Writing a blog entry about fishing a match where you blanked is nearly as boring as reading one somebody else has written - so feel free to tune-out and tune back when spring 2013 finally arrives! For those of you still reading ...
Marsh Farm near Milford, Surrey
My view is that Marsh Farm is a cracking venue - it is very accessible, there is a great on-site tackle shop and the fishing is something slightly different to the norm as the main target species are tench and crucian carp (which have grown-on very well, with many being of specimen proportions). However these species only really come to the fore during late spring / summer / early autumn, and the desperately cold weather we've been experiencing lately (apparently March 2013 was the coldest in the UK for fifty odd years) has taken it's toll - a match fished on Richardson's Lake on Friday saw 21 of the 26 anglers blank!
Today's match saw a total of 14 anglers take to the banks of Harris Lake, and my dip into the bag of dreams saw me land on peg 38 - normally a decent enough draw on the far side of the complex and as with the majority of the pegs it has roughly a 25m chuck to one of the central islands.
Looking left
Unfortunately this lake is exposed to the wind at the best of times and
today (as most days for what seems like weeks) a savage north easterly
wind was blowing making conditions nearly unbearable - this coupled with crystal clear water (I could see the whole of my keepnet and the bottom of the lake 4-5m from the bank) was going to make things very tough indeed!
My bait tray for the first two hours!
I knew from experience that under such conditions it is very easy to overfeed so at the start I simply set-up one tip rod to fish the straight lead with a white 8mm boilie - my thinking being that a pile of bait would spook any fish in the area but a single bait would possibly tempt a passing fish.
On the all-in I cast my bait towards the bottom of the far shelf (7-8m from the island) and tried to keep warm - unfortunately after 65 minutes I'd not had the slightest indication of a fish and I was so cold I had to leg it into the tackle shop to get warmed-up!!! 15 minutes later I was back on the bank but a fruitless 40 minute cast meant that 2 hours had passed and my enthusiasm had started to wane.
2mm pellets, Cell liquid and yellow boilie dye
Clearly a change of tack was required so I soaked some 2mm pellets and added some Cell stick mix liquid with a little yellow boilie dye. This was combined with half a kilo of Sonubaits F1 Black groundbait to make a very inviting looking (to me at least) mix for the groundbait feeder.
Black groundbait with yellow pellets, dead maggots
So I swapped my two thirds of an ounce Guru square bomb for a micro Drennan stainless cage feeder (a 10g model with an extra 5g added) and my 30cm / 0.19 / size 14 Guru QM1 hooklength for 45cm of 0.15 with a size 18 QM1 in a loop, slipped two dead red maggots onto the hook, loaded the feeder with my new mix and cast out full of expectation - unfortunately the fish hadn't read the script and 3 windswept hours later I'd blanked for the second time this year and for the third time in four visits to Marsh Farm!!!
Harris Lake, Marsh Farm
Rather unsportingly I legged it home as soon as the all-out was called so at the time of writing I can't give you the final result - though from what I could see about half of the field also blanked but Ian Dixon seemed to be winning with 4 fish and Mark Harrington, Colin Underwood and perhaps one or two others close behind with 2 fish each.
It's been said before, but I'll say it again - roll-on summer!
the weather really is screwing with the fishing at the moment. Writing a blog about your poor days has to be done, I should know I have written enough of them this winter.lol
the weather really is screwing with the fishing at the moment. Writing a blog about your poor days has to be done, I should know I have written enough of them this winter.lol
ReplyDelete