Blind Pairs 27/5/13

I'll apologise for not mentioning last week that I wouldn't be out until the Monday - I totally forgot it was a Bank Holiday weekend! Normally the  procedure for the blind pairs is a random draw over both lakes, with the pegs from one lake being drawn against the others. With just sixteen anglers down this year, and the old lake not fishing very well the decision this year was made to have everybody on the new lake. While I can understand that, it did mean that one or two pegs would be in that you I really didn't want to be on.

Come the draw and my hand dips in and out comes peg 2 - the shortest walk, and one of the pegs I really didn't want to be on! The owner feeds the carp here (well, peg 1 in the bay to my right), but from past experience when a peg is in here the fish don't stay. Everyone walks past the peg which isn't great, most keep their distance, while one idiot did insist on keep walking past and even standing in peg 1 once he was ready (and they drew about seven pegs to my right!) It's a shame I didn't have a catapult out, as I could have found a use for those rock hard Ringers 8mm boilies I've had for year in my bag....

As you can see, the bay to my right looked good, and I had one line at 11m along the bank to the corner of peg 1. It was a little over 3ft deep here, deeper than I'd like for a margin but I'd give it a go! I was going to leave it until well in the match to feed here, hoping that fish would feel safe and come back. I had a margin line to my left at 8m where the water was about 2.5ft deep. Both were on Preston 15h elastic matched to .15 hook-links and used NG floats XTM's in .2gr. I also decided on a meat swim at 5m where it was about 6ft deep. I had two reasons for not going longer - I didn't want to stop fish from the open water in front from coming back in to the bay, and also the fact that going much further out the depth drops down to around eight or nine foot! A little too deep for my liking. Last up was a small method feeder to fish to the island, a cast just reachable with my 10ft CarbonActive!

I was getting odd liners from the off on the tip, and after fifteen minutes the rod was round and I was in to my first carp - a small common of about 3lb. The knocks settled off a bit after but returned about twenty minutes later. They carried on until about the hour mark when the rod went round just as I put it down! Another common the spitting image of the first was soon in the net. I began to wonder if the day would be better than I thought when on the next cast the tip went when I still had hold of the rod - not a carp this time, but a skimmer of 2lb 12oz (I know that, cos it was the only fish in that net!)

After that flurry the indications stopped on the tip altogether, so I had a drop at 5m where I had been dripping a bit of meat and I'd seen odd bubbles. I missed the first bite after only a few minutes. The next one I connected with and a fish nodded away like a bream. I carefully shipped back, and as I un-shipped a ghostie of about 5lb surfaced, and then the rig pinged back past me ear! I didn't swear, much!

After the lost fish any signs of life were hard to come by. I don't think it was a coincidence that the bites died as the sun came on to my swim around the large trees behind me. Just after two hours in I was about to drop in down the edge for the first time. I baited up my margin rig with a cube of meat, and then flicked some meat on to the 5m line. As the meat sank there was a large swirl where I'd fed, so I promptly dropped the margin rig in over it, and no sooner than the float settled than the elastic pulled out! The result was a mirror about 4lb.

That proved to be the last action I had, apart from knocking my little radio in the lake! It only needed an hour in the sun to get it to work again mind, and having the Championship play-off to listen to kept me sane with absolutely no signs of life in front of me. I wasn't the only one finding it hard as the peg to my left packed up bite less with an hour or so to go, while the peg nearest to my right had only one small perch. I was the first to weigh (and was on the scales, but it did mean I got to take home dry nets!), and my 12lb odd was about halfway in my section.

The lake was divided in to two sections and when I was drawn with the nearest peg to my right (first and last pegs in our sections) any chance of a result in the pairs was well gone. Especially when the first and second weights on the whole lake drew together! It was a bit of a struggle for everyone with 35lb enough to win. With the heat the fish were looking more like they wanted to spawn (the carp in my pond were chasing when I got home), but with the weather cooling off again it looks like that'll be delayed again. Hopefully, not for much longer!

Sunday May 19th

I'll start by apologising for the lack of last weeks report, but simply there was nothing to report!

I was looking forward to going back on to the new lake, as the majority of the last few months seem to have been spent on the old lake. A few people had been up and pleasure fished during the week and it had been fishing quite well.

At the queue for the draw I took my customary late place in the line and saw many of the pegs I wanted come out before I reached the bag. When my hand went in, peg 34 came out in it - that'll do. I struggled off if in one of the winter league rounds, but once it's warmed up it's usually a pretty good peg with a long margin to the right. It had also fished well on Wednesday! It's not too far to the island (14.5m), but due to the stock pond behind being quite close you do have to un-ship twice.

I kept the day nice and simple - two rigs for the margins, one long to the right where I'd feed with a pot, and a short one to the left where I'd flick a little bait by hand. I'd have used the same rigs but the depth was different by about six inches, being slightly deeper on the longer right margin. The only other rig I had up was for across in just over a foot of water. All the rigs were using NG Floats XTM's, with .2gr floats in the edge in 2-2.5ft of water, and .1gr across. All the rigs were on Preston 15 hollo lakky with .15 hook-links.

I didn't feed the margins on the whistle, simply going across with a few 6mm pellets in a toss-pot, topped off with a little groundbait to make things a little less likely to fall out when double-shipping! There were a few fish present so I was surprised that it took me fifteen minutes (and two drops across) to get a bite. A crucian of about 1lb was the culprit. Next drop I hooked a carp which I lost when it charged through a sunken branch along the peg, but at least I got the branch out! When the next carp I hooked about ten minutes later came off as it ran along the island it looked as if it was going to be one of those days...

It was near the hour mark when I put my first carp in the net - a decent ghostie common of about 5lb, which next drop was followed by a baby of around 1lb. Bites started to come steady after - a small common of about 2lb was followed by a mirror of around 4lb and then a wild ghostie of about the same size before the swim again faded. I tried a change of hook bait and put on a fair-sized worm which got me a bream of about 2.5lb - not the target species, but welcome all the same! After that though the swim seemed to die.

Near two hours in and it looked like I'd need the margins sooner rather than later, so a decent pinch of hemp with a few grains of corn and cubes of meat went long to the right, while I started to flick odd cubes of meat to the left. I went back across but no indications came, so after thirty minutes I decided to have a quick drop in the edge.

I had a liner at first so I decided to stick with it a little longer, fishing a single cube of meat on the hook. I was just about to leave it when the float burried and a small common of about 3lb was soon in the net. Given the time it had taken I decided to top it up with a small amount and leave it. I initially went back across, but I'd been in no longer than five minutes when I saw a large tail waving at me from the short margin. Thinking to myself "I'll have him" I bought the long rig in, put the margin rig on, and anticipating a big lump put two cubes of meat on the hook. I lowered the rig in, and it sat for barely ten seconds before the float was away. The anticipated yards of dark blue lakky never appeared though, and a crucian of about 1lb plodded it's way to the net!

The margin lump faded away, and I went a fair period of the match unable to raise a bite from anywhere. I kept flicking a few bits of meat in short to the left, and the right side had odd small helping of bait via the cup. Odd fish would show across, but they'd got very spooky and apart from one pricked fish they vanished before they got near the pole.

With a little over an hour to go the persisting with feeding the edge paid off and bites started to come in the long margin. I was missing most so cut right back on the bait fed via the toss-pot and the missed bites became a thing of the past. The first four I had down the edge weren't "big" fish, being decent 4lb stamp I wasn't complaining. The next carp after that was much better, and after quite a hefty fight a plump ghostie common that was probably near to 10lb was panned. The indications to the right faded after - perhaps due to the longer fight. A tail in the short swim caught my attention so I topped the longer swim up with the cup and dropped in short with double meat. As per the first time the float had barely settled before it was away but this time a fair amount of lakky did follow it - a plump 6lb common being the result. I had just enough time to nab one more fish from the long margin, a smaller fish at around 3lb, but it did mean I finished with a nice round dozen "proper carp" - the baby 1lb'er going in with the crucians and the bream.

I was the second to last to weigh in, and when the scales got to me 47lb was top weight - I was sure I had that. My bits net went a helpful 7lb odd, and my carp 53lb odd for a total of just over 61lb, and what is only my second win of what has been a hard year so far. Hopefully things are on the up, and the sun even shone for most of the day! Hopefully we can now have some more of the same.

May Bank Holiday Pairs 6/5/13

Well, that's unusual for a Bank Holiday weekend - the sun shone for most of it!

I missed the Sunday open with other commitments, but a quick text Sunday evening told me my pairs partner had won the match from peg 72 with 56lb, but the other back-up weights were quite far behind. With that form in the draw bag I told him he was drawing our pegs on the morning, and low and behold he came out of the bag with 37 on the new lake, and peg 72 again! Peg 72 was to be mine for the day, as he didn't want to sit on it two days running. All that time I can't draw away from the island and as soon as someone else picks my peg they get me out there! I'll have to get someone to pick my pegs more often until my drawing arm returns to form....

I have to admit, I was a bit wary of being on the previous days winning peg. Had the lake been fishing well it wouldn't have bothered me, but as it was patchy and out of sorts nothing was assured. Despite the reeds being stuffed with fish my partner had told me he couldn't catch there - as has been the case in recent weeks. The "one foot deep" rule means your bait is under where the fish are, and they're just lazing in the sun in the reeds. Much like I would be had I been in that cold water for the last six months of a very long winter!

Rig-wise I had four up - a shallow rig for out at 13m as there were quite a few fish milling out there. They'd all gone when the whistle went though, so I only briefly picked it up. I had a shallow rig for the reeds, using a small Preston Pink in-line dibber. I like these for the reeds as they don't snag if pulled through them due to there being no eye to catch. I was going to fish caster here, while the long shallow rig had a hair-rigged pellet band and a longer line above it (the shorter line gives better control over hooked fish in the reeds), hence the need for two rigs. The other two rigs were one for 5m with corn, and a margin rig for my right where my partner had caught the day before.

One the whistle I fed the 5m line with a quarter of a pot of hemp and corn before going in to the rushes hoping for an early mug fish. Two other people had early fish dobbing, but it took me until about twenty minutes in before I managed to trick a fish - a little baby of about 2lb. No more bites were forthcoming for a while as the day became very frustrating for pretty much everyone I could see. There were fish milling about everywhere, but nothing and nobody seemed to be able to get a bite from them!

It was on the two hour mark before my second fish fell, and that was in my right hand margin to meat not long after I'd started flicking a few cubes in there. I had a little golden spell after where I took a fish from my 5m line before tricking three in pretty quick succession from the edge of the reeds where some of the fish had moved to. They then moved right back in the reeds where you couldn't reach them. I can honestly say I've never had so many fish in front of me that I couldn't get a bite from!

Coming away from the reeds and back at 5m I had two fish here before that faded away. The last two hours were bite less until about half an hour before the end when I lost a big fish down the edge to my right that snagged me behind the sleeper on the next swim! I had a carp not long after, and had I had another thirty seconds I probably would have added another as the tail just started wafting around my float as the whistle went. Every bite I'd had that side I'd seen a fish doing that, but this one had poor time-keeping, in my opinion anyway!

My nine fish were pretty small and went only 23lb which was third on the lake, with 25lb from peg 49 and 28lb from peg 68 beating me . My partner managed 5th on the other lake with 17lb which left us as fourth pair, just one point behind third and two points behind second. I just needed one more fish!

In hindsight I think I got it quite badly wrong - I think I went at it too positive on the day and should have won the lake off the peg. Seeing so many fish I was sure they'd drop and feed at some point but they just didn't want to know. I re-fed the 5m line after the flurry of fish which I think was a bad move - I should have just carried on dripping corn there by hand. I also should have at least had a brief try out long on the deck. Last of all in the right margin I should have fed less (I didn't fill it in) but the pegs either side of me were big potting so I upped my feed a little too not wanting them to draw fish. I saw a couple of fish definitely spook from the fed area and should never have used the big cup there. I prefer to feed by hand when it's like it is, but a tree in the edge prevented me doing that accurately. I should have just fed tiny amounts via toss-pot and sat over it and waited. I won't dwell on the lost fish as those things happen - and it may have been foul hooked. I should have guessed it'd be one of those days when I nearly managed to take my eye out before the match started, getting a thin sharp stick jab me just 6-7mm under the eye when I went to pick my cool bag out of the bag on my shuttle. It bled a little, and is a little swollen and sore now, but could have been a lot worse. Still, the next time someone says "it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick" I'll be able to offer them a fair opinion on the matter!

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!