Summer league 2022 round 1 Bonsai 9.4.2022

[Leo Martin]

Big Bash 2022 Summer league round 1 Lindholme Bonsai 9.4.2022

After a long dark winter finally the summer season has arrived however a sharp frost was on the garden and car. The blackbirds and Robins were in full chorus, Pigeon Porn was taking place on the fence as the birds also recognised the change of the seasons.

With 2 members missing we still had a 26 man turnout as we were joined by 2 guests and all the summer anglers had dusted down their rods, lubed their elastics and turned up to christen the newly revamped Bonsai lake. 26 Bashers from peg 52 on the inner pegs, and 20 anglers from another club on the outer to put some pressure on the new fish in the now much deepened flag-ship lake of Lindholme. Even new turf has been laid where the diggers had been running around.

Early morning Frost, bright sunshine, a bone chilling wind, sunshine turned to clouds and late afternoon cold rain and hailstones. Yes this is the Big Bash summer league and anything is to be expected.

It was great to hear all the banter and chatter of the lads whilst they set their selves up on the tightly pegged inner arm. Everyone was wondering if the cold weather and pressure on the lake would deliver bites from the new fish and what would the winning weight be after our recent visits in the winter league.

The Friday night Jasper wheel of fortune gave me peg 53 in front of the aerator, one of the old barbel pegs. It was all a new ball game now with a deeper lake and new fish swimming around in it so peg form was out of the window. For company I had Mick Roche on 52 and Jasper to my right on  54. The 3 of us had the cold wind in our face and blowing into our bank so that should have been in our favour.

Not knowing what to expect I set up a mixture of bomb rod, method rod, pole lines for maggots and pellets at 2 + 2 at 11 o'clock after finding a flat area about 7 feet deep and a 2+1 line in-front of reeds to my left.  Maggots was to be my main attack with my thinking the fish being new. I had also left my winter elastics in as I was expecting the fish to be of a smaller stamp. This was to be an annoyance of Jasper as the match went along as it was taking some time to get the fish in the net when they pulled back. I accepted it cost me some time but ensured I didn't bump that many on their soft bites.

All in and feeder rods went out, Jasper first cast, first fish then this was followed by several more. Mike also had a couple, I lost one on a drop back bite and only had 2 small nudges. Others were also catching on their feeders and only a few had chosen their poles. Peg 53 is fortunate as it has a good view down the lake both sides of the islands. At 10:20 I went on my pole line, double maggot just on bottom and it dipped after a few minutes to be my first fish. From this point on I stayed all the match feeding a cup of ground-bait an hour, and few maggots and micros almost every put in. There were some quiet periods but nothing over 15 minutes without a bite and I didn't have to switch lines or swap and change much. Red and white, double white, double red all worked. The inclusion of a white maggot gave quicker bites. I did try corn to see if anything larger however this never gave a bite at all, I guess they will need to develop a taste for corn over time, similar with all the weird nd wonderful pellet concoctions us anglers use to try get an edge. Today for Leo it was a simple maggot approach.

Mike was the first to follow me off the rod onto his pole and proceeded to catch fish. The fish in Mikes swim did not seem to settle as much and he had to go back on feeder a few times to rest his swim and try something different.

Jasper had spells on his pole and his feeder rod casting to the island, he also tried his bomb rod as well but the feeder and pole were more productive. His pole line rewards however, were a much smaller stamp than his feeder.
Great competition though the match as all three of us were going fish by fish at times. Fish caught were mostly F1's from 3 ounce to just shy or a pound. I did get a skimmer about ¾ pound and Jasper also has a skimmer and a tench.  Mike managed a carp I think.

Looking down the lake it seemed everyone on both matches were catching. A lot chose a feeder approach which I guess was due to wind conditions and pegging.
At the weigh in the scales showed it was a close match with Mike on 49.11, Jasper on 69.8 and yours truly on 69.15. A couple of fish in it and a happy bunny, very close.
Looking down the weights everyone has had some bites and a busy day. Some areas were better than others but peg vs peg battles have been all around the lake.  The small fish and a" fish race" may not be everyone's cup of tea but it will get better over time I am sure. There does not seem to be many carp shown in the nets, maybe the F1's quantity is far more or the cold start upset them, time will tell.

Massive well done to Steve Curtis taking the match out with 97-11 from peg 75. Section winning weights were all similar with 69-15, 73-13, 37-10, 46-10 and 71-4. Well done to all packet pickers.
Good to see the young guns in the mix again as well.

Nice to have Cookie with us again and must be mentioned that his netting a mallard did not go un-noticed. He seemed to handle it expertly looking from afar so must have happened previously I think.

It will be interesting to see what everyone's views are on our first Summer league match and the revitalised Bonsai. What worked for you, baits, tactics etc.
Finally welcome and thank you to all our new members. It's great to have some young blood in the match group and lower our average age by quite a few years I guess. I hope you enjoy the season as it promises to be very exciting with the mix of new and old in the group. We are not as mad as some people say we are, it maybe we are worse.
Thank you to Jasper for the organising and running the show, Steve for his weighing in works and Glen for timekeeping and whistling against the wind.

Next match is on Merry's In two week's time, plenty to confirm and pay on please. No Guests on this one as it may be cosy but I am told the breakfast at Grange is the best around however nowhere near our club chef Indians.
I need to swap my elastic up for this one.

[fishfinder]

Peg 75 for me,loaded my barrow for the walk up to my peg only to find the stone that has been put down is not barrow friendly and was like pushing it through sand,got set up to find the so called dug out pond was only 5ft at deepest must have forgot to dig in them pegs,9 inches down the edge sloping to 5ft 5 sections out so rigged up there,method to corner of island also rigged up.Come nets in discovered most of the net was not even  covered it was that shallow, Lewis next door seemed even worse  what happens when it looses water in summer,think a ledge might have been a good idea to get needed depth for nets, suppose that gets the negatives out of the way ,started on feeder  across and caught steadily from the off small f1s mostly,Lewis on next peg on pole was catching a fish a chuck on maggot and after 2 hours was in front of me in wieght,but as his died a bit mine got stronger and was getting a bite a chuck on feeder but they were small,decided to replumb closer in found 2ft ,2 and half section out so fed there,but when I tried it only caught a few but did only try paste but didn't go well so back on feeder for rest of the match, kev on other side caught well in last hour but started slowly so could not catch up,not my cup of tea all the small fish but give it a couple of years im sure with that amount of fish there will some big wieghts.