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Match Fishing?


Janet

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Oh well, here goes....the match is tomorrow! Yikes! :o

 

I've just been out and bought supplies - worms, red and white maggots and hemp. I usually prepare my own hemp, but i'm a bit pushed for time today, so I'm trying some tinned stuff for a change. I'm also having to use shop-bought worms instead of digging my own, but I don't suppose the fish will notice that I've cheated! It's been suggested that I also take sweetcorn and luncheon meat, but I'm worried that I'll get myself all confused with too many baits to choose from, so I think I'll leave them at home - or is it better to take them and keep chopping and changing baits until I find one that works?

 

Research says that prawns are a good bait on the venue. However, I've received some advice which says they only work in summer. Is that right, or is it worth trying them? I don't want to faff around with something new if it's unlikely to prove successful.

 

Following Emma's advice, I'll have a spare rod set up (I knew those extra impulse buy reels would come in useful one day!) I've got new line on my reels, and my tackle box is nice and tidy with everything I need easily to hand.

 

Now, all I have to do is to get out there and catch me some fish!

 

Janet

 

PS. I also have the ultimate secret weapon - lucky knickers!!!

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Hi Janet.

 

I have fished there a couple of times but only on the large pond. I've caught alot of small bream on sweetcorn and luncheon meat has also been suggested. The website does say that sweetcorn and luncheon meat on float tactics are good tactics to use. Hope you have fun :)

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Woo hoo! Wimmin anglers rule!

 

No, I didn't win, but I didn't totally disgrace myself either.

 

After being picked up at about 7.30, we had about a half hour drive to reach Charity Farm Fishery, near Wigan. Luckily Paul had a map, and didn’t take any notice of Ray’s instructions, otherwise we may never have made it. It was a long walk from the car park, past two other lakes to the lake we were booked onto (well, more of a large pond really), and by the time I got there I was beginning to wish that I hadn’t packed the kitchen sink! It was smaller than I expected, with only nine pegs, but I quite liked the look of it. Not quite as scenic as our club lake, but not as man-made and commercialised as I’d feared. My arch-adversary Paul ended up on peg 1, whilst I drew peg 6 – the opposite side of the lake, and far enough away for his singing to remain suitably muted throughout the day. He's the blue blob just left of centre in the distance...

 

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The pegs were lethally slippy though, and the day nearly ended in an early bath for me as I almost tumbled ar*e over t*t into the margins whilst I was setting up. I solved the problem by laying my unhooking mat out in front of me, which proved to be a godsend. Next time I’ll bring a scatter rug…

 

It looked as though I’d drawn a good peg, just about twenty feet from the island, so I was quite happy.

 

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To be quite honest, I’d have been happy anywhere…..after all, I was fishing, wasn’t I? The weather was overcast, but thankfully dry and not too chilly, although we did get a brief spat of rain later on, which stopped almost as soon as I put my brolly up. Sod’s Law, isn’t it? It also got rather windy later on, and I was glad I’d put some thermals on. Reminder to self – next time, don’t forget that you have a jacket stuffed under your chair! I didn’t find the damn thing until I was packing up.

 

We started about half an hour later than intended, after waiting for everyone to confirm they were ready, and then Alan shouted “All in!” – we were off! I followed the advice I was given, and baited up two swims, one directly in front of me and one closer in to my right. After catching my first fish on my first cast, closely followed by another two, I had to wait until five minutes before the end of the match before I landed my next, a lovely big fat roach, by far the biggest I’ve had for a long time. Still, it was well worth waiting for. I missed two good bites, having been distracted firstly by a couple of randy and rampant ducks and then by a pair of blue tits jostling for position in the bush next to me. I can safely say that they were the only two bites I missed, as for the rest of the time my float remained depressingly motionless. Not even a twitch.

 

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I slowly tried all my baits, (worm, maggot, prawn and pellets), but there was just nothing doing. I even tried some bread from my sandwiches, but they didn’t want that either. I’d been intending to also use hemp, but it seems that there’s a hemp ban in place, so that was out. I I kept feeding little but often, changed the depth gradually (up and down like a bleedin’ yo-yo!), alternating between swims etc, but nothing was working. I didn’t worry too much though, as the others were suffering in much the same way. I’d done what I intended to do, which wasn’t to blank, so whatever happened, I knew I’d go home happy.

 

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In the end I came fourth out of nine, which was a real surprise to me, and left me absolutely delighted, although out of the places and out of the money. Paul also managed four, but two of them were nice tench which pushed his weight up and put him in second place. Pah! He beat me! Yes Paul, I repeat, you beat me……make the most of it….you won’t do it again for a while!

 

Tom almost had what would have undoubtedly been the match winner, if only he'd managed to land it! He couldn’t get it off the bottom before it made a beeline for the reeds.

 

Les, the winning angler, only caught two fish, but one was a carp of almost six pounds....the other was probably more suitable as livebait....he apologised to us at the end…he’s only just returned to fishing after years away from the sport, and as he has no fishing tackle of his own, he’d borrowed all his gear from Alan. I do believe that Alan even bought his maggots for him! I recently bought a 5 metre whip – used it once, didn’t like it, so I’ve given it to him to give him something to use until he can start building up his tackle. He’s just joined our club, so I hope we’ll see him up at the lake shortly.

 

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All in all it was a good day. The winning weight was just over 6lbs….Paul came a very creditable second with over 4lbs whilst I had a paltry 1lb 12oz with my four fish! The weather could have been better, and more fish on the bank would have been nice, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Alan’s talking about organising another trip next month. Although there was prize money at stake, it was all in fun, the atmosphere was very friendly, and I’ll try and do better next time!

 

Janet

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