize, which I duly did with 4lb 10oz. Alan’s crucians went 4lb 6oz.
Despite all the ice, most people caught. Personally I was pleased with how the match went, although a little disappointed with a couple of lost fish and missed bites, but the fish didn’t really want to feed. Hopefully today will be the last day of thick ice as we are due to some mild weather.
Tony won the match from Sydney’s lake with 21lb and Anton Page won the silvers with 8lb again from Sydneys.
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