Wednesday 21/01/2009 - Carps AC - Bitterwell Lake

I have always enjoyed fishing Bitterwell Lake, which is a pleasant 15 minute drive from home. However, it can fish hard at times, which it did today. Lots of anglers moan about the bait bans imposed by Clive Reid the Fishery Manager (it’s Council owned and many years gone by, was a popular outdoor swimming pool – diving boards and all), but it’s the same for everyone. There is nothing wrong with Casters, Maggot and Pinkie. The bans affect the Carp Slayers more so than Silver Anglers.

I don’t mind where I draw on this venue. Today I drew peg 3 which was the first peg from the car park on the road side. There was some “Cat Ice” in all the swims along this bank, which soon cleared. When the water is clear, as it was today, you really need to fish as far out as possible. The waggler can be the right choice in this case, wind permitting. Due to the road behind, I was limited to 10 metres. I set up one rig a 4x14 home made special wire stem. I decide on two swims one to fish everything over the fisheries green 3mm pellet (Cats & Dogs pellets - they are quite good) and the other caster. I started with maggot over the pellet with double dead maggot and straight away, I foul hooked a Carp, which pulled free. It was very slow so swapped to single red wriggly maggot which resulted in a couple of small Ronnie’s. I switched to caster over the caster line, to no avail, so swapped to feeding Pinkie on this line. I then started to catch some Skimmers and Ronald’s to 12 oz. The best Skimmer weighed about 1lb 12oz. I wish I had switched back to caster later in the match when things got hard, as both Tom Thick and Charlie Barnes caught some quality Roach in the last hour or so. Another lesson learnt and now in the memory bank. I weighed 13lb 12oz for first in the Silvers and, as there were no Carp caught, first overall, for a pick up of £30.

Runner up was Tom Thick (pictured right (library picture as I couldn't catch both Tom and his Roach together, as neither would pose still long enough)) peg 8 on the “diving boards” with 6lb of quality Roach (pictured bottom right).

Tom “ounced” out travelling partner Charlie Barnes who had 5lb 15oz on peg 2. Both caught quality Roach late into the match on caster.

Colin Golding who selected the pegs today discovered that the Sun always rises in the East and always sets in the West, but the wind does not always come from the South West!!

Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 13-10-0 peg 3
2. Tom Thick 6-0-0 peg 7
3. Charlie Barnes 5-15-0 peg 2
4. Bill Ferris 5-04-0 peg 4
5. Steve Jefferies 2-13-0 peg 9
6. Andy Gard 2-11-0 peg 5

THE "STIG" REVEALED AS BEN COLLINS FROM BRISTOL GO TO: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yeQwi-8bCEA