Partridge Lakes Open 22 Nov 2015

Hi all.

Fished the open today at Partridge in order to keep in touch with venue for Winter League. Earlier in the week I was beginning to have second thoughts as cold air was due to spread South across the country from Friday on wards with a strong wind to back it up. Not pleasant conditions to say the least. Come Sunday it was still cold at 5 deg C max but the wind had more or less gone.

I drew peg 27 on Covey 2. I have not fished this peg or area before so was a little unsure what to expect. The peg is 11-12 metres wide with rushes and grasses either side of the far bank mud-line gap. I set up the usual rigs as before. There were some fish topping in the area so I thought might get some at least. Planned to start on bread across to the grasses and go from there. Fished the far bank with the rig about 4 inches off the bottom for about an hour, but had no bites. Due to the cold temperatures and the weights from the previous days match being a lot lower than late I also tried bread at 10 metres in 3ft of water straight in front of me. Without feeding anything this would tell me if any fish were there or not. If I had fed this swim I might have spooked them off before getting a chance to catch them. After a couple of minutes I caught my first F1, and followed it by getting 3 more from the same swim. I moved the rig about a metre to the right and caught 2 fish again. I carried on doing this moving along the same depth of water left and right and picking up what fish I could. I never fed any bait on this line, just dropping the bread in to see if anything was there. In most cases I did not wait long for bites, so if no bites came after a few minutes I would change swims. I managed 11 fish using this tactic. I could not see anyone else around me catching much so I was pleased with the progress.

With an hour to go I started on the maggot line at 5 metres in the deepest water. I had been potting in around 20-30 maggots every 20-30 minutes or so since the start of the match. I fished double white maggot on a 18 808 hook. Again after a couple of minutes I caught another F1. I caught regularly from this swim until the end of the match, just feeding 6 maggots around the float after each fish. I was glad I caught on this line as I was worried that I might have killed it by feeding to much and spooking the fish, but I got away with it.

I ended the match with 18 fish, all F1's up to 3lb for 30lb 3oz and a section win. The next best weight from my section was 13lb so I was pleased with that result.

Next match is the second round of the Partridge Lakes Winter League, and if the rain stays off this week I might manage a trip to the River Mersey on the following day.

Tight Lines.