Preston Pole Pairs - Round 3 at Lindholme Lakes

When I first entered the Pole Pairs competition with my partner Carl Shepherdson, this was the venue I was most looking forward to fishing as it is where I tend to do the majority of my fishing now. Lindholme is renowned for its F1's and Carp, but it is also stuffed full of silvers and with this being a silvers match + F1's it should be bang on!
On the morning of the match the weather was wreaking havoc with gale force winds, just the type of weather you need on a pole only match "NOT". Me and Carl were both just preying for pegs with the wind off our backs. I drew out peg 33 on Laurels for myself and 34 Bonsai for Carl, both good pegs and the wind off ours backs :-)


The Plan
Peg 33 on Laurels is on the end of one of the spits that jut out into the lake. It is a very good peg especially in the summer and in the winter. It offers tons of open water. With this and the wind in mind I opted for a 3 pronged attack comprising of 2 short lines and a single long line at 11 meters. I planned to feed 3 balls of leam and groudbait packed with joker with a few casters on both of the short lines and fish loose maggots on the longer line.

Bait
I had a match pack of quality bloodworm and joker, a few pints of maggots as well as some casters. Groundbait wise I had some Roach Groundbait and some damp dark leam. The plan was to mix this in a 50/50 ratio.

Rigs
Short Rigs

• Pole - Browning Xtreme Margin 
• Elastic - Double 4 
• Mainline - 0.14 Browning Hybrid Power 
• Hooklength - 0.10 Browning Cenex 
• Hook - Size 20 Kamasan B911 F1
• Float - 0.4 gram Scotthorne 1
• Shotting - Spread bulk plus 2 droppers 

Long Rig

• Pole - Browning Xtreme Margin 
• Elastic - Double 4 
• Mainline - 0.14 Browning Hybrid Power 
• Hooklength - 0.10 Browning Cenex 
• Hook - Size 20 Kamasan B911 F1 
• Float - 0.5gram Scotthorne 1 
• Shotting - Spread bulk plus 2 droppers 
• 
  

The Session 

I started the session by feeding 3 balls of the groundbait mix on each of the short lines. I immediately went over the top with a couple of bloodworm on the hook. I was soon into fish, I was catching a small roach every put in. what I had noticed though I that the people I could see were catch F1 s on maggots. I soon realised I had made a complete balls up by feeding bloodworm. I must have drawn every small fish in the lake into my swim. I decided to bin the short lines and go long with maggots. I put a few maggots into the pole mounted pot and shipped out to 9 meters. I tapped the maggots out the pot and lowered the rig in slowly, seconds later the float dipped a quick lift and I was into my first F1. I went back out and picked up another F1 immediately. The next drop resulted in a small Roach. I persevered for a few minutes but the Roach had moved in good and proper. I switched to another spot and picked up another F1, then the Roach moved in again. I had 20 minutes back on the short line, picking up a Roach every drop in.

The remainder of the match was spent switching back and forth trying to pick up a few F1's then catch a decent amount of Roach. At the end of the match I was quite despondent knowing I had blown the swim in the first minute of the match. I was slightly happier when the scales arrived and I weighed in 16 kilos which was enough for 3rd in section. 

Carl had had a frustrating day as he ended up hooking to many proper Carp which are not allowed. He managed 4th in section with 5 kilos. We are now well out the running for the main prizes but hopefully a section win a piece in the next round at Makins will see us win a few quid,"hopefully anyway".

For more info on this venue check out their web at: www.lindholmelakes.co.uk/lakes/laurels-lake /https://www.facebook.com