My Match - An Account Of My Fishing Exploits And Endeavours: Wholesea Grange

Robin Hood AC were back at Wholesea Grange Lakes and this time we were on pond one. Pond one is not one of my favourite venues. It is too deep - even at 5/6m on some pegs it is 10ft deep, and it is rammed with gudgeon.

Due to the club growing in numbers and the size of the lake, we limited the match to 18 anglers.

I pegged the match out and I wanted to be on pegs 2 or 15 as they were both end pegs. I pegged it with most anglers (11) on pegs 1 - 15 and the rest (7) from pegs 16 - 24. The lake was double bank pegged.

It was all to play for today....I was having a quid with Donkey Waterhouse.

I put my hand in the bag and drew peg 16. Lurch Moorhead drew peg 2 and Craig McKenny drew peg 15. I fancied Craig to win today. Why did I want peg 15?? As I walked round pegging it out, there were loads of carp down the margin reeds as it is a corner peg and there was a bit of reed cover to his left away from the corner and they also had carp in them. The same applied to peg 2. Frontrow was on peg 23 - Mr Crabtree's peg. It had some burnt tree stumps in about 12m out in the lake.

Peg 16..

I had a bush to my left..

Some reeds on the opposite bank..

I set up the following rigs...

(L - R 4 x 16 Carpa Raisor, .3 Garbo float and a 4 x 12 Carpa Caster)

Rig 1 was a 4 x 16 Carpa Raisor. This was set to fish at 6m where I had about 7ft of depth.

Rig 2 was a .3 garbolino DC2 and was on top of the shelf to my right where I had between 8 - 12" for about 3 metres before it dropped off to 7ft at 6m.

Rig 3 was a 4 x 12 Carpa Caster set at 3ft deep to the margin bush to my left.

For bait, I had some Sonu Sweetfishmeal F1 Groundbait with some micro pellets mixed in. I also had some 8mm cubed meat, 6mm Bait-Tech Expander Pellets and some corn.

I also set up a 9ft Shimano Speedmaster CX rod coupled with a Shimano 2500 DL Baitrunner Reel.

The Match..

At the all in, I cast out the method rod, put it down and threw some bait onto my short lines. Whoosh, the tip flew round and carp No.1 was soon in the net at about 2lb. Can we please shout time now. I think I have won. Lol.

Over the next hour whilst I was priming my margin swims, I continued to fish the method to the reeds and managed to snare about 10 carp for about 15lb or so.

Due to the peg being so shallow near the margins, every carp that I caught went mental when it came up onto the 12" deep are of my peg.

I then stopped getting bites on the method.

I decided to have a look to my left next to the bush. I put on a piece of meat and dropped in and caught a gudgeon. I dropped in again and caught another gudgeon. I tried double corn and caught another gudgeon. I put on one of the new Maver Bow Tie Pellet Bands with a hard 8mm pellet in the band and caught another gudgeon.

I fished the method for the next half hour and never had another fish.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw some shadows in the margin and decided to have a go for them. I tried 8mm pellet, 6mm pellet, double corn. I also tried some of those Sonubaits White Chocolate Band 'Ums. Nothing. Every time that I fed some groundbait, they came to it after a few minutes. I dropped the method off the rod tip. Nothing.

Over the remainder of the match, I caught a couple of roach, some more gudgeon and 1 more carp.

That was it. Time.

Crap, tipped back about 17/18lb.

Donkey Waterhouse won with 78lb odd, fishing down the edge with worm over groundbait and caster. Lurch put 48lb on the scales for 2nd and Uncle Fester McKenny put 47lb on for 3rd. Woofer Clough won his section bank 42lb and miracle of all miracles, Frontrow Harrison won my section (and bank) with 32lb from Mr Crabtree's peg. There were 7 of us on my bank and 4 of DNW’d (pegs 16 – 24). Pegs 1 – 15 had all the weights and the fish.

The worst thing was…I could get fish in the peg as they were coming in to the bait, but they would not take a bait and they spooked really easy. It was about 12” deep from bank to about 3m out, then it dropped of to 7ft at 6m. I could see them come in and eat the groundbait and micro pellets, I tried corn, paste, meat, pellet and worm. Nothing. I got right close to them to be able to take pictures on my camera phone. It has got to be my most frustrating day this year so far. They were munching around in the groundbait as I could see particles coming out of their gills. Oh, and the water was gin clear.

After the match, I threw in my spare groundbait and managed to get a couple of pictures..