While I'm sure this time last year it definitely only seemed like Autumn, this year there has certainly been a touch of winter! Looking out at 11pm Saturday night revealed a clear, cold night and a full moon, and together I find they don't make the best conditions for fishing. What turned out to be a very slight touch of frost at 7am in my back garden got harder the nearer we got to the venue too, making me fear a hard day.
I was very surprised on walking round to find that the lake held a decent colour, and all round unlike the last time when it seemed patchy. I was fairly pleased with my draw, with peg 12 in my hand. It seems to be a peg that holds smaller fish, but on a cold day they are often more reliable. It's also an area that's been in decent form of late too.
I had four rigs up for the day, two for the island (14.5m was enough to reach into the small bay), a track rig at 6m and lastly a margin rig. I was going to fish quite light across but plumbing up revealed a fair size obstruction coming out from the bank to the left of where I decided to fish, while to the right are some submerged tree stumps, which point towards the near bank and to the left, meaning you're fishing behind them to reach the island. The main rig was a 4x10 Preston Chianti in not quite 3ft of water, on .15 line to a .13 hook-link (I was using a hook-link because of the snags) A size 20 Fox Series 2 hook and Preston 15 Hollo elastic finished the rig. Quite strong considering, but I wanted to get them out! The other rig for across was a 4x10 Preston PB2 set a foot off the deck. Line was .13 direct to the same hook as the last rig. I had a softer 13 Hollo elastic on this, to stop the fish splashing but would scale it up if I was losing fish. The middle line was a .3gr NG Floats Decker on .15 line to .13 and the same hook, again on 13 hollo, while the margin rig was the same as the far line deeper rig. Depth down the track was about five and a half foot, with three foot down the edge.
For some reason or other I wasn't quite ready at the start, so I fed the track line with a golf ball of crumb with a few micro's in, while the margin had a pinch of hemp and pellet plus four grains of corn. Some six or seven minutes later I shipped across on a 4mm expander with a tiny fruit-shoot lid pot filled with a few micros and a tiny pinch of crumb. It was probably only a minute before my first bite and a mirror of about 14oz was in the net, after freeing it from the snag which it bolted strait into!. After that fish no bites were forthcoming, and I began to have bad thoughts over the times I've had a fish first drop and it's proved to be the only one.....
Half an hour after starting, while I had been dropping in tiny amounts of crumb with just three or four micro's in, I slipped a grain of corn on the hook. I had a liner almost instantly before foul-hooking and losing a fish a few minutes later as I lifted the rig up. Another foul-hooker a few minutes later, which I again lost, led me to try the shallow rig. I did eventually get a bite on this fishing caster but from a fat perch about 4oz in weight. I went back on the deck after that and on the hour mark I had a slightly bigger carp of around a pound and a half on pellet, followed a crucian of about 10oz. Bites again faded after this and despite plugging away for another half an hour all I managed was two missed bites.
With just hour an hour and a half gone I decided to drop in on the track line on pellet. I waited only short while before a bite led to a sluggish resistance from a (very welcome) skimmer of about a pound and a quarter. No more followed so I topped the line up with another small ball of crumb, topped the margins up with a small amount of bait and went back across. A flurry of missed bites on the deeper rig led to try shallow again, and I missed the first two bites on that before shallowing up and connecting with a plump crucian nudging a pound in weight. This was followed shortly after by a common of about half a pound before bites tailed off for a bit, leading to spells on all three lines which didn't produce. I took the maggots (you know it's getting cold now!) out of the cool bag but all they produced were tiny wasp-like perch so I gave that idea up.
On the midpoint of the match I decided to try caster on the deck across, as I had dripped a (very) few in while using the shallow rig. I deepened the rig up to lay 3cm of line on the deck but this gave no joy, so with nothing to lose I slipped a pellet back on without changing the depth. That proved to be a good idea as a run of three carp, all about 2lb a piece followed, before predictably the bites slowed. The next fish coming took three times as long for the bite and it resulted in a crucian of about 8oz. With the sun on the far bank there were signs of fish moving shallow over the bait so I dropped in on the shallow rig, but I was very surprised to have no response at all on this. In the end I dropped it as far left as I dared, near the brambles growing behind the tree in the water visible in the pic. I eventually had a bite here and after a bit of a tussle my biggest fish of the day, a common of about two and half pound was in the net.
The next hour was somewhat slow, with just an odd small crucian or carp falling to pellet, nothing bigger than 8oz falling. The two closer lines were totally unproductive, even on maggot so I plugged away across. With just over an hour to go, with the sun (and temperature) dropping bites really started to fade away. I decided to slip on a grain of corn and a sharp dink on the float saw me attached to a very sluggish resistance which I expected to wake up any second. Halfway back and I realised it wouldn't as what seemed something very breamy plodded around and them surfaced, a skimmer of about 2lb! That proved to be the last proper bite, and I plugged away across due to lack of bites from the other lines. I had two liners which led to me alternating between the deck and shallow rig but I finished the match without adding anymore to the nets.
I was pleased to have had a few bites, as the three anglers I could see had all struggled, while I guessed I'd have around 18lb. However, one angler on the 20's was admitting to three decent carp, while another admitted to three carp and end peg 40 was admitting to three lumps. Given that one of those pegs weighed in three fish for 28lb in the last match I wasn't sure of framing. I was one of the earliest to weigh and was surprised lifting out my silvers net with it going 11lb 8oz, a couple of pound more than I thought. I was Damn close with my other net prediction of five carp for 10lb mind, as they went 10lb 1oz! As it turned out my 21lb 9oz total was enough to win, with peg 40's three fish going 18lb 2oz and 16lb odd being third.
Yes, winter has definitely arrived!
No comments:
Post a Comment