Round 5 Lindholme Willows 21.1.2023

[Leo Martin]

Winter league round 5 Lindholme Willows 21.1.2023

The winter now in the midst of a cold snap and global warming headlines dropped off our TV screens for a period we entered this weekend as a cool one.
Friday nights draw sadly saw a reduced number of members and the numbers back to the league regulars. 9 names entered the wheel of fortune and peg 47 was more base camp than office for the day for yours truly. With 9 anglers spaced across the full Willows lake, the choice was for the bays other than points and on a normal match day this would have been half decent. We were hoping for loads of room for the rods to chuck out, bombs and feeders armed, primed and ready.  Today was to be slightly different and one for the Big Bash archives as the weather took control. 
Weather forecasts were for a frosty night, sunshine late morning and temperatures warming throughout the afternoon to 5 or 6 degrees. They were wrong.

Lindholme was -5 at best, shrouded in freezing fog and never got above freezing. 2 inch plus ice on some of the sheltered areas and yes peg 47 was one of these. An early morning workout was on the cards for several of us and this went on for at least an hour as we broke ice and got a sweat on.

All in shouted and myself and Steve Curtis were still setting up due to the ice breaking shenagins but it didn't seem to matter to the results. The fish although turned off with the cold must have been well and truly cheesed off with the repeated splosh and thwack of an ice breaker being hurled in and out.
With nowhere to chuck a feeder or bomb rod it was top 2 + 2 at best to fish up to the ice edges. I had also broke out under the tree to my left hoping for an arrival late on.

Short story of how the day went was tried numerous baits, numerous lines, fiddled with presentation and drew a blank. No bites all time, it was cold, very cold and the fish were not interested. Struggled with cat ice continuing to form and my light presentation was struggling to get in the spot as I tipped pole tip in, broke cat ice then lowered my bait in. line was covering in ice, laccy froze in pole tip, pole pot also covered in ice.

Some of the lake did remain unfrozen and did allow some bashers to chuck a rod out. The aerators had been left on and remained on during the match causing cold water to circulate. Also hindering presentation with the under currents due to the water circulation. The guys in these areas also struggled and no bites all time on feeder or bomb rods either. 9 bashers fishing, 3 guys caught 5 fish. The only legitimate bites. A coot was hooked by John Utting resulting in best bite of the day. The Coot spied Johns popped up bread in the clear water, dived pulled the rod round and then the fight was on. John lost, coot flew away.

Results
Steve Curtis 2 x decent skimmers match win
Glen small roach and skimmer section win
John Utting small perch, section win
Second in sections, bingo draw.

Whilst the weather was freezing cold the warmth and good humour of the Bashers continues to make these matches enjoyable.
We go again on February 4th Messingham Islands lake with the choice of silvers or carp to seek. Please confirm attendance, pay on and spare places available if anyone wants a dabble, and laugh.

Thanks to Jasper for the seamless organisation and Steve Curtis on very efficient weighing in method.   

[fishfinder]

A grim morning, freezing fog and very cold,iced over in my bay and took over an hour to brake over 2 inch of ice to about 7m.the joys of winter, after 45 mind my peg started to ice over again and could not get my float in,fished method at one side of my gap for 2 hours for nothing.Went for a walk as my peg became unmissable due to refreshing and found out no one had managed a bite.back to my peg and a bit of hazy sun stopped it freezing for an hour or so.just before 2pm Glen caught a skimmer, then at 2pm my double pinky rig dipped for a 1lb plus skimmer,next put in it went again something bigger only to return with a scale ,one more skimmer at 2.30 for a very difficult match for all.