Sunday 28th April

It's hard to try and keep a blog updated at the best of times, but when you're not catching a lot it's actually even harder - nobody wants to revisit a hard or bad day. For that reason, this is going to be another brief update!

Typically for a Sunday of late, the morning bought quite a sharp frost (it had dropped to -2 overnight). Walking round the lake showed a lot of fish moving in the open water, but yet again my drawing hand disappointed me and plucked out peg 51 - just along from where I was two weeks ago, and where I seem to have spent the best part of the winter sitting!

I did hope that as it's the shallowest part of the lake a few fish would move in there as they did a fortnight ago, but it wasn't to be. I caught some small carp on the long pole and meat against the island early (palm sized fish), but then the wind got up, the cloud increased and the day seemed to get cooler. I picked up a few decent roach on closer lines, but even when the wind allowed I couldn't get bites across. In the end I admitted defeat and actually started packing away early - unusual for me but in all honesty I was fed up.

The weather is set to pick up a bit during the week, so hopefully the fish will spread out a touch more in time for the pairs match on May Bank Holiday, which is the next time I'll be out. I do have a plan - I'm going to do my best to get my partner to draw this time!

Sunday April 21st

Sorry for the late update, and it'll only be a brief one!

Despite the weather being on the up, typically Sunday morning greeted us with quite a sharp frost. This was followed by a bright sunny day - not great conditions for fishing.

I drew peg 31 on the new lake, which is a very hit-and-miss peg, and more often miss! I struggled for a few small perch off it for a dnw but the lake on the whole fished hard. Just 28lb was good enough for the win, with 9lb and 7lb making up the rest of the frame. There were plenty of fish seen by all, but they were simply in the upper layers warming up.

Perhaps struggling with a trapped nerve in my shoulder all week should have been enough to tell me to stay at home, but with the sun out it wasn't a bad day out considering what we've had over the last few months!

Two Hundred Not Out!

Well, post number two hundred it is! That time has soon gone as it was back in September of '08 when I started this blog - time flies when you're having fun, as fishing generally is!

With the Winter League now finished (I did just manage to scrape 4th place, on weight) the weather has decided to finally pick up, and forecast has predicted highs of perhaps 20 degrees C - a world away from the snow of the penultimate W/L round just a few weeks ago.

A wonder around the lake before the draw showed lots of basking fish - quite predictable really, and the pegs in the open water seemed to have the most in, as they benefit from more of the sun. I was hoping that I'd be able to end my run of island draws but it wasn't to be! I had a bit of a moan about peg 49 - it's seldom in (the sun bought the solar powered anglers out and a higher attendance!), and I drew it twice in a row a couple of years back and really struggled. On the plus side, it's in the shallowest part of the lake and a few fish may move in as the day warmed up. That said, with the closer pegging those pegs are normally hard work.

I had three rigs up for the day; one for across, one for 5m and one for the margin. I had about 16in of water tight to the bank about 13.5m away and a .1gr NG Floats XTM was for there. Finished with a .13 dia hook-link and a size 20 Fox Series 2 hook (I still have a bit of a stash of those!) and matched to Preston 13h lakky. The 5m line had the same terminal gear, but with the depth of about 4ft the float was a 4x14 Preston Chianti which I'd changed the tip for a plastic one. Last up was a margin rig. To my right there is a small inflow pipe, and I plumbed up to fish about two foot past it and the same out from it. Proper gear for here (well, it was considering what I have been using!) with a .2gr XTM with a .15 hook-link, size 18 Fox 2 hook and finished with 15h lakky. I have to admit, after a long winter that rig seemed brutal!

I started the match by just feeding the 5m line, giving it about a dozen grains of corn and a pinch of hemp. I then went across with a small cad-pot on the pole and fed just a few pellets and two pieces of meat. There were signs of odd fish moving, and the peg to my right had a carp after about 15 minutes. I carried on across, occasionally coming back to drip a few pellets in, and on the half hour mark I had my first bite on a 6mm expander. After a lively scrap I was off the mark with a ghostie of about 5lb.

I plugged away for a bit across, swapping between meat and pellet on the hook, but I felt something wasn't quite right with the feeding so I picked up the catapult to flick a few pellets across. It seemed to bring increased signs and just after the hour mark carp number two fell - a 3lb'er on a cube of meat. About fifteen minutes later I had it's twin brother and I was hoping the swim would start improving but all signs of life inexplicably vanished.

I dropped in on the 5m line, and had already started to flick odd cubes of meat in the edge. I had a liner at 5m so plugged away at it for a bit, but no joy came from it. I had a quick drop down the edge but I thought it was a bit early for that, and I assumed correct!

I went back across and odd fish were moving over, but they were not coming to the feed and shied away from any movement. It seemed that what fish were there were just moving in the upper layers warming themselves - I suppose I'd have been doing the same.

After the barren middle part of the match with just under two hours left I saw a fish move down the edge. I baited with a single cube of meat and lowered the rig in. After a short wait the float slipped away and a nice ghostie of perhaps 7lb was the result. I'd flicked four more cubes of meat in while playing it, so I baited up and went strait back over it. Again a short wait and then a common of about 4lb fell. I managed to repeat the trick two more times before the next peg decided they wanted a bit of the action, and promptly put a whole pot of bait down the edge at the limit of their peg in my direction. Either that, or they thought they'd just kill my peg - you decide!

Indications vanished from the edge pretty quick, so I had a drop in on the 5m line, again with meat as that's what the bulk of my bites had fallen to. I didn't wait long for the float to slip away and a common of about 3lb was the result, but my hopes of lining them up here were false as after that I couldn't even raise a liner from there.

Back down the edge and I had occasional signs of life with an hour to go - nowhere near what it had been though. I decided to try double meat to see if a stand out bait would nab me a fish and it did, but it happened to be my smallest of the day at about 2lb! That proved to be my last bite of the day, and I spent the rest of the match looking for bites that wouldn't come.

I couldn't see many pegs in the open water, but they had been catching and there were two people admitting to around twenty fish each. When the scales got to me 61lb was top, with 37lb next. My nine carp totalled 39lb odd and turned out to be the top weight from the island pegs by nearly 20lb. It turned out to be just good enough for third overall as peg 72 put 70lb on the scales - I didn't see the board  after but with what some people were admitting to they must have been close to me.

In the end it wasn't a bad day, and I'm not sure that I could have done anything to nab any more fish from the peg. It's a shame the person next door felt the need to fill the edge in - it definitely had an effect on my margin but that's beyond my control. It may well have slowed anyway, but it would have been nice to have allowed it to take it's own course! I do think I would have pushed at least second place closer though. Still, it was nice to be out on a gorgeous day - I spent much of it in a t-shirt as the temperature topped 20C, and it was nice to have to work at the correct feeding to catch some fish. Things look on the up!

Winter League Final Round (7/4/13)

Well, after what seems an age the weather seems to just be turning a corner! That said, despite the nice days we were still getting snow as recently as Thursday, plus the nice sunny days with temperatures just in to double figures were punctuated by nightly sharp frosts - not very good for fishing.

I was hoping for a good result as a top five finish was possible as the points were very close. It looked set to be a hard match with last weeks open on the lake being won with just under 4lb - and no carp were caught. For what seems like the first time in an eternity I was quite happy with my draw with peg 14 coming out in my hand. I wasn't in the flyer 20's, but I fancied I could catch from it.

It's quite a wide peg, with a half-butt needed in the 16m section to tuck up tight to the island in front of me (I also got out my old Superlegion extension which goes up the back of my G-Maxx 800 to allow me to try further down the bank) There is a good depth tight to the island here, with a good 3ft right in tight. I didn't plumb up here, I just put up two rigs to dob punch along the bank - one to fish between just off the bottom and 2ft, and one to fish between 2ft and 18in. With the sun warming up nicely (the pic was taken after the match) I figured that shallow would be the way to go with the sun being on the far bank most of the day. I also set up a rig to fish at 13m at a slight angle to my left towards a weed bed, with 6ft of water here. Last up was a margin rig. Peg 14 has a very long margin with a corner of the lake to my left, so I set up a rig here for fishing in about 3ft of water. It was purely a gamble for a lump or two, but worth a go. I had a feeling the water wasn't quite warm enough for that yet though! All the rigs were finished with .14 dia hook-links and matched up to Preston 13h lakky.

On the whistle I fed a tiny ball of softened micro pellets and three grains of corn down the track before baiting up the deeper dobbing rig with punch - I was going to wait until midday to feed the edge when the day had got to it's warmest. It took a while before I started to get any signs, and my first fish was a small dumpy roach. I could see peg 11 (last weeks winning peg) catching roach, and they also had an early small carp of about 1lb 8oz, but nobody else I could see had caught.

It was just over half an hour in when I had my next bite, taken on the shallower rig pushed as tight in to a small bay in front of me as I dared. A small carp of about 1-12 was the culprit, but very welcome as it was the first carp I've caught for about six weeks! No more followed, and I just carried on catching an odd small roach.

Midday arrived and I decided to feed the edge - nothing ventured, nothing gained! A pinch of caster with two grains of corn and two pieces of meat were introduced. I had a drop in at 13m with a 4mm expander pellet and had a small roach instantly, but no more bites followed so I topped it back up with a tiny ball of micro's and went back across.

With the 17.5m section on I tried a little further down the swim, at first to my left (with no joy) and then to my right. Getting to the limits of my peg to the right I missed a bite, and with the bait still on I lowered the rig in again and it sank away. Carp number two sleepily chugged it's way in to the waiting net, again only a baby at around 2lb, but still welcome. A liner next drop led me to drop in on the shallower rig and a much more lively 3lb ghostie was the result.

After the two-fish flurry I went back to getting just an occasional roach. I had fruitless tries on the other two lines, with a even a switch to worm failing to get a bite from a perch. Back out long and a slight breeze had picked up, taking the edge off the temperature of what was a very pleasant day (I'd taken my fleece of before the match started, and my Thinsulate hat was replaced by a baseball cap!) so I tried the deeper of the two shallow rigs again. A bite saw me connected to another carp for a few seconds before it kited round and picked up a sunken stick and came off - a disaster on a hard day! I thought I'd gotten away with it next drop when I had a small common of about 1lb 8oz, but that proved to be the last I saw of any carp in my peg and the last hour was spent nabbing just an occasional roach on punch, while watching as others started to catch an occasional carp late on, and it looked like a good place may just slip away from me.

When the scales got to me end peg 5 was top weight, with four carp and a bream for 21lb. My four baby's and bits went 9lb 12oz, which in the end turned out just enough to be third, beaten my the other end peg (40) who had two late carp for 13lb.

A slightly better end to the league after my poor middle part, but at least it was a cracking day to be out in! A quick check on the board and my third on the day should be enough to get me in to fifth overall, and may just be enough to scrape me in to fourth - I'll let you know for certain next week. In the end it was a respectable finish considering my draws have been pretty appalling away from drawing an okay peg on the right day in the first round. With us set to lose the frosts now hopefully the water temperature will start to rise and the fish start waking up and spreading out - it'll be nice to be able to influence things a little with feeding as opposed to playing aquatic bingo!