Lindholme Lakes – Fisho Practice – Sunday 2nd July 2006.

With the impending Fishomania qualifier just round the corner, I felt that a visit to the venue was required and I promptly booked myself on the open match.

There were 32 anglers present including such names as Rob Hitchen, Jonny Howard, Matt Hall and Ben Fisk (???)!!

I had managed to talk Purverted into attending the match and had arranged for him to come and pick me up. I spoke to Daylite, Beanhead and Marco to get an idea of what was/might be required and promptly had to ring Purverted back. A waggler rod was needed!! And Purverted ain’t got one of those. After telling him that he WILL need a waggler rod he very, very quickly cried off. No amount of coaxing was going to make him change his mind. A quick call to Panic and a new travelling partner was arranged.

I picked Panic up at about 7:15 for the trip to Lindholme in order to get there for the draw. The draw at Lindholme takes place at 9:00 am and they have 6 hours matches (might have to have a word with Tom on this).

3 of the lakes being used in the Fishomania qualifier were being used for the match today with each lake having approximately 10 anglers on and if you won your lake you got a good payout in terms of there was no 1st, 2nd or 3rd prize. The prize consisted of £100 (ish for winning your section). The 3 lakes being used were Beeches, Willows and Loco. No-one wanted to draw Loco!! And everyone (in the know) wanted to draw Beeches.

Beeches is an old trout lake that has been stuffed full of fish and was used for the North V South match. Loco is a rectangular lake with approx 60 pegs on. There is a tiny island some 40m out in front of about 6 pegs (2 from 3 sides of the lake), what is that all about, other than that, it is featureless. Not sure about willows, as I don’t even know which lake it is.

Panic put his hand in the draw bag and drew Beeches Peg 16 and I drew Loco Peg 34 – we were both none the wiser. I was told (by Beanhead) to fish paste at 6m and pellet up in the water at 14m or further with a waggler rod. Beanhead drew Loco 42, Daylite was on peg 30 (ish, on the bottom bank and had no-where to go). Cromie was on Beeches peg 30 (a quid down already). Daylite promptly roped me into a quid side bet.

Upon arriving at my peg, I had Chris (Sherlock) Watson on peg 38, Beanhead was further round on about peg 42/44. Matt Hall was on my lake on about the peg 2nd from the end (about peg 60).

I set up 1 waggler rod which consisted of 5lb Maxima mainline (I don’t know how big they go), with a 3AAA MAP pellet float and a 12” length of Preston Powerline (.15 diameter) tied to a size 14 Kamasan Eyed Barbless Hook (B981, me thinks!!). I had hair-rigged a baitband and attached it using a knotless knot. The rod that I was using was an old Daiwa Amorphous Whisker. The Whisker rod is quite a tippy rod, with plenty of power in reserve.
In view of not knowing too much about the lake and the venue, I set up my pole rigs on the bank as follows:

6/7m paste rig: was a 0.5g Drennan Carp 2 float on .15 Preston Powerline straight through to a Kamasan B981. I was told that the lake was deep. When I plumbed up the depth was deeper than the 2 & 3 pole kit by some 3 inches. (I didn’t fancy the deep rig from this moment forward and would keep an eye on all those around me to see if I had made a mistake).

I then set up 1 shallow rig for 14.5 metres (there is a pole limit of 14.5m on the lake), this consisted of a 4 x 12 Garbolino DC 2 float on .16 MAP Carptek line straight through to a Kamasan B981 hook. Again, as the waggler rig, I had attached a baitband as a hair, also using the knotless knot (have you tried to make up a float rig from hook to loop?)

I also set up a rig to a overhanging tree to my right, the lad on Peg 32 was planning on fishing this area as his main swim (did he know something I didn’t). Whilst I was setting up my deep rig, I could see the odd fish boil and swirl tight in to the side under the tree. I plumbed up expecting to find about 10ft, but alas no, it was a reasonable depth – some 2ft. My rig was a Garbolino DC2 float taking 0.2g. This was set up on .16 Carptek line, direct to a size 14 (same pattern as above).

My bait table consisted of every pellet and size known to man with some more for good measure. I had some Sensas 6mm, Viaduct 6 and 8mm and some 10mm pellets that I was planning on using as hookbait. I also had some paste, groundbait, micro pellets and sweetcorn. Was I prepared or what?

Wait and See.

At the all in, I waited to see what everyone else was doing and where they were feeding. The general consensus was to feed at both 6/7m and also at 14m and splash a little bit of bait at 2m to one side. I followed suit.

The majority of people then went straight out onto the 6/7m line. There was one lad who was bucking (yes bucking) the trend and he went straight out on a splashing wag. He had what appeared to be a big ping pong ball attached to the top of his float, painted day-glo orange. He was on peg 38.

I baited the waggler rod and chucked out about 20 – 25m. There was a slight breeze blowing from left to right diagonally across the lake coming towards me.

I catapulted out 2 pouches of 6mm pellets and promptly cast out over the top. I put another pouch over the top and waited. I kept on catapulting a few pellets out over the top of the float, trying to get a rhythm going. I could see the odd fish boiling about 35m out. The float buried and a carp of about 3lb was soon in the net.

I repeated the process and after a further 20 minutes another carp was doing it’s best to run to the other side of the lake, but it failed and was in the landing net. This one was about 5lb.

When waggler fishing, I have a tendency to fish with the anti-reverse on and let the reel free spool, playing the fish using the drag. This is a good method until you get them under the rod tip. I used to fish by back winding, but I feel that sometimes, you give line when you don’t really need to.

Over the next 3 or 4 hours, I only managed to catch one fish and lost 2. The highlight was catching one of the Canadian Geese that inhabit the lake and watching it swim and flap all around Daylite’s peg – he wasn’t pleased (don’t know why, he wasn’t catching anything). Shortly after, I am sure that a couple of stones (or such) came flying my way and landed in my peg.

I tried the paste rig – nothing. I tried the margin rig, under the tree, nothing – the lad on peg 32 had a tench about 4lb from the margin and a couple of small bottle top carp. I plumbed up at 14m (just to get and idea and possibly have a go at full depth) using the same 6m rig. When the pole tip touched the water and the float hadn’t touched bottom, I sacked that idea straight away.

Sherlock on the next peg was catching all of his fish in the deep water at both 6m and 11m. He was getting a lot of small carp (6 to the lb) and the odd bonus fish (now and then), but wasn’t breaking any records. The lad with the ping pong ball was catching the odd fish but would have spells where he caught 2 or 3 then nothing.

There was a lad next to Daylite on about peg 28 (2 pegs away from Daylite) who was starting to get a few fish. He seemed to be fishing about ½ depth (to me, as I don’t know how deep it was for him) and was starting to get a few fish.

I added more depth on to the waggler rig and started to get a few more indications. I now cottoned onto what I needed to do (there was about 40 minutes of the match remaining). I cast out the waggler rod, placed the rod to my right side and catapulted pellets over the top, periodically and waited for the rod tip to go round. In this 40 minute spell, I managed to snare 4 more carp of between 2 and 3lb and lost another 2. I had felt as though I had finally got something together. I had previously been striking at every indication. That was that. Time!!!

My Weight!!!

The scales arrived and confirmed what everyone already knew, you didn’t want to be on Loco Lake. Someone on Willows had 115lb, Rob Hitchens had won the match with 125lb from Beeches, Panic tipped back 40lb, Cromie had 82lb and my lake was won with 44lb. Sherlock had 34lb, Beanhead had a similar weight, Ping Pong had 44lb and won the lake, Daylite was a DNW and the lad next to him, also had a 40lb + weight. I had 7 carp for 24lb odd. My winning quid off Daylite promptly left my palm and made it’s way to Cromie.

I haven’t got a clue where I need to draw for the fisho, but hopefully if I catch a few fish, I will have enjoyed myself and that is what fishing is all about.