After having a Sunday off and having an unsuccessful start to the river season after carp I was looking forward to getting out on the bank. Not only that but with a dull day forecast I was optimistic of catching a few fish! At the draw peg 72 came out. This was not my favourite peg until the last time I drew it when I won the final round of the winter league, and the league overall with 81lb. I was happy enough with the area (especially as peg 73 seems to not be in now which cuts the peg off) but didn't imagine it would be as good it was last time as the fish tend to move out of the reeds in the warmer weather, and anyone that had walked around before the match said that the fish wearn't in them.
The reeds both sides (as pictured, yes I do have a camera sorted now!) would still be targeted and a shallow rig was put up for these. Incidentally, the reason I fish shallow against these reeds is that they are in around 4ft of water and the fish don't seem to go down to feed properly against them in that depth. The rig was a 4x10 Preston black, as the carbon stem means it takes a little more weight than the wire stemmed pinks, I wanted this as I would be fishing pellet (6mm expander) and it needed to be able to suspend one. This was set to fish about 1ft deep and was on .20 line with a short .18 hooklength as I reasoned that I was more liable to get snagged up than in the winter and didn't want to be losing lots of floats! Lakky was purple hydro and hook a 16 Fox series 2. A deck rig was put up to fish at 13m, in about five and a half feet of water, on .15 direct to a 14 B611 on a 14 latex while I also put up a poly ball rig to fish shallow on the same line.
While I was setting up there was very little movement in the reeds but while I was waiting for the whistle with five minutes before the all in the movement had started to pick up significantly in the reeds and I began to have more optimism about the margins.
At the whistle the open water swim was fed with half a cup of hemp and a good pinch of corn before I baited with a pellet and dropped into the margins to my right (the most productive side last time) without feeding. Lots of bobs and movements quickly had me shallowing the rig up to 6in deep and very quickly I was playing my first fish, which came off as I was netting it! No need to worry as I was in instantly the next drop. The first hour passed in what seemed an instant as I netted my 8th fish on the hour mark, never taking more than two fish from a margin before swapping to the other side to avoid pushing the fish away. Not big fish, the first two were only a pound and a half a piece, with the the rest being about 3-4lb.
The second hour continued in the same vane, and I only lost one fish in that hour that snagged me up away from the reeds! I kept topping up the far line as I knew from experiance the margins wouldn't keep up but at the end of the hour I finished with 14 fish. Again I only took one or two fish from a margin and it was noticeable that the fish were starting to back away. I had my 15th fish, a slightly bigger one of about 5lb by dangling my pellet on it's head as it slurped against the reeds! As the peg opposite had a brief run of fish in the open water I decided it would be a good time to rest the margins and try out. I also decided to risk feeding a few pellets to my right margin as it had slowed more markedly than the left.
On going long with a grain of corn on the deck I had a few bubbles around the float and lots of indications so I decided to try double corn hoping it would be found quicker. An instant bite as it settled gave another 3lb'er before the indications died off so I topped up and came back into the edge. I had two quick fish from the left but couldn't get a bite from the right. I eventually managed fish 19 just on the halfway mark by trying a bit further along the edge but all was not well and so decided to drip pellets into the right margin to try and draw some fish in.
The next hour was fish less (except a tiny roach which I chucked back) and the margins started to seem full of tiny fish and the reeds seemed to have gone lifeless as the day heated right up and the carp moved out into shallower water. At this point also I could just see peg 48 start to catch lumps in the edge (it's a shallow peg) Carp number 20 eventually came to corn on the deck long just after I started to ping a few pellets out there to try and draw in some of the cruising carp. No more followed deep so I went out shallow and the pole was snatched from my hand before I could pick the catty up. My thoughts of bagging up here were short lived as even on banded 6mm pellet the roach were wrecking the bait in seconds and I was beginning to wish I has some bigger hard pellets!
The next hour I managed to pinch 4 more carp, both came in pairs from each margin out of the blue, fishing a bit further along the bank, but in-between I was plagued by the tiny fish. Going into the last hour I had 25 fish but suspected that peg 48 was overtaking me as a steady stream of margin lumps made there way in. I began to hope against hope that the fish would return but it was obvious now that they had moved to shallower water in the sun. One quick fish came from the right fishing to the limit of my peg before a burst of fish from the left moved me up to 29 carp with 35 minutes to go but that was to be that, losing another just before the whistle that snagged me.
As I suspected peg 48 had won the match, weighing in 114lb 7oz which I think is the match record now. On the whole the lake had fished well and most people recorded respectable weights. My 29 carp went 89lb 7oz for my biggest weight from the venue and a comfortable 2nd, and while I had a good days fishing I was left to curse the fish moving out of the reeds. I'm pretty sure they moved into the shallower pegs the other side of the lake as they started to catch when the sun came out while my peg slowed! I'll also have to bring some bigger hard pellets to try as the last 3 hours were a mare with tiny roach shredding 6mm expanders or hanging themselves on 6mm banded hard pellets. Perhaps having a tougher bait would have got me an extra fish or two and may have got me to my first match ton for a while!
Hopefully now the fish have finished spawning and I'll get some more good fishing in the coming weeks now! Tight lines till next week!
No comments:
Post a Comment