Rd-5-2025-Summer League - 7th June- Lindholme Strip Legends cup

[Leo Martin]

Rd 5 Big Bash Legends Cup Lindholme strip lake 7.6.25

This years Legends cup has seen 3 bashers travel to fish the large lake up above. Fred Turton, Glen Hanyse and Max Bates with the latter two founder club members and very big characters within our group. A sad poignant start to 2025 for family, friends and the Big Bash Angling Club. The Legends match was set up  many years ago to remember our lost friends and club members, this year it seemed a lot more relevant.
 
20 pegs paid and booked on the in form 24 peg Strip lake at Lindholme (which was Glens favourite lake) and 13 members fishing so lots of room to be had. Fishery still very busy with most lakes matched up and café busy however for those who stayed the Friday night in Mallard Lodge, we were treated to chef Indians breakfast of champions.

Friday night draw made, despite a slight technical issue, peg 15 was to be my home for the day with lodge neighbours Andy W8 to my right on corner peg 13 and Indian to my left on 17. Chatter and banter on the cards.
Weather again cold wind, overcast and promise of thunder storms, showers which were due at 11am
Prior to starting fishing a minutes clap of respect was held for our lost friends, then John tooted a second time on the whistle for the all in.

I had a thought to try increase my catch rate today by trying the over-shotted rig shallow once I had the fish feeding. No practise, just go for it however the start of the match would be to fish my normal approach which is start on the bottom at dead depth then when catching try to change. Whistle blown by our timekeeper John Lanelly following a minute's hand clap in respect of our lost friends and club members. 
Hand feeding 4mm pellets with a 6 mm on the hook and strangely it was about 20 minutes before my first indication, missed bite. I missed several bites so made several adjustments to shot, shotting pattern, depth before first small F1 graced the net. Strange start as normally straight on them  and would have expected several fish in the net by now. Persevered for a couple more then tried maggot however with Indian on a fish a chuck I switched to the over-shotted rig, shallow approach to try get back the game. Again slow approach and found best way was feeding maggot with a banded maggot on the hook but progress still awfully slow for the Strip lake and Indian at the side of me. Swapped and changed a few things, better stamp of fish then dead depth but too slow so looking to make another change to tactics to try catch up. I had been feeding my margin swim to the left of the peg with 8mm pellets to try bring in the larger fish. A large pot of ground bait and with paste on the hook I went in about 11:30 am. It was a fish first drop and also second drop in. The F1s were a better stamp and bites at a much quicker rate than previous lines. Ended up staying on this line till the end of the match. Larger fish moved in around 3pm when I increased groundbait feed frequency and along with these came numerous lost fish. I was on reasonably light elastic to let the fish swim away without too much disturbance however the larger fish bottomed this out several times, some hook pulls and numerous foul hookers. As you can guess several choice words were used. Andy on peg 13 was also suffering similar circumstances so we were both egging each other on and sympathising ( yes unlikely) lost fish by lost fish for each of us.

I enjoyed the busy day, much better on paste in the edge and catch rate reasonably well of decent F1s, 8 oz to a pound before the carp arrived, however the number of lost fish cost me so hindsight should have gone heavy on the elastic. Also I think a heavier feed of groundbait earlier in the day would have brought larger fish in earlier and give me a much better chance. Hindsight is always wonderful, my normal tactics of starting on hard pellet on bottom 22-5 sect not work, likewise the shallow overshot float failed also, despite Indian next door and most of the match catching quickly on it  and most of the match.  64-13 the weight and wondering what could have been.

Around the lake starting with section 1
Peg 2 Steve Guy 51-5. Tidy quite match fished by Steve towards the corner. He had been up twice in advance to practise shallow work so would probably preferred a higher peg number but made the most of fishing into corner.

Peg 4 Tracey Benson 98-14 2nd in section. Directly from the Lindholme AC festival and also in a lodge on site.  Head down and continued his great run of form to record second in section. 

Peg 6 Andy Woolfall 94-5. Dream draw for Woolfy with his best mates favourite peg drawn. Woolfy chose a paste approach again, tried and tested method,  to both margins looking for the larger fish. Well done buddy.

Peg 8 Mark Radford 122-5 Section win. Mark fished this match on the back of Lindholme AC week long festival and had several lines fished. Moving lines when bites dried up to keep ticking over.  He had a good run in his margins later of larger fish including an old warrior of 10-13.  This is the match groups biggest fish of the year to date to compliment his section win.

Peg 10 Paul Whitehouse 98-12. Paul set off on his favoured feeder rod for about 20 minutes then switched to his pole out in front. He rotated these throughout the match before switching to his margin landing some quality fish and pushing Mark next door.

Section 2
Peg 12 Kris Rodgers 63-6. Kris concentrated on his pole lines out in front, along the edge and also in his margin. Busy all day and some lost fish as well.

Peg 12 Andy Waite 98-11 section win. Andy ( another of our feeder crew) started on his rod to the edge     and also short to his left hand side below where he would fish his pole. After catching on his rod he caught on his pole line but has some frustrations as well. Andy had primed his left hand side margin throughout the match and then topped it up big style before going in around 2:30 and it is fair to say it was black, very dark black with large fish. The final 90 minutes of the match was fair to say frustrating for him, missed bite, foul hookers, hook pulls and breakages. He did make several changes, some his own thoughts and some enforced due to tackle failures before finally being able to land some of the margin fish. Good banter throughout between us both, well done on the section win.

Peg 15 Leo 64-13

Peg 17 Kev Indian Webster 70-6 2nd in section. Kev set off like a train, fish straight on his shallow and overshotted rigs. He worked this throughout the match switching rig depths and methods to keep the fish coming in but had some quite spells which led him to try the margins. The margins for Indian did not deliver as he wanted so reverted back out in front on his shallow rigs. Second in section for kevin, well done mate

Section 3
Peg 18 Steve Curtis 202-4 match and Legends cup win. Steve had not fished Strip for quite a while so entered the match testing himself again. Not sure if a pre match quick word with Jamie Harrison who was fishing a festival on Loco helped him, we wont know. Steve started on his rod  but quickly changes and adopting a paste approach delivered again. Fishing short out in front a slower start than Indian but he soon got into a system of fish, after fish, after fish. Later in the match he went into the margins and a larger stamp joined the procession to his nets. One net of small fish and 2 of a better stamp gave Steve his match winning score of a double ton and retaining the Legends trophy once again with a match win.

Peg 20 Paul "Smiler" Atton 53-7. Paul fishing two competitions, our match and his competition with fellow chuckle brother Mr Guy. 53-7 gave Paul the bragging rights and shiny pound of his friend, although it was close.

Peg 22 John Lanelly 58-13 2nd in section. John was unable to connect with the heavier stamp of F1s he was used to however was pleased to achieve a 2nd in section envelope by default. Busy all day again topping up his nets.

Peg 24 John Utting 92-15 Section win. Another angler busy all day topping up his nets however a decent stamp. Johns normal tactics didn't work so john had to swap, change and adapt to build a section winning net.

On the weigh in it was evident that the larger fish were caught in some pegs than others. Smaller fish also tended to be towards the Beeches end of the lake. The total weight caught by the 13 anglers was 1170lbs and where the lower weights were had, they had a lot more of the smaller fish.  Banter around the pond also reduced because everyone was busy catching most of the match, some even missing their snap and usual coffee consumption. The rain also was kind and although a couple of light showers the promised storms bypassed us which is unusual for the Big Bash AC.

Thanks go to Steve for weighing in duties again, also John on timekeeping and everyone else who turned up to support this special match in our angling calendar.