8th May Sykehouse Stock pond

[Leo Martin]

Big Bash 2021 Summer League round 4 Sykehouse Stock Pond 8.5.2021
Sykehouse stock pond, a first for the Bashers. Very picturesque lake, established willows and other trees line the banks and this years reed growth also in full steam ahead. Most pegs well-spaced, some a little tight and pointing across each other in the early numbers however for a club our size ideal as these could be filtered out. Jasper was the unlucky one to draw probably the only unfishable peg on the lake but this was soon resolved as we did have spare pegs to offer him and dismiss his thoughts of going home and out of the rain. It is a decent barrow push when wet as cars are restricted from driving around if there is a lot of rain. I must say there is not a lot of mud as it is well and truly grassed to push barrows on. The platforms are the best I have ever seen, set on scaffold poles with scaffold boards and rubber coverings and really well numbered so no excuse for mistakes. Car parking a bit of a premium so get there early and expect to be boxed in so no quick getaways. Water well its deep, very deep. It can be 3 – 4 feet off the platform, I had 8 feet depth on top 2 + 2 and then it went down big style. Probably 20 – 30 feet in middle of the lake. All open water fishing except margins and everyone is in same boat so cannot be any fairer than that can we?

Watching the recent weights this last few weeks have seen numbers well in excess of 100lbs on their open matches which are fished by regulars and usually as rovers. However it did wet the Basher appetites for some action, hmm me thinks we should know better. Despite this on visiting the pellet hut, Jasper John Lanelly and myself all purchased the big bags of their famous 8mm radish reds. More for the random mix bin in my man-cave.

The weather forecast has been right this week which is surprising, rain predicted, loads of it and it started as I left home at 7:00am gradually getting heavier the nearer to Sykehouse i got in the car.

So the Friday night wheel of fortune gave me peg 16, one of the longest walks from the carpark but we had been prepared for this as following the broken leg, my Preston barrow has been upgraded from 2 wheels to 4. Good move kiddo, its so much easier to push it along than lift and push on the 2 wheel version so highly recommended for those still on two. Just remember to tip it over when parked up so no Jack Sparrow episodes of the barrow developing a mind of its own with ideas of grandeur and taking flight in the wind and self-propelling. Bless him, that was funny.

So parked up, assemble barrow under pressure of the watchful eyes of Steve Guy and partner in crime Smiler as I didn't have a picture or Chinese instructions to work to. Load barrow and push to peg in the rain following everyone's instructions to take my time, nothing silly and easy peasy. Another good investment since leg break has been some sturdy waterproof walking trainers for fishing from Go Outdoors Karrimor brand £25 and feet dry as well, result.

Young Lewis (fox cub) to my left, Big Mark to my right with spare peg in-between and able to watch the older foxy opposite us who devoured endless amount of snap throughout his match. All after a full breakfast as well, amazing where it all goes? Must say he had plenty of time to eat it all.

Peg 16 and plan was top 2 + 2 line for silvers, margin rigs to my left and bomb and hybrid feeder lines.
Hybrid out for first ¾ hours and two slight twitches but nothing to write home about. Onto Silver line and catching small skimmers, hybrids and roach. This was the pattern of the day with checking on feeder line numerous times at a cost of losing the silvers for a period of time. Silver plan was to build weight for section points however a couple of carp would eliminate a silvers net so balance between the two options. I did manage one bite and fish on the hybrid line with about 30 minutes to go for a 6lber to top up weight to 23-3. Nothing at all in Margins and my big mistake was too heavy laccy on the silver top kits "in case" the carp arrived and this cost me numerous lost fish bumping them. Maggots best bait of day except for the single bite on feeder.

Fox cubs choice were feeders, pellet waggler and margin lines. Some fish were on the surface which kept drawing him to the pellet waggler but the fish were in the shop window and not for sale. In essence a couple of bites would have made such a difference on a day like it was. Hard luck sir.

Big Mark was on a silver approach and kept putting them in his net throughout the match. He had the surprised arrival of 3 carp taking his maggot bait. The first one was lost at the net after a long battle on light elastic and lines, had luck sir. No such loss with other two, well done on landing them and the section win with 32-3.

Well done and thank you to Jasper for the organising and running the show, thank you to Steve Curtis on scale duty again and Glen on his trusty whistle.

Massive well done to Keith Smith showing us all the way home with his match win and 66-2. Also to Nigel Cooke on his all silver net of 34-11 ad second in match result. Good to see you back mate. Congratulations to  section winners and seconds as well on a difficult day all things considered.

Special mention to everyone who turned up and stuck it out in the horrendous rain soaked conditions, we must all be mad but at least we are on the same bus together. The fish, well they are in there somewhere, I don't think the cold rain, temperature and pressure changes helped in the slightest. It was nice to see the swallows in acrobatic flight early on but even they slung their hook and disappeared.

What were your views on the venue and how did you fishing day go? Did your wet weather gear and brolley stand up to the test?

Next match Messingham Sands Island lake, Still 12 guys to pay on / confirm and deadline date is 14th May.

[Jlanelly]

I will have a go and start the ball rolling
As Leo said very wet day and a long walk to peg 13. I'd already decided to set my stall out and silver fish. Plans of mice and men I still did first hour on bomb and feeder just in case the odd carp came along. I knew the carp were of a good stamp, so one or two in the first hour would make a lot of silvers, unfortunately they never showed, I kept an eye on Foxy senior and Mr Curtis, if they were struggling to get bites from Carp they weren't having it, watching Cookie catching silvers steady (monkey see monkey do) l changed top kits to no 6 silvers 2 plus 2 on maggot .75 gram float,18 f1 hook. Feeding maggot two on the hook the skimmers and roach were coming steady. I saw Mark pick up carp on his maggot line. I decided to try corn on the maggot line, fed in 10 grains after a few minutes the hybrid came in a better stamp of fish, hoping a big old carp would have a go, but no cigar.
Last half hour on feeder as chalky on peg 12 picked a carp 3/4 hour to go.
Still no show 21lb 4 oz all silvers. Section win by default as Mr Cooke got second in match.
My mistake of the day not sticking with silvers from the start.

[fishfinder]

The best thing about the day was a short walk  to peg 8,got to my peg and it had a tree on the left spreading half way across the peg,why these fisheries don't sort things like this is beyond me,once I got my brolly up casting was difficult to say the least.Made the decision to fish for carp from the off even though I knew from previous visits it was a poor area for carp I was hopeful of a few pulls, Tried feeder,bomb ,pole and paste nothing but a few skimmers not a single carp,in hindsight the skimmer approach was the better option but with carp of that size you don't need many so my carp or bust approach failed miserably, well done nige Cooke on his lovely net of skimmers next to me ,I got well battered.

[jasper31]

results

All i will say is i hate you all for making me stay and letting be bugger off at the start  >:D >:D

[Leo Martin]

Couple more great write ups from our lads


Nigel David Cooke
I said from the start I was going all out for a silvers weight ,started off with a 4x12 cookie slim but upped it to a 4x14 with a 0.18 main line an a 0.12 hook length ,18. 18 kaizan hook ,fed three pints of caster with a caster on the hook

Keith Smith
My plan was for waggler and slow sinking bubble and to feed a short line.
Also a margin.
Having the brolly up meant I couldn't cast properly to where I was feeding.I did get a couple of takes on the wag but nothing on the slow sinker.
The short line was a top 2 plus 3 to take me to the bottom of nearside shelf for about 7ft.
Malman roob 4x14 with a bulk n 2 droppers.
.19 guru n gauge to .18 middy low viz.Size 16 guru Kaizen.Awesome hook.
Primed my short line with half a preston pot of corn with a few 6mm red pellets.
After about 30 -40 mins trying the wag n sinker I just couldn't get it right.
Onto the short line with a medium toss pot.Filled with corn n a few red 6 mils.
Went over the top with a corn skin and hooked a small skimmer.
Upped the feed as the day wore on and the skimmers got bigger.Bumped a couple of skimmers and got broken by a carp in the last half hour.
Just put corn on the hook all day.
12lb odd of skimmers and 5 carp for 50 odd lbs
Fed but never tried my margin.
All fish came off the one line.Oddest thing of the day is that the fish seemed quite mild to the touch.Last 2hrs fish were freezing cold.

[steve]

Great stuff!! Thanks for sharing 👍👍