Back again, like I promised! I did forget to take a peg picture - I'm out of the habit now, but I'll try and remember next time.
So, on to round two of the league. The previous Sunday's practice match I won with 38lb odd, consisting of eleven carp down the edge in the first three hours, mostly on caster. The peg then died a death but with just 12lb being second the damage was done.
The wind was a bit wild (still, we've been very lucky in my area compared to many others) and I skilfully managed to avoid the reeds pegs where I drew the week previous! Peg 44 was to be my home for the day - a peg with little or no recent form. Actually (the wind aside which was left-to-right and slightly at me) I wasn't too upset with the peg, being in the bowl of the lake and having the small island to fish too.
First up was a bomb rod - unsurprising given the weather! I then had a good plumb around trying to see if I could find the remains of any lillies but there seemed to be little there - in the summer the peg has a huge lilly bed in. With nothing to find I settled on a line at 9m which was as much as I dared get out in the wind, and even then I couldn't hold it all the time. Last up was a rig to fish for a few silvers - this was at just 5m.
With the match started I had a few chucks on the bomb, trying to find signs of any carp - none were had, although the pegs opposite had no such trouble and were in to carp pretty quick! On the forty minute mark I decided it was best to put something in the net and picked up my light rig. I'd been flicking odd casters here but my first drop was on a single red maggot. It didn't take me long to get off the mark as two small roach fell on my first two drops. At least it was the dreaded "nil points" avoided!
My third drop took longer to get a bite, and when I struck the slow chugging and copious amounts of number 8 lakky suggested it wasn't a roach! The fish chugged around for a minute or so before charging off and snapping me - DOH! In all honesty, I do think it may have been foul hooked.
A new hook link on and I decided to have a quick look on the corn line, but with no joy. That said, I didn't give it long with the wind making any sort of decent presentation very hard, even with a long line and well back-shotted rigs.
Back on the silvers line and a slightly better roach gave hope that I could at least keep up with any one-carp weights with silvers. The next drop didn't produce the hoped for better stamp roach though - it saw quite a bit of number 8 lakky streaming out again! A very lively 2lb ghostie was subdued so I decided against scaling up. Perhaps a bad choice when the float was instantly away again with another carp on - this one felt bigger and plodded to my right and eventually found a snag (most likely a lilly stem, further along from where I plumbed as it was further right than the boundary of my swim). So another rig back without a hook-link! Enough was enough and I got off my box to get a top-kit with 11h in it to give me a better chance.
Predictably, scaling up proved the end of the action so I went back on the tip, this time much closer to the small island. It had been out about five minutes before the tip flew round and a common of about 3lb joined the smaller ghostie in the net. Next cast and after a similar amount of time the rod absolutely flew round again but to my disbelief there was nothing on the end when I picked it up! No way could that have been a liner. I did however get a liner next cast, but the next half an hour was wasted on the tip for no more action.
With an hour and a half left I started to get odd silvers again on maggot. Caster didn't seem to produce at all so I plodded away on the small roach. I had an odd try longer on the pole on corn but nothing came (and the wind was still a pig!) and I also tried bigger baits on the closer line. Nothing came on corn, while a big punch yielded roach that were smaller than the ones on maggot!
With half an hour left the roach seemed to fade a little, and briefly so did the wind. With all the carp bites coming just as my bait had settled I took the brief lull in the weather as a chance to spread the shot out to get a slower drop on the rig. It turned out to be a good decision as two drops in a row the float zipped under just as it was settling, and two more 3lb commons found their way in to the keepnet!
No bites came after that quick flurry, so with twenty or so minutes left I had another chuck on the bomb and corn. Barely had I put the rod down when the tip hurtled round - it wasn't a carp, but a crucian of about a pound was welcome all the same! I had another cast on the bomb, but I wasn't convinced it was going to go again so I finished up on the close in maggot line, putting two better roach about 3oz a piece in the net, but no more carp.
It was clear that the two pegs opposite were first and second (weights of 55lb and 25lb they had), but third looked a tight run thing. Two other people had three carp that looked bigger than mine, and actually they did weigh more than my four smaller carp. Lucky I had the crucian and a few roach then, and my 3lb of bits meant I just snuck in to third with 14lb 4oz! From memory the next two weights were 13-4 and 12-6, but I do know without the bits I'd have finished fifth or sixth.
The third place means that after two rounds I'm leading the league, although there are still three rounds to go with the worst result being dropped. Still, it's a nice position to be in - hopefully I can still be there after round five!
Tight lines all, and if I don't manage to report on the weekends practice I'll definitely report back in a fortnight on round three.
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