Pewsey 6/02/11

Milkhouse and Wharf



• Peg 10 (milkhouse)
• 6lb 1oz,
• Won section and 6th overall.
• 20 people fished

Boats at Pewsey is solid with  fish

Wharf

Milkhouse Strecth

Milkhouse

Gary O'shea wins again, 8lb 10oz. Well done two on the bounce

Milkhouse

On arrival to my peg I was unsure what to do as no one had fished it for a while and after plumbing the depth it shallowed up quickly at 8 metres and therefore limited my options. I feel unless you have a distinctive feature, like a bush,  you will not catch productively in less than two feet of water as the water clarity is quite clear this time of year.  Also fishing joker in very shallow water normally equals ‘blade roach’ (small roach), which won’t win you any coin. I decided to fish 6 metres in front of me on bread and then have two lines at a 45degree angle each side at 9 metres each. The line to my left was in 2 and half feet of water and i fed Russian joker in ground bait and my other 9 meter line was raw polish joker in grey leam to stiffen it up into a ball.  When fishing grey leam I don’t add any water as normally the moisture from the joker is enough to form a ball, I don’t add much as this stuff is like concrete.   Russian joker is al lot less active and therefore much better for skimmers and the polish tends to be more active and therefore  normally far better for Roach.  Russian joker is very small and can’t really be hook bait whereas Polish can be.

The Match

I fed my 3 lines lines and started on the bread at 6 metres which resulted in a Ruffe after a fruitless 15 minutes, which is something I have never done before in over twenty years of fishing. Therefore I shipped out to my raw joker line at 9 metres, with a single bloodworm which resulted in a Perch of 8 oz. However this seemed to be a loner and then I quickly rotated to my right swim at 9 metres over the ground bait, which produced nothing. Things were not looking good! The guy next to me (Nicky Ewers) was also struggling and he persisted on his bread line which produce a couple of fish. I returned to my bread line which was unproductive therefore minced some lobworms up and shipped out 9 metres at almost a 80 degree angle to try and get myself out of trouble!!  I went on my raw joker line for 20 minutes to rest the Lob line and let it settle before fishing it.  When I went on the lob line I caught a couple of Perch which boosted my total weight to a whopping 1lb 8oz in an hour and half! Then I decided to put some joker in black damp leam and at 6 metres over my bread line which transformed my peg and I began to catch Ruffe and the odd Roach. This was a positive sign as I felt these small fish would attract the bigger fish through their activity of feeding. I caught well on this line for an hour and boosted my weight with a couple of bonus Perch up to 12 oz.  With 3 hours gone I had about 4lb and I know that I would need about 8lb to frame.  So I decided to put damp leam over my raw joker line to try to make it more productive, which didn’t happen.  The groundbait line at 9 metres began to catch a few Roach but wouldn’t last i.e I would only catch 2 quick Roach and that would be it and I would have to change lines.  I regularly fed my lobworm line with 4 minced lobworms every 20 minutes to try and build it up and I was rewarded with a 12oz hybrid for my efforts. The final hour proved to be very difficult and all I did was rotate my four lines and try to continue to put fish in the net but the only issue was that  they were two small to make a real difference.   To make matters worse, I lost a 1lb perch, as it snagged me in a branch in the last twenty minutes, which was a little upsetting, as I knew this fish would cost me dear, which it did!!!!

I was a little disappointed to weigh in 6lb1oz, I may have won my section and be second overall at Milkhouse, but I felt the peg was worth more and maybe I should have fed damp leam on all 3 lines.   Also losing that perch cost me third place, which would of meant I would of framed and been a little richer!

If you like the articles written here please respect my copyright ©

For any use of content (words and images) please contact me.