As far as I am concerned there is nothing good to say about snow or ice, except one thing. Fishing in an ice hole gives sublime bait presentation. This is due to number of reasons. Firstly the rig is usually protected from the wind, if any. More importantly the water density increases the colder it becomes. This phenomenon makes shotting less sensitive so you can really dot the float down, light reflections permitting. The bites are also very slow and deliberate due to the fish being less active. I wish for similar presentation in the summer months. In any case I am glad it’s gone, but for how long, that’s the question.
Today was the first round of the Bathampton AA (BAA) Thursday Silvers League. There are 22 participating which is about the right number enabling a few of the Carp pegs to be left out!! I must give credit where credit is due. Mike Jones runs a great match and works hard to make sure little as possible is left to chance, similarly as he did back in the Seventies when he was Match Secretary for BAA running successful 300 peg matches, and winning them! Well done matey nice to have you back organising again.
All match men think about which peg they would like to draw. Me, well I find Bridge Pool difficult to predict and really don’t mind as long as I am not fishing in a cold uncomfortable swim. In to the box and I had a fight over the first peg I attached to with Paul Barnfield, he won. In again out comes peg 30. I was happy with that as there are usually a few Skimmers and Carp about. I set up two identical rigs 4 x16 Jolly one with 0.14 hook length the other with 0.1. I plumbed up at 7 metre out in front and at 9 metres at 10 o clock both swims having similar depths. I intended to leave the longer line for back up only initially feeding the short line with a nugget of GB with a few Pinkies in with it. With double Pinkie on a 20 808 hook I started catching Skimmers straight away. But it wasn’t long before I was being broke by a foul hooked Carp. This killed my swim for a while and after another nugget I had another couple of Skimmers to 12 oz. Then it happened again after a bite I struck and at about 2 foot off bottom hooked my second foul hooked Carp and another busted hook length. This wasn’t doing my Silvers swim any good at all. After half an hour feeding regular nuggets I has another couple of Skimmers followed by a proper hooked 5lb Carp – see a pattern forming. I am convinced that Carp aren’t always attracted to the feed but the activity of feeding Silvers. At the halfway stage I was struggling so decided to open up the longer line with a nugget and first put in had a 10lb Common Carp. I won’t go any further as I only added another three tiny Ronnie’s after this carp from the two swims. Interestingly this coincided with the wind changing from the SW to the SE, I realised this because I could no longer smell Steve Jefferies cigarette smoke! The two Carp weighed in at 15lb 9oz and my Silvers 6lb 7oz. This put me first overall – but that is only history as it is a Silvers only and Carp only based match leaving me 6th in the Silvers and 2nd in the Carp picking up in this category only (you can pick up in both – which is how it should be).
All my fish were in pristine condition albeit a bit anorexic, which was a relief after all they have suffered over the last 28 days. Overall it fished as well as it did in the last match before the ice age arrived.
The Silvers and right full winner today was won by Paul Barnfield (pictured right with his catch) with 14lb 5oz from peg 24 (I nearly had it) made up of mainly Skimmers. Paul caught on big maggot fished over micro pellet. Well done matey but I will pull harder on the draw envelope next time!!The Carp section was won with two Carp by Martin Alexander (pictured bottom right - great eye brows) from peg 15lb with 19lb 9oz. Martin lost five Carp all falling for Pinkie
Full Result (Silvers):
1. Paul Barnfield 14-05-0 peg 24
2. Chris Rolfe 8-02-0 peg 103. Mike Jones 8-0-0 peg 18
4. Rich Coles 6-13-0 peg 16
5. Paul Staite 6-09-0 peg 32
6. Mike Nicholls 6-07-0 peg 30
Top Carp:
1. Martin Alexander 19-05-0 peg 15
2. Mike Nicholls 15-09-0 peg 30
2 comments:
Mike,
Thanks for the info. I fished the lake on Wednesday, it was cold wet and windy. I had a look around and chose peg 23 as it was quite sheltered and had a bit more open water. The earlier pegs seemed to close to the island and those round the corner 25 onwards had a strong left - right wind so not very pole friendly. I would have rather fished 24 but didnt fancy competing with the elements. ( getting a bit old for it). i started off with two small balls of dark G/bait at 6-7 mts in front, and a swim to my right margin at the same depth, a bit of g/bait and a few casters here. I caught small roach on yellow maggot almost straight away in front, but the swim to my right was slow so i left it but fed a few casters every now and then. i eventually caught better roach here as the day went on. i switched baits between different coloured maggots and pinkies and didnt feed more g/bait until things slowed when I then switched swims. Yellow and white maggots proved best. It went quite dark at about 2.00pm this coincided with me catching three or four better skimmers/ small bream up to a pound and a half on 4mm soft pellet. after dropping my mobile in the lake at 3:00 pm I packed up and weighed 9lb of roach skimmers perch and a huge red goldfish, no carp although there were a few bubbles showing out in front so I may have had one if I fished on with a bit of corn as you suggested in your reply.
What I didnt do or think about was to alter depth. All my fish were caught on the bottom. i have to say the i do find it hard to search out the feeding depth. Do you suggest fishing on the drop or change depth until bites start. I always think the my rig is wrong when I change depth as the length of line from pole top to float seems wrong, so thats something for me to think about and resolve if Im going to catch more fish.
Mike thanks again for your help and advice, I think that i need to give the water in front of me a bit more thought, rather than just fishing the bottom. I will have another go in the next week or so.
Cheers Steve Rosewarne
Steve
I know what you mean about it not feeling right fishiong off bottom, but there are lots of fish up thre taking particles off bottom. Next time out try and think 3D, which might help.
You did better than Ray Beazeley from peg 23 - not one of the better swims on the day.It sounds as if you should be coming out on the over 55's?
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