11/12/22 - Ivy House - Kingfisher

Weight - 3lb 3oz

Catch - 3 Skimmer, 3 Roach, 1 F1

Weather - Freezing, snow showers

Match - Winter League rd 3 (39 anglers) - 9th overall, 4th in section

The 3^rd round of the Winter League and we were in for some very wintery conditions. There was talk about cancelling this round, however with no reserve date (there will be next year) it was set to proceed and ice breakers would be required. Unfortunately, the scheduled snow showers, arrived sooner than expected and were heavier than expected. Consequently, only 39 fished out of 50.

I had to take it steady on the drive and did wonder what I was doing! However, I arrived early to give myself plenty of time to break the ice, drawing p41 which is good area – it was just the shame about the ice.

After spending just over an hour, I managed to break a 4m section along the far bank and then a metre wide channel.

I started by dobbing bread along the far bank and then corn over micros by the left-hand tree in the hope of snaring a lucky carp. After 45mins and no bites it was time to switch to fishing for bites, i.e. a size 20 to 0.09.

Starting at the bottom of the far shelf, feeding pinkie and loose groundbait (black lake : Black intelligent); an hour later I had managed to catch 2 small roach, so at least I avoided a blank.

I managed a hand sized skimmer by the left-hand tree on maggot, but that was the only fish I caught from there.

With 90mins remaining I was still sat on 3 fish and decided to feed a golf ball of groundbait to the left of where I had been fishing. 20mins later I had 4 bites in 4 put ins all on pinkie, resulting in 2 skimmers, pulling out of a 3^rd at the net and an F1.

No more bites followed, so fed another golf ball of feed. Unfortunately, with 30mins remaining a heavy snow shower started which was settling on the pole and was creating a slushy surface layer, making it difficult to settle my rig. I did manage a roach but felt there was more to catch.

I had the best weight at my end of the lake, but the bulk of the roach and skimmers were further down the lake, with 3x weights of 4lb+ pushing me into 4^th in section. It could have been worse, as 1 whole section of Heron blanked (probably not helped by having the diffuser on the day before) and the Old Match Lake was won with 1oz! So, a really hard day, but if you caught a fish, it was worth mega points and I jumped from 23^rd to 11^th in the league. I just need 2 decent draws to push me into the top 8.

1.    14-12 – Jon Arthur – p20 (willow)

2.      7-15 – Jason Crump – p22 (heron)

3.      6-13 – Steve Waters – p32 (willow)

3.      6-13 – Steve Martins – p21 (heron)

5.      4-14 – David Halliday – p48 (kingfisher)

6.      4-13 – Andy Burns – p26 (willow)