Sunday 27th September

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!

Sunday 13th September

With the form that the old lake had been in I was looking forward to being back on there. The form pegs had been around the island, somewhere that I have a good knack of drawing so that's a good day coming right? wrong! Peg 74 was stuck to my hand, great in the winter in the reeds, but not so great when the fish are in a hungry mood and out in the lake feeding.

Putting my box down on the peg and the reeds were lifeless apart from an odd small roach, not a good sign. I still put up two rigs for the rushes, same as usual there, in-line Preston pinks to .18 line and purple hydro if the fish hopefully did turn up! I put up a rig for my right margin as well, although I wasn't sure it would go, right next to the bank there was near 4ft of water and I wanted half that. Still on good gear, purple hydro to .18 line. The next line was for at 13m in to the open water in just over 5ft of water. A .4gr handmade float to .16 line and a 14 latex. I also put up a shallow rig to fish about 2ft, using a 4x10 PB2 on .16 to Preston 15h.

On the whistle half a pot of hemp with a sprinkle of meat and corn went out long before I dropped into the edge. Just as I dropped in the edge the wind started to blow and swirl (flat calm in the picture you'll see, just five minutes before the all in!), another bad sign as it pushes the fish out of the reeds, not that there were any in there! Twenty minutes in and bite less then I'm out on the long line. Odd knocks on meat from small fish follow, with nothing on corn. At this time angler opposite has a lump of about 7-8lb in the margin, while the reg to my right also had a small fish, also from the margin. At this time I decided to start feeding my right margin, just flicking meat and corn in by hand as something different; dumping bait in hasn't worked lately for me. Nothing followed so I dropped back in to the reeds and missed a bite, although I suspected it was just a roach.

A good hour later and nothings changed, and nobody else near was catching too so I decided to try dripping an odd bit of bait in the reeds to try and make something happen. A liner out long persuaded me to flick a few pellets out for quarter of an hour before trying the shallow rig, but with the swirly wind it just didn't feel right. I noticed a fish swirl in the reeds, and just after dropping in there and instantly I've got a fish on, hurrah! A 3lb'er in the net quick and is followed by another bite next chuck but it comes off. A quick re-feed and another bite gives a carp, all 3oz of it! Nothing more followed so I dropped into the margins to my right, fully expecting nothing to happen, so was massively surprised when the float buried! A 4lb mirror gave a good account of it's self, and was quickly followed by two of his mates the same size before the fish were gone again. No matter what I tried I couldn't get another bite, and everyone else around me was in the same boat.

For the first time in a while I decided to pack up with 15 minutes to go, as did those around me. Sitting in a cold north wind just didn't seem worth it. Still, I'm glad I brought a jacket with me unlike some!

Those that were out of the wind did a bit better, although the lake didn't fish quite as well as recently, 56lb won with 44lb 2nd and near 40lb 3rd. And for some reason, even though I didn't draw the scales, I ended up helping with the weigh-in, still, it did let me see some fish!

No blog next week, I'm going to the coast for the weekend to chuck big leads in the sea, hoping for it to chuck a few fish back at me! A bit of a break after struggling before I think I'll be fine tuning the gear down for Autumn for the week after when hopefully I can catch a few fish, else you've got no reason to be reading this! See you in a fortnight!

Oh No, Not Again!

Well, I did predict last week that the match I missed on Bank Holiday Monday would be a good one, and it turned out to be! With that in mind I was disappointed to find that we were back on lake 1! With the margins being a loss I'd decided during the week to fish a cat meat line down the middle on that lake as well to try and nick an extra fish or two.

Going in to the draw bag I was disappointed to find peg 11 in my hand; not only is it the narrowest peg on the lake, not great when I'd decided to fish an extra line but also the peg had had a fallen branch removed form it that morning! Having had the boat in the peg that morning didn't fill me with joy as this peg had blanked last week!

After a good plumb round I was a bit more optimistic, I had a reasonable slope and it was only just over 12m to the island. The downside was a few trailing brambles or something hanging into the water meaning I had to be care full where I fished on the far bank. I couldn't really fish near the big tree stump as there was a lot of obstructions in the water. With that done I managed to find an area of the near bank to fish a margin while a cat meat rig was put up to fish down the middle. The depth here was the same from 4m up to about 10m so I just fished at a nice 6m dead in the middle. Regular readers will know the typical rigs by now, the only difference was that I'd decided to try a doubled 8 elastic on the cat meat rig rather than the solid latex I'd normally use on a deep rig.

On the whistle the far bank received a few pellet and a bit of groundbait while the area further along the bank I'd earmarked for later wasn't fed, opting to save that for later in the day. A pot of cat meat went down the track while the margin got half a pot of meat, hemp and corn. Baiting up with a 4mm expander and the float didn't even settle and a small common of about 12oz was soon in the net! I did think to myself that it could be a bad sign catching that early and so it proved! another small common found it's way to the net in the next hour before a twenty minute spell where two perch and two small skimmers came to pellet. The next few hours where a complete waste of time, I never had another bite until five minutes before the end when I had my only bite of the day on cat meat and had a common of about 5lb! No matter what I tried with the feeding or presentations I couldn't by a bite, my swim and others just seemed dead. Some people I could see hadn't caught a fish and I chucked back. The highlight of the day proved to be watching the Battle Of Britain fly over from nearby Duxford airfield!

Last week I said about fishing chopped worm and I should have taken my own advice, the match was won with 41lb of fish on, you guessed it, worm! 16lb of that weight was silvers so that was a busy day and what I perhaps should have done, although I doubt my peg was good for it. Still, next week is on the other lake, thank good!