With the weather still being so good I was looking forward to getting out on the bank, even after the last few weeks of not catching not a lot, and that includes the sea fishing last week! I was hoping for a draw around the island as that has been the place to draw just lately, so when my hand come out clutching 48 I was happy! It's on the end of the island with just 13m of pole needed to reach the point with the island going away from you.
I put three rigs up, first for the island. I'd elected to fish at about 13.5m, just past the point and against the roots of some reeds in about 20in of water. Float was a 4x10 Durafloat on .16 line to a 14 B611 and lakky was a 15h. Second up was for fishing down the middle, something which I've done well on previously on peg. Float was a .2gr handmade jobbie on .18 line to a 16 Fox Series 2 hook, lakky was purple hydro as previously I've found the fish were big on this line. Depth here was about four and a half feet. Last up was the margin rig, same terminal gear as the last rig but the float was a .2gr DC5. This was fished at about 5m to my left in about two and a half feet of water.
With the weather still warm I decided to be quite positive with the feeding so the margin and the track line got a whole pot of bait, the track getting hemp and corn with the margin getting those two plus a good dose of meat too. The far bank line recieved about 1/4 of a pot of pellet. After a few minutes odd signs of fish started to appear in the peg and after about 15 minutes a fish pricked it's self and spooked out of the peg. I used this as a reason to start dripping a few pellets in the swim, firstly with a toss-pot but after a short while I took it off and started to fire 4-5 out every couple of minutes hoping that the extra noise would encourage the milling fish to feed. This had the desired effect as after about the fifth pouch an elastic pulling bite gave me a small common about 2lb, but no more followed.
By this time I'd started to see odd signs of fish on both the other lines, so I dropped in down the track as I like to leave the margins as long as I can before trying them. No joy other than a liner down the track so I topped up both lines with half a pot and went back across. There were still odd signs of fish but no bites followed. I wasn't over concerned - whenever I've had this peg before I've never caught early from it, and nobody else was catching that I could see. Another bite less spell across so I went back down the track. After only a few minutes and a bite on double corn gave me another carp similar size to the first. No more followed so I gave the swim a bit more bait but nothing else. Just as I was about to go back across a fish swirled in the edge so I had a drop in down the edge. A fish brushed the rig and swirled out of the swim so I just topped up and left it alone, not wanting to ruin the line before it had started!
Back across and odd fish were starting to work their way along the island to the bait (I'd still been flicking pellet across every few mins) but I still couldn't hook one! I decided to pull the rig up to my right, nearer the island into slightly shallower water so some line was on the bottom. I'm not sure if it was the change in presentation or that doing so hid the pole tip behind the sparse reeds but three carp followed quickly, the first two about 3lb each and the last a ghostie nudging about 5lb. After those three the fish seemed to get a bit edgy so I decided to leave them and try the other two lines. Nothing in the margins so down the track. Not long until the first bite but I missed it clean as a whistle, as I did the next! I decided to try meat instead but no change and I missed yet another bite which went away with such ferocity you'd expect the elastic to be following!
Back across and again three fish followed, all about 3lb a piece before again the fish went very edgy. Down the edge and fish were again swirling, first drop in and away but the fish powered off and the rig pinged back, not sure if it was foul hooked. Back in and the fish are still there but cagey again so it's top up and leave. No need to rush with half the match left! Down the track but no bites so it's back across and again a quick response with two fish, both about 3lb again before I lost the next one. Not wanting to unsettle the fish too much I decide to leave the line again. Back in the edge and the response I wanted arrives with three fish, all about 4-5lb before I foul hooked and lost one and the fish seemed to fade away.
The rest of the match seemed to follow the same pattern with spells of fish in two and three's across before they would back away for a period of time. I couldn't make the margin swim go again so I upped the bait but still no joy, even though odd fish came in to the swim. No indications from the track line led to it being abandoned. With quarter of an hour left I was stuck on 19 carp and the fish had backed away so I decided to try something different. I'd been putting whole pots of bait down the edge every 30 min, so I ladled in three hand fulls each of meat and hemphoping the noise might work, and it did with two carp in the last seven minutes both in the 4/5lb bracket. I didn't quite get time to nab another when the whistle went with swirls all around my float! If only I'd had another 10 seconds! Something that I may have had except my last fish came in with a whole pole rig tangled around mine, complete with a plummet attached! Not sure how someone had lost the rig as it still had the loop on the top!
I guess that my fish would weigh in the mid 60's and when the scales got to me 48lb was top weight. I wasn't far off with my guess as my fish went 69lb 11oz and with nobody else putting more than big 30lb weights on the scales I'd done enough. I was still smarting over that rig though, for some reason I'd got it in my head I'd get 22 carp! And I'd also just missed out on a 70lb+ weight! Still, I'd had a good day so here's hoping for more of the same next week. See you then!
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