A decent turnout in the mid thirties today meant that we would use Oasis pegs 23 onwards plus about nine pegs on Bonsai, from two to 17. This weekend was the first where it had started to become noticeably colder and with every other peg in on Oasis I really fancied Bonsai to produce the entire frame. Praying for a Bonsai or at least a peg in the 50s or 60s on Oasis, I wasn't too happy with peg 41 Oasis. This isn't terrible but historically it's not a great area for F1s, in the past I've caught plenty of mirrors and commons in this area between 34 and 41 where the overhanging trees are, but not many F1s. With the lake level down, a cold wind and recent rain, the proper carp are not feeding in numbers here at the moment.
My main concern today was the wind, with an 18mph breeze forecast. If this was across me it would have been game over but I was relieved to find it was in my face and the trees at least broke it up somewhat. With plenty of anglers on the bank Neil was paying section money today (he does if 30-plus fish) and it would have been easy to settle on a safe match fishing on the deck down the track, looking for around 60lb for a section win. However this isn't the way I fish, I always want to give myself a chance of winning or framing and I know John Allerton is of the same thinking every time he goes. His record speaks for itself! This meant I would concentrate on two areas, the mudline tight to the far bank and an up-in-the-water down the middle. To go blasting in bait on a shallow line in a narrow peg like this was a risk on such a day, but one I was prepared to take. I also put up a token edge rig but I didn't expect it to get much action.
With the weather having now changed for the worse I decided against cutting up any meat and went for a pellet approach. My main line was under a sedge to the left where I was fishing in around 1ft of water, just off the bank, but I also had another rig for 16m to a mudbank to the left, where it was 2.5ft deep tight up. I wasn't quite ready on time so I potted some micropellets under the sedge and finished off my shallow rigs. As I did so I noticed a swirl over the fed line, so shipping out with a 4mm expander and a kinder full of bait, I investigated. I had a definite line bite but 30 seconds later something hooked itself and charged off to the left. A 5lb mirror carp was a very welcome start but it proved to be a loner and I couldn't even tempt an F1 here on pellet. I changed to the other mudline but this saw a single foul-hooker instantly bumped and lost, and that was it.
After 20 minutes I decided to look on the shallow line and the first two drops yielded two 2lb F1s. I wasn't surprised because this often happens on Oasis, I expected it to go quiet after that and maybe catch a few later. To my surprise I continued to pick up an occasional run of fish. They seemed to come in flurries of twos or threes, then I might go 10 minutes without a bite. The size of the F1s made it worth waiting however, and with nobody else catching, I persevered. I fully expected sport to get better later on on the shallow line but this didn't happen for some reason, and I found myself refeeding the mudline. I did manage an F1 from this mudline but I soon discounted it and decided to try replumbing my edge line in deeper water to give me somewhere to go while resting the shallow line. Again this was worth doing as it provided a 2lb tench to add to the sprout sack.
When the sun went in in the last hour I really expected to bag up shallow but it just seemed to get weaker and weaker. I did however manage a 3lb chub and several of the F1s I caught throughout the day were at least 3lb, including one on the final whistle. Anglers further down in the 40s and 50s had struggled and some had even packed up, so I was quietly confident of at least a section win. The scales were soon round and I was surprised to record as much as 112lb 10oz, those F1s really were big. The next best weight on the lake was 79lb, now the question was what had come off Bonsai? Although three anglers had a ton there, only one was a bigger ton than mine. Well done to my mate Steve Dyson for victory off peg 6 with 121lb 8oz. Had it not been for the wind being so strong I'm sure there would have been much bigger weights here so the breeze actually did me a favour for a change today.
Even though I've had much bigger weights at Lindholme recently, I felt this was one of the best matches I fished from the peg I was on. Most of the anglers nearby fished on the deck in the deep water and on the way home it got me thinking that many people simply don't give themselves the chance to win matches because they don't fish positively enough to catch 100lb-plus or attack a peg! I intend to make more sense by doing a blog about this soon!
Match Result (35 fished)
1. S Dyson 121-8-0 B6
2. B Fisk 112-10-0 O41
3. J Allerton 104-0-0 B11
4. J Goulding 101-13-0 B2
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