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1, 3 & 5 12.21 - A bite, 2 blanks and a placing?

Bayleaf the Gardener

Entry posted by Bayleaf the Gardener in Bellwood. Willows, Dixons

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The day after my last trip to Speen Moors, two bones in my instep started hurting. By the days end, I could barely put my foot to the floor. Not wanting a trip to casualty for an 8-hour wait plus possible Omicron exposure, I did the typically male thing and left it to get better on its own. What could go wrong? Well nothing really, as over the next couple of days while the pain didn't really subside, the swelling didn't spread and a bite-like head appeared in the area. I reckon something particularly insectular and angry must have sneaked into my boot and taken vengeance through my sock.

By Wednesday, while I was still walking like a pirate, the pain was just starting to ease, though I could not have survived a working day's gardening with it. So I recuperated, by resting it by the swim by the car park at Willows. I fished far, short, thick and fine, but didn't get a single bite all day.

For fishing Friday, I had Dixon's Mere to myself. I managed to miss 2 pike runs on mackerel (mercifully no crayfish here), and had no bites whatsover on feeder/floated maggot.

Today, Sunday, was the Newbury Angling Association's Xmas Match. Around 20 anglers braved the cold wind to eat bacon rolls at Bellwood before moving out to fish their choice of lake, river or canal. With my gait more a limp than a hobble now, I was still not quite ready for a tackle-laden yomp, so stayed at Bellwood. For 4-hours I almost froze in the wind, but avoided the dreaded hat trick of blanks with two perch on a cage feeder, both pushing the scales at, say, around 1-ounce each. 

Come final whistle, I didn't bother claiming them, but as anglers returned to HQ, it appeared that everyone on the canal had blanked, though there was talk of a large perch lost.  One angler weighed in 14 ounces at Bellwood, while a 4lb chub came out of the river.  So whilst this isn't a classified result, it could well be that my mighty Percas may have been enough to claim 4th prize, but I didn't have the nerve to claim it.

Edited by Bayleaf the Gardener

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The Flying Tench

So this all adds some realism as to what can be expected in cold weather. Re the match, presumably the rules said it had to be an NAA water, otherwise a trip to the Lambourne might well have won the match? I hope your foot recovers quickly now.

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Chris Plumb

Ha ha - that'll learn yer not to weigh in!  I don't match fish - though many, many moons ago I was in a school fishing team for a match against another local school. We were taken to some HITG in Hertfordshire on a baking July day. Pretty much everybody blanked - I do recall a solitary tench won the match - I managed a miniscule perch (on bread flake!) which was so small I was worried it would get through the holes in the keep net I'd been loaned for the day.  I popped into a bait tin - and had to be persuaded to 'weigh' it in. It proved to be the only other fish caught on that hot afternoon - and my prize for 2nd place was a collapsible fishing chair and (somewhat ironically) a landing net!! The chair was rubbish and I never used it - but the landing net lasted me for years - best perch I ever caught!

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Bayleaf the Gardener

 Yes, sadly the Lambourn was out of bounds, though perhaps I could have sneaked off for a couple of grayling and claimed they came from Bellwood.

Ha. That reminds me of my only previous match as a teenager at my then local River Mole on Dorking. I drew a swim no more than 6 inches deep (max). I trotted a single maggot and caught 127 minnows and 1 stickleback. As the scales came round and I lifted my haul, I was gutted to be told that 'minnows didn't count.' Shocking. My weighed-in stickleback failed to win me a chair, collapsible or otherwise. 

Glad to say foot has recovered to (almost) normal, thanks. Can't wait to get put and fish the warmer temperatures promised this weekend

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