Sunday 26th July

First of all I have to apologise for not updating this last week, I did fish, but with the amount of rain we had the lake fished diabolical and there was not a lot to write about!

For the third week in a row we were on lake 1. Hand in the bag and out came peg 5. I was happy enough with it, I've done well off it in the past and it has a decent margin that when it fishes it throws up some good weights. First rig up was for the far bank at 16m, fishing just into a small bay in the island. The water had a decent colour so I wasn't concerned about it being only about 20in deep, and the slope leading up to this was very steep and awkward to fish on. Float was a .1gr DC6 and line was .16 to an 18 Fox Series 2. Elastic was Preston 15h. The rig for the margin was in a little over 2ft of water to my left at about 5m. The rig was on .18 line direct to a 16 Fox Series 2. Float was a .2gr DC5 and lakky was purple hydro. Lastly I put up a polyball rig to push right into the far bank. This was on .18 to purple hydro.

On the whistle the far bank was fed with a pinch of pellet while the margin got a pot of hemp, meat and corn. Across on a 6mm expander and it took less than a minute to get a bite. The fish roared along to my right and promptly snapped the line. Not a good start! The rig was replaced with one on .18 line and I went back out. Again not long before a bite and soon enough a 3lb common was in the net. At this point I could already see two other people catching. I topped up with a toss-pot but the fish didn't seem interested so I topped up with a larger amount of pellet with the pot. Again a bite was quick in coming and another common of a similar size to the first made it's way in. The next drop gave me a skimmer of about 2lb so I again topped up with the bigger pot. The first hour finished with four carp and the skimmer, each fish needing a decent amount of pellets to bring a bite.

The second hour again continued as the first did. Not big fish, averaging about 3lb but with one bigger fish of about 6lb. I could still see two others catching steadily so while I was happy with the progress I needed to keep the fish coming. Finishing that hour on 9 carp I then lost a foulhooker so I topped up and dropped into the margin (which I had been topping up with half a pot every 30min) No joy came of this so I went back across. Carp number 10 was quick to arrive and the next bite gave a brown goldfish of about 8oz with a massive fan tail! The swim started to fade now, as had the others who were catching. With there still being signs of fish in the swim I decided to top up the swim again with a toss-pot and pellets, using a small amount of groundbait to hold the pellets in. On the second drop a small common of about 2lb was the result, quickly followed by another identical one before the swim started to fade again.

The next half hour or so passed without a bite, even in the margins. I decided to try pushing the poly ball right into the far bank to see what this would yield. This gave one bite quickly and resulted in a better fish of about 5lb but nothing more. At this point other people I could see had started to get odd fish again and I was sure they were not far from having what I had. I decided to push the rig a touch further up the bank. After re-plumbing and shallowing up a tad I fed half a pot of pellet and had a quick drop in the edge. This was again strangely fruitless so I decided to up the feed here to whole pots in an attempt to make something happen.

The change across had the desired effect and three more carp quickly followed. Not big fish, only 2-3lb fish before it again faded out. The margin was still strangely quiet, not even a liner or knock from small fish. I decided to drop back down a bit on the far side and after a wait of about five minutes a bite gave a better fish of 4lb+. The last hour gave a few more fish. I had to wait longer for the bites and only got them feeding small amounts with the toss-pot. I'd get one fish further up the bank before having to drop down for the next bite, just being patient and working and waiting. While I wasn't catching as fast as at the start the fish were bigger and I finshed the match with 20 carp, the last one hooked a minute or so before the whistle. The second from last fish was a proper munter of probably near 12lb!

I packed up feeling happy with the days effort. I'd had to work hard for the last few fish but apart from the first fish I hooked and the foulhooker I never lost any more fish, and I hardly missed a bite too. It was a good day all round and one of those rare days when the things you try work (apart from in the margins where I never had a bite)

As I'd drawn the scales I got to see what everyone had caught. The next peg had 58lb, while the rest of the lake had fished well with a 70lb weight and a weight of 56lb, plus another 40lb weight. My fish went 84lb 4oz in total, beating the previous best open weight of 81lb so a new lake record was set too. A good tonic after the disaster of last week!

Next week is back on Lake Two after three matches in a row on Lake One so it's a change of scenery! Check

Sunday 12th July

With it being the first time on the New Lake for a month I was quite looking forward to a change of scenery! The favoured pegs to draw are still in the 20's, with matches still nearly always being won from there the last few weeks whilst the opens carried on, on the Old Lake. Before the draw I said that it was pointless those pegs being the favourites as I won't get one, saying that I'll draw peg 17. Not a bad guess as it happened as I drew peg 18, and peg 17 had been taken out due to two late drop outs and a no-show!

The peg has a reputation as a flyer, but it has been not that great the two times I've drawn it, although I did manage a 2nd place off it in late April. Despite the fact that it's a very wide peg (a full 17.5m to get tight to the island) I was quite happy with the peg. While the strong wind was liable to make such a long pole awkward the peg has quite a shallow margin to the left, and I was confident of catching there later on.

Rig wise I had three rigs for the pole up. First was for the far bank, at about 17m, just short of being tight to the island in a little over 2ft of water. Float was a .2gr Garbolino DC5, normally my margin pattern but at such a long distance and with an awkward reflection of the far bank I hoped it would enable me to see it! Line was .16 through to an 18 Fox Series 2 hook and lakky was Preston 15h. Margin rig was the same float but on .18 direct to a 16 Fox Series 2 hook and purple hydro. Depth wise it was not quite 3ft. Last rig up was a polyball rig to push into the foliage on the far bank, using purple hydro and .18 line with an 18 hook.

Bizarrely for me I was ready with a good 20 minutes to spare. I did plumb up under the bush just to my right but the bottom was all over the place, and with a lot of sticks on the bottom it was more trouble than it was worth. I did wonder about putting the tip rod up, but with the wind only gusty I decided to wait and see, besides, it didn't really go last time I had that peg.

At the whistle I fed just a few pellets across, while the margin got a whole pot of hemp, meat and corn. A fair few fish were moving across and I instantly started to get liners. After only a minute the pole got yanked into the water but the way the fish changed direction I suspected it was foul hooked and after a few seconds it came off. Indications started to fade after so I began to top up with a few pellets via a toss-pot. Perhaps ten minutes later, after missing a few bites I had a common of about 3lb, but then onwards proceeded to get a lot liners. This prompted me to plumb up at the full 17.5m, going slightly to my right and into slightly shallower water. I hoped that with the numbers of fish present that by barely feeding this I'd eliminate the liner problem (I'd lost two more fish, both foulhooked themselves!)

On the second drop a proper bite gave me my second fish, again a common of about 3lb before again the number of fish proved a problem. If I stopped feeding the fish went back into the little bay just along the bank out of pole reach, but any amount of food, even just 3/4 pellets sent them mental. The next hour and a half gave me just one roach and a headache as I lost another 3 fish. I'd not struck at a single one of the lost fish, they were hooking themselves, but I couldn't get a bite on the shallow rig. For that hour I began harbouring thoughts of getting the tip rod out but shelved it, hoping the fish would settle, either across or in the edge. A quick try in the margin was bite less so I went back across.

With another lost foulhooker to show and just under three hours to go the wind seemed to pick up and made controlling the pole very hard so I gave up and got up of my box and took my trusty 10ft puddle chucker out of the ready rod sleeve. Some groundbait was hastily knocked up while I clipped up and readied the feeder arm and butt rest. I decided to cast just to my right a little, as there was a gap in the tree canopy which would lessen the chance of me clipping the trees with them waving a lot in the wind.

First chuck on the method with an 8mm Sonubaits S-Pellet (they are brilliant for hair rigging, I wouldn't want to got to a match without them now) and the feeder dropped a bit short. Never mind, I'll bait up the next feeder and re-do it. Not a chance, no sooner had I picked the spare feeder up than the rod wrenched round. Shortly a common of about 4lb was in the net.

The last two and a half hours produced a steady stream of bites to the method. After 5 fish it faded a bit so I soaked some micro pellet to go round the feeder to get something more substantial into the swim. While waiting for them I had a quick drop in the margin and had a small carp of about 2lb but no more bites followed. The micro pellet with the groundbait had the desired effect and the fish came back. I finished the match with 17 carp, 14 on the method and 3 on the pole, plus a 2lb skimmer on the tip. The fish averaged about 3lb, but I had a couple of lumpy mirrors about 7-8lb a piece, including 3 cracking looking 3/4lb ghosties that went like they were possessed!

I'd love to say that the last part went like a dream but it didn't! I lost 2 carp where the S-Pellet had masked the hook. Something that in the 2 years I've used them I've never had happen before. I also lost a couple of fish that bent the hook (Size 16 Kamasan Animals) as I held them to stop them bolting into the brambles just to the right of where I hooked them. I suspect they where those mental ghosties as they gave the most bother but I've chucked the rest of the packet of hooks out as I've not had that problem before and hope they were a rouge batch. This cost me time tieing up more hook lengths as I didn't have as many ready as I thought.

The lost fish look a little of the gloss off what turned out to be a comfortable match win with 76-10, with 35lb being second. I Found out that the open match record is just 81lb, something I should have broken, and indeed I could have done the ton, especially had I fished the tip all day. Still, on the plus side my casting was near spot on (well, bloody good for me) for the day, but I couldn't help being disappointed by the lost fish. Still, a PB weight for that lake and a match win can't be that bad so I'll stop moaning!

Sunday 5th July

With lake fishing as well as it has, at the draw I wanted a peg with a good margin as that seems to be where the weights have come from. I was reasonably happy with peg 44, as although it has no real recent form it has a decent margin and in previous times I've had the peg I have caught from it.

Looking at the picture you'll see the peg has a large lilly bed in it, which although looks inviting can be awkward as I've found previous that carp and lillies don't mix that well! My first priority was to have a good plumb along my left margin where there are some sparse dead reeds in the water. The best area I found to fish was not quite as far as the stick ups, about 4m away which let me get a little closer to the bank in about two and a half feet of water. Gear for here was a .2gr DC5 float on .18 line direct to a 16 Fox Series 2 hook. Lakky was purple hydro. With the next peg (45) in I couldn't really fish another margin line as I wanted to. The rig for the lilles was put up on .20 line to a .18 line to avoid losing floats in the lillies! plumbing up was awkward as there were a lot of stems under the water, lakky was a solid 16. Next to the lillies I had about 5ft of water. Last rig was to fish on the slope leading up to the small island. I fished heavier gear than I normally would due to the lillies being between me and it! Tackle was the same as the margin gear in about 3ft of water. Lastly I put up a shallow poly ball rig to chase cruising fish as there seemed to be a lot of them about, and with a fair amount of space to my left I could use it to fish shallow if wanted to try that.

At the whistle the margin line and the lillies got a whole pot of bait, the lillies just hemp and corn while the margin got a decent amount of meat too. The far line was fed with a few pellets and a bit of corn as the angler to my right was fishing along it to the limit of his peg and I didn't want too much bait there for both our sake! I wanted to spend as little time as possible here though. Out on the far line and predictably small roach hammered the bait so it was on with a grain of corn. The next 20 minutes produced loads of line bites, there were obviously a few fish there but they just wouldn't go down. With the lilly line starting to give bubbles over the bait I decided to drop in there while starting to ping a few 6mm pellets into the open water about 13m out to try shallow.

Dropping in without feeding didn't produce so a toss-pot full of hemp and corn went in. It didn't take long for a response on double corn, although at only about a pound it wasn't quite the response I wanted! Especially as the angler opposite was starting to catch quite regularly in the deep water! No more bites followed but after seeing a swirl in the edge I gave it a quick try but the meat hook bait was quickly mauled by tiny roach.

With odd fish swirling out where I was loose feeding pellets I decided to try out long in the open shallow. It didn't take long for the pole to yanked into the water a a lively fish gave a very good account of it's self for about 5 minutes before what looked like a decent 6lb odd ghostie pulled of near the net. To be honest I did curse as I was trying to bully it a bit into the net. Bad angling. No more bites followed so I came back in to the lillies line where fish where now blowing. Again a quick bite produced a fish but that got stuck in the lillies. Leaving the line slack allowed me to feel the fish but it seemed to go further into the lillies. After much pulling the fish eventually came free and a small mirror of about 2lb was in the net. A bite on the same line just piled strait through the lillies and snapped the hooklength. This led me to plumb up and feed the line a bit closer, a good meter away from the lillies; better to have less bites and get them out than to have them keep charging into the lillies!

I had a quick try in the margin (which I was topping up with half a pot of bait every 30min) produced just one roach of about 6oz on double corn. Back out shallow and a ghostie of about 3lb falls quickly to banded pellet but no more in the next 20 minutes follow. Back into the margin and no roach bites are followed by an elastic ripper and a 4lb common is soon in the net. The roach follow again so a full pot of bait is followed buy another elastic pulling bite which came off after a few seconds. With a fish lost I decided to try back out in the open and once again a bite is quick in coming as a 3lb odd fish is soon in the net.

Going into the last two hours I was keeping pace with everyone I could see apart from the peg opposite, although his peg had slowed. Back into the margins and bites had started to come regularly. There was a distinct pattern to many of the bites; the roach knocks would just stop and this was often followed by a proper bite. The next hour produced a steady stream of fish, mostly around the 4lb mark. The one quiet spell I had led to me topping up and trying long shallow which again gave an instant bite from a 3lb ghostie but with no more following. It was by no means perfect, I did lose 2 fish in that hour, both foul hooked, and I missed a couple of bites.

Going into the last hour I had 13 carp, but the peg opposite had started to catch again. I decided to have a quick plumb again and mark the pole so I was exactly where I wanted in the up-down margin, as despite the decent last hour I had the feeling that something wasn't quite right. This had the desired response as two quick fish followed. With 45 minutes left I had to put in another net as I was at the 15 maximum carp for one net. The next half an hour was just as good with 5 carp coming to the net. Each time if a whole big toss-pot didn't get a bite 3/4 of a pot of bait did! Four of the carp were small for margin fish, only about 2 3/4lb-3lb fish, but the last one was bigger at about 6lb. Bizarrely the last 15 minutes gave just 2 small roach and a baby carp. Had that spell been earlier I would have topped up and rested the swim but so late in I just plugged away as the feeding on the open water swim had slowed off as I was sure with the margin activity I wouldn't need it.

At the whistle I had 20 carp, which although the lake had fished well I knew would be there or there abouts. I wasn't quite sure if I had enough to beat the peg opposite who had caught steady all day, although he did shout across that I had beat him I wasn't so sure. The scales had to wait a bit as I was one of the two anglers on them and I wanted to be fullt packed away first! As the second to weigh in I knew I would be first after I weighed! My carp plus bits went 67lb 12oz, my best weight of the lake that has not been off a fancied reeds peg. With a good few weights over 35lb and I think (yeah I know, I was on the scales but I can't remember!) three 40lb+ weights it was clear the lake had been consistent. When we got to the peg opposite and his fish went just over 52lb I knew I had won, a good feeling after such a bad run. From memory I think there were three 40lb+ weights that didn't frame, not bad in my book.

I think next week it's back on the New Lake, the first time I've fished it since the blind pairs match near a month ago. Hopefully I can carry on the good form!