round 4 Grange Park Heron lake 13.1.2024

[Leo Martin]

Round 4 Aquatstim Big Bash winter League Grane Park Heron Lake 13.1.24

The new year has arrived and we move onto round 4 in the Aquastim winter loony league and the first frost of 2014 arrived to greet us.
Whole lake kindly donated from Alan and with Steves help 11 Bashers were placed around the lake to try even things up on Heron lake at Grange Park.
Arrived on site to be greeted with the Big Bash breakfast club, belly's full and all happy bunnies from the cafes great breakfasts which is a favourite of the club.  Steve opened up the pellet hut and stocks recharged ( mostly micros this time of year) and then it was down to the lake to find our pegs and set up.
Friday night draw and 11 members in Jasper wheel of fortune with 27 being my home for the day. which is mid way along Merrys bank. Pleased with this one. Lake was flat calm, no fish showing at all, overcast and 0 degrees to start the day. Richard Cook to my left on 25, Andy W8 to my right on 29.
Set up for the day was dura feeder, Bomb, pole line at top2+2, top 2 + 4. Baits were fishery micros made with Aquastim black magic and water soak. Selection of wafters, maggots, fishery expander and Guru Bread.
Big whistle off Glen to start the match and Bomb to island with 2 x 8mm bread discs to see if we could catch my first fish of 2024. Gav played his first fish on his first  cast to christen his net and be first basher to land one.

It was about 30 minutes in before my first fish which was a 3 inch carp and not strong enough to register on the tip however they all count. 20 minutes later and a 11/2 pounder graced the net which did record on the tip.

Strange day where I had to search the island for bites. Scores on the doors were method, 1 bite and missed it. Pole lines nothing, Bomb rod by far the best in my peg and Guru bread on a 12 inch pop up using either 2 or 3  6 or 8mm discs. 9-11 weighed in by Steve and Jaspers quote of the day was if it was an ounce either way it would not have been such a disastrous result. Very good. It was good enough to gain me a bottle of Pino Grigio, thank you Jasper and Fiona. The net made up of about 16 fish, 3 over a pound and the others smaller, all carp.
The day was frustrating and we accept in winter you have to work so much harder for bites and fish. Today you may have got 1 or 2 fish however the gap between these bites was such a long wait. Around 12pm the cold wind dropped off and sun actually came out which lasted about an hour. From 13:30 the cold wind started again and no bites all the time. I think I had 2 small fish in the last 90 minutes.

Richard Cooke to my left tried his full armoury and his success came from method across to island. Groundbait and 5mm wafter his best weight for 10-10. Andy w8 to my right weighed in 13-15 for  another bottle of wine. Andy tried rods and pole and again had most of his success  on Bomb to island and bread popped up.

Further along on peg 31, venue expert Steve Curtis had a very slow start with about 2lb in his net at 1pm. Then his trusty method delivered results again and he spent his last 2 hours catching fish after fish from the island to take the match out with a win on 38-10.

Secton 1 winner was Paul Whitehouse with on peg 6 with 35-14,  Jacko on peg 4 returning 32-6 was second in section
Section 2 winner was Tracey Benson on peg  19 on the end of the lake peg 19  as Billy no mates with the full bank to himself. Tracey weighed in 17-4 and that man John Utting on peg 12weighed in 11-3 for second I section.
Section 3 winner Gav on peg 36 took 28-14 to the scales and Indian on peg 35 weighed 21-7 for second in section.

Well done to all packet pickers and also thank you to everyone else sticking it out on a hard day following the first frost. Everyone caught and had a few bites so whilst it was rock hard there were fish for everyone  of our hardened winter league anglers. It does look like other fisheries also suffered after this first frost. At least it was dry for us and we have had it far far worse than today.

Thank you to Jasper for his admin work and running the show. Thank you to Steve for  weighing in and Glen for timekeeping.
Great to see everyone again and the warmth and friendship make it all worthwhile.

Take care and stay safe because we go again with round 5 in two weeks time, across the road at Sands on Island lake for more of the same.
Please book on and pay your pegging fees in a timely manner.

Also Big Bash summer membership fees are due as well as it will soon be Tee shirt weather, birds in good voice, trees in bud and margin munters scoffing food like no tomorrow. I know, I live and dream

[fishfinder]

Firstly thanks for the collection money from my fellow members very much appreciated,another quality report from leo.Cold and frosty morning peg 31 for me was happy with that,started on feeder across,could not believe 40 mins in not had a bite,a few fish being caught round me but was obvious it was fishing hard .Tried bomb and bread nothing,back on feeder came short and got an f1 then a small carp then nothing,tried pole 4 small fish but with a few carp being caught decided to bin it,with 2hrs gone had 3lb,gav,indian and andy all had 15lb,picked an odd one up but struggling ,the wind increased a bit in last hour and those around me stopped catching whilst my peg started to get better and had best part of my weight in the last hour 6 carp and a few bits,managed to get out of jail in the last hour to scrape a win on a hard day.