Sorry for the later than usual update - been a bit busy again lately! I'll also apologise for the lack of picture, as I took my camera out to charge the batteries and forgot to put it back in my box. I blame the sun, we're not used to it, are we?
Anyhow, with the nice weather and the start of the summer holidays the attendance was lower than previous weeks, meaning there would be a little space for everyone. I wanted an early number as walking round there were obviously more fish there. I didn't get it mind as peg 17 came out in my hand - the same peg I had a few weeks ago and it was a bit of a struggle to be honest. Perhaps the only saving grace was that I had a little more space as the pegs either side weren't in as per last time.
I'd had a good session during the week tying rigs and hook-links, yet still somehow managed to be not quite ready on the all-in! I had the usual three rigs up; far bank at 16m, a 5m rig and one for just short of the sleeper in the margins to my right, towards peg 16. I'm pretty sure you know what they are by now so I won't bore you with the details!
I had quite a steady first hour and actually had seven fish by the end of that hour - all had fallen to a 6mm expander across. The trouble was the same as the last time I had the peg, in that they were small. The biggest was about 3lb, while I'd deemed three of them small enough to go in the silvers net!
After that flurry the indications started to fade away, so I started to feed my margin line in the hope that I could pull one or two of the lumps away from the corner (peg 15) where some big fish were visible mooching around in the sun. Peg 14 (one of the form pegs of late) was starting to plod along now catching some decent sized fish, and while the had less than me, they were much bigger than mine!
I'd just contemplated coming away from the far bank when I had another fish, again to pellet, and again about 3lb. I could get odd liners, so I re-plumbed to see if I could get a little closer to the bank in to shallower water. I could, but there were a fair few roots and overhangs in tighter, and I had only a very small area I could present the rig, and possibly decimating my supply of Fox Series 2 hooks! I decided to introduce a bit of crumb with the loose pellet, as that had seemed to get me an odd extra fish last time off the peg. My first fish was a hybrid of sorts - it looked to me like a goldfish/carp cross (an F1 then, I guess?) of about 2lb. I carried on getting knocks but no proper bites, and I wasn't happy with the presentation of the pellet. Not only was I fishing on a slope up to the island, but it also sloped away to the right, making fishing a pellet at dead depth awkward. I decided on a change to worm, meaning I could lay a little line of the bottom and not worry about it!
The change worked, and the next two fish were a little bigger too, with a brace of 4lb commons falling to the worm. Disaster struck when the next fish I hooked went left instead of right, as it took me behind a branch that looked like it was impossible to get behind! Needless to say I lost the whole rig, but I did manage to get my drifting float back a bit later. That spelled and end to the swim, and the sun also came round, mottling the far-bank in a manner that meant it was near impossible to see my float.
I topped the swim up with a bit of loose crumb and a few pellets via the cupping kit before having a fruitless try on my other lines. I could see fish longer down my edge, but the fishery rules state you can only fish up to the next peg, so I had to feed and fish short of them and hope they'd move. I could see peg 14 nabbing odd decent fish, rotating from their much longer margin swim, and fishing the deeper water. I could also hear a fair bit of splashing from my left, but I couldn't see what they were catching.
With around ninety minutes to go the sun came round enough so that I could see across again, and also gave me a bit of welcome shade. While fish were present across they were very wary now, but I did manage to add another small carp to the silvers net. With a little over an hour to go I had my first sign of life in the margins. I'd kept up the feeding here, not huge amounts but a pinch of hemp, meat and corn every forty minutes or so. My first bite on two cubes of meat in the edge saw my excitement slightly dampened as a crucian of about a pound somehow managed to wolf the bait down!
With nothing to lose, I gave it half a pot, cutting out the hemp now. It was desperation time as I knew I was behind peg 14, while the splashing to my left suggested I was behind them too. The other two lines were dead, so I soon found myself back in the margins. I hadn't been long in the edge on double meat when the float went away, and it was definitely no crucian this time as the 17h went away. After a decent tussle, big lump of a common that was every ounce of 12lb in weight was panned! A couple more of those would be nice....
The next drop in the edge didn't give me a bite, so I again cupped in half a pot - mostly of corn as I wanted the meat to stand out over the top. It worked in getting me a bite, but it was only a baby at not much more than a pound. I didn't want to feed a big amount again as I'd had that bite so quick after feeding, so I slipped on a large toss-pot and filled it with corn, and again fished double meat over the top. It took a couple of minutes to work, but after a few liners the float was away again! After a bit of a tussle a long lean common of about 7lb was panned. A quick glance at my phone showed me I had a little over fifteen minutes to go - hopefully time for a couple more.
I'd slapped in another half-pot of corn and it took a few minutes before the tell-tale liners started again, before the float again vanished under. It was another decent fish, and after a good fight a big plated mirror that I'd seen swim past a couple of times during the day was panned. It was probably about 8lb in weight too. With five minutes to go I hoped I'd have time for one more, but it wasn't to be. I'd fed the peg again as I'd had to for each big fish. I'd just started to get those liners again when the whistle blew, damn it!
A weight just shy of 50lb was top when the scales got to peg 14. I knew they'd top that, and they did, taking the lead with 64lb 9oz. I tipped my bits in the net and had 8lb odd in there, but the surprise came when I lifted the other net out - there was a bit more in there than I thought! Agonisingly, I fell just short with my fish totalling 64lb 2oz - more than I thought, but it was hard not to be disappointed. The peg to my left where I'd heard all the splashing totalled 55lb odd, but I didn't follow the scales after that. When I got back to the car park peg 29 had just pinched it with 67lb 6oz, so I had to make do with third.
With the benefit of hindsight I should have pushed the margins a bit earlier - just one more fish would have been enough for at the very least second. In all honesty though, I've never caught down the edge on that peg before, and the margins haven't produced that well on the new lake for me unlike on the old lake, so I didn't approach it with the same confidence that I would have otherwise. Still, I'd had a decent days fishing, and sat out on a cracking summers day (shame about the mozzies!) and I think I've learnt a bit with regards to the margins on the new lake. It'll be a fortnight until I'm back on that lake to test the theory, and next week will bring a blog with a difference, it looks like squatt's and number three elastics will be the order of the day!
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