A Change Is Good!

I have to say it was nice to wake up in the morning and not have snow, frost, wind or rain! For once on a Sunday morning the weather looked nice, while it was dull the morning was still and not too cold although it had rained most of the night. Even the carp in my pond were quite active, I just hoped the carp in lake two at Westside were feeling the same!

There was quite a poor turnout at the draw, still, it did mean the pegs around the island wearn't in! I have to say if people could manage to turn up on a dire morning like last Sunday I can't see why they wouldn't this morning! Still, some didn't turn up. I drew peg 74, one of the two rush pegs that were put in. While it wasn't the 'form' rush peg I was happy, it's a peg that always hold fish, even if the few straggly rushes in the margin (pic below, what I could see from my box) didn't seem to be moving as I put my box down I'm sure fish would move into them as people made there way round the lake. I have to admit I've drawn the peg three times before, winning once in the summer away from the reeds and twice last winter fishing to the reeds. The lake was still frozen on Friday so while I was hoping for a few fish I could only hope to get near my lowest weight off the peg before, 48lb (66lb being the best)

I put up two rigs to fish around the reeds (there are still straggly submerged ones around what is visable, plus some in the bank hidden by the tree in the pic) Both rigs were on .14 dia Garboline direct to a 16 B611 to Preston 13h Hollo elastic. The only difference was in the size of float and depth they were set to fish. Both were Preston pink's (small in-line dibbers, I find they don't catch if dragged through the reeds), a 4x8 to fish around 16in deep and a 4x10 to fish 2ft deep. Both had just one stotz down ( a 12 and an 11) and one of the same under the float. My intention was fish my side of the reeds as long as possible, pinching odd ones behind, hoping to not push the fish towards the next peg. Two rigs were put up to fish out in front (at 11m) in about 5ft 6in of water. A 4x14 Preston Chianti to fish on the deck and a 4x12 to fish half depth, both on .125 line and with 18 hooks, a 12 latex was for the deck rig and a grey hydro for the shallow rig. Just at the whistle a few fish started to knock the reeds.

Perhaps the thing that most shaped the day happend on the whistle. Up until the start there appeared to be many more fish in the reeds in the next peg (that won the Fur and Feather last week), but on the whistle he fed a large pot of bait to his reeds to the left (my side) and ignored the reeds to his left, (I only had reeds to my, left) At the whistle I only fed my long swim with corn and hemp, then dropped in on the shallowest rig with a single caster to the reeds. Instantly the float dipped and a min later a 2lb common was in the net. An hour later and nine carp were in the net, not a bad start when nobody else had caught a fish!

I knew the fish would back off, I lost my tenth fish, about twenty mins after the ninth fish, although it was hooked in the tail! The story of the rest of the match was to nobble odd fish my side of the reeds, then occasionally drop behind them (nowhere near interfeering with the next peg), but not too often so as not to push the fish away from me. The last 35 minites were fruitless after losing two fish in a row, one foulhooked and one not, but all day I only lost three carp, and finished with twenty seven. Every carp was taken on the shallowest rig, between 14-18in deep, with liners only on the deeper rig and nothing at all in the open water. Sometimes changing the depth as little as 2in would produce a fish or two from not even getting liners, it just seemed that you really had to put the bait at THAT depth to get a bite. The only bait I caught on was a single caster with the hook hidden but not totally burried. If I hooked it like a maggot I didn't get a bite. All the bites were shy 'dinks' too.

The next best anyone had managed was only two fish for just over 5lb so it was fair to say I'd won my a mile, my guess was around 80lb, not far from the mark as the fish went 82lb 7oz after three weighs. It was just one of those days when everything seemed right, including the rig. The Preston 13h seems perfect for these pegs, alot of people fish heavier in the reeds and lose alot, yet I lost just one fish that wasn't foulhooked. It seems soft enough that the fish don't bolt but has a little ooomph if you need it to pull, but most fish (I'd say twenty) were just guided away from the reeds. I have to say, it kind of made up for struggling so much last week! And to think, I nearly didn't fish this week!