Well, as you'll probably guess from the title Sundays match was again on lake two, and my hand came out of the draw bag with the exact same peg as it did last week! I wasn't the only one to do the same though, last weeks winner had also drawn the same peg.
I have to admit I wasn't sure about the peg as it's the deepest on the lake, and the carp don't always like deep water in the cold. With a night of cold rain and a sharp hail shower while setting up I suspected that the fish may move into shallower water (cold water goes to the bottom as it's denser). Also finding that someone had fished the peg Wednesday (the only day other than Sunday that the fishery is open) and bagged up lessened my optimism - I think the fish are inclined to move away from pressure in the cold.
I set up the same gear as last week, the exception being that I didn't feed the left hand margin as I didn't get a bite there last week. The 9m line was fed on the whistle with slightly less bait, as was the margin as it had been colder. My first cast on the bomb was with a single grain of corn about 15m out. Instant liners showed that there were some fish out there and on the ten minute mark the rod pulled round then dropped slack. Picking up the rod and winding I connected with a fish that had moved quite a way from where I'd cast. After a few minutes a sluggish common of about 6lb was in the net, a good start! The next drop in the same place produced.... Nothing!
On the two hour mark I'd tried everything, long hook link, short hook links, single and double corn and bread punch on the bomb, all over the swim and nothing. Even a cast with maggot and a small pva bag of maggots and micro pellet failed to get me a bite, as had anything (punch, corn, maggot and caster) on the 9m pole line. It was dire! I'd seen precious little else caught too so from what I could see so with one fish in the net I was better off than most!
A drop in the margin on corn saw the float flicker then vanish, shame I missed it! Next drop in and another bite saw me connected to a very sluggish fish that looked every bit as big as my first, until it came off at the net! I have to say I was cursing! I dripped a few casters in and got up off my box to get a top kit out with grey hydro in it - the softest elastic I'd got with me to hopefully prevent more hook pulls. I had one more bite in the margin and missed it (on caster) and that was that for the margin. I never had another sign of a fish there for the rest of the day, not even on maggot.
The last two hours were spent going through the motions (thank good there was football on the radio to listen to!) The only sign I had was a liner on the bomb about five minutes from the end on the bomb cast down to my left. The last hour and a half did see some people catch, but all in water much shallower than I had in front of me. 37lb won, the same angler on the same peg as last week! 35lb was second and 16lb was third.
Next week is the Christmas match so the fishing will be hard again with both lakes full up, and with the cold weather here the fish are starting to move in to the reeds on lake two, so that's my prediction as to where it will be won from. Check back next week, when hopefully I can draw with some fish in front of me!
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