At last, after what seemed like an eternity of Sundays with either ice, snow or both the weather was actually quite nice to us this weekend! I also found out on the Saturday that despite last weeks duff result I'd only dropped to 2nd in the winter league, although 5-6 points behind first. Pre-draw when talking about pegs I mentioned to somebody that along with the usual favoured pegs (25-31) that I wouldn't mind drawing either 33 or 39, and low and behold hand into the bag and our comes 39, then as is about my luck it's drawn as the golden peg, a week after it was won! Funnily enough, the last time I drew the golden peg I was on the exact same peg, that was back in early October of 2007 though! (I did win it then though!)
I do quite like the peg, partially as it's an end peg on the lake. It's not in a corner but to your left is a point where the lake goes into a bay that's peg 1 (not often in) and it tends to be a good margin, although when I last won off it I caught across. The peg also has a bay in the island opposite, it's about 17.5m to the back of the bay so I decided to have a swim either side of the bay just into the entrance at about 16m giving the fish a chance to back off. The left of the swim is shallower than the right by about 10in so two different rigs were put up. The deeper (in about 4ft 6in of water) had a 4x14 chianti while the shallower rig was a 4x10 pb2 which also doubled up for trying shallower over the deeper swim. I also put up a rig for off the deck on the shallower side using a smaller pb2 but didn't expect to catch on it over the shallower side. All those rigs were on .125 Garboline to a 16B611 with Preston 13h lakky on the two deeper rigs and grey Hydro on the shallower. A margin rig in about 3ft 6in of water was on .14 line with a 4x12 chianti with the same hooks as the other rigs but on a 14 latex. I didn't want to go much lighter as the margin fish tend to be big and you don't want them going round the corner!
On the whistle I fed about 8 casters to the right of the bay, leaving the left side to start with. Down the margin went a dozen casters and 2 bits of corn along with a few micro pellet. I'd also done a few 4mm expanders as the weather is starting to pick up I figured they may be worth a go. Ten minites on corn with just a liner across led me to try a shallow rig. No joy in the next ten minites led me to put on a small pot and try to drip feed a few casters to provoke a response. After perhaps half an hour I had a very sharp dig on the float which I missed but I put it down to silvers, something that was probably correct as next put in on the deck rig and caster gave me a 2oz roach, then a small perch after that. At this point I elected to feed just a few casters to the left of the bay at 17m as there are a few branches hanging over. A fruitless nest quarter of an hour led me to try there with no response.
With an hour gone I topped up the margin swim and it was looking as if I would need it to get me out of jail, although nobody I could see had much, just one small carp and an odd small fish. A liner in front got my hopes up but after that neither long swim produced anything to any of the rigs, even on maggot which normally gives tiny perch! Just before midday I decided to drop in the margin on a pellet, earlier than I'd like but I wanted a carp in the net. After ten minites I was just about to give it up when I had a liner so I put on a single caster and dropped the rig in again. Within a minite I had another liner then the float slipped away and a small carp of perhaps a pound and a quarter found it's way quickly into the net. No more bites followed and the next hour or so was very frustrating, with just one liner on the left side of the bay.
By the last hour and a half I'd tried pushing right into the bay, only on the shallow rigs as a carp had poked it's head out there but when I plumbed up there were quite a few sticks on the bottom, but I didn't get a bite in there. I did miss a bite to the left of the bay but I suspect it was a silver rather than a carp. Into the last hour I decided to pretty much pin my faith in the margin. Not long after going in I was getting odd liners on pellet and corn so I went on caster and pulled the rig a bit nearer the bank to move it away from the feed. This got an instant result with a carp of about 2lb. At this point next peg had a decent fish so I knew I needed some more. A missed bite on pellet drew a few choice words before I went back on caster. The next bite came with perhaps 30 minites to go and again came after topping up a tiny amount with a toss pot. This fish was a touch bigger at 3lb and the next chuck followed the pattern of the last two, drip a tiny bit of feed (4 casters and the same of micro pellet) then an odd liner followed by a bite. The next fish felt much bigger but a bit strange, like a big bream but I saw a flash of orange under the water. I panned it without really seeing it, thinking I'd perhaps foul-hooked a koi but it turned out to be a golden orfe of around 4lb odd, a use full bonus! (and a pb) The next drop gave another 3lb carp before got a bit trigger happy and struck at a knock I shouldn't have, foul-hooking a fish and losing it. That slowed things down till right near the very end when indications started but I didn't get another fish.
As the last to weigh in, I had a fair wait for the scales and when they got to me two 19lb weights were the best on the board but with no other double figure weights I knew I had 3rd and that the current league leader had 8lb odd. My fish went 14-12 in total but I perhaps could have had a bit more, one good lump would have good enough to win and was perhaps achievable, still I made up ground on first place, closing the gap up to about 2 points I think, but I don't know for certain!
Next week isn't a winter league and as it's the Carling Cup final I may not fish and watch that instead, being as I missed my moment of glory as a Spurs fan last year fishing the winter league! Have to say I ain't that optimistic of beating Man U mind. Still, I'll let you know if I'm out next week!
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