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!
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!
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