Okay, so it seemed like spring last Sunday too for a while so all the warm gear came with me just in case! At the draw I managed to avoid drawing an island peg which I was happy with, but ended up on peg 44, not in the favoured 70's. It's a peg that I've only ever fished once, a few weeks ago and all I did was muck around fishing the tea-bag (small PVA bags), while pleasure fishing. By the time I put my box down on the peg (not long, it's a very short walk!) the temperature was nudging double figures already, and the sun was obviously giving everyone a feel good factor as the banter was in full swing! The peg looked good for catching a few fish in the margins, with a few reeds in the edge at 6m to my right and to my left at 5m there was an overhanging budlia bush. The downside was that the peg is opposite the reeds pegs which were heaving! if I didn't catch I'd definitely see some fish caught then!
My plan of attack was to fish at about 12m in the open water in front where there's about 5ft of water, not quite as deep as some of the other open water swims which pleased me with the warmer weather. This rig was on a 4x14 chianti with a plastic tip. I also put up a lighter 4x12 float (same pattern) to fish at about 3ft as I thought the fish may come up a bit. Both these rigs were on .14 line to a 16B611 and lakky on both was a 12 latex. The margin rigs were both on the same line and hook but to a 14 latex. Both had 4x12 somo's, again with plastic tips. I needed two rigs as the right side was about 3ft deep where as the left side was 6-8in shallower. Bait was maggot, corn and caster, and I'd remembered my hemp this week! I expected to catch on corn mostly.
At the whistle I fed half a dozen grains of corn, the same of casters and a reasonable pinch of hemp to the open water. Both margins had around a dozen grains of corn and a good pinch of hemp. The first 15min was barren so I started to drip in 6 casters every 7-8 minites to try and provoke a response, whilst ignoring the angler opposite netting his 4th carp! After another bite less hour, despite trying both maggot and caster as well as corn I had a quick drop into both margins but with no response. By this time quite a few carp had started to cruise about, including one huge ghostie that must be a good 15-16lb! I had a quick try on my shallower rig for the open water but wasn't happy with it so I got up and put up an even shallower rig to fish around 20in deep, same line and hooks as the other rigs but to a soft 13h lakky and a 4x10 PB2 float.
A quick drop on the shallower rig bought no response so I went back to the depth rig but started to drip 3-4 casters every minite or so over the top to try and tempt some of the cruising fish to feed. One liner led me to try 'up' again but with no joy. Back onto the deck on maggot gave me a tiny roach so at least I hadn't blanked! With no other joy by the 2hr mark I topped up with hemp and corn long and tried the margins, again with no response so both of those were topped up too. Back out long on the deck gave no joy so I put the shallowest rig out. After no more than a minite with double caster on the float dinked under and when I lifted up the lakky streamed out. After a couple of minites a 5lb common found it's way to the net. Next drop out and the float went again but I missed it which was the start of another dead spell.
With around 2hrs left the amount of fish cruising got bigger, and the temperature was well into double figures now and the carp were definetly making the most of the chance to catch some rays! At this point I was the only person in the open water with a carp, it seemed everyone had them in front but they just weren't interested (apart from the reed pegs opposite!) I decided to drop in at 13m just passed where I was feeding. This bought an instant response with another fish of about 4lb to double caster shallow, followed by a lump of about 7lb about 15 minites later. The next 15 minites were fruitless and as it started to haze up and there were less fish cruising so I topped up both margins and the 12m swim with hemp and corn. I had a quick try in both margins but again both were barren with not even a liner to show.
With an hour and a bit to go I went out on the deck with corn at 12m and a bite after a few minites gave me carp number 4, smaller than the others at about 2lb but a fish none the less! I didn't get a bite next drop so I topped up with 3 grains of corn and a pinch of hemp. This had the desired effect and another 2lb'er found it's way to the net. This set up the pattern for the rest of the match, in fact it was pretty much a perfect rhythm of top-up, bite and a fish! I didn't even miss a bite and finished the match with 12 carp, all on corn. The last two came a bit slower than the others which were all mad 2-3lb ghosties, but were bigger fish of about 4lb a piece, the last bite coming about 15 seconds before the whistle as I dropped behind the feed slightly looking for that one last fish to round it up to a nice dozen!
Being the first peg in on the lake also meant having the scales so everyone had to wait a bit while I packed up the mountain of gear I had set up! My 12 carp and 1 micro roach went 43lb 15oz and was comfortably 3rd on the day, way ahead of 4th but way behind the 80lb something ounces that won from the reeds opposite. 52lb was second from a peg in the corner behind the island, again with a big reed bed in it. The league leader didn't weigh in so I'm pretty sure I'm now first, but there were a few stand in's fishing (1st and 2nd were both stand in's) so I'm not sure who they've scored for but they shouldn't be enough to over take me. The day got even better as I managed to catch the 2nd half of the Spurs game on the radio on the way back as we got a good win over Villa.
Next week is round 5, on lake 1 before a gap week and then the final round. With being able to drop a result I'm pretty well placed now with a 1st and two 3rd's so hopefully I can get a good result next week to consolidate. Check back next week and see if I can.
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