Round 5 Messingham Sands Island Lake 27.5.2023

[Leo Martin]

Big Bash Aquastim sponsored Summer league round 5 5 Messingham Sands Islands Lake 27.5.2023

A glorious Bank holiday weekend bright sunshine, cloudless skies and nice warm weather awaited the Bashers on Island lake.
Pegged on first 20 pegs and 16 anglers it was cozy because the lake had 3 matches sharing  the water.
Island lake is probably the most attractive lake on the complex which offers a host of methods capable of being used.

The Friday night draw threw up peg 5 for my  office of the day. open water, small Island about 50m chuck and margins each side. My plans for the day were pole lines of top 2+2 in front about 4 feet deep. Margin to left 2'6 and margin to left 12 inch. Rod selection method, bomb and waggler which I started about 25m out as in catty range.

Max to my right, Glen on peg 4 and his bosom buddy John Lanelly on 3 to his left, both these guys returning from a week in Docklow so an early start to get back in time. First class Aquastim Big Bash dedication.

With the sun shining on a spring morning there were numerous geese and gosling families cruising the lake, a cuckoo sounding off in the background and on arrival fish were courting in margins in rushes each side of my peg, big boys and girls as well. On the whistle the romantic parties disappeared not to be seen close up again. They did congregate in a large mid lake lily bed crashing and splashing about.

An uneventful match for yours truly, lost a couple on pellet waggle, a few on method and bomb. Caught a couple carp on method fishing about 50m late on, a couple skimmers on bomb rod, 2 perch and 2 skimmers in right hand margin under a small tree and a few on pole 2+2 on paste.

The bites were very timid at times and one or two ripped around which did cause one or two issues for me.
Steve Curtis peg 8 set off like a steam train, fish first put in  closely folled  by a coulle more. He spent most of his match on pole fishing margins and to lily pads in corner. There was some chaos resulting in lost fish and even Steve muttered a few unrepeatable words but those fish probably cost him a double ton. Well done Steve on the match win with 147-11.
 
To his left and my right was Max on peg 6 who quickly figured out the fish location on a shallow bar to the left of the island in front of him. Pellet waggler his most successful method although he caught on bomb and method as well. With heavy feeding the fish just kept coming to amount 122-15 and 2st in section 1. This would have been a lot higher but breakages on all rods together cost him an hour towards end of match. Well done Max.
To my left on peg 4 Glen plundered his fish mostly on his method rod with a long chuck to the central bar and stick ups. Fresh back from Docklow and on a great run of for he caught 59-2, well done Partner.

Second in section one was Steve Carter on peg 2 with 82.10 lost his main flow of bites and fish so took to mugging in last couple of hours with 3 large carp for  about 30lb to top up his weight. Section winner was
Second section moving down from Steve Curtis some guys struggled and some caught. By default venue expert Paul Whitehouse on peg 12 with 44-12 and supporting him that man again John Utting on peg 10 with 32.5. well done guys.

Final Section winner was Joe Martin on peg 16 who  was in new territory not being in a corner but this was compensated by having good friend Scott next door to assist in personal coaching. 80-10 was his score for the day. Second in the third section was Tracey Benson on peg 19 with 70-3.Well done guys.

I suppose I must mention me wetting my feet for consistency and honesty with the team. During a long quite bite less spell and whilst my head, eyes and hands were elsewhere, there was a pretty violent wrap around which resulted in the method rod coming out its rest and setting off for the lake. After split seconds of commotion like a ninja I jumped in the lake to grab and rescue my rod. With water over my waist and rod held high I continued to play the fish whilst I clambered out to get back on my box only to have it break me. Bashers love this type of action and after checking I was okay the tears of laughter flowed. Thanks to Max for offers of help but I was in a zone and I wanted to try land the bloody fish myself for the carnage it caused.  Dry down with Glens Docklow towel and clothing change and back to the business.

Special thanks to Jasper for the organisation, glen timekeeping and Steve had a rest this time out from weighing as the fishery lads do it.

I do like Islands lake probably most of all the complex lakes but today it was under a lot of pressure with 3 matches on it, the fish were spawning in numerous places however the crucians and skimmers did not want to play and the carp feeding was iffy. I guess from my point of view I needed to up my feeding rate a lot more which may have helped. We live and learn.

Two weeks time it is our Legends weekend with matches both Saturday and Sunday. Please try to attend as it's a great laugh even for those not staying over in the lodge. Confirmations required please and thank you for reading.

[fishfinder]

Another quality report leo,peg 8 for me a good peg normally and so much better with myself and max having plenty of room in the corner i am sure this was a massive help.my peg had some lily pads 35m in front ,a small island and a good margin to the corner Potted some micros diwn the edge and was going to start on feeder but had seen a swirl in the margin and thought i would have a look first,had 4 quick carp then nothing so repotted and went in feeder,had 1 then bits.tried bomb to the island were i had been feeding 8mm pellets again a quick carp then nothing.Alternated these all day and caught a few on all 3 methods but mainly in the edge .Lost 2 on bomb 2 on feeder and about 12 took me into the lilies,wieghed 147lb but had another 100lb on the hook,had a good battle with max,i started well but he caught me up and over took me with a good run on the wag,going into the last hour it was close then he had a bad hour and i had 4 fish for 42lb 1 on feeder 1 on bomb and 2 in the edge to just sneak past him.

[steelcowboy]

Peg 6 and on arrival looked ok , nice looking margin to my right with trees overhanging but didn't spend long on this line for no bites .

I set up waggler , method , and bomb and short pole line for the skimmers feeding some 6 year Olde meat 🤣

Caught a nice tench on method but already 15lb behind Steve Curtis on peg 8 who was working his margin like only he can 😉

I was pulting full pouches of 8mm pellet as far as I could (these pellets was bought in 2020) and bought 3 new bags

I caught a few on the pellet wag then dropped onto the bomb for a few then back onto the waggler kept switching all day but never stopped putting a full pouch of 8mm out there

Two full pouches followed by the wag the bites came as it hit the water no bites at all if you didn't get one on splash down so no point sitting and waiting !

Always feeding evan when sat on the bomb full pouch every 30 seconds or less the only time I didn't feed was while playing a few or trying to eat my custard 😂 .
Between 2:30 and 3pm I snapped off on the pellet wag then the bomb and then the method this is when I tried the margin but knew very quickly after two micro perch this wasn't going to work so re set up the bomb rod for the last 30 minutes and got two more should have reset up straight away as this cost me I think as these two carp was all I had in the last 80 minutes .
I feed 3 full bags of 8mm and would have been on the 4th bag part from losing the use of all 3 rods in the last hour

Had a great day in fantastic weather and another hilarious memory to put in the memory bank thanks to Leo on peg 5 . I heard the panic and looked round only see him  make a desperate grab for his rod only to miss but followed up with an instant decision to follow the rod into the water splosh and bravely/stubbornly tried to carry on playing the rod stealing fish whilst trying get out of the water and up the bank 😂😂 once I knew Leo was ok I just couldn't stop laughing and crying cheers Leo for the memory 👍