2015 A bit of a crash bang wallop.

Hi all.

Once again it has been a while uploading any blog messages so here we go again and hopefully I will keep more up to date.

Partridge Lakes Team of 4 Winter League 2014-15.

This year POHAS put a team together to fish the winter league at Partridge Lakes. A venue on our doorstep, great facilities and full of fish. We knew from the outset that we would be up against some brilliant anglers who fish the venue very often and as a club team my thinking was this can only help us improve. The league started back in Nov 2014 and to be honest we have had some mixed results. In a lot of matches the fishing has been close enough to make just a few extra fish mean getting good section points. So far it has been a bit disappointing as none of us have picked up any money. My best matches have been a third on the lake fishing Covey 3 peg 52 catching 42lb of F1's in the first match of the league. Also catching 18lb after breaking the ice in December in a really close section. As it turns out if I had not lost a couple of the fish I would have won the section. Such is life.

In the main the tactics have mostly been maggot fishing at 3 feet deep up the far shelf and down the middle in the deepest water. Along with some bread "dobbing" in different areas of the peg.

The first league match (round 6) in the New Year was greeted with storm force winds and made for a very difficult match. Mine was quite disastrous. Before the all in my No 8 section had been blown in and shortly after the match started my No 7 section was broken in two after being blown into the aerator power supply. I was feeling very down and ready to go home with thoughts of having to buy a new pole going through my head. Anyway I started on top 2 +  1 section going down the near shelf with maggot, but had no bites. I tried the bomb with either bread or maggot, again no bites. After my pole getting wrecked I started to get a bit down. Later into the match the wind did reduce a little, and I mean a little so I was still able to reach the aerator to my right with the 6 sections of pole I was able to use. Fishing as best as I could with this in the wind I managed 5 fish for just over 8lb, caught on maggot and pinkie. It was no great surprise to know I only beat 1 other in the section. Despite the conditions some good weights were caught. However for some the match and like many more around the country over that weekend were carnage, stories of multiple section breaks, seat boxes getting blown in etc. It was no doubt the windiest I had fished in.
After all this  I arranged to have No 8 section retrieved by a diver and my No 7 section repaired in less than a week and at a cost of less than replacing a No 4. So in hindsight it could have been a lot worse.

Round 7 brought calmer but cold conditions. In the days before the match the lakes had been frozen, but thawed the day before. Therefore the water temperature had dropped and effect the fish behavior, proving to be a hard match. This time I drew peg 50 on Covey 3 with the bridge to the spit to my right. In the first league match the angler on this peg caught a lot of fish under the bridge so I was optimistic. On plumbing up the deep water was mainly in front of me and to the left, the closer to the bridge the shallower it became. As usual rigs were set up for the deep water, 3ft up the far shelf and under the bridge and a bread rig for fishing off bottom. I started on bread under the bridge about 6 ins off bottom, no bites. Moved on to maggot on the bottom again no bites. I started fishing on the 3ft rig in front of me and caught 2 F1's one after each other.  It was then a case of moving round to try a catch other fish. Unfortunately I only managed 6 fish for 7lb 7oz, 4 F1's and 2 Ide caught at 3ft up the far shelf from different swims in front of me. I never had a bite under the bridge and nothing on the deep track rig. The angler to my right on peg 52 after a slow start weighed 29lb by fishing towards the corner near bank at 16 metres. Team wise was again not great, Jon Green managed 4th on Covey 1 with over 8lb, James Bryan and Neil Pritchard only managed a couple of fish each for weights of around 2lb, It was that bad, pegs that had won recent matches surrendered very little.
The next round is the last, so hopefully the conditions will be better and we can catch a few more.

Round 8 and again cold day with a breeze blowing down the lakes. I was lucky to have peg 23 on Covey 2 again next to a bridge and the wind blowing from behind me most of the time. Again usual rigs set up. I was noticeable that the bridge peg was deeper than in the previous match so I was hoping for a better return. As normal I started on the 3ft rig fishing close to the bridge with maggot. I missed a couple of bites and came inside to fish at 4 metres in the deep water down the near shelf. 1 bite on this resulted in a 5lb carp that led me a merry dance all round the peg on 6's elastic. Glad to get that one in. In the end I managed about 8 fish for 15lb and 5th in section, so a slightly better result. most of the fish came at 3ft in various parts of the peg. Again any line fished in the deep water struggled to produce much sport.
Team wise we suffered a blank and a next to last in section so again our points were high and we remained bottom of the league. There were other blanks as well, so it was another difficult day.
Hopefully do better next time.

Onward now to the Heronbrook Spring League, hopefully the weather will become a bit more milder and the overall fishing will improve.
Tight lines.