Another Wet Sunday!

It's never a pleasure to wake up on a Sunday to the sound of torrential rain outside, but this Sunday it's what happened! Still, I'd not been fishing for two weeks so couldn't wait to get out. Outside it wasn't cold, and the carp in my pond, which I always look at to try and get an idea of how they may behave at the venue I'm going to, were feeding heavily as there had been no morning frost unlike most mornings during the week.

At the venue the turnout was quite low (only ten), due to winter leagues starting, and probably in no small part due to the rain. My priority at the draw was to not draw at the back of the island, and preferably in the open water. My spirits were lifted when I was told that back of the island pegs had been so bad recently that they were not in, and that only one peg around the island was in (64), guess which peg I drew! I've drawn this peg before (it was tipping it down that day too!) and knew that you tend to only catch an odd early carp across before having to search other areas for bites.

Sitting my box down at the peg I noticed that the water had it's winter colour, like weak tea with only a little milk added I suppose, and I could see the bottom tight over. First rig was to fish on the far slope in about 3ft of water, at about 1 o'clock to my left, which I hoped would give me enough depth for fish to settle. Float was a 4 x 12 Preston Somo, adapted to take a plastic bristle. Line was .14 dia Garboline and the hook a 15 B711, with the elastic being a soft black hydro. The next rig was the one I was pinning most of my hopes on, down the track. This was in just over 5ft of water, at about 9m infront just where it had started to shallow up (to avoid the silty bottom). Float for this was a .3gr DC5 float, as there was little tow I could get away with a lighter float, and the diamond shape makes it very stable. Line and hooks were the same as the other rig and the elastic was a soft 14 Preston latex. Lastly I had a small tree overhanging in my left margin about 4m so put up a similar rig to fish under this, same float and hook as the far bank rig but on stronger .16 line in case there were any roots right under it.

It was as I sorted my bait I spotted my first mistake of the day, the corn, caster, maggots and hemp were all in order, but the only expanders I had were dark Vde RS Elite 3mm rather than the lighter colour Ringers I prefer when the water is clearer. On the whistle a dozen casters and 3 grains of corn went across. Half a dozen grains of corn and about 20 grains of hemp went down the track and the same under the tree to my left with a few 3mm pellets too. First drop across with a grian of corn and the float burried quickly, though my initial excitement faded when it was only a 2oz roach. Odd liners and silly indications followed so I tried caster which just produced odd roach. That said, I could see a few other anglers from where I was and nobody else had caught and at least I was putting something in the net!

After around an hour the roach died out, probably spooked by the odd carp cruising through, but they were only inches deep and most definatly not feeding. Then the next peg (66 which I won off 3 weeks ago) had a carp down the track and started to strike regularly but wasn't getting anything. I had also seen the peg past him catch 2 or 3 fish from the margin (I could only see the end of his pole when he had a fish on) I didn't want to try my other lines yet, I like to leave them longer to settle so started dropping in further along the far bank without feeding hoping to drop a bait on a carp prepared to eat and get an early carp or two but after another 40 mins of just an odd liner I came away from the far bank.

A single grain of corn down the track gave me a quick liner than a proper bite resulted in a common of about 5lb but nothing else followed, not even a liner. A quick try under the tree in the margin was fruitless so I went back across, and as I did so the next peg had their 2nd fish, again down the track, and I'd seen he peg past that catch 3 or 4 now but had yet to see anyone else catch. After a fruitless 20min across I went back down the middle and instantly had another common, this time about 3lb. Odd liners after this encouraged me to stay on this line and shortly after the next peg had their 3rd carp I also hooked had another, again about 3lb but foulhooked, but this resulted in the swim fading off again.

Fruitless spells 10-15min spells in both other swims led me back down the track. The next hour was frusrating for me, losing three carp (two at the net and they were definatly foulhooked) and bumping another. No matter what depth I fished at I couldn't avoid foulhookers, I even had a foulhooker 4in off the bottom on maggot. At this stage I could see the that 2 pegs up was catching fairly steady now, but the next peg had added no more. The only thing I could think of was to take a shot off to try and avoid striking to early. I re-fed the swim and rested it and on return 10mins later I had 2 quick fish about 2lb a piece.

With only an hour to go apart from the 3 carp at the next peg and the 7 or so further up I had only seen odd other fish so was still in the running. The last hour gave me 8 bites and 5 more fish, 4 about 4lb and the last about 6lb, and I have to admit to swearing when I missed a bite just before the whistle! Each carp was follwed by at least a bite (sometimes missed) then a quiet spell, a distinct pattern.

When the scales got to me just over 20lb was top weight, my first hour roach catch was not quite 2lb and my ten carp for not quite 43lb gave me a near 45lb total and a comfortable lead, although I knew the angler 2 up would beat me, and so he did, his 13 carp going 54lb. Next weight after that was a mid 30 so I had to make do with 2nd. Still, at least it stopped raining just before the end so I got to pack up dry!

On thinking about the day I'm certain I'd have won had I fed a 2nd track line, I certainly had enough room to, and I was a bit daft not to really given as it was the area I expected to catch best from. I'm sure a lighter fed line to swap between when the other wasn't giving me bites would have given me the 2 or 3 extra fish I needed for a win. I probably should have twigged taking a shot off earlier when I had the run of foulhookers too. The peg was easily good enough for another 15lb+ really so although having had a days fishing (unlike the other week) I still went home a little dissapointed. We live and learn don't we? Well, I hope to! I was also dissapointed not to get an odd carp across, they were definatly there but maybe they wouldn't feed with the recent loss of water colour. Who knows?

Next week looks a different proposition, the forecast for the week is cold nights and cool days which should put the fish into winter mode, so now I'm off to hunt for thermal gear and bootliners, then there is the matter of taking out the 16 latex's and replacing them with 12's and changing the purple hydro's for Preston 13h hollow in readyness for the cold! Hope it's worthwhile!

Well, I Did Say It Last Month!

Well, the delay is not because I had a bad day, simply because I've been away without access to a computer!

Sunday gone's match was again on lake 2, unbeknown to me untill I saw there was nobody in the lake 1 car park when I got there! still, at least it wasn't raining this week. A larger than normal presence before the draw convinced me of one thing, I didn't want to draw a peg around the back of the island, as pegging would be a little tight (o.k, nowhere near as bad as alot of other commercials, but when you get used to having the room). Needless to say, I wasn't the happiest when I drew peg 57, dead smack in the middle around the back of the island, a peg that I've had a couple of times before. My preveous experiance of the peg was the same on both occasions, a good first hour, next to nothing in the middle and a decent last hour. However, the next peg (59, 58 isn't used in matches) has never been in when I've drawn it, but I had noticed, as have many others, that it doesn't fish when 59 is in as it seems to stop any fish coming around the island, so I wasn't filled with optimism.

I had one line at 14.5m to the island at about 11 o'clock, about 2ft short of the island in just under 3ft of water, after that I thought it was too shallow for the time of year at about 18in. The middle is a afir bit deeper here than where I was the previous week so I fished at 13m at 1 o'clock to where it had just sarted to shallow up from the deepest point. Here I had about 6ft, slightly more than I wanted but I didn't want to go too near the other line. Last rig was a margin line, this was awkard to find as it's very shallow in tight, on quite a steep slope but eventually I found an area a bit more managable in about 4ft of water. Line on all rigs was 0.16dia Garboline and size 16 hooks on all, while elastics were a Preston 15h for across and 14 latex for the other 2 lines. Bait was the usuall corn, pellet and hemp.

To cut a long and quite boring story short, apart from 1 foul hooker across in the first hour it was as dead as can be, apart from the odd tiny (half ounce!) roack on pellet, and one huge in comparision (2oz!) carp on corn. There just wearnt any carp there, no liners, nothing, and it was no better for the other 4 anglers I could see either, 2 of them having smallish carp (well, at around 2lb huge compared to the one I'd had) and the other 2 without. That was untill the last hour when 59 next door had a run of about 6 fish down the middle on cat meat for 13lb odd. I managed one bite down the track, with half an hour to go and managed to land a carp of about 6lb, hooked in the belly!

I have to say I expected a struggle, but knew I was in for it after the fishless first hour, I never even saw a carp cruise through my peg untill 2pm, something that is very unusuall! It wasn't all famine though, 70lb odd won the match, and the golden peg, from the open water, and there were a few other reasonable weights too. I'd like to say 'ahh well, there's always next week' but there isn't as I'm going to be away so unable to fish, doh! The clock's will have gone back then, a depressing thought, I hope the shorter matches and days bring a bit more action!

It Wasn't Just Wet In The Water!

Like most of the country I woke up on Sunday morning to the sound of rain, and a bit more rain! I was a lot milder out than the last few mornings, no frost for a start! I wasn't sure how it would affect the fishing, as the fishery doesn't normally respond well to the rain, but it had livened up the carp in my pond, perhaps it would do the same to the carp in Westside!

For the second week in a row I drew one of the pegs that I wanted pre-draw (66), although one of the pegs round the back of the island (53) was apparently heaving with fish. First job at my peg was to put my brolly up (even though I hate sitting under it), fortunatly the wind was quite behind me and with the high tree's I was well sheltered from the gusty wind. The peg is quite wide, being a full 16m to the island, although it has the advantage of being the last peg on the end of the island before the open water swims. There is a small reedbed on the island but it's very shallow next to it. With the cooler temperatures the colour had dropped out slightly so I decided to fish on what was quite a steep slope in 3ft of water, about half a meter short of the island. Float was a 4x12 Preston somo that I'd adapted to take a 1.5mm plastic tip, on .16 diameter line to a 15B711 hook and matched to a 15h elastic. a similar rig was set up to fish tight to the bank to my left at about 6m under a small bush but using a 16 latex lakky. Setting the third rig up lead me to being late starting but was to fish at about 9m, just my side of the deepest water down the middle. Float was a .3gr DC5 float in about 5ft of water with the same line and hooks as before and was fished on a 14 latex lakky.

Five minutes late I fed a pinch of 3mm swim-stim pellets and a couple of grains of corn across, a pinch of hemp, caster and corn down the middle and the same in the margins. I'd elected not to feed caster across to try and avoid roach across. Starting on a 4mm pellet across I was suprised not to get any indicactions, not even from small fish. After 10 mins I started to get odd liners, then when the float burried a 4oz roach found it's way to the net, next drop was followed by a micro carp so I tried a piece of corn. Five minutes later all that was happening were liners so I decided to push the rig up the shelf slightly with instant response as mirror of around a pound fell to the trick, followed up by a brown goldfish slightly larger. The following drop produced a lot less indications, followed by me hooking a much better fish which came off after a few seconds. I'm quite certain it wasn't foul hooked, just not feeding properly.

The loss of that fish made the swim in-active so I started to feed a few grains of hemp and a few pellets every five or so mins through the toss pot and after a few drops odd 3oz roach started to show, then another brown goldfish, all to pellet, then after trying a grain of corn to try and get through the bits a 5lb common gave a lively scrap before finding it's way into the net just after an hour. This co-incided with a destinct darkening of the already grey sky as the rain got heavier and the temperature seemed to drop, as did the activity in my swim, however, the two other anglers I could see wearn't catching either. After a biteless half hour I tried both other swims but with no joy but I carried on topping them both up. After a while odd small fish started to appear across but I was missing a lot of bites due to the size before another small carp of around a pound found it's way in.

With two hours to go another try down the track gave an odd liner but just as I was about to give up on it the float went and a carp of around 2lb came in. The next two drops gave instant bites and a 3lb'er and another 'brownie' found their way in before it slowed up with 2 carp in amoungst alot of knocks in the next 20mins led me to rest the swim for 10 mins but with only a missed bite in the margin to show I went back down the track. A finniky bite again led me to try dotting the float down a bit more and adding a backshot to the rig as the wind had become a bit swirly now. This had the desired trick as after this I caught steadily for the rest of the match, with bites coming best fishing 2ft either side of my feed, even though there was no tow. This carried on for the rest of the match, feeding the same place and alternating either side of the feed to keep bites coming, and for the second week in a row I hooked my best fish just before the whistle and I needed over-time again to get it into the net, a common about 6lb. It even stopped raining 10 minutes before the end so we could pack up in the dry!

As the scales came round peg 53 had just over 50lb for top weight (it was solid then, never is when I draw it!) but I was confident of beating that, and my 8lb 15oz of bits and small carp followed by the 16 proper carp gave me a 66lb 10oz total and a second win on the bounce, a nice feeling! I must be heading for a fall soon then! I'll tell you about it next week.