It has to be said that I'm always eager to get on the bank on a Sunday, but this week I was a little extra eager! Why? because after six years of good service I've retired my trusty Superlegion and had a new toy to play with, a nice shiny new G-Max 800. I can't be the only one who's like that with new fishing gear, can I?
After walking around the lake I really fancied a draw around the island, but by the time I got to the draw bag the island pegs were gone. That said, I was happy enough with peg 75, the end peg on the lake, which means you can fish in to the corner. While the wind wasn't pushing in to the corner there were a few fish milling about (some big buggers too) and I fancied it to produce.
Plan of attack was three lines; a throw away 11.5m line to start with (I didn't want to drop on the others too soon) a 5m line, and 11m down the edge. The long deck rig and 5m line used the same rig, a .3gr diamond bodied float, in about 5ft of water. This was on .17 line to a .15 hook link and an 18 Fox Series 2 hook, lakky was Preston 13h on a pull bung (something I'm trying instead of latex for deeper rigs) I also put up a shallow polyball rig to try over it, using .18 direct to the same hook as the deck rig. Elastic on this was Preston 15h. Last rig was for the margins. Depth here was just over 2ft, and the rig was a .2gr DC5 float on .18 line direct to a Fox Series 2 hook in a 16. The elastic on this (as correctly predicted by Tom Legge!) was purple Hydro.
On the whistle the margins had half a big pot of hemp, corn and meat, while the 5m line had a decent pinch of corn. The longer line had a small pinch of hemp and corn. I dropped in longer to start with and instantly had silly knocks from roach. To cut the first two hours short I thought that the new pole was cursed! Topping up the margin with quarter of a pot every 30 minutes, feeding the 5m line by hand, all I had to show was a tiny roach that I'd had up the side on meat. I'd even been flicking pellets long and fished shallow. It was dead on the 2hr mark when I had my first carp, on meat down the edge, a lively common of about 3lb. Next drop in I went back to daft indications from small fish and the next bite was from a small skimmer- something of a rarity on this lake! Dropping on to the 5m line on corn and a proper bite, an elastic puller, gave me a small mirror of about 2lb, but again no more followed.
Dropping back on the rested margin gave an instant bite again, another small common of about 2lb. The next drop on meat produced another small skimmer! I topped up with half a pot of bait again and dropped back on the 5m line. Having caught on theses two lines I abandoned the longer line, choosing to rotate the 5m and margin lines. It was a good half an hour before any more proper bites were forthcoming, then I had two fish in two drops on the 5m line. Not big fish, both mirrors of about 2.5lb. Going past the half way mark I dropped back in the edge on meat. I could see some fish moving in the corner but a couple of drops on meat only produced some 1oz roach. I switched to corn and it seemed to have the desired effect, and the next hour produced half a dozen carp. All were small again, around the 3lb mark, but very lively and a good test for the pole! I did lose two fish, one just pulling off and the other snagging me.
After that flurry of fish the line faded away and the next hour saw me catching one fish from the 5m line, then one from the margin, and I was un-able to settle the fish properly in front of me. With just over an hour to go I was on 14 carp and as I could see others catching I decided to gamble on upping the feed down the edge and gave it a whole pot of bait. Carp number 15 was the the biggest fish of the day, a ghostie of about 5lb. I kept up the heavier feeding in the last hour, giving half a big pot of bait after each fish and was steadily catching again. With only minutes to go I was on 22 carp and to trick just one more I fed just a large toss-pot of hemp and dropped in on double corn, hoping that it would stand out over the top. It had the desired effect and shortly before the end a common on about 4lb was in the net. I didn't have enough time for another, as just after slipping 2 grains of corn on the hook the whistle went.
I could see that others had caught well, but was guessing my 70lb odd would hopefully be enough to frame, although I was last to weigh in so I had a wait to find out. A host of 40-50lb weights were weighed before peg 62 put 70lb 15oz on the scales, this was going to be close... A few more decent weights went on the scales before I was to weigh in. My few bits and carp eventually tipped the scales at 72lb 9oz, giving me the win, and a good first result with the new pole!
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