Lindholme Lakes - Hull Midweek Club Match

Today I have fished what has to be my favourite lake,  Bonsai Lake. I have in the past already done quite a few write ups on this particular lake and most of them follow a similar theme, for example the methods and baits. Today I had to continually modify these to ensure I kept catching. 

At the draw my dipping hand dragged peg 6 out of the draw bag, a peg I was certainly not disappointed with, as the island is within easy pole reach at 13 meters. This gives you one of the shortest reaches with a pole to an island on the full lake! The island is almost completely surrounded by a reed bed, apart from a nicely cut section right in front of me. This gave me chance to fish tight up to the mud bank. My plan was to set up 2 lines for the island. 

Line #1

The first line was for just in front of the reeds to the left of the cut out, this gave me 2 ½ feet of water. 

Line #2

The second line was for the cut out in the shallower water, this was approximately 20 inches deep. My plan was to start on the deeper rig in front of the reeds, so the fish had somewhere to back off  too.

Margins

In the margins I really only had one way to go and that was to my left; this was due to a tree and bush to my right, which restricted the right margin. The left margin had a reed bed which cut in towards the bank about a top 4 length away. I had to do a little light pruning of the reeds so that my view of the float was not restricted. Once this was done I plumbed up the swim, which gave me around 3 feet of water.

Rigs:
Deep Island Rig

• Pole - Browning Z12
• Elastic - Browning Cenex Pink
• Main line - 0.12 Browning Hybrid power line
• Hook length - 0.12 Browning Hybrid power line
• Hook - size 18 Kamasan B911 F1
• Float - Dino Sedge 0.2g
• Shotting  - bulk no10 stotz just above the hook length

Shallower Island Rig

• Pole - Browning Z12
• Elastic - Browning Cenex Pink
• Main line - 0.12 Browning Hybrid power line
• Hook length - 0.12 Browning Hybrid power line
• Hook - size 18 Kamasan B911 F1
• Float - Shep special 0.2g   (www.carlshepherdsonstittletackle.com)
• Shotting - bulk no10 Stotz just above hook length  

Margin Rig

• Pole - Browning Z12
• Elastic - Browning Cenex Green
• Main line - 0.14 Browning Hybrid power line
• Hook length - 0.14 Browning Hybrid power line
• Hook - size 16 Kamasan B911
• Float - Dino Sedge 0.2g
• Shotting - bulk no10 Stotz just above hook length

Bait

• 1 bag fishery micros
• 4mm expander pellets
• 6mm cubes luncheon meat
• 8mm cubes luncheon meat

On the all in I loaded the small pole mounted toss pot with around 20 micros and baited the hook with a 4mm expander pellet, then shipped the pole to the island. I lowered the rig in and tapped the micros over the top. The bait must have only just touched the bottom and the float buried, a small Common Carp was soon safely in the net. The next 5 drops in followed the same pattern before the bites eased. A quick change to the shallower rig to the mud line results in 2 bigger Mirror Carp before these bites eased. 

A Key Observation!

I change back to the deeper rig and fed as before, but what I did notice was, when I tapped the micros in the float was moving about and the float was going under but I could not hit the bites. So this is where the change of tactics came into effect. I took the shallower rig and made it even shallower, around 10” deep. My plan was to tap the micros in the lower the rig over the top. It worked a treat as I was now catching at a decent rate. Every so often I would try the same rig in the cut out,  resulting in bigger fish, but they soon moved out after catching a couple. 

With around 2 hours gone the bites eased right back, which gave me the time to feed the margin swim with a half pot of micros and meat. I stayed on the long line for a further 20 minutes before trying the margin rig. The first put in on the margin line resulted in a nice Tench, followed by another and another before bites again slowed. 

I tried the deeper island rig which resulted in 2 quick fish before the shallow rig was again required. The shallow rig gave me another good run of fish, mainly small F1s. 

During this time I had been feeding the 6mm cubes of meat by hand on the margin line. After 30 mins I noticed swirls down the margin so I used the island shallow rig down the margin.... it worked a treat, I was now catching bigger F1s at a rate of knots! After I hooked the fish I would feed 10 cubes of meat straight away, this kept the fish in the swim and ready for the next put in. On most drops in the rig would only be in the swim 10 seconds before it buried; every so often I would try the island rig to rest the margin line, but the fish were much smaller than the margin fish. 

At the end of the match I knew I had over a 100lb, when the scales arrived and after a few weighs I finished with 124lb 15oz. There were rumours that Carl Shep on peg 70 had caught really well too; fortunately for me his total was 110lb, which gave me the match win.

Yet again Lindholme has produced a fantastic days fishing, A great deal of credit needs to go to Neil Bev and Aaron Grantham for producing and maintaining a wonderful fishery.