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!