Winter League Fishing: Keep calm and carry on fishing...

Match: TBF Winter League (Round 2)

Venue: Tunnel Barn Farm, Shrewley, Warks

Date: Saturday, 2^nd November

Angler: Shaun Little (MAP Designer and Consultant)

After avoiding the possibility of a catastrophe in the first round, the team morale was high going into Round 2. The weather had been more consistent leading up to this round so the expectations of catching some fish were at the forefront of the team conversations. All we needed now was a decent team draw…

As I left the house on the morning of the second match it became obvious that we were going to get a battering off the wind; constant gusts emptied the tree outside my house of acorns right on top of my car. To give you an idea of what this is like imagine someone dropping a quarter ounce lead from 30ft onto the roof of your car – it makes quite a donk! Anyway, car loaded, maggots cleaned (all 10 pints – thanks lads, you owe me) and I was off. I've got to give a quick mention to Duncan at Solihull Angling Centre for those cracking maggots; great shop and top bloke.

Pulling up at the usual time (7:45am) it was apparent that everyone was eager to get into the draw bag. Just so you’re aware, the draw for this league is rolling from 8am.  Kurtis once again volunteered to draw for the team and this time we weren’t disappointed; Aiden was on New Pool 3, which has had some form of late. Kurtis drew himself the winning peg from last round, Club 23, but with the wind blowing to the opposite end of the lake, the fish might have moved. Would you believe it, Mark was on Extension 21… again, so we all expected a great result from him. My destination was 29 on Top Pool, my favourite peg on the pool but with having a split section with the dreaded Club Pool you’re always really up against it. 

If you haven’t seen peg 29 on Top pool it has pretty much everything, you are situated looking up along the lake on your own little point. With the end of the island at 14.5m, plenty of open water to fish either side of the island and a load of room down to your right hand edge.

Onto the plan of attack; Top Pool is full of F1s but they tend to be smaller than on the other lakes. It is rammed full of slivers and for this reason I planned to fish a pellet-based match to target the F1s, with the possibility of feeding maggot by hand later to try and catch anything and everything shallow.

Lines for the day were simple; I plumbed up at four metres then added a section and then another – perfect, pretty much flat. This allows me to start at four meters then add sections as each swim dies using the same rig.  The next two lines either side of island were set at around two feet deep. The third and final line was plumbed to the spare pallet to my right. Offering 3ft of water and with the wind blowing into it, I fancied it to hold some fish later in the match.

At the whistle I decided to start the match on a similar principle to the previous round, feeding negatively to gauge the response, so I trickled in 20 micro pellets through a bottle top pot, fishing a 4mm expander on the hook and shipped out to four metres. The first bite took around five minutes and as expected the culprit was a ten-ounce F1. The second bite took around the same time, which for this lake was a lot slower than I expected. 

"The island swim felt as if it was getting stronger until the sun came out and I couldn’t see a thing; to say I was fuming was an understatement."

After around 45 minutes I had seven small F1s but bites were very tricky. I’d started on a strung-out bulk but decided to tighten it up, pulling it around six inches from my hook. This seemed to do the trick resulting in more positive bites. By two-hour mark I had pretty much exhausted my deeper lines with around 20 small F1s and a few slivers. I decided to venture to my island line (right side), again fishing pellets but this didn’t really produce, so a switch to left side was called for. This side had a much gentler slope and it didn’t take long for the float to dip and my double No5 elastic to slide out with a much better F1 around 1lb 8oz. This line felt as if it was getting stronger until the sun came out and I couldn’t see a thing; to say I was fuming was an understatement. So it was down the edge then. An attempt to feed maggots shallow resulted in my face been covered in maize and the maggots pretty much landing in my nets. I caught steady for the last hour and half switching between my edge and across (when I could see). With two minutes left I hooked another small F1 until my hook pulled sending my rig round my pole tip and bottle top – damn!!! But would it cost me?

As the scales came round, word had it that there were two 100lb-plus weights and a 90lb from Club Pool (in my split section). I knew I had nowhere near that so I was playing for fourth. I placed 65lb 3oz on scales and ended up third on my lake. The mighty Stu Pulsar won the lake with 86lb, which was a serious performance. More sickening was the fact that in my section there was a 65lb 6oz and 65lb 10oz, so that lost fish cost me points putting me seventh in my overall section. Mark put in a sterling performance to win his section and finish third overall with 100lb, well done master!! Kurtis had a solid performance with a sixth in section. Aiden will be cringing that I’m going speak of this again; he fished an awesome match, finishing fourth in his section…. sorry my mistake… he finished fifth because he tipped his second net into his first, going over 50lb per net limit, which cost him a place…. enough said!

Back at the café we all took great pleasure in mocking Aiden, but word had it we would be well up there in terms of team points. Once again the teams were read out from last to first. As it got to the top three we still hadn’t been called out… third was called, not us. Then would you believe it, we were named joint first-place, knocked back to second on weight count back, which meant we were sitting second overall in the league.

A combination of silly mistakes from myself included, cost the team on the day and with things like that lost fish at the end, it just goes to show how fine the margins are when you’re up against a quality field of angler.  Just goes to show the quality of this league and how fine the margins really are.

Shaun Little

MAP Designer and consultant