Special Invitation Match For The Regulars
After much flattery and a little bit of arm twisting, we managed to talk the management team into letting us have a match where we could use floating baits. The date was set a couple of weeks ago and lo and behold the day turned out to be wall to wall rain and winds gusting up to 30 mph, not exactly perfect floater weather. However all those booked with the exception of Mick Keeper actually turned up. The rules were that there were no rules (just like the old days) .
The wind made it that it was virtually impossible to fish floaters in some pegs but in the ones with a bit of shelter the fish were ready to oblige. The top 3 weights all came on chum mixer, with Brian Green winning it from peg 1 with a cool 216 lbs, I was a couple of fish behind with 203 lbs 10 oz and Ian Hogg made up the top three with 156 lbs 12 oz. Don Garnish had the best weight fishing “on the deck” with 94 lbs 1oz. I always knew that the dog biscuit would outfish any other method but it was nice to get it confirmed.
Here’s a few observations, mostly aimed at the people that continue to badmouth the method.
1) Those weights are by far the biggest that have been caught from that lake for over a year. Who knows what we’d have weighed in if the conditions had been more favourable.
2) The fish that were caught on the floaters are DIFFERENT FISH to those that are caught on the bottom. They average between 7 and 8 pounds each. This seems to destroy the argument of those that insist that any bait floating past them ruins their bottom fishing. Give your head a shake and open your eyes, they’re not the same fish. The fish that are caught on the surface DO NOT FEED on the bottom except for a few of them that move into the margins in the last hour of a normal match. I didn’t see a single fish under 5 lbs weighed in by those people fishing chum mixers yet if you fish the method feeder you won’t see a fish over 5lbs. When you’re bottom fishing and chum mixers float past with a few fish rising don’t get so upset. Those rising fish are not your fish, your fish are still on the bottom, they can’t see up through 2 or 3 feet of muddy water. If your bottom fish were to move up to eat the mixers then there would be smaller fish caught on the mixer but it just doesn’t happen….EVER !!.
Anyhow, the experiment is over for the time being. If you wanted to fish but were not invited then I’m sorry but it really was for regulars and the ‘old-timers’ that used to fish dog biscuits there when it was allowed. The fishery is back to the normal rules of “NO FLOATING BAITS” and “NO BREAD”, so please abide by the rules.
Ross