26/09/26, Feeder Only Match, Lysander Lake, Silverlake.

It’s been quite a week in the Howard household for so many reasons, and all this leads up to the Feeder only Match at Silverlake…

Whose idea was this?

Like everywhere else on the planet that is not experiencing floods, Lysander Lake at Silverlake has lost 45 if not 50% of its winter water overcoat. But we chose Lysander because its water level is second only to that of my fridge which had a blocked drainage hole.

Basically, the water line looks like it has had a falling out with the platforms around the lake, resulting in a three-day Camel ride to the waters edge.

Because we are kind and caring folk, Mr Jeremy and I decided to take up tools on Tuesday and cut out some safe areas for the little darlings to place their boxes on.

We needed only five swims. How hard could it be?

We smashed the first one out like we were digging for diamonds. Earth and stones were flying through the air, and we were digging like two Squirrels burying their nuts…(Cheeky!) Resistance level: Smashing rocks.

The second swim we were digging for coal. It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it. Resistance level: Cutting wet turf.

The third swim we were blowing like a couple of drayhorses close to retirement. At this point the question was asked, “Whose idea was this?” Resistance level: Tearing kitchen roll.

The fourth swim we were barely able to burst bubble wrap as the tools simply bounced off of the surface of the flint strewn ground. Resistance level: Couldn’t burst a Fairy Liquid bubble.

In the last swim my spade hit the ground, shuddered, and fell over. I cried, farted, and lay next to it. Jerry was down to one bar of energy as he ineffectively scraped at the hard ground, face dripping as he gave his all for the cause. Both sweating like Sparrows in a Cats only nightclub, we decided that the last peg was flat enough…

Diminishing returns:

A month ago I had 29 Bream and 8 Carp in a session. Lovely! Over 100lbs of Bream! This is great…

Next trip, 14 Carp and 8 Bream. Ok, not quite so good Bream-wise but still a good day.

Thursday, 5 Carp and 1 Bream… Oh dear…

They were still about, but that was with just two or three in a line. How was it going to fish with nine kids beating the water to a foam?

Cometh the day, cometh the stress:

My chauffeur arrived at 07:40 and I was thankful to Jerry for the offer of a lift. After the ‘work party’ Tuesday, fishing Thursday, and 14.5-hour house move on Friday, I was battered, bruised, and my joints sounded like a seized gate. Jerry folded me into the car and off we popped…

I must say that, despite the low water level, Silverlake did look resplendent in the early morning sunshine. The baked yellow foliage had turned to a vibrant green covering, if you can ignore the horrible Gorse bushes.

The water was like glass, only disturbed occasionally by what we hoped were hungry fish. The sun was with us too, giving what could be the final rays of summer. Although, we could be applying sun-block in December at this rate.

With (nearly) all assembled, the match draw and other participants looked like this…

Peg 1: Jayce Hardware.

Peg 2: Austin Scott-Kennedy.

Peg 3: Alexander Adey.

Peg 4: Kenzie Toulson.

Peg 5: Seth Hopkins.

Coaching participants…

Lucas Sanchez.

Harriet Rowley.

James Lewis.

Grayson Scadding.

Your 'muck spread' of coaches (the correct collective noun for three angling coaches) today were:

Jerry Bracey (JB-Dog)

Jon Bass (JB-Dog)

Jraham Boward (JB-Dog) <<<FOMO (fear of missing out)

I’ll do the coaching juniors first because I didn’t get chance to see much of them because of the match.

From where I was, I could only see Harriet, James, and Lucas. Grayson arrived a little later than the others and ended up out of sight from me.

To be honest, and you are going to read more of this shortly, there wasn’t much to report. The fishing was poor, and I think that was putting it mildly. It wasn’t necessarily the lake’s fault, however. Putting restrictions on methods will always handicap performances. But, in a way, that was the idea.

With the experience level of those in the coaching section at a lower level (respectfully), even the use of float rods or poles would not have made that much difference.

Only one ‘Shared’ Carp appeared on the coaching bank, and along with the smallest Perch in the world, it made for grim viewing.

We try to give our juniors every chance we can to come fishing with us. We also must give value for money. The initial idea was not to have coaching at Silverlake in case we found ourselves in exactly this scenario whereby nothing was being caught, and concentration started to faulter.

Silverlake will be a good fishery in the future because I know what the planned fish stocks are this winter. We will look at it again for next year when there are fresh fish to catch and, more importantly, more water!

It is called fishing. It is not called catching. We all like a challenge but may be this was a stretch for our less experienced juniors. In future, there will be events where coaching will not be allowed because the venue may be too difficult or we have conditions like we had today. Sadly, this could be the glimpse of things to come if the weather stays like this each year.

The Match:

Peg one:

Jayce Hardware:

10lbs 9ozs, 3rd place, 17-points.

For a lot of the match, Jayce had the face of someone who had got up earlier than most on a Saturday, travelled a distance in the hope of catching a few, and then been given a turd to play with…

Local ace, Colin Hore, had fished in Jayce’s swim just two days previously and snared six lumps and all whilst fishing fairly simply. Surely Jayce would be a contender from there?

Sadly, no… Not that is until he unleashed a mighty cast down the channel to his right.

With 30-minutes left of a more than difficult day, Jay released his inner Carp angler and ‘launched a pig’ into the unknown. It wasn’t there long before some reasonable snaffled the smelly offering up and made for some weed.

I kept a close eye on Jay as he and Jake wandered down the bank to retrieve their hard-earned quarry from the patch of weed where it was hiding. Mr Bass asked if we were allowing fish to be landed away from the peg?

To be fair, he is correct. The fish should not have counted.

BUT!

The fish was snagged, and we are all about fish welfare at JJAC. Jay did the right thing and put fish welfare first. He walked the fish back to his peg to land it which made amends for the wandering. Above all else, I did not have the heart to discount the fish after he tried so hard to catch anything at all! I’m not a monster!

Jayce did snare another fish and used a little extra time to land it after the whistle. This fish was also snared in weed.

Just for the record, you cannot move more than one-metre from your peg to cast, play, or land a fish, according to the old National Federation of Anglers rules. But there must be a bit of wiggle room for juniors. Just remember, that leniency will not be there outside of the junior events.

Jay stuck at it and fished to the end despite the less than inspiring day that he had endured.

Well done…

Peg Two:

Austin Scott-Kennedy:

11lbs 6ozs, 2nd place, 20-points.

Austin had drawn one of the pegs that I had practiced on. So, I knew there should be some fish there. He started well by catching the first fish of the day which was followed soon after by a second. Then there was a gap, before the third, then nowt…

Three fish was little reward for the effort he put in with some serious casting skills, but that’s fishing…

I don’t know what they have been teaching him at Revels during the opens Austin has been fishing lately, but fish care has slipped a little. I won’t go into details but let’s just say he was ‘shown the error of his ways’… (Harsh looks, stern words, and some light shaking). Maybe a light refresher course is due…

Austin just about hung on to his second place from a late surging Jayce by just 13ozs!

Good job!

Pegs Three & Four:

Alexander Adey & Kenzie Toulson:

DNW: (Did not weigh)

I don’t like writing ‘DNW’ because, somewhere along the line, I feel I have failed them in some way. But, in fishing, sometimes you just have to take it on the chin. They were both sat on pegs that had been practised on. So, again, there have been fish there before.

Lakes that do not see keep nets don’t react well to matches. Lysander is one such lake.

With not much to write about, I do know two things.

One, I know more about Napoleonic Lego figures than yesterday because Charli bought a few hundred figures and ended up with well over a thousand! Bizarrely, all without hats (?)

Two, I now know that sitting on a tackle trolley is best done on the right side of the tipping point. Tina tried to sit in the tackle bag (as if that would be any more comfortable!) and ended up on her derriere with her feet in the air.

Of course, I rushed to retrieve her from her embarrassing predicament, but only after a proper good laugh and a few pictures for the blog!!!

Peg Five:

Seth Hopkins:

23lbs 10ozs, 1st place, 25-points:

Drawing an end peg is a huge advantage on most venues. None more so than Lysander.

But they don’t just swim into your net. You still need to catch them.

Seth fished really well today. So much so that it is difficult to write anything!

His casting was good, reacting to sign and liners. Bait choice and prep was good. Listening to recommendation and instruction was good.

I only had to tweak his fish playing technique and advise him to strike the feeder out to re-cast. The rest was all him.

Seth is still young and, if we can keep the improvements going, I can see a decent future for Master Hopkins. Give it a year or two, and I might be making a phone call to some very influential people…

Good job today, Seth. Very impressive…

Well done for sticking it out to all those that did today. It was a tough one and we don’t want too many of these, thank you….

Many thanks to Dorchester and District Angling Society for allowing us to use the fishery today.

Thanks, as always, to Jeremy Bracey & Jonathan Bass for their expertise and patience!

The next event is (hopefully) on the 10th of October (October already!) for a match on the river. Which section is yet to be confirmed.

Please note: The risk assessment for the river events is much tighter than for a lake for obvious reasons. The number of places available for the match will depend on the number of coaches available.

The number of places available for coaching will depend on the number of coaches AND the number of those wanting to compete.

Book in early to avoid disappointment if you haven’t already done so.

The river is different to other events we go to.

I will write a PDF in the coming week and post it in the WhatsApp group.

It will be detailed, and recommendations will be from my own perspective and experiences. Opinions may vary.

Sorry it was pants today…

G-Dog…