GOING DOWN A STORM – WELL, VERY NEARLY!

WHAT a weekend that was! Someone decided to turn the wind machine on as Storm Ciara leathered the UK. In the Wirral we copped it big time, so it was a nobrainer for me to pass up fishing for at least part of the weekend.

I was planning on going back to the Jacob’s AC lake for another go at those carp and F1s but you couldn’t stand up outside, let alone fish. But I think I missed out as half-a-dozen lunatics went and the match was won with 200lb! Obviously, the fish didn’t mind the storm as much as we did.

Before all of that I did get out to Lingmere Fishery for the Saturday match. It was still windy and I was hoping to draw on the sheltered bottom lake. So what happened? Out came peg 17 on the top Match Lake. Typical.

There was still a section and lake to be won and I spent four hours casting the maggot feeder around, picking off an odd F1. A good last hour in the margins on maggots produced another 15 fish for 39lb. It earned me a lake win and third overall so it wasn’t all bad.

You may be wondering why I fished the maggot feeder. Because the Match Lake is very silty, pellets that you fish on feeder just sink into the muck, so maggots are miles better plus it was a cold day and the F1s were in winter feeding mode. Very few fish were caught on pellets that day.

We are on the verge of pellets becoming a winning bait. I had a coaching day at Partridge Lakes and we caught lots of big skimmers and carp on expanders so a change is on the way.

“A few lunatics still fished the match”