This Sunday turned out to be another scorcher so I was fully expecting to arrive and find that the fish were spawning or had spawned but was wrong on both. As it has been lately my drawing arm let me down (funny how the people who call you spawny at the draw seem to disappear when you can't draw for toffee!) and I again found myself around the back of the island on peg 53. I've drawn the peg twice previously and my best weight off it was 16lb on a day when about three inches of snow fell in March last year!
The peg is on the end of the island and is probably the narrowest peg around the island (13m wide), and the best hope of a few fish off it is from the margins, mostly to the right under an overhanging tree. I did put up a rig for across but it took a long while to plumb up as the bottom is rather erratic tight over. In the end I set up to fish tight against the tree dead opposite in about 16in of water. Line was .16 and hook was a 16. The float was a small Preston Durafloat and the rig was on 15h Preston lakky. I also put ap a rig to fish down the middle at 6m. For the island pegs it's shallow down the track with around 4ft of water and I did think I'd manage a few fish here. Float was again one for the Power Traps made by Mark Haskins. This was on .16 line but matched with a 14 hook and on a 14 latex lakky. Last rig up was for the margins and I found some time plumbing both left and right. To my left I could fish only a few inches from the bank in about two and a half feet of water while under the tree to my right I couldn't fish quite as near to the bank due to snags, although depth was much the same I'd prefer to get nearer the bank. Gear for this was a Garbolino DC5 float on .18 line and a .16 hooklength (because of the snags I elected to use a hooklength to avoid losing floats!). Hook was a Fox Series 2 in an 18 and matched to purple Hydro.
At the whistle (yep, I was ready this week!) I fed a few pellets across before giving the other three lines a whole pot of bait after the more positive approach worked last week. The track got hemp and corn while the margins had a pinch of meat in too. The start of the match was very slow and it took near half an hour to get an indication across, and I'm sure that was from a roach as there were a few in front of me. Odd fish had started to move under the tree in the shade in the margin but they were not feeding so I wanted to leave them alone. I topped up the other swims on the 45 minute mark and left them until the hour.
First try in the left margin was fruitless so I tried the right margin under the tree. I missed the first bite after less than a minute but was off the mark next drop with a very sluggish common of about 2lb that looked full of spawn. Next drop gave another fish but this was a rather sorry looking common of not much more than a pound. The next bite was longer in coming which led to me seeing my lakky roar past peg 54 and my rig fly back minus the hooklength. Hmm, probably foulhooked then! After the commotion of that I decided to give it half a pot of bait and try back across where I had been flicking pellets with the catty while in the margin.
No joy either across or down the track in the next half an hour saw me back under the tree. A spell if silly bites led me to try double corn. A quick bite on this led to the lakky pulling out before I lifted! What I thought was a much better fish though turned out to be a crucian/goldfish cross of about a pound that came in with a big stick on the line! No more bites on corn so I topped it up and tried the other edge for a bit. I quickly found myself back under the tree, and the next bite again saw the purple Hydro fly past the peg 54 again before the rig came back with no hooklength again! I topped up again and decided to go in .18 strait through after that! First drop in gave another crucian/goldfish thingy before the line started to fade as the sun came round and onto the water.
The next hour was barren until trying under the tree on meat again gave another mental fish which managed to pull purple hydro up to the next swim again before coming back, although the erratic nature of it's swimming suggested it was foulhooked before it pulled off. Trying the other margin and the track line was a pointless effort before I noticed a carp right up the island, no doubt eating pellets I had over shot with the catty. I put the far bank rig on and shoved it right up the island were the carp was and an instant bite saw me have a brief tussle with a common of about 4lb.
Going into the last hour I had to try something else (I was on the golden peg so I wasn't giving up!) I plumbed up again under the tree and found a gap in the snags where I had pulled out the stick with a fish earlier. It was only about six inches shallower but hopefully was where the fish would prefer to be in two foot of water, where odd fish were still moving in what little shade was under the tree. A whole pot of bait went in and was left for a few minutes before I tried it. No joy though as I was bite less until shortly before the end as the elastic was yanked out of the pole on the bite but for the 4th time today the lakky went past peg 54 and the rig came back with no hook! Time to pack up then, at least in the sun my nets would dry off before I left! My fish fish might have just got to double figures but as they were back in the lake when the scales came round I won't know for certain!
I'm not really sure what I could have done differently, I get the feeling that there wasn't a lot of fish in front, I certainly didn't see that many, nor get many liners. The sun going round onto the margin swim under the tree seemed to be the death of what there was there too. The four zoo creatures that I lost were probably foulhooked as any fish I did see wearn't that big and I've had plent of low doubles out on that gear with no worries.
Next week is the blind pars match so I could end up on either lake, and obviously I don't know who my partner is until the pairs are draw after the match. Hopefully my luck will change soon as it's been pants since the winter league finished!
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