Before the draw on Sunday I specifically said I wanted to draw peg 70, and blow me I put my hand in the bag and out that came! (actually, I wanted to be fishing the Lake 1 after last weekend!) One person did mention something about spawney (but less polite), erm, they obviously didn't pay much attention to what I had in both days last weekend did they! Added spice was put into the day as I was loading what seems to be increasingly heavy gear onto my back as it was called out that I had the golden peg. It's a peg I'm not over fond of in the cold weather but I've always caught well from it in milder weather and so was confident of catching a few.
There is a small island at about 14.5m in front of the peg in the open water part of the lake, plus an overhanging tree at about 6m to the right makes for an inviting looking margin to fish too. I decided on nothing too complicated for the day; one line at 14m, as opposed to tight to the island as the bottom is very uneven there and makes it hard to settle fish, and makes for foul hookers I find. Depth was about 5ft. I used the normal doctored Preston Chianti in a 4x14 for this on .14 line to a 16 B611 and a soft 14 latex. With the warm weather I also put up a half depth rig which as it was just shallower than anywhere along the island would do for searching along it if I wanted to. This was a 4x10 PB2, same hook and line as the other rig but on a 13h hollo lakky. The last rig I put up was a margin rig for under the tree. With decent colour in the water I plumbed up to fish in about 2.5ft of water. Float was a .2gr DC5 and the gear a bit heavier with .16 line to a 15 B711 and a Preston 15h lakky.
At the whistle the longer line was fed with a few grains of corn and a pinch of hemp, while the margin got the same but with a few 6mm cubes of meat too. It didn't take long for my first bite and fish of the day and a pastie mirror of a pound was quickly in the net. For some reason I was worried about catching so early, but the float buried next chuck and a much bigger fish was being played. As I got down to the top kit I began to suspect it was foul hooked and then the hook pulled!
That was the death of the swim for a good few hours, besides an odd line bite. Nobody was catching except 72 in the reeds who had an occasional fish, and 42 started to get an odd fish, but many anglers were still fish less despite numbers of fish cruising about, but they were most defiantly not interested. Still, I kept feeding the margin confident of a few fish there later on. With 2hrs to go I'd been flicking a few casters long with the catty for a bit and decided to try the shallow rig again but that bought just a solitary liner from fish I could see cruising. With that giving no joy I dropped into the margins and I started to get signs of life. just as I was thinking of leaving I had a bite but missed it. Back on with a cube of meat and away goes the float again and a slow moving fish hugged the bottom for a few seconds before the hook came up with a scale bigger than a 50p on it. That'll be foul hooked then!
Nothing followed so I re-fed with a reasonable amount and gave it a rest. With nobody catching a lot that I could see a good last hour could give me a potentially lucrative pay day so it's all or nothing now! Back in the margins with an hour to go and two quick fish in two drops on meat gave me hope, albeit that at only just over 2lb a piece they were small for margin fish. However, it wasn't to be as as quick as they arrived they were gone again and I never had another bite.
At the weigh in (I didn't bother) peg 42 had put a low 30lb weight on the scales to win, ahead of a 19lb weight and then a 12 followed by a couple of 11's. The day had been slow for everyone and it seems the fish in Lake 2 are more interested in the sunshine than food lately. Still, I'd got to listen to Spurs beat Newcastle on the radio! I still packed up frustrated as after the high of winning the Winter League I've really struggled. I do wonder wether I should have fished a bit shorter and shallow on the day; I really didn't give it that long shallow and I wasn't fishing for a huge weight. Also I do wonder if on days like that (despite the warm days it was near a frost over night, plus the air pressure had gone up a lot in a day) if it's better to fish smaller baits like worm and caster or maggot. The thing that puts me off that now is that away from the reeds there are hoards of tiny roach that may just bit you out. Ah well, there's always next week!
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