Lough Scurr, Match 1 of Winter League

The anticipation of the winter league is always exciting, getting your gear ready, from cleaning it, retying rigs, filling your hook boxes to digging out the winter clothing always creates a bit of a buzz. Picking venues is always tough and thankfully Shane Dunne has taken over as Match Secretary so nothing falls one this year, it’s a thankless job and is the toughest position in any club but we all still try and put our influences in for venue selection, this time all of us bar Shane wanted Scurr as recent results on the run up had been really good, hard to ignore to be honest, weather had been settled and warm so it was a easy decision….. then it rained, frosts appear and the winds picked up, winter weather! something not noted for catching fish in shallow waters.

I drew peg 10 out of the bag which I was happy with, 1-6 was section A on the Rocks so I was the 3rd peg in from the first set of steps on the Pump House. B section.

During the time it took to bring my gear down i had noticed a lot of fish activity from the shore line outwards so was thinking this could be a good day, i decided there and then that i would attack the pole line fairly positively and ease into the feeder line depending on bites.

Bait

• 1kg Champions Choice Gardons
• 1kg Champions Choice Grand Slam
• 1kg Champions Choice Etang
• 1kg Brown Crumb
• 1kg Worm
• 1lt Casters
• 1lt Hemp
• 0.25lt Pinkie
• 0.5lt Red Maggots

 The Plan

Ball in at 6m and 13m with food rich balls consisting of casters, hemp and dead maggots. To leave these lines for at least 40mins to let a few fish settle with a view to pull them onto the 6m line.

Have a feeder line at 25 and 60m depending on bites. To feed chopped worm on the 25 line as it was deeper than the 60 with a hope of a few skimmers.

On plumbing up i had a reasonable depth of around 2m @ 13m and a very shallow 1m @ 6m, on a 28g bomb i had a count of 5 @ 25m and a count of 3 @ 60. (scurr is at the lowest levels i have ever seen it)

Rigs were simple,

•  4x14 Preston Chianti on 0.14mm mainline with a spread out shot just off the bottom to a size 16 hook on 0.12mm
•  0.5g Cralusso Helena on 0.14mm with a bulk and 2 droppers set at dead depth to a size 16 hook on 0.12mm
•  4x12 Preston Chianti on 0.12mm line set just off the bottom on the 6m line with a 18 hook to 0.10mm, this will act as a half depth rig at 13m too if needed. All tied on Hybrid main lines and Cenex hook length line, 

On the all in 6 balls went on both lines then out with a 30g 5 hole cage feeder at 25m, i had 5 quick chucks to get a small bit of bait down then did the same at 60m, the only difference is i didn’t put and chopped worm out on the far line, the rods i was using was the 3.6m Browning Black Viper with a Black Magic Burner 640 reel for the far line, and a 3.4m Drennan Stillwater for close in with the same reel.

40 mins had passed and not a touch on either feeder line, i alternated between them both, switching baits, dragging the bait, casting short casting long but nothing seemed to produce a bite, this seemed to be standard along the bank as no one was catching really, but to be honest it didn’t really matter what was happening to my  far right as its points were fishing for and my section included pegs 7-11. i had noticed Tomaz on peg 7 was catching some real tiny Roach on the pole but i was determined to leave it another 20 mins before droppin in for a look.

The first hour passed and i was bite less so i now decided it was time to drop in on the pole line and see what was happening, in goes the bulk rig with a single red maggot, no bite. what i did notice that i hadn’t before was Scurr was really really towing from left to right, whether it was the cross wind or they had opened the gates on Lough Allen (might explain the water levels) either way it was proper pulling , i knew in the back of my mind that my rigs were too light now for the conditions in front of me but i did nothing about it, i should have got off my box and set up a heavier rig for better presentation (hindsight is a great thing) buit i didn’t. i came into my last line of attack, the 6m line, shipped out and lowered in a single maggot and the float kept going and i was into my first fish, a Perch about 100g, next put in and my doubled 4’s elastic was stretched and i was into a decent fish but pulled out! i had a few small 20-40g Roach on this line afterwards but no weight builders so went back out to 25m for a look, Robert Howgate had popped down to say hello so i was chatting to him when by tip went round in a nice smooth arc and i was into a decent skimmer of about 600g and just as i was ‘skimming’ it to the net another hook pull !! so i’ve just lost 1kg+ of fish in a matter of minutes!! i have to blame Robert for this :-) after this nothing was happening. all i could do was fish for those Roach in the 20-40g bracket to just build a bit of a weight and keep busy, with 20 mins to go i estimated myself to be on about 800g and 4th in my section, i chucked a bomb out on 25 with 2 dead reds on to see if i could get a bonus fish and i did, a skimmer of about 150g followed by another, a Roach of about 100gs and a Perch around the same weight, i was on fish! next thing….. ALL OUT! Bugger!

Fishing the bomb did push me up a position finishing on 1.3kg for 3rd in my section, 2nd was Tomaz with 1.9kg and Gary won with 65 fish for 2.1kg..

Conclusion

I basicly fished a summer match in a winter league

i should have cupped in less rather than ball in what i did

I think i was trying to make the pole line work rather than concentrate on fishing the tip properly with cost me.

My rigs were too light from the off

i think i split up the few fish that was there feeding 2 swims on the pole

Could i have done better ? most definitely