Well, that was rather a hot weekend! From the car park after arriving there were signs of some fish spawning, although it looked as if they were finishing up. Hopefully a good day was in store with the fish hungry after eventually getting down to what they seem to have been waiting to do for months!
When my hand came out of the draw bag I was pretty happy with the number I saw - for the first time in what seems forever I was away from the front of the lake! Peg 25 is one of my favourite pegs on the lake and one I have a good record from. I put three rigs up to approach the peg; one for across, one for 12m slightly to my right at the bottom of the slope and one for the left margins at 5m. I'm pretty sure you know what my rigs are likely to be now, so with writing time limited I'll skip going to detail over them!
On the whistle I fed across with about twenty 6mm pellets before giving the track line with half a pot of hemp, corn and meat. I could see a few fish around and was pretty confident that I'd catch. My first bite wasn't long in coming and fell to a 6mm expander pellet - a small common of about 3lb. Odd liners ensued as I carried on dripping a few pellets across but about twenty minutes later my next carp also fell to a pellet - a bit bigger this time at about 5lb.
The next fish I hooked I lost after a few seconds, but unfortunately it seemed to move the mire of roots across (it had taken a good amount of plumbing to find a clear area tight over) and I started to snag up on most drops across. I have to admit I threw the pole back in frustration after snagging up again, only to see my top-kit and short 4 shoot across the lake! Not good, but fortunately I managed to quickly retrieve it after getting out a spare no4 and using my cupping kit. Phew, that could have been expensive!
I calmed down and bit and with a new rig had a good plumb around again to try and find a clear area to fish. I settled on an area much further to the right than I've fished the peg before, and near to the corner of the island. I'd avoid it normally as it could mean the fish run along the island and directly away from you, causing problems, but needs must and with no other suitable areas it was my best bet for across! I fed it with a few pellets and a little loose groundbait before deciding that it would be a good time after the disturbance to start trying to prime a margin swim. I gave it half a pot of hemp, corn and meat before going on to my track line.
I didn't have any signs while down the track, but I could see an odd swirl across. With a pellet on I had a few liners and one missed bite so I tried a worm. That didn't stay in long as a small mirror of about 2lb fell. Topping up after each fish and two more fish fell fairly quickly, one about 4lb but the other most likely nearer to 8lb. However, after the run of fish all signs seemed to disappear - I'm pretty sure due to the wind which was pushing down to the front of the lake, now I wasn't drawn there! I could see peg 29 (the last peg in along the side I was on) start to catch regular from their edge swim. I couldn't get a bite from mine!
Odd perch were all that seemed to show before I nabbed a ghostie of about 4lb that I watched swim along the island, drop over the feed and then the float went away. With an hour and a half to go peg 29 was motoring, but while I could see others catching a few, their fish looked smaller than mine. With just one hour left I had another fish across at about 3lb but then lost one almost strait away after.
The lost fish seemed to be the death-knell as I struggled for a bite anywhere in the peg. I started spending equal time across and down the edge (I'd written off the deep line as I'd had no bites or fish blowing on the line, and I'd not seen anyone else catch there either). With about twenty minutes to go I had my first bite down the edge on meat, but I wasn't expecting a 3lb bream! With about ten minutes left my second bite down the edge gave me a common of about 7lb but I didn't have time for any more.
When the scales got to me 37lb was top weight and 34lb was second. I took the lead for a while when my fish totalled 39lb 2oz but as I expected peg 29 was comfortably ahead of me with a total of 59lb odd. The last peg to weigh looked like they'd push me for second but they totalled 36lb.
In the end I was quite pleased with that - the day nearly fell to pieces at one point. Interestingly I think we arrived just as the fish had finished up spawning - it was a late draw and a midday start. All the bigger fish I had were a bit lethargic and a lot of the fish I saw looked tired and recently spawned out. Hopefully the hot weather has allowed them to get that out of the way now and hopefully now they'll get their heads down and have a munch!
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