Well, I have to admit that last week I let the weather get the better of me! With snow and a cold wind forecast, and the fact that I had a cold I really didn't fancy smashing ice again, so I didn't, I stayed at home!
Back to this week anyway... News was that the lakes were mostly thawed out on Saturday so I left the ice breaker at home. Trouble was that with the water already very cold a slight frost Saturday night put a coat of ice (albeit not that thick) back on the lake.
I was fairly happy with my draw. Peg 70 has a few straggly reeds to the left where I thought I'd be able to catch a few roach, while the tree at about 6m to the right is normally a good margin spot. The water was as clear as I've ever seen it and I could see the bottom under the tree so I didn't expect to fish right under it, but with near 4ft of water at the end of the tree, coupled with the sun being out and on the bank I did think it may offer the chance of a late carp. I couldn't break the ice as far out with the pole as I wanted, managing to about 9m out, not quite far enough to get to the bottom of the slope of the small island.
The three rigs I put up were as follows- A roach rig for just beyond the stick ups to my left in about four and a half foot of water. This was a 4x12 DC10 float on .12 mainline with a .09 hook link to a size 20 hook. Lakky for this was a doubled 5. The other two rigs (under the tree and on the edge of the ice) had the same line, hook and lakky, both on .125 line to an 18 hook and a 10 latex elastic. The only difference was the float sizes, a 4x12 for the margin and a 4x14 for the longer line. Depths were four foot and a little over five foot respectively.
On the whistle the roach line was fed with a pinch of hemp with three maggots and casters. The long line had more or less the same while I didn't feed the margin to start with and dropped in down there. I thought with the sun being on the bank and the cover that I might be able to nab an early carp but after five minutes with no joy I fed a few maggots and casters here and dropped on to the roach line. With it having a few minutes to settle I expected a response pretty quickly but it never happened. I gave it a few minutes, flicking 2/3 maggots over the top regularly but it just didn't go. I was surprised but not unduly worried as apart from the next peg along nobody else I could see had caught.
Coming up to the hour mark I'd tried all the swims but with no joy, and the reflections on the 9m line made seeing the float awkward. News came round that odd people were sat on pockets of small fish but it was feast or famine and as I was an hour behind in a small fish race I decided to abandon the roach line. I wasn't happy with the reflections on the 9m line as it was making it near impossible to see the float with a facing sun, plus it was a bit short of where I wanted. Oh how I wanted my ice breaker! Then an idea; a 3 inch thick two foot long on the bank, which was rapidly lobbed out on to the edge of the ice smashing it about a meter back. After a quick clear out with the pole cup I fed a couple of maggots and a small pinch of hemp on the line before leaving it.
Dropping in under the tree and a few tiny knocks showed on the float. Lifting and dropping the same happened again. I decided to try a smaller hook on the rig, trying to just catch a fish. First drop and a small roach came in, my first fish of the year! Two more followed in the next two drops but then they faded away. I went over the longer line and no sooner had the float settled it dipped away but I missed it. A small roach followed next chuck but no more came.
Nothing else had happened going in to the last hour, while three or four anglers had been regularly catching small roach. The only signs of fish in front of me were on the longer line. With three quarters of an hour to go the float dragged to the left a few inches before slipping away. Lifting up expecting a small roach to be on the end I was surprised when the number 10 latex made it's way under the ice. After a few minutes of delicate playing a mirror of about 2 1/2lb was in the net, YYYEEESSS! A liner next chuck led to nothing so I fed three maggots and the same of hemp on the line before having an unsuccessful try in the margins again. Two more small roach were all that found their way in in the last half an hour before the whistle went.
My first carp of 2010 tipped the scales at a whopping 2lb 15oz and the roach 2oz between the lot of them, but it was enough for my first win of the year with nobody else on the lake catching a carp. Second was 1lb 14oz of small roach and a few other weights over 1lb were weighed in.
Hopefully by next week all the ice will be gone and we can resume normal winter service! See you then...
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