14/11/10 - Cuckoos Rest

Weight – 16lb 9oz
Catch – 65 Roach, 8 Skimmers, 3 Perch, 1 Tench, 1 Bream
Weather – Rain for most of the day
Match – Glenfall – 2nd overall

So my first blog for quite a while. Today was a club match with the added spice of being the semi final for the club knockout, with the eventual winner receiving free annual membership worth £75. There should have been 4 of us, however the 4th person dropped out leaving Andy Lord, Craig Davidge & myself to fight it out for the final on the Match Lake at Ivy House. Since there were only 3 of us, we decided the lowest weight drops out.

I had practiced on Tuesday, weighing 28lb (10-11lb of roach & hand sized skimmers, 6 bream, 1 tench, a big perch and a 1.5lb carp) and was feeling confident, however the lake was very coloured after the recent rain and it was chilly overnight, so it could be a bit of a struggle. According to last nights weather report there wouldn’t be any wind and the sun would make an appearance. At least they got the bit about the wind correct.

Cuckoos Rest is 1 of those venues run by a non-angler and it shows. It is a nice venue, out in the sticks, but it could just do with some tiding up, in terms of overhanging branches. Having said that it’s nice to fish a venue not dominated by carp.

With only 12 fishing today, it meant plenty of room and no really bad pegs. I found myself on the left hand side of the island, the 1st peg over the footbridge. I could see Craig on the opposite bank, but couldn’t see Andy who was further along at the top of the island. Since I could see Craig, so long as I stayed ahead for him I would qualify for the final.

Although there are carp at the venue and some very big ones at that, silvers need to be your target. I settled on 3 lines, 5-6m feeding maggot/caster, 13-14m feeding groundbait (black lake & green swim stim) & caster and the waggler further out, feeding small balls of groundbait. I also had a throwaway line to my left fishing back towards the "mainland", feeding pellet & corn. On Tuesday I only feed caster on the short line, but since the lake was more coloured I decided to feed more maggot.

Having cupped 2 balls of groundbait at 13m, I started at 5m, and it took 3-4 minutes to get my 1st bite, but after an hour I had 25 fish in the net, nothing bigger than 5-6oz, but at least I was catching regularly.

A switch to the 13m line only produced a few bites, so back to the 5m line after topping up at 13m. And this is how the rest of my match went. Catch a few short, before trying the 13m line and/or waggler. After the 3rd top-up at 13m, a 4½lb tench accepted my double red maggot. Now I was sure I was in front of Craig, who had managed to catch a crayfish! Andy had a little walk around to stretch his legs and was admitting to catching a few hand sized skimmers, so it was likely to be close.

Despite the very coloured water pike or big perch seemed to unsettling the fish, because bites would just stop, plus throughout the day small fish where scattering.

Further top ups at 13m yielded very little and the waggler only produced a few small roach. Going into the 5th & final hour, I decided to feed 2 balls of groundbait, with caster at 45 degrees right. After 30mins I didn’t have a response, but with 10 minutes left a switch back resulted in a 3½lb bream. Now I was confident of at least knocking out Craig.

Graham Millard won with 17lb 3oz from the favoured right side of the island, which included a small carp and 3 decent bream. As for the knockout, Andy weighted 10-4, whist Craig dipped out with 6-12. Whilst the skimmers didn’t feed, everyone seemed to get plenty of bites from roach.

1st Graham Millard 17-3
2nd Ken Rayner 16-9
3rd Ian Pople 10-6
4th Andy Lord 10-4