Weight – 10lb 4oz
Catch – 10 Roach, 5 Perch, 2 Carp, 1 Skimmer
Weather – Cold start. Sunny & mild.
Water Temp – 4.0c > 4.0c
Match – Open - 1st overall
At last the big thaw and I along with everyone else was glad to see the back of the ice and snow. I had intended to fish the river at Bradford with Mark, because it had been fishing well despite the cold weather, however following heavy rain a call from Mark yesterday afternoon confirmed the river was bank high – typical.
So, I booked myself in with Mike at Lands End. With league matches at Viaduct and Bullocks only 9 of us fished, but at least we were fishing. Up to yesterday the lakes were mostly ice free, but over night frost, meant the ice breakers had to come out again. Fortunately it wasn’t too thick and I managed to cut a channel up to 11.5m on peg 21, but I fully expected the ice to melt away during the day.
Despite the thaw the water temperature was still very cold due to the melting ice, so decided to fish for bites and see were it took me. 2 rigs were set up, a 4x12 jolly, .08 bottom & 22 silverfish hook and 4x12 roach, .11 bottom & 22 B911, just in case I started to catch a few.
Initially started at 10m in the deepest water without feeding, but after 20 minutes, no bites were forthcoming, so a few pinkies with some atomic cloud was cupped in at 11.5m on the edge of the ice.
On the 45 minutes mark, I caught my 1st fish, a tiny roach, so at least I avoided the blank. Next put-in a few more pinkies were tosspotted in and the float sunk straight away. A 4lb carp was the guilty party and after 10mins I managed to land it on the light kit, fortunately it was so cold it didn’t fight that hard.
Over the next hour I had a few more blade roach, however my channel suddenly got very narrow as the ice melted as a big sheet of ice drifted into my swim. For about 45 mins I kept pushing it back and breaking it up as much as I could. Eventually managed to jam it into the platform on peg 20, where it stayed for the rest of the match.
With the ice melting, meant I now had more water to attack, so as well as maintaining my 11.5m line I set up another swim to my left fishing the bottom of the shelf, but I wasn’t really catching much. Time for a change, so a 3rd rig was set to fish just off the island. Some caster, with atomic cloud was cupped in. I wasn’t sure whether I would catch, but hoped the sun had warmed the water a little and 10mins later I had a 8oz perch on maggot. I tried caster, but couldn’t get a bite, so stayed with single red maggot.
As the match progressed, I started flicking caster & maggot towards the island, rotating my swims until the end of the match. The 11.5m & LH swim only produced more little roach, whilst my island swim produced another carp of 3lb, plus the odd perch & roach.
As the only 1 to catch a carp, everyone knew I won, however Beanie had the best silvers weight from peg 13 with 7lb 6oz of mostly perch.
As a footnote, Mike has started to chop down some of the trees on Match Lake, so the bank between pegs 1 & 24 looked very bare. However, by opening up the lake to the elements, should improve the fishing, creating more water movement, so hopefully the lake won’t go clear so quickly.
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