Monday 25 March 2013

Winter League Rd 4 (24/3/13)


Well, on my last update I finished by hoping it would be a bit warmer and more spring-like. I put the mockers on that one, didn't I! Thankfully we haven't had anywhere near as much snow as most of the country and quite luckily (or not!) the winter league was able to go ahead.

True to my current (lack of) draw bag form I found myself sitting on peg 56, so I'm not moving too far around the lake at the moment! I knew the peg only had a very slim chance of giving me a carp - in fact I was about as far away from where I wanted to be as possible. On the plus side, I was out of the worst of the wind.

I had three rigs up for the day - a rig for across where I had 3ft of water tight to the point in front of me. With that bank being under cut I did think there was a chance it may give me a rouge carp. I also had a corn line fished at 11.5m at an angle away to my right at the bottom of the slope. Both these rigs were matched to .125 hook-links and fished on 11h lakky. Lastly, at 6m to my right there was some straggly brambles hanging in the water with near 4ft of water on the edge of them. I could clearly see in the last match that this was the only place the angler who had it last time could get a bite (from roach), so I set up a lighter rig here. I hoped that a solid no8 lakky matched to a .10 hook-link and an 18 hook would give me a chance with a carp in the cold.

On the whistle the snow started again (and carried on for most of the day, thankfully not settling) and I fed a tiny pinch of hemp and caster in the edge, while the track line got three grains of corn and a tiny pinch of hemp. I tried across on punch off the deck without feeding and had nothing for the first ten minutes or so before I started getting knocks off roach.

A change to caster didn't work as the fish must have been tiny, so I fed a tiny pinch of hemp and caster across and went to the full depth. Odd bites started coming to this, albeit from roach of less than an ounce. Still, I was off the mark and the three others I could see hadn't caught anything.

On the hour mark, with perhaps half a dozen micro roach I decided to have a drop on the corn line. I'd been in no more than a couple of minutes before the float blinked away, a better 2oz roach being the culprit. I plugged away at this line for a while, dripping odd grains of corn and hemp in. I carried on catching the odd roach, all a bit smaller than the first one. I was missing half the bites, even when cutting bits of corn in half, but I plugged away simply because I didn't want to be catching tiny roach at 13.5m, plus I figured plugging away on corn would be my best bet for a bonus.

I kept having odd tries on the closer line but surprisingly, I couldn't get a bite there on the lighter gear. On the two hour mark I was perhaps hitting one in four bites now, and the roach were getting smaller. I decided to make a change and get my head down for the roach. I swapped the top-kits and put the softer no8 lakky, and changed the hook-link too, with a .10 to an 18 B611 going on. I also started another line at 6m in front where the depth was the same as at 11.5m.

Back out on what was the original corn line with caster on the hook I started most of my bites. The roach were small, mostly around an ounce but an odd 2oz fish came. It was steady rather than fast, but I was getting then quicker than the others I could see who were now all fishing for roach. I kept trying the closer line but it wasn't until just over an hour before I had my first bite there.

The last hour the fish came nice and steady at 6m. It was a case of feed a pinch of hemp and just 4-6 casters and fish it out. When the fish got tiny it was time to feed again! The average size was perhaps ten-to-the-pound, but an odd bigger one came with one perhaps going a huge(!) 4oz.

I actually really enjoyed the last part of the match, and I even stopped caring that the odd gust of wind resulted in me getting pelted with snow off the trees behind me! I actually wish I'd gone for roach from the off, starting long and trying to feed them closer, but never mind!

I knew a couple of people sat in the open had caught fairly well, and two pegs sat next to each other and the last two to weigh put weights of 44lb and 42lb on the scales, with 17lb good enough for third. I had a little more than I thought when my roach went 5lb 4oz, but it wasn't until someone said after that I'd done well off the peg that I looked and saw that I'd done enough for 5th, just one ounce off 4th! They'd had a couple of pasty carp in with their roach. It's a shame I didn't switch to them a bit earlier, just for that extra point as a lot of people have had poor results and blow-outs and a top 5 place may (just) be achievable with a very good result in the last round. I think overall there is a clear winner now who will struggle to be caught with two 2nd places, a 4th and a 5th, but everyone who has won a round has suffered very poor results. I must have been a bit of a draw-bag the last few winter leagues I fished, but I'm certainly paying for it this year!

I'm not sure what my plans are for next weekend with it being Easter, but if I am out it wont be until the Monday in all likely hood. Looking at the weather forecast, I'm tempted to have the weekend off and have a good few rig making sessions and re-lakky some tops instead. We'll see.

Monday 11 March 2013

Winter League Rd 3 (10/3/13)

Well, I had to open my mouth last week and say about the weather improving, didn't I? I should have known that was only during the week! After a glimpse of spring I woke up Sunday morning to find (as much of the country probably did) a dusting of snow. Deep joy.

Still, the winter league continued, as did my bad run in the draw-bag! I was not best pleased to find peg 53 in my hand again. There was no need to take a picture of the peg as it's the same one as last week.

I had a secret weapon this week after only being able to catch roach last week - after seeing the rapid temperature change I had a clutch of my leftover squatt rigs from the Div 2 national in the summer, plus a top-kit that still has a no3 lakky in it. It's just as well I did, else I fear it would have been a DNW next to my name.

Unlike last week when it was quite pleasant after a cold start, this week it was just cold! I had the wind pushing occasionally in at me (when we had it) and with it wet snow blowing in at me for much of the day. I struggled to eek out five tiny fish on small bits of punch for a massive 1oz! (two tiny roach and three even smaller bitterling). The only place I had a bite was long down my right margin where there were a few roots and sticks in the edge.

The day was finished up nicely when the next peg started packing up noisily with ten minutes to go. They chucked their made up bomb round down the middle while they stood up packing their pole away and had a last-gasp carp on it. The highlight of my day was finding I hadn't drank all of my flask so I could have a coffee while I was packing up..

I actually fared slightly better than the last round of the winter league beating two anglers who never had a bite all day, and tying with the peg to my right who also eeked out a few tiny fish to stave off the dreaded DNW.

In terms of winning the winter league my chances are all but over now (unless others start drawing as bad as me in the last two rounds!), as even with a change in fortune I've still a bad result to carry.

There's no blog next week, looking at the weather for the week I've decided on an early birthday / St Patricks day celebration next Sunday instead (my wife is Northern Irish, so it's a legitimate excuse for me!), and it seems a better prospect than sitting in the cold catching nothing. Hopefully given that it'll be near April the weather will be at least a little more favourable next time!

Monday 4 March 2013

Sunday March 3rd


I always see March as the beginning of spring (the Met Office tell us the same too), so it's about typical that after a pretty settled week with a few milder days I wake up on Sunday morning to find a sharp frost and that it's -2 degrees outside!

Walking around the lake there was no signs of life - normally a sign that the open water is the area to draw as opposed to an island peg. Most of the island pegs were gone when my hand went in, apart from 53 that is - and that's what had came out when I looked in my hand!

Long term readers will know I have a love/hate relationship with the peg, and it's more of the latter on the whole. It's really a summer peg, but it does occasionally fish in the cooler months during mild spells as it's shallow. I guess the morning of a sharp frost isn't the time to draw it.

Still, with a task still to do I set up three rigs - one for the long margin to my right at 12m in 3ft of water, one for 8m down the track in 4.5ft of water, and one for just under 3ft of water pretty tight to the far bank at 13m. The floats were Preston Chianti's on the deeper lines (a 4x12 and a 4x14) with a small Preston PB2 for across where I planned to search the peg with punch. All the rigs had .125 hook-links, with size 16 hooks for the near and far rigs, and an 18 for the track. All the rigs were matched up to Preston 11h elastic.

On the whistle I fed a tiny pinch of bait down the track (hemp and corn) before starting across on punch. I decided to leave the margin to my right until later - there was quite a high attendance but I had a lot of space here where the corner is. I hoped by leaving it quiet a few fish may move here out of the way. Optimism, eh!

The peg to my left had a carp pretty much strait away (their only fish), where as I could only get the occasional knock on the punch before I managed to get of the mark with a tiny roach of less than 1oz. How the hell do they take a 9mm bread punch? I tried a small bit of corn on the deck across and had a proper dig on it almost strait away but missed it. I never had another bite across all day after that!

I chopped about trying to get a bite on corn or punch, both across (where I'd started to drip odd bit's of feed too) and down the track but it wasn't happening. On the half way mark in the match I tried down the edge, hoping against hope really. I managed two small roach there, one on a tiny piece of corn and one on a caster which I hadn't even fed there.

With two hours to go I decided that it wasn't going to happen with carp so I started feeding odd caster on the 8m line with the intention of catching a few roach. It wasn't a winter league match but I figured it was better to get a few bites and at least have something to keep me interested - there was no football on until 4pm to listen too!

Initially, the roach were tiny and I was missing a lot of bites. Even with the dotted down float I had to watch it after it went under and wait until it moved sideways - if it went under out of sight nothing was there when I lifted! The fish were all under an ounce for the first hour, and I had to keep changing the depth to even get regular bites. I had odd quiet spells which I hoped were carp, but none materialised, and feeding a small pinch of hemp again bought the roach back.

In the last hour I found it was better to feed a reasonable pinch of hemp with six casters in an fish it out rather than drip odd casters in. The average size of fish got to an ounce, with an odd two ounce fish thrown in too. I was getting less bites than I started with, but was hitting more of them. Fishing away from the feed slightly helped too. I finished the match with about thirty-five roach which went 2lb 8oz on the scales for absolutely nowhere, but I actually quite enjoyed it! I wish I'd tried it earlier to see if the size of roach carried on increasing - they are in there.

I wish I'd got of my box and set up a lighter roach rig - I've put a top in my holdall with a soft single no8 elastic in (not ideal for small roach, but a lot better than the 11h I was using, and would still give me a chance with a carp in the cold). Hopefully it doesn't come to that for next weeks winter league with the weeks weather looking quite promising. The lake on the whole fished hard with just 30lb winning and two 18lb weights making the frame - weights taken from in the open water. Come on spring, get rolling in!