Hard Work At Billhook.

Billhook Lake.



Billhook Lake at Odiham was the venue for the opening match of the Andover Angling Club 2010/11 match calender. It looked lovely, warm, overcast with a gentle breeze, and fish moving all round the lake, we were all hoping to get close to the huge weights that had been coming out, how wrong we were! At the draw I didn't really mind where I drew as the lake has a lot of features and the fish seemed to be moving everywhere. I stuck my hand in and pulled out peg 27, when I arrived at my peg it looked quite nice with some Lillie pads out in front and an empty peg to my right.

Peg 27.

I decided on 4 lines of attack, one at 14.5m about a meter short of the Lillie's, two at 7m, 10 o'clock & 2 o'clock, and a margin line too my right. The depth was pretty consistent all the way across at about 2 feet, which was handy as I could double up on rigs. The 14.5m line was a shallow set up, a big dibber on 0.16 to a 911-16 to green garbo, set about a 8-12" deep. On the 7m lines I set up a paste rig, kc carpa 4x12, 0.18 to a 911-12 to orange garbo. The second was a 0.3 gram dc6, 0.16 to a 911-16 to green garbo. The margin rig was a 0.3 gram durafloat 0.18 911-14 to orange garbo. All of these rigs could be used on all the lines as the depth didn't alter much. The plan of attack was to pot in pellets on one of the 7m lines, meat on the second 7m line, and feed the margin by hand, whilst feeding the up in the water line with a catty. The all in sounded and I fed 2 large pots of pellets on one of the 7m lines, a half a large pot of meat on the second 7m swim, and stated to ping pellets at the far swim. Straight out onto the 14.5 m line with an 8mm soft pellet on the hook, there were plenty of fish milling about but most of them were hanging very close to the Lillie's, I was hoping with constant feeding I could lure them away from there and perhaps after a bit could get them closer still. After about half an hour and no bites things were looking a bit slow, no one else as far as I could see had caught anything. I left that line but carried on feeding regularly, and had a look on the other lines. After spending twenty minutes or so on the other lines without even so much as a tremble on the float I went back to the far swim. This time I put the 16m extension on and fished it tight to the pads, to try and get a few bites, as there still wasn't anything much being caught! Constant feeding eventually resulted in elastic pouring from the pole as a carp decided to feed on my 8mm pellet and hook itself! A nice carp of 2.5lb. Feeding all the time and lifting and dropping the rig eventually resulted in carp number 2 roughly the same size. 2 1/2 hours gone 2 carp and three pints of pellet lighter! The strange thing was no one was catching anything, apart from Phil who had a few. Talk from round the lake was just the odd fish being caught, a bit grim. I persevered with the far line but by now the wind was getting up a bit and my back was giving up a bit! In the next 1/2 hour I hooked carp number 3 ! Again a similar size. I left the far line for a bit to rest my arms and back ( when I win the lottery I must buy a stiffer pole ! ) I had a good look on the other lines for a good hour, but with no success, I even set up a tip rod and had a chuck to the Lillie's just for a change, but the fish seemed to be in spawning mode and not very interested in feeding. Into the last hour and I decided to go all out on the far swim as I had three fish from there. After battling with the wind I eventually hooked carp number 4! Again about 2 1/2 lb ( consistent if nothing else !) I did loose a couple in the last hour, but the wind was making it very difficult to control the rig. The all out sounded and that was it! 4 fish, 6 pints of pellet lighter and aching arms and back! A few fish were caught late in the match by some, but it was a bit of a grueller for most anglers, myself included! My 4 fish weighed 9 lb 10 oz. In conclusion I don't think I did anything wrong, it just seemed the whole lake was off, ah well there is always next week.........!

Not Much To Show!