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!