There are some days in winter when I really wonder why we bother going match fishing........and this was one of them !
Despite giving Plummers the opportunity to drop out during the week (to be honest it was me who wasn't too keen), he still insisted on picking me at what seemed like the middle of Friday night and we arrived at Summers at 7.20am to find we were first to arrive - well that was a suprise as I could probably have had an extra hour in bed and still been on time for the draw.
Anyway, a motley crew of 10 hardy anglers finally turned up and after a breakfast that looked as though it could be the best part of the day, we made our way up to the Ribbon Lake. Unlike the other lakes, Ribbon Lake was mostly frozen apart from where Plummers (Peg 10) and Tony Yakkinarni (Peg 9) drew. I was on Peg 7 with Don Garnish and Terry Harrison either side of me for company.
After a spot of ice breaking, I decided to fish one rig in the deep water at about 7 metres, where it was about 7 foot deep and another rig towards the island in front of me at about 11 metres where the depth was about 3 foot. The lake is full of skimmers, small crucians and tench, roach and small chub but with the conditions as they were, I expected chub and roach to be the main fish feeding and maybe the odd skimmer and crucian showing.
The match started slowly for everyone and after an hour or so I'd had 3 little chub and 2 roach and was probably in the frame as Yakkinarni led with about 12 small chub. With the wind blowing almost straight in my face I had to go for a wander to warm up after a couple of hours and found Plummers fishing in his new "Camoflage Coat" and nearly walked straight past him as he blends in so well with all the vegetation !
Plummers had caught a couple of roach and also had a decent size skimmer which at this time probably put him in second place as in the pegs 1-6 only God (Steve Gardener) had caught more than one fish. Arriving back at my peg, I managed to get the odd little chub or roach from the far side but hardly anything in the deeper water. What was frustrating was that you could only seem to catch 1 or 2 chub before they seemed to disappear for a while and took ages to return.
Terry Harrison to my right started to catch the odd skimmer and Yakkinarni was still catching chub but apart from that everyone else was struggling and the only thing that was still feeding on my maggots was this Robin ! I did start to pick up a few chub in the last twenty minutes but as the match ended the temperature started to drop and our ice holes had soon started to ice over again.
Alan the Bailiff then came round with the scales and revealed the following:-
Result
Tony Yakkinarni....................5-3-0
Steve Gardener.....................4-0-0
Plummers..............................3-10-0
Donald Garnish.....................2-3-0
Dave Pearson........................2-0-0
Terry Harrison....................1-15-8
So despite not framing, at least I managed to give Harrison a good whupping off the next peg (and there wont be many people that do that on a silvers match), although I did have to give Plummers another pound.
With the weather still freezing cold and the snow looking like it's staying for a while, I've nothing planned for next Sunday but will no doubt find somewhere to get out on the bank for my weekly match fishing fix. Until then, have a great Xmas everyone.
Despite giving Plummers the opportunity to drop out during the week (to be honest it was me who wasn't too keen), he still insisted on picking me at what seemed like the middle of Friday night and we arrived at Summers at 7.20am to find we were first to arrive - well that was a suprise as I could probably have had an extra hour in bed and still been on time for the draw.
Anyway, a motley crew of 10 hardy anglers finally turned up and after a breakfast that looked as though it could be the best part of the day, we made our way up to the Ribbon Lake. Unlike the other lakes, Ribbon Lake was mostly frozen apart from where Plummers (Peg 10) and Tony Yakkinarni (Peg 9) drew. I was on Peg 7 with Don Garnish and Terry Harrison either side of me for company.
After a spot of ice breaking, I decided to fish one rig in the deep water at about 7 metres, where it was about 7 foot deep and another rig towards the island in front of me at about 11 metres where the depth was about 3 foot. The lake is full of skimmers, small crucians and tench, roach and small chub but with the conditions as they were, I expected chub and roach to be the main fish feeding and maybe the odd skimmer and crucian showing.
The match started slowly for everyone and after an hour or so I'd had 3 little chub and 2 roach and was probably in the frame as Yakkinarni led with about 12 small chub. With the wind blowing almost straight in my face I had to go for a wander to warm up after a couple of hours and found Plummers fishing in his new "Camoflage Coat" and nearly walked straight past him as he blends in so well with all the vegetation !Plummers had caught a couple of roach and also had a decent size skimmer which at this time probably put him in second place as in the pegs 1-6 only God (Steve Gardener) had caught more than one fish. Arriving back at my peg, I managed to get the odd little chub or roach from the far side but hardly anything in the deeper water. What was frustrating was that you could only seem to catch 1 or 2 chub before they seemed to disappear for a while and took ages to return.
Terry Harrison to my right started to catch the odd skimmer and Yakkinarni was still catching chub but apart from that everyone else was struggling and the only thing that was still feeding on my maggots was this Robin ! I did start to pick up a few chub in the last twenty minutes but as the match ended the temperature started to drop and our ice holes had soon started to ice over again.
Alan the Bailiff then came round with the scales and revealed the following:-
Result
Tony Yakkinarni....................5-3-0
Steve Gardener.....................4-0-0
Plummers..............................3-10-0
Donald Garnish.....................2-3-0
Dave Pearson........................2-0-0
Terry Harrison....................1-15-8
So despite not framing, at least I managed to give Harrison a good whupping off the next peg (and there wont be many people that do that on a silvers match), although I did have to give Plummers another pound.
With the weather still freezing cold and the snow looking like it's staying for a while, I've nothing planned for next Sunday but will no doubt find somewhere to get out on the bank for my weekly match fishing fix. Until then, have a great Xmas everyone.
