Summer league round 3 Springvale Duchess 21.5.2022

[Leo Martin]

Big Bash Summer league round 4 Springvale Duchess 21/5/2022

With the weather now warming up as the summer season moves along, round 4 saw us visiting Springvale for a day on Duchess lake. sunshine, over cast, cloudy and a slight breeze presenting a warm day for us.  Duchess Lake being the furthest on the complex, rectangular in shape with a few islands down the middle. Some of our new members had not been before so opinions gratefully received for future reference and potential bookings.

Jaspers wheel of fortune delivered peg 28 to yours truly, meant nothing other than it was on the far bank. Having fished the lake before I knew it would be tip rod and pole work and hopefully a choice of silvers or carp. The latter being the weight builder if you could snare a few.

Mark to the right on peg 29 and Keith TT on my left on peg 27. It was tight pegging as we shared the lake with a small club match on early pegs. Only gain was Springvale does have larger gaps between pegs than some other fisheries we visit. I thought was lucky I had an island to chuck to however it didn't give me the return I expected.
Would all the pressure on the lake switch the fish off? Time would tell.

Glens whistle sounded and out we went. Feeder to island micros and yellow wafter and wait patiently. Meanwhile feed pole lines. I chose top 2+2, 2+4 and margin to my left in a hole in bank side reeds. Nothing after ¾ hour so tried pole line and started with tiny dog roach and odd tiny skimmer, no Ide. Despite upping feed levels I could not shake off the tiny fish.
Feeder out and no bites all time. I did receive a couple of taps but no good indications.

I continued to alternate and rotate the lines and the first carp wrapped me around at about 2pm. I continued to swap and change lines and managed to sneak a second carp out about an hour later. Some Ide of a larger stamp on feeder line to left hand side of island.

Loads of tiny silvers, a couple of nice skimmers, a few ide 6 to 12 ounce and two carp for 19-11 and thanks for coming. Still enjoyed the day and my take away for the day was whilst the carp on First spring enjoy an oiled pellet, the ones in Duchess absolutely do not, they preferred dry ones. I made the change after 2pm and then better stamp of ide took a fancy to them along with the second carp.

First fish of the day at our end of the lake was Luke who caught a couple of Ide out in front and a carp to his left hand margin which looked very tasty near an overhanging willow tree.
Mark on 29 was also struggling like me but again continued to swap and change his lines and was rewarded with a better stamp of Ide on his pole lines and a few carp from his margin swim. Well done Mark on a hard day.

On peg 27 we had Keith Tackle Tart Smith. He started on tip rod, tried his pole lines and then made a change about an hour into the match feeding and fishing ground bait, some peat, caster and chopped worm on his pole line at about top 2 + 4. He then got his head down and worked and worked with a fish a put in for most of the remaining match. The fish were a decent stamp of silvers and kept coming due to the industriousness of Keith. He ran out of ground bait at least once but managed to keep the fish in his swim whilst fresh was mixed up. Towards the end he went on his tip rod casting between two islands and managed to drop on carp to top up his weight. Steve on the scales registered 69-2 and a section win. The Ides weight is very difficult to judge and I though Keith would have had a lot more than this. Well done Keith for the result and masterclass of caster and worm fishing. Ship out, empty pole pot, catty across top, pull in a fish. Like a metronome all match.

Big call out to Paul Whitehouse who took the day out with 137-12 being caught on his tip rod from peg 8. Well done Paul on a brilliant result for the day. Second in match was Andy Waite peg 19 with 82-4, well done Andy.

Well done to section and second in section winners with some close battles in the sections.

Nice to see Smiler back in the fold, welcome back Paul.

Thank you to Jasper for running the show, Steve on his weigh in skills and Glen on whistle. It looks like everyone had a few bites, some close weights across he sections and despite the pressure on the lake weights could be judged better than other matches we have had. Interested on other people views, please post and share your day so others can learn.

The next matches are special to a lot of the older members of the club with the title of Big Bash legends weekend as we remember our lost friends and club members. Saturday fishing for Ferrets trophy and Sunday a mystery pairs match. Please support these matches, they are great fun and there are quite a few to book on or off on the forum.
There is also a charity match on the Friday at Lindholme if you fancy it run by a Lindholme angling club member.

[jasper31]

the one reason i don't like this place is the way clubs are treated - too many rules and jammed in like sardines....but hey ho.

Looking at my peg was happy - nice feeder chuck - short pole and then an inviting edge

caught bit all around - had only a couple of carp on feeder to island even though it looked right / slope was a bit much. Edge primed and very slow - managed to get a few but only due to really heavy baiting

on wards and upwards...

[fishfinder]

Peg 11 for me abit penned in,like all from my peg to Andy Waites were all in the end semi circle making it very difficult to ascertain who's island chuck was who's i saw a possibility of conficting opinions straight away.I chucked to the side of the island after consultation with Paul next door also realising that the 2 pegs to my right could also chuck in the same swim.Think it would have been a bit more considerate to have given us the pond so a few pegs at that end could have been missed out,end of winge.Back to the match started on my usual method and wafter and had a good start with bites coming regular in first 2hrs had about 50lb but then it dried up,tried everything else long pole and paste 1 foul hooked carp and a roach bite every chuck came short same there loads of missed bites from roach, fed a short feeder chuck with 6mm pellets went on it later had a carp and a bream then nothing, 1 down the edge late on.Could see Paul catching on peg 8 all day and knew a section win was impossible had to settle for 2nd section and 3rd in match.Well done to all especially paul on the win and a cracking silver net from Glen when most at that end struggled to catch many silvers.

[steelcowboy]

Great fishery but............ why oh why when we have 22 pegs booked we can't get the whole pond ! If you was fortunate to draw on either side you either had your own open water or island chuck however if you drew the end between peg 11 to 19 this was totally different with probably only Glen on peg 15 having is own water and island chuck . The rest of us apart from one ! had a chat before the Start and agreed who could Chuck where as we do in the Bash.

If venues are going to peg end areas like this then they have to put markers on the island showing what peg can chuck where  this would remove any shall we say Tension . I can understand how some can think the way the platform is sited and angle you should be able to fish straight out in front of you ? But if you can imagine a clock face from 4 to 8 you can see what problems this causes .

Fishing wise I had some 4 week old worms and a pint of casters left over from the Glebe started on the deck 2+2 and didn't take long for the 1st tiny Ide to fly through the air as we are suppose to net all fish and using the large carp landing nets this became funny as on most occasions you actually netted these tiny fish either after they hit you in the face or 3 foot in the air !! After an hour or so I got bored with catching a pair of eyes so had a look on pellet wag but wind was not right so sacked that off after 10 minutes , then onto the feeder .......... Moving swiftly on
Around 2pm feed my margins with a couple of cups of micros and managed 4 carp from my right margin one of which went just over 12lb and that was my match . Did I enjoy Springvale yes/no not having the whole lake and putting maybe 3 or 4 pegs that could have / should have been left out  is a big No , the venue itself is very good to many rules yes and I don't think I will be rushing back .
Well done Glen on a great silvers weight enjoyed watching you most of the match Steve Curtis doing what you do on the Method , Kieth on another great silver weight and of course Paul for taking the match out excellent performance .
Big shout out to Steve n Jasper 👍