22nd May Messingham Islands

[Leo Martin]

Big Bash round 5 Messingham Islands 22.5.2021

Strange week again weather wise and yes it seems to have taken its toll with regard to the fish appetites. Big weights also beginning of the week however they fell off a cliff for our attendance but it must be said the lake was fully matched up almost peg for peg around the lake and had a lot of cold water in it.

The lake and complex is in a state of transformation with the change of ownership and certainly Islands lake trees and bankside vegetation has been cleaned up and it looks a lot better for it.

Friday night Covid safe draw again and these are definitely a plus in most guys opinion.

Peg 65 my home for the day, been quite a few weeks since I have been in a cripple corner and not too unhappy when I saw the peg itself. This went downhill when pegs 1 and 2 were occupied by another club however. Anyhow with water lapping at the platform due to all the rain, I set up with bomb and feeder rods for island chuck, top 2 + 2 lines and try margins to left just off sedges and also just in front of trees to my right. I say margins but they were about 3 feet deep so not what you would want.

Match went like this: End of island peppered with rods, couple small liners but no shows for an hour. Move along island slightly, again no show. Pole out and small roach / perch showed on maggot line. Skimmers on corn but once one was caught they went. Stayed on this task till around lunch time when I tried rods again, nothing. Around 1:00 guy on peg 1 caught a carp in his margin, I was going nowhere and I knew Mark 2 pegs up had a couple of carp so chose to go in margins to see what showed up. Alternated both Margins with corn, dead reds, Paste and lots of chuntering for 1 bite about 3pm resulting in a 4-5lber. I did manage a carp second bite and connection but got a hook pull with 5 minutes to whistle. 10-8 thanks for coming.
Other club match guy on peg 1 must have had about 10 carp out of his margin but he was able to go right up to bank side. Pegs 2,3 4 & 5 all struggled, one or two on feeders, wagglers but nothing to write home about.

Jasper on peg 64 also had a long day at office. One carp which went for a tour to Marks peg, to island in front of him then chose to swim for freedom leaving pole holder unhappy bunny/ other than that it was silvers with best run early afternoon on feeder between islands. I think he chose like myself to go carp hunting as Mark had a few in next peg.

An impressive run continues from Basher newbie big Mark, another section win well done fella. I will go on record of mentioning a duck hooking instance took place. He also had numerous encounters with the reeds/ sedges alongside his peg and this cost him a few fish although some were retrieved. Well done sir.

Special mention to Steve Guy on his match win, well done sir, whilst all around struggled Steve sussed it out and took the rewards. Tea Bag Steve is his name, not sure if it is one sugar or two?

Well done to section winners and second in sections as well on a difficult day.

A very nice gesture from Foxcub Lewis who retrieved Glen's pole section for him. You are now Glens best mate and well deserved :)

Thank you to Glen for timekeeping, a rest for Steve Curtis this week as the lads at Messingham weigh us in. He wasn't too happy with extra water level as it rose up his waders when he jumped in.

Once again thank you to Jasper for the organising and running the whole show as efficiently as he does. It is most appreciated by everyone how it all flows smoothly.

Next matches are our Big Bash Legends weekend. There may be a few sore heads and hangovers for these back to back matches but all good fun guaranteed and memories to be made.

Couple of confirmations required please and as a note the mystery pairs event on Sunday has a much greater take up than the last few years, thank you for your support. 

Hopefully the weather will be a little warmer and the fish settled on fattening themselves up on our feed

[Bigrad]

Thanks Leo
I had peg 63 which at first thoughts had good features to my left in the way of a reed bed, how naive I was, lost more carp than I caught to the reeds, 3 rigs lost and my blood pressure through the roof with frustration.
I set up and tried, feeder, bomb, even switched to maggot feeder as a last resort but nothing was consistent, should have stuck with pole short and filled up on silvers. Looking forward to the Legends weekend, I'll try and steer clear of the wildlife this time 😂

[Leo Martin]

Hi Mark, the draw may decide how close to the wildlife you are as some pegs are closer together than others  >:D >:D >:D 

[steve]

Peg 47 for me. A short walk up the arm passed Wilf on 48, Foxy next to me on 46 and Andy on our last peg 45.

I found a gravel bar a steady cast away and decided to start over it on the pellet waggler, after half an hour of constant feeding I changed to bomb and pellet on the same line.

After the first hour I had nothing, Foxey the same. Looking around at the anglers, that I could see, all appeared to be struggling. I had been constantly feeding maggots on my right hand 2+2 line and soft pellets on my left 2+1 line where I had about 4 foot. Nothing to lose I had a quick look with the pellet rig, nothing. Maggot rig produced a steady stream of fish, perch, rudd, skimmers and crucians. I recond that I had about 9 -10lb in that second hour but although it was nicye busy fishing it wouldn't give enough in the remaining time. I heard that Andy had caught four carp and Foxy had managed one between his sandwich courses, so I had to go back on the bomb for carp.

Half ounce square bomb, size 12 hook with a banded 5mm wafter on a 12 inch length threaded through a pva bag filled with 4mm pellets (no sugar). Cast onto the slope of the bar between the islands.  Pinging big pellets over the top. Brought a few pulls from 4 - 5lb carp for a very welcome 68lb10oz and a brown envelope, thank you very much  :).

[jasper31]

Well done Steve.

In Peg 64 i was a bit hemmed in due to a small island about 20m in front but didn't look inviting due to half of the tree underwater....

Started on bomb pellet side of tree, casting regularly and feeding every 30 seconds with 3 or 10 pellets. Only liners for first 45 minutes so tried pellet wag...nothing, no dips no pulls - even the bird life did the off....try method....same again nothing!!!

Tried paste short, pellet short, even maggot short (small roach) but nothing. Knowing everyone was struggling i decided to try target a few bream, set up little groundbait feeder and maggot in open water. Caught a few small fish early on then a few bigger silvers came, with some ide and quality roach, then a few decent skimmers and a couple of proper bream. All the time i was watching the fun and games in next peg, but Mark did catch a couple of large carp which put me in a dilemma and in the end i went searching for carp in the edge to try stay with Mark. Apart from a frustrating elastic snap only caught a few bits. At weigh in only 7lb behind Mark for scetion, hindsight i should have stayed on feeder and catching anything that swims, but hey ho all Mark had to do was land a few more of the carp he hooked and we would of all been up against it .....  >:D >:D

[fishfinder]

Peg 56 not one of the best but on the day it did not matter as the so called flyers did not produce,started on method half way  across had an early carp then nothing,feeding pellets just past the island to my right but nothing,started to catch crucians to my left on paste and were coming reasonably quickly  on paste but after a couple of hours these dried up and couldn't get a bite on that line tried further out but nothing ,so back to carp, George came for a chat and told me that peg was known as crocodile peg as there is a sunken log in it which you can see at low water,I had fished the feeder and bomb and never caught it in 1st hour so dismissed it only to hook 3 carp and loose them all on a snag along with 2 lost feeders fucking crocodile.Was happy to finish second from there would have took that at the start.