Maggotdrowning - Lindholme Lakes, 29th April 2013

May 07, 2013

The annual fish-in with the Maggotdrowning crewe to Lindholme Lakes in Doncaster. A five day festival with the “usual suspects”. I arrived on the Sunday and had a quick practice on the Loco lake which taught me absolutely nothing to be honest. Most of the lads from last years festival where here and the abuse soon started, especially my nickname of, “Why Lee, Why”. The weather wasn’t too bad, sunny day but the wind was gusting very heavily.

The Draw
9am draw, fish 11m through to 5pm, plenty of time to set-up and a decent 6 hour match. We had plenty of of room with only 24 fishing, four sections of six people on Bonsai lake. Bonzai is the jewel in Lindholme Lakes’s crown and everyone looks forward to fishing it.

The hand drop in the bag and I drew out peg 75, so I would be on the middle leg on the right hand side, wind would be over my back hopefully making it an easier day than most.

The Set-up
Definitely a bit guilty of setting up a little bit to much gear today, but what the heck, day 1 of the festival and I’ve got to try and get a decent start on the points. The setup would soon change due to a bit of an accident, but more on that later. So I set up the following:

Bomb Rod
Method Rod
14 and 16 metre line straight ahead
Top two and two straight ahead
Margin Line to the left

Bait for the day was 6mm pellets, micro pellets, sweetcorn, 6mm luncheon meat, casters and dead red maggots.

The All-In
I had around 15 minutes to spare after setting up the gear. The all-in was called and I cupped in on the 14 metre line, top two+2 line and margin swim. Letting the lines settle I went straight out on the method feeder.

I had three method feeder lines, to the point of the left island, point of the island straight ahead and middle of the island following the reeds. After an hour I had one F1 in the net and the rest of the anglers around me weren’t fairing too well either. The wind was getting stronger with its gusts, no doubt someone’s pole would get broken today!

Feeding the margin and top two+2 line with a pinch of pellets every 5 minutes I went onto the 14 metre line to see if any fish had settled over the feed. After 30 minutes of lifting and dropping, nothing, so back onto the Method feeder.

Two and a half hours into the match and the method line was producing steadily. A huge gust of wind hit us all and all I heard was a loud crack from behind me. Looking back, my nice straight pole wasn’t too straight any more as the pole roller had toppled, taking 16 metres of pole with it, breaking the pole at it’s number 5 section! Considering I’ve got another 4 days at Lindholme and the Withy weekend with the MFS boys this could be a nightmare.

So, my setup options were severely restricted as I only had the margin line and top two+2 lines left.

I needed to get a new section sorted as soon as possible, so I went back onto the method line while I phoned all the local Tricast dealers near Lindholme Lakes. I was rotating the lines, feeding pellets over each of the three method area’s.

I called Weston Tackle, where I originally bought the pole and the owner very kindly offer to send me his number 5 section while trying to get hold of the Tricast rep to get a replacement.

So, I spent the rest of the day on the method, having a look in the margin’s a couple of times, but that only produced a tench and some skimmers. I tried meat, corn and double corn. The double corn was producing the quickest bites, so I suspect it was acting as a large target bait.

The Result
A respectable 56lb 11oz and 3rd in section. Three points for the 5 day event.

Conclusion
The pole break was a downer, but the method line came strong and got me a good result. Given how the rest of the lads caught, the fish are responding well to meat, corn, pellet and worm. Lets see how I manage with a broken pole tomorrow on Willows.