Horseshoe Lake was mostly iced up, and the fair-weathers had stayed away, just 6 braved the cold.  We decided upon a rover & I drew 2nd pick   Peg 27 which was only partially iced, had already gone, so I took peg 18 - which would be strong if the carp decided to have a munch, but is average for roach & below par for skimmers.

I broke the ice to 13 metres & started out with pole fished corn in 8.5 feet of water at 13 metres.  No bites, so I took the drastic action of breaking through to clear water at 16 metres - hoping the slight breeze wouldn't move the now free floating ice to my right into my peg.  Unfortunately the ice moved & closed the channel I'd made, but I opted to fish over the ice-bridge since by now the ice could easily be broken with the pole.  The float buried and I was into a fish.  After a 20 minute fight the culprit finally popped up & I netted it at the 2nd attempt, a massive common that was well into double figures!  Unfortunately the hollow Middy 6-10 shock core laccy couldn't get over the experience, so I switched to white hydro, but decided to stick with 0.10 to a fairly fine wire size 18 pellet hook.  By this time Geoff Clay on peg 27 opposite me also had a carp & I'd seen Mick Durkin net a decent one too, but with the average Horseshoe carp tipping the scales at 5 to 7lbs, I had an early lead.

Me and Geoff took it in turns to hook carp & it was 4 a piece when his hooking another was quickly followed by my float dipping.  I lifted the pole, but didn't connect until I'd raised the rig a foot or so, either the fish had come up in the water or it was foul hooked...  Geoff & I played our fish for a couple of minutes & I noticed that our lines were disappearing into the water toward the same area, uho!  It became clear that we were probably hooked up, and Geoffs tourney Pro broke as he tried to lift to prove if we were connected.  I continued to play the fish (or 2) and Geoff bought his net round in case it was 2.  As it turned out, I was hooked to Geoffs rig, which still had a foul hooked fish attached, & we were able to get Geoffs top kit & broken number 4 back into his hands.  The fouled carp was landed, & Geoff returned it since he'd landed it outside of his peg, perhaps a bit more clear cut than if the situation had enabled him to land it within his peg after I'd tired it for him!

In the last 90 minutes Geoff caught 2 more carp to total 7 & a tench, enough to beat my 5 carp including the double & I guessed he had 40lbs to my 36lbs.  I weighed in 36-14, which by the time the scales arrived at Geoffs peg was still in 1st place, with Maci holding 2nd with 26lbs of bream & Mick Durkin in 3rd with 2 carp for 20lbs.

Geoff lifted his net & was shocked to find there was just 1 carp in there, with a big hole in the net explaining the absences    The keepnets are supplied by the venue & they had been frozen solid in the morning, making checking the net difficult (I'd skipped checking mine too, defrosting it by dipping it in the lake once at my peg).  I knew Geoff had beaten me when he landed his last 5 or 6lb carp & shouted across that we should do something about the situation.  All were agreed, Geoff was awarded the win, so I was 2nd, Maci 3rd and Mick Durkin 4th.  The thing that really impressed me was that neither Mick nor Maci could see Geoffs peg, but were happy to accept the 'correction' on trust (whereas I'd clearly seen him land every fish), much respect lads!

I've skipped a few again, a brief summary of a couple of recent matches:

The Oaks Wednesday 25-01 Open, Sycamore (one of the new lakes).  Started on the usual pole lines at 9 to 13 metres & had a slow start, just 3 small fish in the first 90 minutes.  Switched to wagg & magg, caught steadily & finished up equal 3rd with Adam Richards on 42lbs, just a couple of fish behind Chris Hall on 43-12, but in-form regular Pete Whale was well clear of the chasing pack with 54lbs from the other end of the lake.

Cedar Open.  Thursday 26-01 Open.  Drew a decent peg, 71, but was dismayed to see ice form as I set up & the whole peg was iced by the all in, the only iced up area of the lake I think!  Had an early F1 on corn, then nothing until a breeze helped the ice clear 2 hours in, caught a steady run of F1s on 4mm pellet @ 11M to finish 3rd with 22lbs.  Chris Hall who'd caught from the off on peg 66 won it with 48lbs, Pete Whale 2nd with 40lbs-ish from a couple of pegs to his left.  I think I'd have done much better if the sun hadn't disappeared behind the clouds just as it rose above the trees.  There were clearly some carp churning up peg 73, just around the corner past the ice, but they'd gone by the time the ice cleared!

Kippax Winter League, Sat 28-01.  Had a bad un, struggled for bites, caught just 2 trout and didn't weigh   With the skipped matches for the ABD angling coaching course and 2 bad results, my chances in the league are all but gone, but I'll keep fishing the matches as opens all the same.

Oaks Open Tues 31-01 - Maple.  Just 4 fished it, possibly fearing it wouldn't fish too well in the cold.  It didn't!  I started ok, with 2 fish for 3.5lbs, then it went dead until the last 15 minutes produced another bite & boosted my catch to 5lbs.  James Woody found a few on peg 1 to win with 20lbs of small carp & F1s.

Fished a bad un, lost more than I netted & didn't even make 10lbs!  Overall the lake fished well given that it was iced in the morning, with 40lbs for Andy Stoner on peg 16, a deserved win since he'd had to fish very long (2 extra sections!) to keep in touch with the fish.  Danny Scott finished 2nd with a weight in the high 20s, which was followed by many otehr double figure weights.  Oddly the best weights came from the areas with the thickest ice, but then maybe that's got more to do with the class of the anglers pegged there?

Yet again I drew peg 12, which had been an excellent silvers peg for me 3 times in November with weights of 27lbs, 35lbs and 54lbs (the last one included 20lbs of carp).  Unfortunately I'd no casters, but had just over a pint of maggots left over from yesterday & a few from last weekend too.  There was a strong showing from Guiseley AC for the match & the joker of the pack Mike Hibbert informed me that he was going to teach me how to fish my favourite lake today.  Unfortunately for me he drew on peg 18, a noted winter hot spot for carp, it'd be difficult to compete with him with roach if they were balled up in his peg as they often are.

I started out by casting a bomb in the hope of a carp, but not so much as a liner, so I switched to fishing pellet at 11 metres, again no joy & an hour wasted, so time to find out if maggot would do instead of the well proven casters for catching roach shallow.  4 hours later & I had over 20lbs of roach in the net plus aside from hearing talk of a couple of early carp for Mike, most of the bankside chat was moaning.  I thought I'd maybe got the match in the bag.  Normally I'd come off the roach & look for a carp or 2 in the last hour, but I was enjoying the challenge of working out why the bites had tailed off again and persevered with the roach.  This proved to be a mistake, Mike did indeed teach me a lesson with 34lbs of carp, to my 27lbs of roach, maybe I'd have finished 1st with a couple of last hour carp had i stuck to the plan?  Most hardly caught, despite the good conditions, but the top 3 was respectable with Tim of the Guiseley crew taking 3rd with 19lbs of silvers (mostly roach on pole short on the deck + 2 decent skimmers from peg 7).