Attack of the wasp!
For the third week running it was back to Kippax and I was looking forward to another day on the Lapwing Lake and hopefully a big weight of carp and ide. Those hopes deteriorated a little when I was told there was a club match on there and we were on the Osprey Lake instead. Osprey was only dug a couple of winters ago and opened last spring. It is also a snake lake, although slightly narrower at 14.5 - 16m wide but with a few more pegs. It hasn't been fishing very well apparently but as I had never fished this lake before I was going with an open mind. There was 17 of us today on the 29 peg lake which meant peg two miss one for most, but nobody could give me a definite answer to which the fliers were. Apparently you never know which peg will win on this lake, some said 8-12 were good, others wanted the end pegs, others said all the pegs on the left hand side in the 20s would win. I drew peg 21, which I discovered was on the left hand side about three quarters of the way down the lake.
A few anglers asked why I was taking my 5ft long front legs to my peg, the answer was I intended putting my footplate legs in the lake. You might have noticed this on most of the peg pictures I post and it's something I do everywhere I go where allowed and where it is shallow enough in the edge to do so. It's especially important when fishing to islands or on the long pole because it means you can fish with 2-3ft less pole. It's only a small point but today there was a crosswind and it would make my peg easier to fish. I wasn't sure how tight up to the island I would catch so I plumbed up two rigs, one tight up to the grass in 12ins of water and another off the island in about 2ft. I also set a track rig up because I'd heard there was some big skimmers in here, although there aren't that many ide. My 2ft rig also doubled up as a margin rig but I didn't expect to catch here. I had a load of maggots for Lapwing lake and I reasoned they would work on here too, but I also prepared some expanders for the track line.
Time was shouted and what ensued was probably the worst start to a match I have ever experienced. Even worse than the opening day of the Dynamite Festival this spring when I loaded a full pole cup with worms and casters on time, shipped out to 13m and my number 6 folded in half! No, this time I decided to feed my track swim first with a few micros, dead maggots and a nugget of groundbait to see if any skimmers would settle. Plopping this in at 10m all was well and good and I was just about to turn round and ship back when I felt a sharp pain on one finger of my right hand holding the pole. I looked down and there was a wasp attached to it! I tried to swat it off and then it really did bite me, the pain was so great that I dropped my pole and had to physically shake the wasp off. First thought was to rescue 10m of Airity which was by now floating off down the lake into peg 22. This was done swiftly after scurrying down the bank with my net handle. Then I started to realise my finger felt like it was on fire and I sat there for a minute in agony, teaching myself new swearwords and generally feeling sorry for myself. I then had a quiet word, told myself to 'man up' and went back on my box and taped the offending finger up with electrical tape. I've had better starts to competitions...
By this time young Matty Dickinson was already into his first carp on the peg directly to my left. Wincing I loaded my cup up with maggots and went across onto the 2ft line. I caught five ide in my first five drops but they were only 6oz apiece. Matty meanwhile had five carp in his first five drops, also on maggots. I decided to venture further across onto the tight up line to see if this would sort the carp out but it didn't, instead seeing missed bites from tiny roach. I then decided to try feeding pellet on my right hand line tight up, and after dropping on this I missed a few bites before connecting with a carp of about 1lb 8oz. No more followed. By this time I was going nowhere fast. Matty was catching steadily on pellet now and Andy Barker to his left on peg 17 was getting some lumps casting a feeder down to the empty pegs between the two. I had a feeder set up which I chucked into the empty peg to my right, but after three casts without a sign I binned it. I wasn't in the same boat as all the anglers to the right were struggling from what I could see.
I had now slowed to a halt on all my lines. A try down the middle produced a couple of micro tench (grandson of tench) on both maggots and pellets, which weren't really worth catching. By now Matty was catching well fishing to his left and it seemed that the carp were in pegs 18 and 19 which were vacant. I could see myself getting my backside kicked today. I resorted to trying to make my 2ft line work and slowly but surely I started to put a few ide together, just something, anything, to go into the net. I had learnt from last week the importance of these ide. I then had a spell where I foulhooked and lost three carp on the trot, and Matty seemed to be having a few problems with this too. So I went tight up again and foul hooked on there! I decided to just go back to the ide and grin and bear the foulhookers.
Dropping back on the 2ft line however, I found a pleasant change. The carp seemed to have settled and I started to catch them regularly for an hour spell, not big fish but welcome all the same. Both Matty and Andy Barker had slowed up and it looked like a few fish had come this way all of a sudden. Kev Worth to my right also started hooking a few after sitting there for four hours without much action. After catching well on this, it seemed to die a bit and I decided to try a new line which I had plumbed up a rig for at the start. This was at 16m to my right and was in the shallowest water I could find, as tight to the bank as I could get, fishing almost behind a sedge. The idea being to get proper bites instead of liners. I had tried this earlier for one fish but it was difficult with the wind. Now the wind had eased I could feed it again and in the last hour of the match I saw some movement there.
I caught several fish on this line, including a very welcome 5lb mirror and two ide which were 2lb a piece, to end the match with a flurry. The general consensus was that it had fished hard and I felt for Matty as his peg had completely dried up, and he had caught very little in the final few hours. When the scales got to us, just 34lb was winning. Matty's carp went 39lb 8oz and then it was my turn. I only had 35lb of carp, which was about par for the course, but crucially my silverfish net contained about 18lb of ide, enough for 53lb and another brown envelope. Paul Evans was second further up with 43lb of paste caught carp. Those ide were really important again and they kept me hanging in there until a few runs of carp came late on. Now I never want to see another wasp!
Result
1. B Fisk 53-0-0 peg 21
2. P Evans 43-8-0 peg 27
3. M Dickinson 39-8-0 peg 20
4. A Barker 34-0 peg 17
A few anglers asked why I was taking my 5ft long front legs to my peg, the answer was I intended putting my footplate legs in the lake. You might have noticed this on most of the peg pictures I post and it's something I do everywhere I go where allowed and where it is shallow enough in the edge to do so. It's especially important when fishing to islands or on the long pole because it means you can fish with 2-3ft less pole. It's only a small point but today there was a crosswind and it would make my peg easier to fish. I wasn't sure how tight up to the island I would catch so I plumbed up two rigs, one tight up to the grass in 12ins of water and another off the island in about 2ft. I also set a track rig up because I'd heard there was some big skimmers in here, although there aren't that many ide. My 2ft rig also doubled up as a margin rig but I didn't expect to catch here. I had a load of maggots for Lapwing lake and I reasoned they would work on here too, but I also prepared some expanders for the track line.
Time was shouted and what ensued was probably the worst start to a match I have ever experienced. Even worse than the opening day of the Dynamite Festival this spring when I loaded a full pole cup with worms and casters on time, shipped out to 13m and my number 6 folded in half! No, this time I decided to feed my track swim first with a few micros, dead maggots and a nugget of groundbait to see if any skimmers would settle. Plopping this in at 10m all was well and good and I was just about to turn round and ship back when I felt a sharp pain on one finger of my right hand holding the pole. I looked down and there was a wasp attached to it! I tried to swat it off and then it really did bite me, the pain was so great that I dropped my pole and had to physically shake the wasp off. First thought was to rescue 10m of Airity which was by now floating off down the lake into peg 22. This was done swiftly after scurrying down the bank with my net handle. Then I started to realise my finger felt like it was on fire and I sat there for a minute in agony, teaching myself new swearwords and generally feeling sorry for myself. I then had a quiet word, told myself to 'man up' and went back on my box and taped the offending finger up with electrical tape. I've had better starts to competitions...
By this time young Matty Dickinson was already into his first carp on the peg directly to my left. Wincing I loaded my cup up with maggots and went across onto the 2ft line. I caught five ide in my first five drops but they were only 6oz apiece. Matty meanwhile had five carp in his first five drops, also on maggots. I decided to venture further across onto the tight up line to see if this would sort the carp out but it didn't, instead seeing missed bites from tiny roach. I then decided to try feeding pellet on my right hand line tight up, and after dropping on this I missed a few bites before connecting with a carp of about 1lb 8oz. No more followed. By this time I was going nowhere fast. Matty was catching steadily on pellet now and Andy Barker to his left on peg 17 was getting some lumps casting a feeder down to the empty pegs between the two. I had a feeder set up which I chucked into the empty peg to my right, but after three casts without a sign I binned it. I wasn't in the same boat as all the anglers to the right were struggling from what I could see.
I had now slowed to a halt on all my lines. A try down the middle produced a couple of micro tench (grandson of tench) on both maggots and pellets, which weren't really worth catching. By now Matty was catching well fishing to his left and it seemed that the carp were in pegs 18 and 19 which were vacant. I could see myself getting my backside kicked today. I resorted to trying to make my 2ft line work and slowly but surely I started to put a few ide together, just something, anything, to go into the net. I had learnt from last week the importance of these ide. I then had a spell where I foulhooked and lost three carp on the trot, and Matty seemed to be having a few problems with this too. So I went tight up again and foul hooked on there! I decided to just go back to the ide and grin and bear the foulhookers.
Dropping back on the 2ft line however, I found a pleasant change. The carp seemed to have settled and I started to catch them regularly for an hour spell, not big fish but welcome all the same. Both Matty and Andy Barker had slowed up and it looked like a few fish had come this way all of a sudden. Kev Worth to my right also started hooking a few after sitting there for four hours without much action. After catching well on this, it seemed to die a bit and I decided to try a new line which I had plumbed up a rig for at the start. This was at 16m to my right and was in the shallowest water I could find, as tight to the bank as I could get, fishing almost behind a sedge. The idea being to get proper bites instead of liners. I had tried this earlier for one fish but it was difficult with the wind. Now the wind had eased I could feed it again and in the last hour of the match I saw some movement there.
I caught several fish on this line, including a very welcome 5lb mirror and two ide which were 2lb a piece, to end the match with a flurry. The general consensus was that it had fished hard and I felt for Matty as his peg had completely dried up, and he had caught very little in the final few hours. When the scales got to us, just 34lb was winning. Matty's carp went 39lb 8oz and then it was my turn. I only had 35lb of carp, which was about par for the course, but crucially my silverfish net contained about 18lb of ide, enough for 53lb and another brown envelope. Paul Evans was second further up with 43lb of paste caught carp. Those ide were really important again and they kept me hanging in there until a few runs of carp came late on. Now I never want to see another wasp!
Result
1. B Fisk 53-0-0 peg 21
2. P Evans 43-8-0 peg 27
3. M Dickinson 39-8-0 peg 20
4. A Barker 34-0 peg 17
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