Social and Specialist Angling are a group of like-minded anglers based in the Thames valley area of the Southern United Kingdom who have been fishing together for several years now. The general idea of the club is to be a small membership organisation, a specimen group if you prefer.
The Four Seasons Cup is a new fixture on the club’s calendar for 2010 and February 20th saw a full compliment of members turnout for the inaugural match. As the name suggests the cup spans the calendar year and is made up of 4 matches targeting species most associated with the time of year. The first match, being at the tale end of the British winter, was to target Pike on Reading & District’s Whistley Mill lake. This is a venue of some 26 acres known to hold a good head of pike of a modest average size, but with the very real chance of hooking into a proper monster.
Everyone was on venue at around 6:30am and waiting for the allotted 7:30am start time. As the sun rose and highlighted the lake it became instantly apparent that the preceding night’s temperature plunge had put a layer of ice on a good 2/3rds of the lake. In fact most of the known areas of proliferation were unfishable due to the ice, so each angler’s first challenge was to find accessible swims in the free areas.
Will, Vin, Dunc and Ian all headed round to the area between the pipes and gates. The rest, Dave, Jezz, Chris, Jim, Stu and I, were ranged along the river bank from the carpark up to the oak tree where the ice started. I decided to set up in a corner swim that required 30mins of ice breaking in the margins before I could cast out a bait due to lack of free water swims! Thankfully that turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as within 5 mins of casting out a single hook setup baited with a section of bluey attached, a take was forthcoming that resulted in the first fish of the match in the shape of a fish around the 1lb 8oz to 2lb mark.
The other anglers were now all set up and waiting for interest, though the exceptionally bright winter’s morning was making the going slow; so floats and alarms remained static or mute.
At around 10:30am people started to shift swims with Jezz moving round to the shallow end and Chris deciding to find some clear water on the railway bank. I moved down to the carpark corner swim to give myself a bit more water to explore with my baits, a move that resulted in a short aborted run to one of my rods.
Dave, who was still in his original location on the river bank side, had 2 short takes too, both resulting in lost fish, and some rather colourful language disturbing the bright winter’s morning! Jezz, however, was fairing better in his second choice swim, landing a pristine croc just short of double figures at around 11:30am. It was 9lb 14oz to be precise.
The next spell of action was to come around 2pm with both Dave and I having takes to our baits. My take resulted in a nice fat, but stubby fish of 9lb 10oz that came from the exact same spot as my earlier jack following a move out of the shallow water a short while earlier. My calls to Dave, the nearest other angler to me, went unanswered due to him being into a fish at the time and unable to get to his phone. Instead it was Jim that came down the bank to witness my catch and bringing news of Dave’s capture with him.
Happy to have landed a second fish I was even more excited to hear that Dave’s capture weighed in at a cracking 15lb 6oz, the biggest fish of the day so far. In fact, the largest pike to fall to a SAS rod from the venue to date. No wonder he couldn’t get to his phone!
With the excitement of these captures fresh in our minds, fresh baits were cast and new swims occupied for the last few hours of the match. Dave moved down a swim at this time and, shortly before 4pm and the final whistle (or rather hoarse shout from Will) one of his rods was off again and he was soon banking a second, mint condition, Whistley pike. This one tipped the scales at 9lb 6oz and sealed his victory in the first round of the 4 Seasons Cup.
It was a good day despite the harsh conditions and everyone left looking forward to the next fixture in June where the target species would be tench!
Sy Heighes
