Saturday, 30 December 2017

30 December 2017, Middle Lake (Gold Valley)

With hindsight I should’ve probably given this match a miss as at the time I’d been suffering with a bad cold for the best part of two weeks – however, having already missed a couple of matches and having spent a good deal of time indoors over Christmas I was keen to get on the bank for some fresh air.
  
All the gear ...
  
The weather on the day was amazingly mild – when we left home at 7am the temperature gauge on the van was reading 11 degrees Celsius, an amazing figure for the end of December. Unfortunately, this unseasonable temperature was driven by some really strong south-westerly winds that would make fishing the pole impossible for all but the final half an hour.
  
The usual winter bait options
  
Given the warm weather I had thought that the venue was going to fish really well so I settled on a positive plan to alternate between a maggot feeder and a cage feeder at around 14.5m – after all if the wind had allowed it this is where I’d have fished on the pole and as all the others fished to the central rope I’d have this line to myself.
  
The view to the left
  
As it happened this plan was fatally flawed as virtually all of the fish that were caught on the day were caught from the middle of the lake (i.e. to the rope) and even when I was able to fish at 13m on the pole in the final half an hour I still couldn’t put anything together despite the fading light levels making for near perfect conditions.
  
Peg 79 today
  
The one bite/fish that I did manage came at about 10:45 and gave me real hope that the approach I was following (casting every 2 or 3 minutes in an attempt to drag some fish into the area and stimulate some kind of feeding response) was going to work. However it wasn’t to be though the people around me hardly bagged-up with two or three fish being a typical return.
  
Big sky
  
I did fish to the rope for half an hour during the middle of the match but apart from a liner on the first chuck no proper bites materialised. Would I have been better off fishing to the rope all day? Probably. Would it have led to a positive result? Probably not! In the end the floating concrete block moored opposite 75 and 93 acted like a magnet to the fish with the guys on those pegs catching on the feeder all day long and catching more than the rest of us put together, with most of the field really struggling for bites.

Until next time ...

Sunday, 10 December 2017

10 December 2017, Middle Lake (Gold Valley)

Talk about "from hero to zero"!!! I actually drew the same peg as last week (73 on the Middle Lake at Gold Valley) but this week everybody was supposedly on the epicentre as the ten of us were pegged 72, 73, 74, 75 and 76 with the same pegging on the far bank directly opposite. As ever the fish didn't read the script with the weights increasing in a strikingly uniform manner towards the far end with Geoff Miles winning the match with 37-8-0 from 76, a good ten pounds clear of his nearest rival (the guy on 75).
  
Not ideal fishing weather!!!
  
My match started rather slowly - after surviving heavy rain, 50mph winds and a smattering of sleet for 4 hours and 20 on the feeder without even a hint of a line bite I was eventually able to fish the pole in the last 40 minutes where I managed to winkle-out six nice new F1s for 8-8-0 and a "thanks for coming", though at least I managed to avoid the dreaded Blankety Blank cheque book and pen that was definitely on the cards!!! Well done Geoff and to my old mate Dave Carter for smashing me off the next peg with 17lb plus ...
  
Roll on summer!!!

Sunday, 3 December 2017

03 December 2017, Middle Lake (Gold Valley)

Nice day on a brutally peggy Middle Lake at Gold Valley today - this lake is absolutely stuffed with fish (apparently they are going to add some more water to the lake next week there are now that many fish in there) but last week's frosts have seen the fish shoal-up in typical winter mode.
   
Middle Lake, peg 73
   
Unusually (and in complete contrast to last winter) the fish have collected in the centre of the lake where there are no obvious features or cover! Luckily for me I landed on peg 73 and somehow manged to winkle out 39 F1s and my first ever ide for a match winning 52-14-0, with Dan Blackwell in second place on the peg to my left and Anthony Thomas in third place on the peg to my right. I'm probably going to blank next weekend so I'm going to enjoy it while I can!!!
 
More tea vicar?
 
Until next time ...