Sunday August 29th

I have to say it seems Autumn has arrived earlier than usual this year, with the weather being a little on the rough side! On walking round most of the pegs on lake 1 were fairly well sheltered from the wind, although some more than others. When I drew peg 5 I have to say I was more than happy as not only was I in an area with a lot of room but it was also one of the more sheltered pegs, although every now and then the wind did seem to catch in the tree's and swirl heavily in front of me.

The first line of attack was for the island at about 15.5m, just in the small bay visible in the pic. It was in about 16in of water here and the float was a small NG Floats XTM. They are designed as a margin float but the nice fat plastic top means they are easy to see at distance, plus they are nice and compact for shallow water. With big fish the norm on this peg the rig was on .18 direct to a 16 Fox Series 2 hook and lakky being Preston 15h. This was going to be a worm line as it served me well last time! Second line of attack was the 2+2 line. This area of the lake is the deepest down the track so it was fished at an angle to my left (11 O'clock) were it had started to shallow up, probably by ten inches compared to directly in front. With the wind a nice stable NG Decker float in .4gr was set up in about six and a half foot of water. The float may seem light for the depth but they are very stable! Usual terminal gear here; .17 line to a .15 hook-link and an 18 Fox Series 2 hook. Last line up was the margins to my right. As the lake is narrowing here (to the left) by fishing to my right I was actually sitting on the side of my box and fishing behind me! I'm sure you know the margin rigs by now, purple Hydro and .18 line direct to a 16 Fox Series 2. Float was a .2gr DC5 in about two foot of water. I wasn't going to feed worm here at the start, firstly wanting to see how the fish responded to meat, corn and hemp.

On the whistle the far line received half a pot of choppy and caster, while the 2+2 line had quarter of a pot of corn, and lastly, the margins had a whole pot of hemp, meat and corn. Predictably, the first few fish across on single large pieces of worm were small perch. I was topping the swim up every few minutes with a toss-pot of choppy every few minutes (or every perch) and on the twenty minutes mark I had my first carp, a small one of not much more than 2lb. Bites seemed hard to come by after this so I topped up again with half a pot of choppy. The swim was slower now, but at least when I had a bite on worm they were from bigger perch. The downside was that the wind was picking up and making presentation harder. I tried a piece of corn to try and avoid perch and it was taken on the drop- by a perch! I topped up the margins, while I had been loose-feeding the 2+2 line anyhow. On the hour mark the wind had got sufficiently bad that I had to take the toss-pot off.

On the hour and a half mark I decided to give myself a break from the long line in the wind and dropped in on the 2+2 line. The float didn't settle properly and I was just about to lift the rig up when the float went. I lifted up and had a sluggish resistance for a second or two before everything went slack. Just at the moment when I thought I had lost the fish a skimmer of about 2lb came flying out of the water! With that in the net I had some knocks the next drop but they didn't develop so I potted some more corn on top and left it. I'd seen a decent carp cruising along the margin but didn't want to drop in on the margin that early so I kept it topped up and went back across.

The wind had got awkward now and at times it was impossible to hold the pole still, and the only bites were from perch. I made the decision that as the chop wasn't working, and that in the wind I wouldn't be fishing across a lot, that I would feed pellet and corn over. This hopefully would stay around longer to hold any carp instead of being eaten by perch! I dropped back on the short line and after a minute or so I had a bite on corn that gave me a small carp of about 10oz. I decided to start feeding a few pellets too with small carp about, and after a few minutes tried an expander on the hook. My first bite on this was met with another skimmer of about 2lb! Not that I was fussed as I couldn't see a lot else being caught.

After that skimmer bites seemed hard to come by so I potted in a decent pinch of corn with a few pellets and dropped on the island line with a pellet. I missed a bite on this instantly which saw a carp spook out of the swim, and no more bites followed. The wind had got really quite bad at this point and decided to drop on the margin line, saying to myself that if I got bites here I'd abandon the far line in the wind. First drop in the edge was on double corn, and it took no more than a minute or so to get a bite. After a hefty fight a chunky ghostie of about 8/9lb was in the net, that'll do! I topped up with half a pot of bait and had an instant bite over that, again on corn. This fish was a bit smaller at a chunky 4lb. As I'd had that bite so quick I dropped over it with just a few grains of corn in the small pot. Just as I was considering giving it a bigger amount again my third bite here gave me a decent common of about 5lb. Due to the time this one took I topped up with half a pot again but with no bites in five minutes I decided to rest it. There was still two and a half hours left- no need to push it!

Back on the deep line and a missed bite on corn saw me try a small cube of meat and this gave me a small common of about 12oz, which was then followed by a bigger one of about 2lb. I started to see tails in the edge again and dropped in over them. This saw a frustrating time with tails around the float but no bites! I decided to try some choppy (it was raining now) and I'm not sure if it was the rain or the introduction of the worm but the fish disappeared! Dropping back on the 2+2 line saw me catch a roach on meat so I topped it up with half a pot of corn and tried the edge again, but this seemed lifeless. With an hour and a quarter to go I decided to try something positive in the margins and gave it a whole pot of meat and corn, followed by a whole pot of hemp!

Back on the 2+2 line and a bite on meat saw me hook something much bigger than the other carp that had fallen on this line. After a few minutes a chunky common of about 6lb was in the net. I dropped back in after and had a few roachy knocks so decided to top the line up with half a pot and drop back in the margins. With an hour to go I had a few tails waiving at me here anyway!

The last spell down the edge went quite well, with steady bites to meat. Each time I had to top-up with a decent amount of bait and wait for a fish to come back, but they always did! I finished the match with eleven carp, and the last few edge fish were all good stamp fish, all being in the 4-6lb bracket. One did outwit me, as it spent the last five minutes waving it's tail at me, eating everything in sight apart from my bait!

I was happy with the outcome of the day, especially with the weather being so rough (I was actually cold, and had to fish most of the afternoon with a coat on) and the wind had most definitely made things hard! One person was admitting to nine carp, and somebody else to twelve but I was hopeful that the good average stamp of fish would do the trick for me, which they did, going 63lb 12oz on the scales. 51lb 6oz was second and a couple of big 30lb weights were next, not bad considering the conditions on the day and the amount of water that had gone in (the lake was about 8in higher than last week) Things could most definitely have been much worse, as a tree came down in the wind on the same swim on the old lake that I was on last Sunday!

Sunday 22nd August

Well, Sundays of late seem to developed a theme- we gets lots of rain in the early hours! I have to admit to being somewhat tired on arrival in the morning after being woken up good and properly by a thunderstorm at 4.45am.

As usual I had a walk around before the draw and while there were a large group of fish cruising in front of peg 46, I fancied a draw around the island, in what had been the form pegs. What I drew instead was an in-between peg (48) on the end of the island. I was pretty happy with it to be honest as while it doesn't have the greatest form of late (nowhere near what the pegs on the back, where I spent all winter and now can't draw when you want them!) have, but all said it's decent later summer peg in my experience.

Plan for the peg was pretty simple, a 4x10 Preston durafloat was put up for fishing in about 18in of water next to the island at 13m. Terminal gear was .15 line direct to an 18 Fox Series 2 with Preston 15h lakky. A 2+2 rig was next up, with a .3gr diamond bodied float on .17 line to a .15 hook-link. Hook was the same as the previous rig and lakky was a shorter length of black hydro. Last rig up was for the margins, and you'll probably know the drill here! In 2ft of water in the left margin I used a .2gr DC5 on .18 line direct to a 16 Fox Series 2, with the lakky being purple hydro.

While I was setting up there were quite a few fish cruising around the point of the island so on the whistle I hardly fed the long line, giving it just six pellets (enough for a bite, hopefully!) while the margins had a whole medium pot of hemp, meat and corn. Lastly the 2+2 had half a pot of corn. My hopes of an instant bagging session went almost immediately when dropping in against the island a tiny roach mullered the pellet, a bad sign in my experiance on island pegs. The next couple of drops gave me another small roach and then a tiny carp so I decided to feed half a pot full of 6mm pellets to try and get the carp to get their heads down. Another small roach after led me to try a banded pellet instead and after a few knocks on this it had the desired effect as my first carp of the day fell, albeit a smallish fish of about 2lb. The next bite gave another small 1oz carp so I topped up with a toss-pot of pellet. I thought I'd got it sussed when the next bite gave me another carp of about 2lb but the roach returned after and no matter how I increased the feed it bought just roach. In fact, once the roach were back the more I fed the more the roach drove me mad!

I took this as the cue to drop in on the 2+2 line and a quick bite saw me connect with a fish that was on for a few seconds before it came adrift. After this the only bite I had was a small roach that fell to meat so I gave the line half a pot of corn and left it. I had a drop on the margins on meat but the amount of roach that knocked the meat about led me to top it up and leave it alone. A drop on the long line gave me just a small carp so I dropped in on the 2+2 line. After a couple of minutes I had a carp of about 3lb, and dropping the rig in again, followed by a few grains of corn got his (or hers) twin! Trying the same routine again didn't produce, and even the bubbles that had been present had gone.

I had a fruitless try on the other lines and with two hours to go my fifth carp fell to me slapping my margin rig in front of it as it nosed among some floating weed drifting about! No more followed, and despite occasional signs in the edge I could only get knocks from roach. With an hour to go I topped the margin swim up and dropped strait on top of the bait with double corn. After a few seconds a tail pattern appeared behind my float then it buried! Carp number six was about 4lb, but topping up with a whole toss-pot bought another carp quickly- all 3oz of it that took double corn! I gave the line half a pot and tried the 2+2 line again but with no joy. With just over half an hour to I dropped in the edge again but nothing fell, so thinking along the lines of "nothing ventured, nothing gained" I put a whole pot of bait, full to the brim in the edge. Carp seven quickly resulted, but topping up with the big toss-pot didn't have the desired result. Another whole pot went on and carp eight followed! So in again after a pot of bait and number nine followed, and then again for number ten! all about 4lb. With not much more than ninety seconds to go I just filled the toss-pot with hemp hoping for a quick bite, and it worked but the fish, which felt a bit bigger came off.

I have to say I was a bit disappointed in sussing it too late- I'd guessed that after the rain the fish wouldn't really be that hungry, especially as those cruising looked un-interested. The thing was the last few weeks they wanted grub and I didn't get it right. Maybe I should even gone down the worm route that worked for me on lake 1 last week. My ten carp went just over 34lb, but was only good enough for 5th behind a 50lb winning weight and three weights of 44lb, all weights that were probably achievable had I got it right. Best try better next week hadn't I!

Sunday 15th August

Longer term readers may remember that nearly a year ago after an indifferent match on lake one I predicted that a choppy approach would be the way to go, and the next week (back on the same lake) I didn't bring any worm and the match was then won by somebody who did! I wasn't doing the same again so this week I came armed with half a kilo of worms too after saying I thought worm would be the way last week. I did forget to order more casters during the week mind, so had to make do with just a pint, DOH!

I walked around the lake before the draw and had a few pegs in mind that I'd like; 5, 7, 11, 20 and 37. I didn't manage any of those but was fairly happy with peg 14, as while it's quite a wide peg (just over 16m) it also has a long margin with plenty of overhanging cover. I meant to take a picture of the margins too but forgot! Just as well mind, took ages to load the picture now I have treated myself to a proper camera instead of using my phone.

Plan of attack was two rigs for across, firstly a 4x12 rig for just over 2ft of water across at about 16.5m. I couldn't fish any tighter over due to the roots in the water. Second rig was a shallow rig set to fish at foot deep, and maybe to chance shoving right in to the bank if I was brave! Both were on .15 direct to an 18 Fox Series 2 hook. Float on the shallow rig was a 4x10 PB2 where as the deck rig was a Durafloat that I can't remember the number of. Lakkys were 15h on the deck rig and black hydro on the shallow. I also had a rig for the 2+2 line fished slightly to my right, downwind. This was just behind a lilly bed too, in about five and a half feet of water. I'm sure you know the rig for this by now! Last up was a margin rig. After a good plumb around I settled for a line at about 12m to my left, in just over two foot of water. This was a 4x12 Malman float, I don't know which pattern it is as I've had it since a tackle review for Midland/Southern Angler magazine three years ago. The most important thing (apart from it's strength) was that it has a yellow top! (why are they so hard to come by?) Rest of the rig was standard margin gear; purple Hydro with .18 line direct to a 16 Fox Series 2.

I was a bit late starting today (making rigs on the bank!) so about five minutes after everyone else the far line was few with half a pot of chop and caster, while the 2+2 line had quarter of a pot of hemp and corn. Lastly the margins had half a pot of meat, hemp and corn. Unsurprisingly the wind had also taken the whistle as a signal to start, making me glad I'd left a long line above the float. A missed bite on a 2in piece of worm was followed by two micro perch. Topping up with a toss-pot after the second perch I decided to try double caster. This had the desired result as lifting resulted in lakky streaming out! A common of about two and a half pound found it's way in pretty quickly. Next drop gave another tiny perch so I tried a grain of corn out of the choppy mix. This also gave a quick response and a common that was the twin of the first was soon in the net. The next drop however saw me foul hook and lose a fish and this seemed to slow everything up.

I took the lull as a chance to top up the other two lines before going across again on worm. The tiny perch seemed to have disappeared and the odd bite that followed in the next half an hour or so gave chunky perch in the 4-6oz bracket. They weren't coming fast, and the odd liners in between lead to me trying the shallow rig but to no avail. I kept topping the swim up with a toss-pot of choppy mix every few minutes and just after the hour mark carp number three fell, a ghostie of about 2lb on a 2in long piece of worm. The swim definitely felt like it was going away from me at this time, and the wind was picking up too. The peg to my right was starting to catch now, but they looked like smallish fish.

The next two hours were very frustrating, I foul hooked and lost a fish across, while also missing a couple of bites on the shallow rig. I gave the 2+2 line a go and had a quick bite on corn but that only gave me a pastie of about 10oz, but no more bites followed. A drop in the margins where odd fish were starting to move gave me just one missed bite on meat. I plugged away for a bit but nothing else came so I decided to put a big pot of choppy in the edge. I rested the line for ten minutes before dropping in again. I gently lowered a 2in piece of worm down and it just carried on going, followed by the elastic! A chunky 4lb common was soon in the net, but the next few drops gave only perch. I decided to try two small cubes of meat which had been in the worm mix (I'd thrown meat, hemp and corn in with the worm to bulk out the particle content as I was rationing the casters) This gave a pretty quick result with a fat mirror of about 5lb before I lost a fish next drop and predictably bites slowed. I topped up with a whole pot of choppy mix and had ten minutes on the 2+2 line but only a liner followed on it.

The last hour and a half was quite steady in the end once I'd worked it out; the small toss-pot was changed for a large one and fed after every fish, even the micro perch! Normally two or three perch would then be followed by a carp (or two or three) before the swim faded. This would then be the signal to feed a large amount with the big cup and start again. None of the fish were big, 4lb'ers being the average stamp but with an odd smaller one thrown in. One or two two inch pieces of worm were doing the damage. With twenty minutes to go I was on fourteen carp when my steady rhythm went to pot when the wind blew at the same time as I bounced a perch off, leaving my rig up the marginal bush! Resting the pole on the bank I had to walk along the bank and crash through the cover to get it back, only sitting back on my box I found I'd snapped the wrong branch! Ooops! Back in again and the rig was free, except no self respecting carp would come back, right? wrong! After two perch (feeding on top as I was) the third bite was met with yards of elastic. Until it got stuck in the lillies past where I was fishing! I got it out, played it to the net where it got stuck in the lillies just to my right and I lost it! And the rig..... With just a minute or so left I didn't bother to start again, but could clearly see two or three big fish feeding in the margins. Guess they knew what time it was!

Top weight when the scales got to me was about 25lb, and the most anyone was admitting to was about 40lb. I was sure I'd have just over 50lb, and with not quite 5lb of bits thrown in too I totaled 58lb 10z. Following the scales round saw a 35lb weight followed by a 46lb and a 41lb weight leaving me first! I was happy enough with the result, but I do think had I fed the edge with worm from the off I could have had a bigger weight, as fish were there pretty quick but I couldn't catch when I dropped in. Still, I enjoyed the day and it's given me something to work on in the future when the fish don't seem to be feeding so well.

Sunday August 8th

I have to admit this weekend I was a little concerned as to how Lake 1 would fish, there hadn't been a match on if for three weeks leading up to this Sunday, plus we'd had a fair amount of rain (including a lot early that morning) and as most of the regulars will tell you, the fishery tends not to respond very well to rain!

Walking around before the match no areas seemed to look anymore favourable, so my wish was to not draw one of the wider pegs that saw me needing beyond 16m of pole. Now this wish is probably why I found myself drawing peg 18, because as 27 wasn't in, it was the widest peg in the bag at a good 17m wide. To add to the day it was then drawn as the golden peg as I was lugging my gear away from the car park, a sure kiss of death for me! And it's my luck to draw it when it's only worth about £30...

Plonking my box on the peg and a few fish could be seen moving in the small bay in the island, and this was my first line of attack. A full 17.5m to the corner of the small bay found about 20in of water. Rig for this was a small Preston Durafloat on .15 line direct to an 18 Fox Series 2 hook, with Preston 15h lakky completing the rig. I decided to neglect the margins as I'd have to fish very close to myself so the other line was at 5m, or the 2+2 line as it's commonly becoming known! Rig for this was standard fayre, a .3gr diamond bodied float in 5ft of water. This was on .17 line to a .15 hook-link. Hook was also an 18 Fox Series 2. Elastic for this line is something I've been playing with as I seem to lose fish on latex close as they charge off. I decided to try a shorter length of hollow lakky, with a 6ft 6in length of black Hydro hopefully cushioning the run but not being awkward to net fish on.

On the whistle I decided to feed the close line with a pot of hemp, corn and a few bits of meat, and then drop strait on the long line just feeding it with a toss-pot as fish were present. It didn't take long to get signs of fish and after no more than a couple of minutes I foul-hooked a carp lifting the rig but it came off. The next half an hour turned out very frustrating, if I didn't feed I had no signs of fish (apart from a 2oz roach on pellet) yet feeding just six pellets led to five minutes of tails around the float before the fish then buggered off! Laying the bait on, trying it a few inches off the bottom and even banding a feed pellet made no difference. Eventually a fish did fall to a 6mm expander and a common of about 3lb was in the net, after I left the rig in ages after the fish seemed to have gone.

The next two hours were very frustrating, with the same pattern happening, not only to me but to others too. I tried a longer line above the float but it made no difference. Dumping half pots of bait and leaving it seemed to take the fish longer to respond but with the same result. Out of frustration I had half a dozen chucks with a small method feeder but all that resulted were liners, and I was sure it would give me a fish! After this spell I decided to have a drop on the 5m line, corn only gave a liner so I tried meat and had another 2oz roach in the net.

With two hours to go I was dropping back on the long line with a grain of corn when the pole was nearly pulled from my hands, and a crazy fight saw a ghostie of about 2lb in the net, a fish that definitely had more energy than it's size suggested! No more on corn led me to top up with a few pellets and a bite on pellet saw me attached to another carp and saw me thinking I had it sussed. With another 3lber in the net and not much else I could see being caught things were looking up but no more followed. With just over an hour left, and my back suffering a bit I was back on the short line. A quick bite saw me attached to a bigger carp that fell to a grain of corn, this one about 5lb. I then lost the next one about ten minutes after by doing something I never normally do fishing- I was on the phone, and I normally ignore it!

I decided to rest the swim after losing the fish, topping it up with half a cup of hemp and corn. nothing showed long (after they ate the loose pellet!) so I was soon back in close. The first bite saw a baby crucian of about 8oz in the net, but in the last half an hour I added three more carp, all about 4lb, with the last one being hooked no more than than a couple of seconds before the whistle!

Word before the scales got to me was that peg 25 had caught well late on, and any hopes of the golden peg were gone anyway when the scales got to me with 36lb being top. My guess of 30lb proved to be pretty accurate with my fish going 30lb 14oz! Peg 25 then had 46lb odd to take the match, leaving me in third. I think afterwards it's fair to say that I spent far too much time chasing the fish that were feeding up the island, although with the water being cooler from the rain I think that a chopped worm and caster approach would have scored, but I'm not one for carrying £15 quids worth off bait with me just in case! On the plus side, I did tweak a few things that I did with regards to the 5m line and it's the best result I've had off the line so far on that lake. I'm also happier with the elastic choice for the line now. I think next weeks match is on the same lake again so I guess that I'll get a chance to see!

Sunday 1st August

I was surprised to find that this Sunday was back on the old lake, guess I should have asked really! Would have saved me carrying groundbait and micro pellet that I didn't need for a start.

Walking round I fancied a peg round the island, as last week, and like last week drew near as far away as I could get from the island! Peg 73 was in my hand, a great winter flier which I never managed to get anywhere near over the last winter. The reeds in both margins are great for holding fish in the winter but I tend to think that the fish aint in them when they're hungry.

I had to put a rig up for the reeds, which I prefer to fish shallow in. Before the match there wasn't a lot of movement in the reeds but I thought that fish may move in to them if they were feeling pressured. A 4x10 Preston pink on .20 line to a short .18 hook-link with an 18 Fox Series 2 hook and Preston 15h lakky was for the here. With a few fish cruising in the open it would also double as a shallow rig for out in the open water, along with a polyball rig I put up to fish very shallow. This was set up on the same terminal gear. Last up was a 5m deck rig, normal gear here, a .3gr diamond bodied float on .17 to .15 with an 18 Fox Series 2. Playing around with things again this was on a 14 latex.

On the whistle I fed the 5m line with half a pot of hemp and corn, and electing to leave the margins to see what happened there I went out to 13m shallow. I gave it about twenty minutes with no joy with the fish clearly staying clear of the feed. With odd fish showing in the margins I dropped in on the deeper rig but the only sign of anything was constant dobb's on the float from small fish. Dropping in the right margins instead I missed a quick bite but nothing else materialised. Figuring it was too early for the 5m line I went back on the shallow line with the deeper rig. Odd knocks from roach were the only sign for a while so approaching the hour mark I came back in to the edge where a group of carp were mooching. I had no proper bites but after topping up the 5m line I managed to mug a mirror of about 6lb in the left margin by lowering a pellet on it's head!

With nothing else doing in the margins after I did have a brief go on the 5m line but the only thing doing there was a few liners. I had another brief go on the shallow line but was roached out again. In the next half hour I rotated the two closer lines but apart from liners on the 5m line nothing was happening. The margins seemed very lifeless and I elected in the end to sit on the 5m line which made it a lot easier to feed the shallow line, which with the cruising fish seemed best bet to me. At this time nobody was really catching- the angler opposite had three small carp where as the next peg had four or five but they looked very small. I had about thirty minutes on the 5m line with nothing but liners so I went back on the shallow line.

The regular feeding while not fishing had seemed to have done the trick for the shallow line as the next hour or so gave me five more fish, not big fish, mostly about two and a half pound, but fish none the less! Predictably the swim slowed down after the flurry so I dropped back in on the 5m line. After lowering the rig in no sooner had the grain of corn touched the bottom than the elastic pulled out, it's just a shame that after a minute or so the the hook pulled out too! I did manage a carp on this line about five minutes later,but again it was small at about 3lb and no more followed.

The lack of bites here was a signal to go out shallow again, but nothing was happening. After about twenty minutes I decided try and force matters a bit and rather than just changing the rates of feed I upped the amount of bait considerably. This seemed to have the required effect with regards to drawing fish back as activity increased, but it was probably another quarter of an hour before a fish made a mistake, falling during a gap in the feeding when fish were swirling. The next half an hour two more fish fell, again all smallish fish averaging about 3lb. The fish after predictably got wary again and backed away. I had a quick drop on the 5m line and hooked a fish here but this stayed on for only a few seconds before coming off.

With the last hour approaching I more or less abandonded the closer lines and found that by having spells of feeding very regular and fiarly heavy followed by lulls seemed to trick some fish, and even had two slapping the water with the pole. Average size was small again with the exception of the twelth carp which was perhaps nudging 5lb. With half an hour to go again the fish went wary and I found that more regular and frugal feeding seemed better and I managed four fish in the last twenty minutes, again all in the two and a half to 3lb mark. The last was put in the net just three minutes before the end and I tried to starve one last fish out by hardly feeding and tapping the pole but it wasn't to be.

After packing away I joined the scales half way around the island and peg 53 (the furthest corner behind the island) was top weight with 56lb. I was pretty sure I wouldn't have that, guessing I'd just scrape 50lb. I definatly didn't have the 60lb and a few ounces that the other corner peg behind the island (62) had. When I eventually weighed in my fish went 51lb 6oz which was enough for third, although comfortably the best weight in the open water. I was happy enough with that as I felt I'd worked hard for what I had, but on the other hand had I gambled on forcing the swim a bit earlier I may have made up the difference. The two lost fish on the 5m line may have also have pushed me close, especially to second. Losing two from three here was dissapointing so I think I'll play with hollows again for the deeper lines. What was also noticable was the lack of bigger fish in the open water, where as those round the island had a few bigger fish. Unusually, even the fish I have very shallow were small, still, you can only catch whats infront of you!