Well, it seems that I fished the wrong day last weekend, as the bank holiday Monday open on the old lake was won with 105lb and the back up weights were decent too! When my hand went in the bag it came out with form peg 53, the peg that won on Monday and has framed in the last four or five matches. I was quite happy with that, until I found out that the peg had been fished the day before on a private booking- meaning that you don't know whats been thrown in the peg, including floating baits.
On putting my box down there were a few fish moving about and it looked like a good day may be in the offing. The plan of attack was easy enough, I ignored the far bank totally and decided to concentrate on two margin lines (left and right) and a 2+2 line. The left margin was a touch deeper than the right, with 2ft to the right and a few inches more to the left. I used one rig for both, but used the extra time gained from the quick set up to tie loads more margin rigs in case I needed them! The margin rig was a NG floats XTM on .18 line direct to a 16 Fox Series 2, with purple Hydro completing the set up. The 2+2 rig was a .3gr diamond bodied float in 4ft of water. Terminal gear was .17 to .15 and an 18 Fox Series 2, with black Hydro.
On the whistle the right margin got a whole pot of hemp, meat and corn, while the 2+2 line had half a pot of corn. I didn't feed the left margin to start with, waiting to see what happened on the other lines. I had half an hour on the 2+2 and had nothing to show for it apart from a liner. With odd fish showing in the edge I decided to have a drop there. It didn't take long to get a bite on double corn. I played the fish, which looked a good 6lb to the net before I lost it! It felt weird playing it and the reason why was revealed after, as I had a float and a length of line (complete with stonfo and a short piece of elastic) wrapped around my rig! I decided to feed the other margin with a small amount of bait after this, and ended up dropping in on this soon after as the right margin didn't give me anymore bites.
The left margin was quick to show life, and two bites in two chucks on double corn saw me off the mark. Neither of the fish were big, both about 2lb. After this bites faded so topped it up with half a pot and dropped back on the 2+2 line which I had been regularly loose feeding. No joy here in about ten minutes saw me back in the right margin. After a wait of about half an hour the steady toss-potting of bait saw a flurry of action with two quick fish falling to double corn. The first was about 5lb and the second about 3lb. The swim then started to fade away, although this seemed to coincide with the start of the Duxford Flying Legends airshow!
The next few hours were very frustrating, as while fish were present in the swim they really didn't want to feed, no matter what I tried! I did lost two fish in the next two hours, both probably foul-hooked! Still, at least the planes gave everyone something to watch, with the Red Arrows tree top skimming above us, rattling my footplate under my feet! Just as the display started to subside carp number five fell to meat in the right margins, at about 4lb in weight. Any thoughts of the fishing starting to pick up again was scuppered by the Battle of Britain memorial flight buzzing over the top of us, with the Lancaster looking low enough to near take the tops off the trees! Actually, I quite enjoy seeing them, and anyway, everyone on the lake was in the same situation.
Eventually, with just over an hour to go the fish started to settle in my right margin. Two fish of about 6lb a piece fell to meat, before I lost one which bust the hook off in the roots further along the bank. On with a brand new rig (and float) and another fish fell, this one about 4lb. The next bite saw another fish that went under the roots and broke the rig, and trashed the float! Who says hand-made's are tough? just one fish on that float then! Just as well I made up plenty of margin rigs before the match. I topped the swim up with the big pot and had a drop in the other margins, and an 8mm cube of meat got me a bite which gave me a little tiny common of 1oz! The rest of the match went fairly steady in the right margins, finishing up with a dozen carp, including a ghostie of about 8lb plus a couple of 6lb fish. Most of the bites came on a whole toss-pot of bait, and if this didn't give a bite in a few minutes than dropping half a cup of bait in seemed to do the trick.
When the scales got to me a weight of just over 70lb was top, with two close 49lb weights behind, all from the open water. My proper carp went 50lb exactly on the scales, and my little carp 1oz for a total of 50lb 1oz (easy maths that!) for comfortably the best weight from the island pegs, but only just good enough for second! Typical, I draw the island and the fish preferred the open water! The planes definitely effected the fishing, and I'm sure some good weights would have been had if it were not for the disturbance!
No comments:
Post a Comment