After what seemed like another endless winter it was finally time for the first festival of the year – not the usual White Acres but indeed a new venue, the beautifully tranquil Reepham Fishery located in the picturesque Norfolk countryside just 10 miles or so from Norwich. This is a cracking venue recently taken over by a good friend of ours consisting of 4 or 5 lakes and some excellent accommodation in the form of a series of bungalows and some top class static caravans.
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| Draw time! |
The festival itself is to be fished over three days and contested by 42 anglers split into 3 rotations of 2 sections each. As per usual the rotations are drawn well before the start of the festival and as a result I spent today on the Bungalow Lake, a rectangular pond situated no more than 50 yards from the backdoor of the bungalow I’m staying in!!!
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| Steve Crowe on peg 8 |
My dip into the bag of dreams saw peg 10 float to the surface – being new to the venue this didn’t mean much to me but it turned-out to be a bit of a corner peg on the far bank with a nice looking margin to the right. Unfortunately it didn’t seem to be a flyer (the pegs on the bungalow bank get fished the most and hence seem to hold more fish) and Steve ‘Widget’ Crowe (presenter of From the Water’s Edge) was of the opinion that his peg (number 8) was the worst peg on the lake so I wasn’t overly excited!
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| The view to the left |
The lake itself is basically a rectangle with 18 platforms spread around the perimeter with no central island, effectively making it pole only. Despite the draw being at 9 and the walk to my peg taking all of two minutes I took my usual eternity to set-up and by 11 I only had 2 rigs ready to go – a rig for fishing tight to the bank in twelve inches at top kit plus 4 to the right and another for fishing into the deeper water at various spots between top kit plus 2 and top kit plus 4.
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| The margin to the right |
I started my match with a quick look down the edge but (not for the first time) this didn’t produce any early mug fish so it was soon out to top kit plus two with a 4mm expander over some micros (the fish in this lake apparently averaged two to the pound so this seemed like a safe bet). Things started slowly, but I eventually got a few fish in the net – I did try throwing a few 4mm hard pellets at the float but this actually sowed my catch rate, though a switch to top kit plus 3 with a larger 6mm expander did improve things for a spell. The high point of my match probably came when I feed a big pot of maggots over my margin line and caught three better fish in a row on worm hookbaits – though unfortunately the fish came and went in a blink of an eye!
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| Yours truly in action! |
I basically spent the second half of the match rotating between various spots straight in front and the margin line – this led to some smaller fish from the deeper line and two more better fish from the margin (though neither more maggots, mushy meat nor neat groundbait seemed spectacular).
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| Daniel Brydon weighing-in |
Throughout the match I could see the guys on the opposite bank catching really well all day (luckily they weren’t in my section), though I could also see Daniel Brydon and Reg Barrass (who were in my section) also catching really well from the other corner on my bank from the vacant platforms they each had. As a result I was fairly pleased that my 24-3-0 was enough for third in section, for once being on the right side of some tight results as I just about beat a 23, a 22 and an 18 – Daniel weighed 81-13-0 to win the lake and Reg weighed 34-15-0 to beat me to the default section money.
Until next time ...
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