Well, after waking up my mate at 8.30am ringing him to ask him where he was I was beginning to think it may be one of those days! After some phone calls to get a message to the organiser that we would be there late I was a bit happier. Arriving at 9.30 I found that peg 44 had been drawn for me. I had mixed feelings about it, I won off it last time I drew it, but that was in the margins in the summer! It's a hit and miss winter peg - I had it a year ago (to the weekend I think!) and struggled for about 10lb off it, and have blanked off it in the cold too!
I hastily put up a rig for fishing on the slope up to the little island, with .14 line to Preston 13h lakky and a 16 B611 Float was a 4x12 Preston somo with a plastic tip in just over 3ft of water. Next rig up was at 6m for the remains of the lillies, this was on .16 line to a 12 latex in about 5ft of water. As I was sorting a margin rig the organiser came up behind me and kindly offered to start the match late and finish it a little later (how many would do that?) but I declined. It's not everyone else's fault! On the whistle I few a few caster and three grains of corn across, a pinch of hemp and corn at 6m and a bit of hemp, corn and caster down the edge. I then finished shotting my margin rig ( I didn't make any lighter rigs up, and the colour had dropped out of the water ) before putting up a shallow rig to fish a foot of the bottom on the long line. Terminal gear for that was the same as the deck rig but with a 4x10 PB2 float.
When I finally put a bait on it was nudging 10.15, and as I was shipping out the peg opposite hooked a fish, and could hear that someone else had a fish on. I had the first few minutes on corn but with no sign of fish. By this time the next peg along (in the deep water where I was a fortnight ago) had two fish quick. I went on to alternating caster and maggot on the hook, dripping 4-5 casters in every few minutes via a toss-pot. After a short while I had a dithery bite on single caster that I missed, followed shortly by another that I hit. A roach of about 1oz may not have been the target fish but at least I was off the mark!
On the hour mark (45 min for me!) I picked the catty up and started to flick casters out 3-4 at a time the 13.5m or so I was fishing. I decided to do this hoping that the extra noise of the loose feed being 'pulted would attract the fish, plus it makes you more inclined to feed a little more often - nobody wants to ship in and out every 4-5 mins without a fish on! Dead on an hour after I started a proper 'dig' on caster saw me attached to a carp. After a short but very spirited fight a common of about a pound and three quarters found it's way to the net. The next hour passed without much excitement, I had odd small roach on maggot or caster long, and trying the 6m line gave me two liners in quick succession but they nothing else. I wanted to leave the margins as long as possible with the colder clearer water so I hadn't tried it yet.
With two hours gone odd fish had started to show themselves, including one right lump that jumped three or four times in the peg to my left. Not time to panic as this swim is normally a slow starter. I took the topping fish as a cue to try the shallower rig. The first bite I missed (on caster) while the second gave me another tiny roach. Third drop in, only five or so minutes after trying it and the next bite see's something more substantial hooked. After a hairy few minutes, in which the fish tried to do a lap of the mini island in front of me, a ghostie common of about 5lb made it's way in to the net. I have to admit I thought I had it sussed, but the next half hour on it gave only one better roach of about 6oz plus some more tiny's. I had a fruitless try on both the other lines but even maggot and caster failed to bring a bite on them.
With two hours to go I went back out long on the shallow rig but was again only rewarded with small roach. With other anglers only having a few fish (five was the best I could see) I wasn't too far off the pace. I decided to try back on the deck long on corn as the the sun had gone in. I have to admit I was surprised to get a bite so quick, so surprised I missed it! No need to worry as not long after the float had settled than another bite saw me again attached to a decent fish. A few minutes later a common probably approaching 6lb was in the net and I was right back in the running! The next three drops all produced carp too, although smaller averaging 2-3lb. Each bite was followed by a few grains of hemp and an odd bit of corn. No feed meant no bite but I doubt I waited more than five minutes for a bite after topping up. The next bite gave a crucian of about a pound and a half before the swim faded away a little. I had a quick try on the shallow rig to see if the regular feeding had bought the fish up but with no joy I fed a pinch of hemp and corn with the big pot and left it alone.
The next ten minutes at 6m and in the margins was totally dead. Quite surprising as others were picking off odd fish of those lines. Back out long and three missed bites in a row lead to me having a think. With the wind settling right off I changed my shotting, changing from a spread bulk to totally stringing out the four number 10 stotz. This seemed to have the desired effect and I started to connect with some of the bites. By no means was I hitting every bite, not even as many as I was before but I was putting fish in the net regularly. By the end of the match I'd managed seven more carp, plus another smaller crucian. I did miss my last two bites though! I guessed that my 13 carp and bits would go about 40lb and wasn't far off the mark, being the second to weigh in and putting 44lb 13oz on the scales. With a few 20lb+ weights being the next best I managed a fairly comfortable win, much better than I thought I would do at the start of the day!
I was pretty happy with the way I fished, my previous experience of the peg led me not to panic not catching early as it's never a quick starter. Fishing the corn balanced on the slope up to the island did the trick, and even with the float dotted most bites never actually took the float under. Fishing the corn any other way I think I wouldn't have even seen many of the bites, and while I did miss a few bites every one I connected with ended up in the net, not one fish was lost. You can't ask much more than that! Hope next week is the same!
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