Frant Lakes. The Horseshoe. January 18th, 2004.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Well today it was off to the Horseshoe Lake at Frant Lakes for a Hawthorne AC club match. Loading up the car I was beginning to wonder if I needed my brains examined, as it was blowing a near gale and lashing down with rain. On arrival the chuck wagon was closed as well, so no breakfast. Walking down to the lake for the draw it was obvious that an awful lot of cold rain water was running into the lake which wasn’t a good omen. The Horseshoe (Lake 6 in the above diagram) has one side that is wider and deeper than the other, 40yds wide and between 6-8ft deep and the other 20yds wide with a maximum depth of 4 ft. Everyone wanted the deeper side! Into the draw and it’s peg 49 for me, one of only 3 on the shallower side. Setting up in a peg that resembled a swamp, no nice paths or platforms here, a session of plumbing up revealed an even 4ft everywhere, and not a noticeable feature to be found. I settled for fishing at 8 mtrs as the wind was liable to make anything further impossible. It was going to be single red maggot or double fluro pinkie on a size 20, with a pinch of either fed via a T-pot every put in. Well after 30 minutes I got my first bite from a little Perch, and after that bites came regularly, though not rapidly from small Roach, Skimmers and more Perch. On the end peg Dave van Hegan was running away with the match as he had plenty of cover to fish to and with the wind blowing into it he was getting a few of the Carp that are in the water. With an hour to go I managed to get 4 Carp to add to the silvers, but the largest only scraped 2lbs. Thankfully when the whistle went at 3 pm the rain had stopped. Dave put 39lbs 2ozs on the scales for a resounding win, and I was pleasantly surprised that my net went 14lbs 12ozs, and was good enough for 2nd place and a little brown envelope. Hard work today, but worth it in the end.