3rd Round Partridge Lakes Winter League 12 Dec 2015

Hi all.

The 3rd round of the winter league was greeted with the same weather as in previous rounds. Persistent rain for the duration of the match and a strengthening wind to boot.

Team for the day was myself, Alan Lamb, Phil Clare and Rob Healey stepping in for Jon Green.

Once again it was down to me to do the team draw which gave us Alan on peg 18 Covey 1, myself on peg 48 Covey 2, Phil Clare peg 73, Covey 3 and Rob on peg 85 on Covey 4. Again we felt we could have done a lot worse, 2 pegs on spits and 85 being in usually good area. The only drawback was 18 which we were not sure how that would go as better weights have come from other pegs in that section.

For my match the peg was towards the end of the spit on Covey 2 and with 49 not being pegged I had plenty of room. I set the usual suspects rig wise, bread, 2ft maggot/pellet, 3ft maggot/pellet and a maggot rig for down the track.

I started on bread and only caught 2 small Rudd so moved onto the 3ft line feeding a few mirco's with either a 2mm or 4mm expander on the hook. It was very slow going and after nearly 2 hours I only had 2 small F1's to add to the Rudd. I could also see anglers catching so I was falling behind very quickly. I could only get bites on the 3ft line and had to keep moving swims towards the left hand side of the peg to get bites. If I tried the right hand side I got no bites. For a change I also managed to catch some fish on pellet. Once the bites went iffy changing to maggot over a few micros brought some bite back again.
It was also clear that the fish had moved to the left, as the angler on peg 46 was catching quite regular and he did say after the match that the fish had moved away from him as well. I kept plugging away catching a couple of fish from each and then moving to another area. The deep maggot line only gave up 2 fish and with out consistent bites I ended up back on the 3ft line until the end of the match. I finished with 13 F1's and the 2 Rudd for a level 20lb. The angler on 46 weighed 26lb, must admit I thought he caught more than that. So bit disappointed not to have got closer.

Unfortunately for me there were not a lot of fish in my area, as they had shoaled up nearer to the bridge and pegs 24-25. Usually the pegs on the spits hold the fish in the colder weather as they provide some shelter out of any direct wind, but not so much on this occasion.

So that was that and back to the clubhouse to see how everyone had got on.

I only managed to beat 2 others in my section so scored 8 points. Alan weighed over 15lb and got the same points as me. Phil was unlucky to only get 13lb and score 10 points. Rob Healey was our star of the show weighing in over 30lb and scoring 5 section points. This gave us a 31 point total, which still leaves us last in the league and 2 points behind the next team. For some sort of consolation there were a few teams that scored high points, proving it was a tough match for everyone.

So at least for 2015 that's pretty much it, the next match in the league will be on the 2nd Jan and to be honest I am not sure yet what fishing to do over the Christmas break. I might squeeze in a mid week match at Partridge between Christmas and New Year but will see how the weather goes.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read my ramblings and I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and tight lines for the New Year.

Best Regards, Neil.