Well, typically the weather all week hadn't been that bad but come the weekend and the snow and frosts were back! A cold Friday night with a dusting of snow, plus an even colder Saturday night meant that the start of the winter league was shaping up to be a hard one indeed.
Arriving at the venue and a layer of ice about 1/4 inch thick covered most of the lake, apart from a few pegs which must have had the wind on them overnight. A quick walk around and there were still fish in the reeds pegs, the fish clearly visible not only knocking the rice but swimming through them. Obviously I fancied drawing one of the three pegs in them but by the time I got to the draw bag they were all gone! I was torn about the peg I'd drawn (66) as it's a peg I've done well off whenever I've drawn it. It was also one of the pegs that had no ice on it. On the minus side it's recent form has been terrible, hardly producing anything in the last few matches. Also while it didn't have ice in it that did also mean it had been exposed to a cold wind and as it's a relatively shallow peg I didn't think that would help.
Looking at the peg after putting my box down and I did think it may produce but I really wanted the sun to break through as it would be on the shallow water on the point of the island all day and hopefully encourage a few carp to move in. With the peg having no roach form it was looking like a carp or bust day which was not what I really wanted on a day when you really need to be weighing in. First line up was for the pole at about 14m towards the island in about three and a half feet of water (the bottom slopes up rapidly past there and the water is quite clear so I didn't want to go shallower) This comprised a 4x12 Preston Chianti on .125 line to an 18 B611, lakky was a soft 10 latex. The second line was for down the track just where the bottom started to slope up. Fished at an angle to my left at 11m float in about four and a half feet of water float was a .3gr Preston Classic 10 while the rest of the rig was the same as the last. The far bank rig also doubled up as a margin rig at 11m to my left in the margin towards a small overhanging tree. Last up was the bomb rod to fish towards the point of the island.
At the start I elected not to feed across, at least to start with, while I started on the lead hoping for an early carp. I did feed a tiny amount of casters on the other two swims, but the track line got four grains of hemp too. A single grain of corn was hair rigged and then cast nearer the point of the island to the right, landing about two meters short in around four foot of water. Unsurprisingly no liners were forthcoming so after quarter of an hour I bought it in and re-cast it, a little nearer to me but a little closer to the island. Just as I was settling down with a cup of coffee the angler next peg up, in the open water lifted into a fish on the pole. It looked a good fish too, about 6lb. Not long after this I had a liner, twice the tip pulling round a good four inches. I left it a few minutes but nothing materialised so I re-cast it a touch shorter. At this point I could see another angler in the open water (on the peg I had last week) playing a fish. While I was watching this the angler next peg fed a big cup of pellets where he'd had his fish. I kid you not after only minute the oil 'plinks' from the pellets were visible clearly in my swim!
As you'd expect that was the end of his swim, where as mine was a similar story and I have to say I finished the same as two of the last four people (if my memory is right) had from the peg-fish less! I was sure that if the sun came out some carp would have moved in to the shallow water by the island but the sun didn't come out - in fact it even snowed a bit. I finished the day fishing pinkie on a small hook under the marginal tree to my left hoping to avoid the dreaded DNW but other than the one liner I never had the slightest sign of a fish, and finished dry as did three other people. What an awful way to start the campaign! While the worst result from six can be dropped after just one match it's now going to be near impossible to retain the trophy. Not only that but now on two of the four occasions I've fished this year I've finished bite less, not a good start.
The match was won from the reeds pegs (surprise!) with 27lb something on corn, and that peg now has won the last three matches now. 13lb was 2nd, from the next peg and two 6lb weights (one carp each) were next. Unfortunately from now bread has been banned (it was allowed, as long as it was punched) so one deadly winter method had been ruled out.
Nest week should be an open on lake one in preparation for the 2nd round on there the week after. How it will fish is any ones guess as it's been hardly fished since before Christmas due to the weather. I'm expecting it to be hard, which is a shame as I really could do with a nice days fishing and a few bites having successfully avoided drawing a winter flier so far! Roll on summer.....
No comments:
Post a Comment