Round 7 Bank end West Lake 24.6.2023

[Leo Martin]

Aquastim Big Bash summer league round 7 Bank End West Lake 24.6.2023

Bank End Fishery has been requested several times as a summer league venue and Jasper managed to book us a match on West Lake. Personally I have never fished it previously, I looked at the lakes many years ago when I moved on the Aisle of Axeholme but have never took my tackle there to fish.

The fishery is becoming well established and a great example of farmers diversifying. Currently 3 well established lakes, park behind peg on most lakes, an on-site cafe, toilets, bait and tackle shop. Farmshop selling local and home made produce to being in passing traffic and customers. Good weights have been showing in recent matches and the match bookings are hard to come by.  The lakes are old gravel pits so very deep. One to watch our for are some more lakes further along towards Bawtry on opposite side of the road, not sure if these are also part of his long term plans of expansion.

West Lake is the smallest lake on the complex and with 22 pegs was a good fit for our club membership. The pegs are traditional bank side type, very wide lots of room, Evenly spaced about 8 to 10 yards apart with large established trees between each peg offering close cover and margin features to fish to. They also hide some mean roots which the fish are very familiar with. There are rocks also on the bottom of the lake as a watch out for snagging up in. The lake is very deep top kit + at top 2 + 1 section, with margins ranging 18 inch to 3feet+ on some pegs.

Sorry, I was late for Jaspers Friday night draw I guess with the heat rising it wont be long before his body parts start to show on draw night again. 18 members names went onto the draw wheel and with one corner come flyer peg already accounted for as a matter of course ( no names mentioned out of kindness)  I found peg 17 had been drawn from the wheel of fortune. It didn't mean anything but that's nothing new of late. Company of Steve Guy and Andy Waite however on arrival to see the trees between us we couldn't see each other anyhow  but still managed some chit chat.

Nets dipped, drive to park behind the peg and found bank level about 8 feet below car level however there were steps to use to transfer equipment down to peg.

The day was warm, humid over cast with occasional sunshine, 20 degrees at 7am and up to 28 on the cards, very nice for  a days fishing and not what Bashers are used to.  Plenty of little hairy legs on show and John Lanelly took the fashion prize for headwear. The lakes fish were also cruising, and basking in the sun, dark shadows like large submarines over a lot of the water surface.  They were definitely not interesting in food offerings sent their way as it turned out

The word was 4mm feed pellets and hook pellets, meat, corn, casters with fish on or around the surface and margins later on. 4mm seemed a little small for some of  those big boys but that is what the fishery bailiff was saying.

Plans pre-set for the match, pellet waggler, margins, shallow line and dead depth line, feeder rod below where I was catapulting feed for pellet waggler rod. I had also invested in some bubble floats to give a go as plan Z. always a worry to start a new tactic during a match �.

A little diversion now onto Aquastim, our sponsors. Lots of products now in use within the club so here are some of my views. A change of ground bait this week Aquastim milled expander having previously tried Aquastim F1 sweet. Auastim F1 sweet impressed with how much water could be absorbed to be soaked up for use. Can be mixed dry or very very wet.  The Milled expander is a much finer milled and graded ground bait. This seems to absorb even more water than the F1 sweet and I would guess a ridiculous 2 parts water to one ground bait. You can imagine how a 4kg bag will go. Great for margins and slop as well as standard heavy groundbait to get to the bottom of a deep swim. n It mixes up very smooth and I dare say would make a good paste mix as well. One to bear in mind in future. Regarding syrups and liquids I have not tested as yet so cannot comment. The wafters do work and have tried the red strawberry and Krill and F1 supreme ones so far and am pleased with results. https://www.aquastim.com/

Sorry for diversion so back to the match. Another frustrating day for yours truly. A decent F1 on pellet waggler after about 15 minutes of casting and cattying casters with banded caster on the hook. No swirls in the swim, lots of taps and niggly knocks on my float which turned out to be small perch. The cruising dark shadows moved elsewhere and were not interested. Steve Guy had gone to his margin below the tree next to me for a few quick fish so after an hour chasing shadows I sacked off the waggler to try my margins. I had a decent run of small F1s from right hand side before they disappeared. I was having to feed and wait for bites but 4 fish on the trot on swimstim paste cheered me up before they went. Left hand side I had fed meat, this resulted in a small perch to add to my woes.

Tried feeder below my waggler line, nothing, top 2 + 3 at dead depth for lots of finicky bites and 2 small skimmers. Spent rest of match swaping and chasing before settling in margins about 2pm and has some more F1's and skimmers from paste side and one F1 on corn having fed some of that. Put dead reds to left hand side to try feed off the small perch and although I hooked 3 carp they had escape routes planned as they buried the float as never had a chance at all. 13-10 and another thanks for coming, 3 lost carp would have been more respectful but that's life I still enjoyed the day fishing with my club mates.

John Lanelly sporting a lovely brimmed hat and prime position on the point was first to catch a fish, what a hero. He spent most of his day in his margin for 60-5, well done John. Keith "Bloodworm" Turner also sat on the point peg also fished his margin for 54-3 in a neck to neck contest with John as they both sat with backs to each other all match.

Steve Guy sat on next peg to me 18 also caught second fish of the day from his left hand margin under the tree between us both. He had a run off this swim, tried dead depth pole line on about 3 or 4 sections out, waggler bomb but his success was in the margins. He lost the fish and had a long lean spell as did I around lunch time but did managed to secure some better margin fish in last couple of hours, well done Steve weighing in 29-14 and good to catch up.

Andy Waite on peg 16, what can I say. Last to arrive in his peg after visiting almost everyone coffee cup in hand. Gave us all a 30 minute start as he forgot to set up his landing net. You name it Andy tried I and also with a large degree is success to record 102-14. Shallow, mugging, waggler, long pole , short pole, margins, well done mate for section win. Second in our section was Indian who also tried most things for 59-8, well done chef.

Match winner , who else but the fish finder himself Steve Curtis on peg 15 with an impressive 154-12. Even more impressive was his net split weights with 3 nets within 10 ounce.  Well done Steve.
Section one winner ( corner and flier) Joe Martin who weighed in an impressive 123-13 off peg 1. He must have been busy but only saw him land 4 fish I think, well done Joe. Second on section one again another impressive 110-6 off peg 2 Steve Carter, well done.

Middle section winner Paul Whitehouse on peg 8 with 69-9 and second in section 2 Jasper on peg 5 with 57-13, well done mate.
Mick Roche on peg 9 seemed to have a good last hour on his bomb rod, I thought he would have weighed in more as they were coming in steady during this hour.

Thank you to Jasper for the organisation and Steve for weighing duties.

The lake looked to be a little peggy maybe but overall everyone caught a few so be very interested in everyones feedback for future bookings both summer and winter league as I hear there is a good head of skimmers in the lake as well as F1s. Certainly the banks are clean, good access and cars parked very close buy. Travelling distance also central to everyone. Costs also seem very reasonable. I cant comment on the breakfast with me being all healthy and that of bran flakes, Weetabix and fruit ..........

Next match is at one of our club favourites Grange Park on Curlew behind the café. This has also been fishing very well so please add your names and pay on in the usual timely fashion . I will be having my passport stamped from the land of Kernow so looking forward to reading your results.

[fishfinder]

Peg 15 for me on the draw,not a favourite peg but after 1,21 and 22 was happy enough especially with wind blowing our way,on arrival to the peg few cruisers and a few dark shapes under the tree to my left,started mugging as there was a few about thought i may get an early one but got one they disappeared,tried sinking feeder which normally works well on there not much success got one after 25 mins of trying , optimistic of a few more  ,after another 15 mins got another f1 this continued for the next hour just as i was about to pack it in got an odd fish,wasted loads  of time for 5 f1s but didnt see much caught in this period then andy started to get a few chucking his waggler at passing fish some of them decent fish so abandoned my sinking feeder and sat mugging an odd passing fish,
odd fish under the tree had a few shallow but slow going,tried paste at 4m and started to catch 8oz fish quite quickly had a run of these and mugged a few when they came close enough with an hour or so left time to try the edge,andy next door was probably slightly in front of me but last hour had a run of bigger carp down the edge on paste and probably put 70lb in the net in that hour whilst andy struggled in his edge,decent match for some but pegs 6 to 12 fished hard was a bit peggy but been to much worse venues