After such a good start to the winter league campaign it was most definitely fingers crossed going into round two. On arriving at lake 2 I was greeted to the sight of the lake being still half frozen. I was torn as to were I wanted to draw, the reeds side of the lake was unfrozen so I was unsure if that would be the place to draw as the only carp that have shown recently have been mostly around the island, not normally the favoured winter areas!
Hand into the draw bag and out comes peg 72, and mixed feelings came with it, it's probably the worst reed peg as you can't get to the back where the fish are so you have to sit and watch the reeds shaking yet can't put a bait within two feet of the fish. On the flip side I've always caught carp off the peg and I was hoping to catch a single carp as I thought just one would be good enough for decent points.
With the ice being around 17m away from me I elected to fish on the pole at 11m in front of me leaving the rest of the area beyond that to explore with the lead. Two rigs were put up for the reeds to my left, set at verious depths on .14 line to 16B611 and 13h Preston elastic. Line for the long rig was .125 on a 12 latex. The normal lead rig was put up to try bread and corn with varying lengths of hook link and lastly, a bit rig as per last week was put up to fish right on the end of my net for tiny roach.
At the whistle I fed half a dozen casters and a few maggots on the long pole line and started on the lead. After 40 minites I was slightly concerned as the lead had not produced even a single liner or twitch. Odd knocks in the rushes led me to try there while dripping odd casters over the longer line to try and provoke a response. I had two quick bites on the pole in the edge, both giving a roach that while they wearn't huge were much bigger than last weeks! At this point I was pleased to have a fish in the net, but that was it for the day!
The rest of the day I'm not sure that I even had a fish in front of me, the ice stayed in front of me all day at half way and no matter what I tried I couldn't get a bite, and even got the number 6 and 7 of my pole stuck together (free now, that's the first time I've ever had that happen!) Even the bit rig failed to produce a bite. Odd carp were in the reeds to my left but none came round into my peg. I really felt that there was nothing I could have done and packed up dejected. Those that caught bits did so long on the pole in ice free pegs and odd carp where caught from the island pegs, I haven't had a carp from that lake for six weeks! My two roach went 3oz and were only good enough for around 9th or 10th, hopefully my result to drop! 25lb won, taking the golden peg with them.
Next week is round three and chance to make amends, on lake one and with the weather settling off I really have to get a result. Hopefully I'll be writing good things here next week!
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