Sunday 13th December

There was the predictable poor post Christmas match turn out this week, probably due to other Christmas matches and possibly due to the weather! Yep it's definitely cold now (and due to get colder in the week) Still, with a little bit more room it should make catching some fish easier. At the draw I fancied either peg 62 or 72. The first is the current form peg (that in 35+ matches on the venue I've never drawn!) and 72 was the only reeds peg in. I didn't manage to draw them though although I wasn't too disappointed with peg 42 as it has steady winter form.

First up was a rig to fish at about 12m on the pole, this was a 4x14 Preston chianti on .125 line to a 16 B611 on a soft 12 latex. I also put up a shallow rig to try over this line (3ft deep in 5ft of water) with the same line and hook as the other rig and a smaller float of the same pattern, using grey hydro. In recent weeks a few fish had been caught in the margins of this peg next to a few straggly reeds to the right so I put two rigs up for here; a deck rig with a 4x12 Preston somo and a shallow rig with a 4x10 Preston black. Elastic, line and hooks were the same for both with 13h lakky and 16 B611's at either end of the rig. Lastly I put up a bomb rod to fish past the pole line, 6lb mainline with a free running 1/3rd oz Guru square pear lead on this, with a Korum quick change bead and a variety of different length hook links for it.

On the whistle the long line was fed with a tiny pinch of hemp with a few casters while the margin got the same but with three grains of corn too. I decided to try the lead first so a couple of punches if bread found there way out. No joy after quarter of an hour led me to try a single grain of corn. My optimism was lifted by a liner after a few minutes but nudging towards the hour mark the next three casts had produced nothing so I decided to try dropping on the pole line where I'd been flicking a few casters with the catty. This proved to be fruitless and the cold north-easterly breeze had nowpicked up, blowing right in at me. Brrrrr!

To cut the next few hours down a bit, nothing happened! With two hours to go only peg 62 had caught a carp (just one) and nobody I could see had even had a bite. Even the batteries in my little radio packed up as they were that bored, so no footie either! I'd tried everything but it just seemed that nothing was there. With just over an hour and a half left I had another liner, just as I was getting up to move about! Nothing came of it and the next cast on corn was dispatched just to the left of where the last drop went. I decided to try putting a smaller hook on the 12m line to fish just maggot but as I was tying an 18 on the tip yanked round! I rather gingerly played in a very sluggish common of about 3lb that wouldn't have been felt any colder if it just taken out of a freezer!

Nothing came on the next drop so I tried the pole again, both at 12m and in the edge but couldn't even get a bite from a roach on single maggot. Just as I went back on the bomb and single corn peg 72 opposite hooked their first fish- a brown goldfish. With an hour to go and totally out of the blue the rod went again and a minute later the twin of the first fish was in the net. I had hopes of the last hour producing a few but the only thing that happened was a cold rain shower that lowered the temperature just a bit more. Very shortly before the end peg 72 hooked another fish, this time a carp but it looked small.

Packing up it turned out that only three people had caught carp, with peg 62 having three. The weigh in was nice and quick as only four people troubled the scales, Peg 62 won with 10lb 13oz, I managed 2nd with 6lb 13oz with 3lb 14oz 3rd. Nine ounces of tiny roach was good enough for 4th! I'd expected the day to be tough but I didn't think it would be that much of a struggle. The strangest thing is that on hard days I'd have picked punch to be the banker bait but it just hasn't gone lately and corn is producing the bites, well, what few of them I'm getting! Looking at the weather forecast for the week I'm not that sure things will be any better next week, but here's hoping they are!