Rd-13-2025-Summer League - 27th September-Barnburgh - Middle Lake

[Leo Martin]

Big Bash Summer league round 13 Barnburgh Middle Lake 27.9.2025

A very long time since the club visited this venue so in fairness not a lot was known about it. Middle lake chosen as 20 pegs however with 8m gap between pegs it was always going to be tight. Todays match again with high absence had 13 fishing, so this gave more room for everyone. I would say this is probably the ideal number for this lake. The lake is square in shape, a little shorter than Lindholme strip and about a third wider. It does have 4 pegs across each end so if all pegs were in corners would be tricky. It also limits feeder chucks for end of lakes due to pegs along sides. Lake is reed lined, there is a sunken island in centre and also an aerator in middle of lake.  The lake is deep in edges and shallows up the further out you go. Margins 4 feet approx., at 2+2 it was 7 feet deep, 10m it was between 4 and 5 feet deep.  There as no features in front except the aerator. Established trees surround 2 sides pegs 20 to 12. Pegs 1 to 7 are alongside bottom bank just above the bottom lake leaving pegs 8 to 11 on café bank.

The lake has a clean good, surfaced road around it giving park behind pegs for almost everyone, platforms are safe, clean and well present.

Fishery itself is very clean, and well organised. On entry to car park you are met by the bailiff to give you access to a large block paved holding area. All cars meet here from the matches on the 3 lakes . Everyone pays on, gets their pellets from the huts, and nets are dipped.  There are 3 clean and maintained toilets as well next to the pellet hut. When each clubs cars have all arrived, the bailiff then opens another barrier to allow access to then lakes and cars are allowed to their pegs. Very well disciplined and organised. The barrier also means no visitors can drive or wander around the lakes.

Fishery feed pellets only and are the black type, micros hard to mix and manage for the feeder.
Friday night draw and Leo running it as Jasper away carping in France, always going to be a risk. Nightmare scenario as couldn't get the live video to work on Facebook on phone. Long delay and managed to get working ( not sure if IT issue or operator error) but we got there in the end. 13 names on the spinning wheel and I doubt many members knew a good draw or bad one so

it was a little mystery for everyone like if Leo was to complete the online draw or not😊.
Another cool night with temps around 7 degrees, sunshine in the morning which developed into cloudy and over cast. There was a slight breeze blowing towards the café . which left part of the lake showing a ripple, most of the lake flat calm. The start of the match saw myself on peg 4 in tee shirt whilst John Utting  peg 13 had 2 x coats on as the wind and shade from trees made it very cold.

With Mr Lanelly back on time keeping duty, whistle sounded, and John Utting was first to catch a fish. One thing in favour of the lake is everyone can view each other and also pass comments to either guide,  help or abuse as required.

To say it was a difficult match for some is an understatement, also disappointing. Bites very hard to come by, fish present but not feedinm one bite and then nothing for most Bashers. This in turn makes those who did catch and put some decent weights together, (Paul Whitehouse and Joe corner peg Martin) the best performers by a country mile.  Well done to them. Keith also strung a lot of catches together however much smaller stamp of skimmers, not F1s.  Mixed results around the lake but I think all agreed that they could not string a run of bites together properly. The day still stay dry so take this as a bonus.

Peg 1 Steve Guy ( local lad and regular)  13-15 2nd in section. Short pole, long pole, shallow, dead depth. Rods, margins all tried. I was surprised as I thought Steve had caught a lot more than he had and was surprised at his weight. To quote Steve he saved a quid form good friend Paul

Peg 2 Paul Whitehouse 97.0 match winner . Paul set off on his rods with a few fish coming in and fed a shallow pole line on maggots. Swapped and changed a few times before moving onto his jigga rigs around noon and never looked back. Smaller fish came first then F1s followed. The fish moved away several times and Paul kept feeding his line and had a look on his rods as he waited for their return. Well fished Paul.

Peg 4 Leo Martin 8-3. Never recovered from the Friday  night draw palaver. Fished bomb lines, method, short lines for pellet and maggot, paste and dead red margin lines. One F1 on pole on maggot, 3 more  and a lucky goldfish on rods and 2 tiny skimmers. One missed bite in margin, nothing else to report. Already forgot the match and move on to next.

Peg 5 Keith Smith 33-9 section win. Keith started short on pole and paste and picked up a f1 whilst he fed a shallow pole line. Moved onto his shallow line and started catching skimmers, one a bung. Smallish stamp with the occasional larger one. Supplemented by an occasional F1 but they never showed in numbers Keith required. The fish also drifted off a few times and Keith tried his rod and m margins as he waited for them to return. A lot of fish caught but unfortunately for Keith the wrong species, still a section win, well done mate and good to have your company next door.

Peg 7 Scott "corner peg" Barker 17-8 . Difficult match for Scott and on the receiving end of several bursts of banter choreographed by his chauffeur Joe. Did manage 3 lumps out of his margin on sweetcorn to boost his weight.

Peg 9 Mark Radford 19-6 . Hard and frustrating match for Mark with the breeze blowing in who caught all his fish on rods.

Peg 11 Kevin" Indian" Webster 28-6. Wind blowing in affecting his presentation Kev chose to fish alongside reeds in margin most of the match. Another suffering a long difficult match.

Peg 12 If I mention a corner you know is Joe Martins 84-9 and a section win. Managed to catch fish most of the match with majority on his pole lines. Landing net dipping to collect fish throughout the match and it was touch and go if he had enough to beat Paul. Well done Joe.

Peg 13 John Utting  33-10 and another brown envelope for second in section. Consistently scoring the points, well done John.

Peg 15 Andy "sleepy" Waite. 15-9 So was Andys match he retired to his car for a 2 how nanny nap. Started on his favoured rods, no joy. Woke up to see Paul catching shallow so out came his pole and he managed to snare a few, I don't think Andy will remember this day with joy

Peg 16 Michael Roche 32-7 and a second in section. Slow start from Mike, several shanges of tactics and dead reds came into play with F1s being caught. Well done.

Peg 17 Richard Cooke 27-11. A slow start for Rich who on arrival found he had left his rigs at home. His carer next door John helped him out and encouraged as per usual with wise words. Rich got his head down and caught several on  feeder and also pole.

Peg 19 John Lanelly 36-9 and section win. Caught intermittently throughout and patiently waited for bites on both rods and pole lines. Fresh back form catfishing in France and travelling to fish the Docklow week long Festival on Wednesday it was nice for him to catch a few fish. Well done mate and good luck at Docklow with his carer Rich also travelling.

Thank you to John for timekeeping. Special thanks to Andy and others assisting in the weighing in duties.
Really interested in peoples views on the day and fishery, please post away.
 
Next match is the penultimate of the summer season. Springvale on the inform Newcastle Lake. Pegging is reduced to 15 so please confirm and pay on to help admin in their organisation.

Winter league membership paying on post will go up this week. Please let me know if interested.