Monday 25th April

After a hectic few weeks it was nice to get back to relative normality, I even managed a few days relaxing in the garden! Perhaps I should have made a few rigs up, as making up the rigs on the bank meant I was late starting.

With a full house I didn't really know where I wanted to draw, but I was happy with the peg I drew (66) as I had a bit of room. First line of attack was at 16m to the island up the side of a small clump of reeds, fishing in about 20 inches of water. The rig was a NG Floats XTM on .15 line direct to an 18 Fox Series 2 hook with Preston 15h lakky finishing it off. The Margin rig was about 10m down the edge to my left in 3ft of water, a .2gr DC5 float on .18 line direct to a 16 Fox Series 2 and purple hydro, proper summer gear! Last up was for the 2+2 line. In about 5ft of water float was .3gr NG decker on .17 line to a .15 hook-link and an 18 Fox Series 2, with black hydro the lakky.

The margin line was fed with a medium pot of hemp, corn and meat while the 2+2 line had half a pot of corn with a small amount of hemp. I then baited up the far bank rig with a 6mm expander and filled the toss-pot up with 6mm hard pellets. It didn't take long to get a response, but unfortunately it was from bait robbing small roach! A switch to a banded hard pellet saw me briefly hook a fish but it came off after a few minutes. I could hear that others were catching but it took 45 minutes until my first carp fell, a common of about 3lb. I topped up the margin line after (I was loose feeding with corn on the 2+2 line)

No more bites followed long on the hard pellet apart from odd roach knocks so I decided to top up the long line with a quarter of a pot of pellets. I had brief tries on the two closer lines but had no response even though I could see fish cruising so I went back across. I had an instant response with another common of about 3lb but again the swim went quiet again. The next hour and a half produced two more carp of about 3lb, both times after resting the long line but I couldn't raise a bite from either of the two other lines.

With just over two hours to go I dropped across and had three carp in three drops over half a pot of pellets (I'd abandoned the toss-pot due to the wind), all three about the 4lb mark before the swim totally died. I topped it up but the bites didn't come back so I had a brief try on the 2+2 line, which produced one missed bite that was suspiciously roachy. I'd fed a pot of bait in the margin before trying the 2+2 line and when I dropped in the edge with a cube of meat it'd been in for about 5 minutes before the float buried and a sluggish fish chugged out of the swim. After 5 minutes (in which the fish woke up) a common of about 8lb was in the net. A brief try after gave no joy so I topped up the swim again.

The next hour was barren where ever I tried so with nothing to lose I fed a whole pot of bait on each of the two closer lines. I tried a cube of meat on the 2+2 line and this quickly got a response from a mirror about 5lb, and next chuck a common of about the same size fell too. No more bites followed so I kept rotating the two closer lines but had nothing to show but a liner from the margins until 10 minutes before the end when another common of about 5lb fell to meat on the 2+2 line.

With 11 carp at the end for a weight I'd guess to be in the early to mid 40's I thought I'd done well until I heard that one angler was admitting to 17 and two people had 13. When the scales got to me 35lb was top weight. My fish went a level 44lb and I didn't follow the scales after as I expected a few others to beat me and I still had stuff to pack away. When I got to the car park it turned out that my weight was good enough for 2nd and I was just 3lb 6oz behind 1st. The weights were close, with just 12lb separating the top 5.

I have to admit I enjoyed the day, I had to work the bait a lot to get bites and coming second was a result much better than I thought, but being just one fish short of first makes me think I could have perhaps sneaked out one more!

Next week is the May Bank Holiday pairs match, we came joint first last year, this year we're hoping not to share that honour!

A Quick Update!

This is the first time I've had a chance to sit down and write an update, albeit only a quick one! I did fish Sunday, drawing a peg I didn't really fancy. In short, I struggled, starting on pellet after the warmer weather but it just didn't happen. A second half switch to caster saw me catch four small carp and a crucian for about 8lb in total which I tipped back, a couple of low 3olb+ weights made up the top three. I'll be back on the bank Monday, much better prepared and will hopefully see a few fish in my net!

Sunday 3rd April (W/L Rd 6)

Well, it seemed that the final round of the winter league was to be fished in spring! A quick check of the board and a little maths revealed that although I was lying second in the league finishing in the top three would guarantee me first place regardless due to the fact I would be dropping less points than the leader (the best five results from six count). Walking around before hand I still wanted a late draw - anything past peg 20 would do me but when my hand went in the bag I couldn't have got further away as I drew peg 1!

Putting my box down I was a bit dismayed, the lake is basically a "Q" shape with the island in the middle, with only one peg in the tail of the "Q", and that was where I was sat! I could see an odd fishing moving but I was sure they'd go as soon as I either caught or waved the pole over them. You have no far bank to fish as such, the bank you can see in the picture was my own where the bank goes round as the lake finishes. I decided to treat it like I would the island and after a fair amount of plumbing I found a reasonable slope to fish at about 15.5m where the tree is in the picture. Depth here was about 3ft with the rig being a 4x12 Preston Somo on .14 line direct to a 16 B611. The same rig also doubled as a margin rig for 9m to my left along the bank, under where the inflow pipe comes into the lake. With the far line being very up and down along the bank I also put up a shallow rig to fish punch, a 4x10 Preston PB2 with the same line and hook as the previous rig. Last up I set up a rig to fish at about 11 o'clock at 13m into the open water. The depth here was just over 6ft, with the rig being a .4gr NG Floats decker on .15 line to a .14 hook-link and a 16 B611. Lakky on all the rigs was Preston 13h on pull-bungs.

On the whistle I fed the open water line with a pinch of dampened 4mm pellets and three grains of corn while the left margin had the same but with a pinch of hemp on top before I tried the furthest line with just a grain of corn, looking for any signs of fish. After a few minutes without an indication I put on a small cad-pot and dripped a few pellets on the line. After half an hour without anything I saw a sign of a fish a bit more into the corner so I put the shallow rig on with a large punch and dropped it in where I'd seen the movement. It took about thirty seconds before the float buried and after a lively fight a ghostie of about 6lb was in the net. What I thought was a good start got even better when the next drop the same happened and a smaller common of about 4lb was in the net. Any thoughts of bagging up soon went as the next twenty minutes were bite less.

A try on the open water line gave nothing on corn so I tried a pellet (I'd been flicking a few 4mm pellets over it by catapult) and this produced a tiny roach so I went back on the shallow rig towards the corner. After dropping the rig in various places along the bank I eventually had another bite on the punch which produced a very long lean common of about 5lb but no more followed. Going back onto the open water line again only produced knocks from roach so I decided to try the margins to my left. I had ten or so bite less minutes here before topping it up, deciding to put a few casters in too. The next half an hour produced nothing from either the long line or the open water line so I found myself back in the left margin on double caster. I had a liner pretty soon after dropping in which gave me some encouragement and the float slipped away shortly after, but the resulting carp was barely more than a pastie! A bite on the same line about twenty minutes later produced a dumpy 6oz perch but no more followed.

The rest of the match can be summed up pretty simply, as I never had another fish! Much as I thought it would happen the fish moved out of the bay I was in and I could see other people catching fish in the last few hours. I tried upping the feed in the margins, and also starting a new swim at 16m on the point of the bank but I never saw a sign of a fish in my swim until a carp swirled in the corner where I had caught five minutes before the end. I dropped the punch rig over it and the float dipped but I missed it! And that was that... I could see the leader had caught more than me, plus one other angler who'd had a couple of lumps and with someone admitting to a few carp it looked like I'd finish 4th on the day and second overall in the league.

As first to weigh (and drawing the scales) my fish went 17lb 11oz. I was pushed down into second by the leader who had 38lb odd but stayed in that position until the last angler to weigh in put 20lb something on the scales pushing me down into third on the day. I'd endured a frustrating day but as I dropped less points than the leader after my second round disaster I finished a single point ahead of them with my best five results being two firsts, a second and two thirds to win the league!

No blog next week I'm afraid, as I'm up stupidly early in the morning to go to Belfast for the week but it's back to normal after that. Hopefully in a fortnight the fish should be eating and I'm looking forward to being able to put a bit of grub in to make things happen!