Well, after a successful last two weeks I was hoping to make it three in a row this week. Talk at the draw was about peg 53, as with the wind blowing in to it and blowing the leaves in to it apparently it was heaving! Not that it mattered to me as it was gone when my hand went in the draw bag! I was reasonably happy with my peg (57) as it has some recent form, being as it was second a two weeks ago in the last match.
I had three rigs put up for the day, first was for the far bank, slightly to my left. I didn't go right up the bank in the 'bay' (if you look at the pic you'll see what I mean) as it was too shallow. I plumbed along the bank until I found a nice two foot of water pretty tight to the bank. Rig for this was .16 Garboline to a 15 B711 with a Preston 15h lakky. Float for this was a 4x10 Durafloat. Second rig up was for down the track, but I decided to something a bit different and fish it at 5m, my side of the deepest water. I thought I'd get away with it with the depth (five and a half foot) plus with the leaves floating past with a long rig it would be easier to fish close. Float for this was a .3gr diamond bodied pattern on .16 line again to a 15 B711. Elastic was a 14 latex. Last rig was for the margins to my left at the empty (un-used and overgrown) next peg. This was fished about a foot off the sleeper in near three foot of water. Float was a 4x12 Preston Somo which I've doctored to take a 1.5mm plastic tip. Line was .16 to a 14 B611 and elastic was a soft purple hydro. Bait was corn, hemp, pellet and a bit of meat in reserve.
At the whistle I gave the track and margins about a third of a pot of mostly hemp with a few grains of corn while the far bank got a decent pinch of pellet. Across on pellet and what I hoped wouldn't happen did - the bait was shredded by small fish! After two unsuccessful drops across I gave up pellet as a bad job and started to drip hemp and corn across too. From where I was I could easily see peg 53 and there were a lot of fish moving in it. After about another quarter of an hour I had a liner on corn followed by a proper bite which gave me a small carp about a pound and a half. The next bite came just after the half hour mark, and as I was playing this I saw peg 53 hook their first fish down the edge. My second fish was about 2lb and 15 minutes later was followed by fish number three, again about 2lb. I hooked fish number four just before the hour but it pulled off at the net and as I pulled the rig tight on the top-kit to check the depth it snapped! I'd only made it that morning too!
After topping up all the lines I put a quickly made up a new rig (yeah I know, I should have spares made up!) and back in a crucian about 12oz was quickly followed by another carp, this one a touch bigger at about 3lb. After this the swim started to fade but other than 53 (who had three fish that would have doubled my weight) nobody else had a lot. I wanted to leave the edge a bit longer so I dropped in down the track for ten minutes without any joy. Back across another carp fell, again to corn but they seemed to back off after. The next half an hour was a dead loss so with just under two hours gone I baited with a single grain of corn and dropped in down the edge, pulling the corn on to the slope so it balanced the float perfectly. It sat there for no more than twenty seconds before it shot away, but I missed it! The next three bites however weren't missed and in about twenty minutes three carp for around 10lb found their way in to the net. Nice, but smaller than those I could see 53 catching!
Predictably after an early flurry the fish went a bit iffy and after missing a bite and seeing a carp spook I topped up the swim and left it. Going back across got an instant response again with another 2lb'er before a tiny carp of about 2oz came next but again the fish didn't seem to want to stay. Peg 53 wasn't having any of those problems fishing to the marginal lillies in their swim mind....
After a barren spell two quick fish followed up the side again before disaster struck in the form of the next peg to my right packing up and walking right along the edge of the bank where I was catching! They could have walked a lot further away if they wanted but by the time I noticed it was too late. Predictably that area died so it took a good search of the swim and half an hour for the next bites. The next two fish came in successive drops on the 5m line, both to corn and again at that typical 3lb size. The next bite was missed so I topped the line up and left it alone. The next fish was from across which was a crucian that must have been all of 2lb and was followed by my biggest fish of the day, a common of about 5lb.
That started a spell of decent action across, although I reckoned on being about 30lb behind peg 53. This spell was typically one or two quick fish across before they would fade out but by dropping in to the margins in the quiet spells I managed odd fish from their too, but it hadn't really come to life since being walked past! None of the fish were big, 3lb'ers typically with an odd 4lb fish but with an hour to go I found myself on 19 carp (not counting the 2oz fish!) but with the far bank starting to fade. I had a quick try down the track but with no joy and the sun was now also coming through the trees on the far bank and in to my eyes, making it hard to see across.
I'd started to get silly bites down the side that I couldn't connect with so I put on two small cubes of meat as a change hookbait (I hadn't fed any) This had an instant response with a mental ghostie of about 2lb but failed to work again! Rotating the swims gave nothing across or down the track and just silly knocks down the side that I thought were roach (there were a lot of them topping). With half an hour left I decided to try double corn down the edge, and no sooner had it hit the bottom than the pole was nearly wrenched from my hands! three more followed, again all about 3lb before I missed the last bite just before the whistle! With 24 carp plus the bits I reckoned to have just over 70lb. I knew I didn't have the weight of peg 53 who I reckoned would have just over 100lb, despite their denials!
My guessing proved to be pretty spot on as it happened! Peg 53 won the match with 101lb 15oz and my 74lb 3oz was enough for second, with a low 40lb weight being third so there was a similar gap between the winner and me, and me and third, but the weights after that were pretty tight.
I have to say despite not winning I really enjoyed the day. It was never easy to keep the fish coming and I had to fish neat and tidy to get bites, and rotate the swims to keep them coming. I didn't lose many fish, just three and one of those was foul hooked, although I'm a little less happy about having someone pack up and walk right along the edge where I was fishing. Bad form in my book when they could have walked around and kept away....
I'm sure the biggest difference between me and first was that I had no real cover in my swim. It seemed a day of two's and maybe three's before they backed off, where as first place had a bed of lillies in their margin so the fish never really backed away. I think had the walker not gone past I may have pushed them closer but with the stamp of fish seemingly that much smaller in my swim (maybe again with the cover) I think I would have been hard pushed to make up the gap. Still, I had plenty of bites and fish and as I said earlier having to work for them made it more enjoyable. I hope for more of the same next week!
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