Regular readers will know that my club Leatherhead DAS have two ponds just 150 yards from my house and in winter we have a few matches on them. Although they are only small ( we limit the pegging to 20 pegs), both lakes contain small carp, fantails and goldfish which I expect were ex pets that people have dumped in the ponds, roach, rudd and I'm told some bream (although in all the times I've fished there, I've never seen one). This week was our Xmas match which I always attend and try to win a jar of pickled onions no matter where I finish in the prize list ! The two lakes differ in as much as that the top lake holds slightly bigger carp and to catch a decent weight you usually have to fish against the rush beds that lay across the surface in some pegs. This involves fishing stronger line and elastic that is suitable for pulling fish away from snags. I now set up one 0.18 edge rig for paste which usually works well even in winter and another edge rig with 0.16 and a smaller hook for fishing an expander, JPZ pellet or piece of corn. I also set up a lighter 0.14 / 0.12 rig with white hydro for fishing a long line straight out in front at 12 metres. The bottom pond is a bit deeper and holds much smaller carp, loads of small stunted crucians, plus roach, rudd and a few perch. I've had some proper days fishing the bottom pond, it's lovely fishing just kindering in micros and fishing expanders on the hook. However, when I had a quick walk around the pond on Saturday morning the water was very clear, one corner of the top pond still had a covering of thin ice on it and with the weather forecast threeatening Minus 3 degrees for Saturday night, I thought the fishing would probably be a bit tougher than normal, especially if you didn't draw one of the feature rushes pegs on the top lake. With an 8.30 draw, I woke at 7am to see that we had indeed had another heavy frost, most of my gear and bait was ready and all I had to do was cook some bacon and mushrooms for my rolls, devour them both with a cup of coffee and walk round the corner to help out with the pegging etc.
Arriving at the ponds I was a little suprised to see Hathers finger nails looked slightly different to normal. He assures me that he had been out until 2.30am at a fancy dress party and couldn't be bothered to take the nail varnish off................but I'm not so sure ! Having checked out Eric's pegging, the two pegs I really really really didn't want were 9 and 10 as they are at the wrong end of the top lake, they never fish well, even in the summer and they are in the shade meaning that you sit and shiver whilst the other end of the lake are bathed in sunshine. Anyway, into the draw bag went my right hand and out came........Peg 10 ! Oh well, that's life I said (or something like it), there was no use moaning, I was on a mission to win those pickled onions so trundled off to my peg. I arrived to find, like most of the lake, a thin covering (about 1/4 inch) of ice covering my peg. Unpeturbed I screwed my weed cutter to my landing net handle, attached it to my edge pole and set about cutting myself a decent peg in the ice.
And, I'm sure you will agree it looks superb. I could see around the lake that nobody else was properly prepared for the ice, with most breaking out their pegs with landing net handles up to about 8 feet out whilst my peg went to 12 metres ! As it was Christmas I decided to do my good deed and offer to cut a few peoples pegs for them. An hour later I was back at my swim having cut out another 9 pegs, and how was I rewarded for this good deed ? Yep, just as I sat down on my box some ungrateful little person shouted "All In" and the match started without me even having taken a rig from my box. Thanks chaps !!!! As there are usually very few carp at my end of the lake, I decided to fish a silvers rig at 12 metres (swapping the 0.12 bottom for an 0.10) and a slightly heavier rig in the edge in case anything was stupid enough to visit my edge swim (which they weren't) ! Anyway, to cut a long story short, I caught nothing on pellett or corn, nothing on my Marukyu JPZ's and nothing on maggott - although the latter was because I had none with me ! Regular club match angler Jack De Almeida was next to me and after he'd caught a few roach and was probably leading the lake, I went on a tour of the lakes to scrounge some maggotts from those whose pegs I had cut out !
Arriving back at my peg, I impaled a maggott on the hook, dropped my rig in the edge to ship out and when I lifted it up, there was a small perch on the hook, so at least I wouldn't blank. Fishing dead depth, I sat and waited for a bite, occasionally lifting and dropping the rig but to no avail as my little perch still remained alone in the net. Jack was still catching at the next peg and it took me a while to realise that he was fishing much shallower than me. A quick piece of interegation revealed that he was infact fishing 6 inches off the bottom. I immediately shallowed up and by keep changing depth I managed to catch a few roach and actually had quite an enjoyable match. 
I actually enjoy fishing in the ice as because I am rubbish at feeding with a catapult, at least I can't feed out too far as the bait just ends up on the ice, which is why you will often see seagulls or ducks sitting about 2 metres from my pole tip when it is icy ! As the ice melted, the peg seemed to die until I was struggling to even get a bite. Forunately, the match was all but over and although I intended to watch the weigh in and take a few pictures, by this time the battery in my camera had died. The top lake was first to weigh, Jack had a creditable 6-4-0 followed by my not so impressive 3-14-0 and with the top lake all weighed Jack was in second place, having just been pipped by Nick Kenward who drew yet another flier in the rushes and weighed 2 carp and a couple of roach for 7lb. The bottom lake had fished a lot better with the lowest weight being 
4lb and Hathers making it a weekend double by taking first place with 11-14-0 closely followed by the world swearing champion, Graham MacIntosh (or Mac to most) just a pound behind. I think my weight was enough for 9th place out of the 19 fishing which was good enough for me to pick up the targetted jar of onions at the prize presentation !
4lb and Hathers making it a weekend double by taking first place with 11-14-0 closely followed by the world swearing champion, Graham MacIntosh (or Mac to most) just a pound behind. I think my weight was enough for 9th place out of the 19 fishing which was good enough for me to pick up the targetted jar of onions at the prize presentation !I'm not out next weekend as it is Christmas, although I may add a blog from the good old days, before I report on my Match Fishing Scene Christmas match on Lizard Lake at West Drayton.
Have a great Christmas everyone.
