Well, I think a few days of warmer weather seems to have made everyone happier, with the craic in full flow before the draw! That said I still knew that the water would be very cold, but I, along with everyone else at least hoped that a glimmer of spring might just encourage the fish to move about a bit.
I actually was quite happy with my draw (peg 37), even though it wasn't one of the pegs mentioned by anyone before the draw as being favourable. It was however out of the quite cool breeze and one that catches a reasonable amount of sun at this time of year. It's also a more comfortable reach across than some pegs, with 14.5m of pole being enough to reach where I needed.
I had four rigs up for the peg. The two far bank rigs were a 4x12 Preston chianti, set to fish at not quite four feet, on the slope up to the island, while the other was a 4x10 Preston pb2. This was set at 3ft to try both off the bottom and also I could use it to push tighter to the island with a half extension if the fish really wanted to be there. I had a track rig up, to fish at 11m at an angle to my left, next to some weed. I have to say though I wasn't that confident about this line, as not only is it one I only occasionally catch from, but the plummet felt absolutely freezing coming from the deeper water un-warmed by the sun! This rig had a 4x14 Preston chianti in about six foot of water. Last rig up was a margin rig that was pretty much identical to the far bank deck rig, to fish at 6m to my left under a tree. Line on all was .125 dia to a 16 B611 (as I intended to fish caster or corn) with the track line being on a 12 latex, the deck and margin rigs on Preston 13h and the shallow rig on grey Hydro.
On the whistle I fed the margin and track lines, the track got just a pinch of hemp and three grains of corn while the margin got the same plus a pinch of casters too. I decided to try the far bank line without feeding it first. I gave it five minutes on corn and five minutes on maggot with no joy so I fed half a dozen casters with a big pot before trying maggot. The float dithered and dipped a lot before slipping slowly under and when I lifted a tiny roach was on the end which came off on the way back. I tried caster too, and this gave much the same except it never went under! After about 40 minutes the float did dip, in a much slower and deliberate way suggesting the presence of something bigger. I tried the shallow rig on a single caster and the float dinked under almost instantly but I missed it. After dropping the rig back in it sat for perhaps a minute before vanishing. Lifting gave a sluggish but heavy resistance. I managed to trick the carp, with little pressure it came in easy until I lifted the top-kit when it livened up but after a few minutes a carp of a good 4lb+ was in the net, result!
I had a quick drop in again without feeding and just as I was about to re-feed it the float went again, but this time it was obviously not a carp and soon a perch of about a pound was in the net. I decided to top up with half a dozen casters, and top up the other lines before dropping in again. Probably only five minutes passed before the float dinked under again and a repeat of the first time happened, with the fish being very sluggish until I tried to net it, although this one was smaller at about two and a half pound. I again gave it a quick minute without topping up but no more bites came so I repeated the process and again a response was not long in coming, this time with a mirror of about 5lb making it's way in to the net. I have to say at this point I was quite pleased, with good points assured just over an hour in to the match.
The next drop didn't go quite to plan however, as the next bite took a while in coming and after having the carp on for only a few seconds it came off. I'm pretty sure it wasn't foul hooked too. I took this as a cue to rest the line so I gave it half a dozen casters and left it alone, trying the track line for about ten minutes but with no indication what so ever. On going back across it seemed that the rest had done the job and a bite came pretty quickly, but after having the fish on for a short while a funny jagging sensation came up the line. Feeling much like an eel it was obvious that it was hooked in the tail. I did manage to coax it very near to the waiting net by applying as little pressure as I could but just short of the net the hook pulled and pinged my rig into the bush next to me! A few casters were dripped in before a new rig went on....
It was a while before my next bite, and by this time I'd started to have occasional drops further along the island (I'd plumbed up a fair distance both ways so I knew what was where if I needed to chase the fish) Again the next bite was shallow, and over the feed. I was beginning to think that the I'd ruined the swim by losing two fish just as this one made it's mistake, and after a few minutes carp number four was nestling in the net, this one again a decent fish about the 5lb mark. The next hour or so produced very little, the occasional bite I did get I was missing. They were all coming at the same time, just as the float settled. I did start to hit odd ones after moving the shot much closer to the hook and they all produced dumpy perch of about 2oz.
With perhaps an hour and a half to go the swim seemed totally barren, even in the margins which I had expected to give a bite or too with the good cover. I'd regularly tried down the swim too and surprisingly this gave nothing. I decided to try feeding a new swim, a bit further down plus moving my original swim a bit tighter to the island (it was fed to the tree nearly growing out of the water if you look at the pic) My first drop further down on the deck produced a liner so I tried shallow over it but nothing more came. Trying the original swim but tighter gave a bite pretty quick. After a power full fight though I lost the fish near the net, a common probably about 7lb that looked to be hooked in the pectoral fin. After this the swim faded away again so I decided to try dripping in a few maggots instead of caster. It had some effect in a sense as odd bites came, but again from just the dumpy perch. Odd tries on the other lines were lifeless and nothing else happened until ten minutes before the end when I had a liner over the original swim and then a bite next chuck when I had my biggest fish of the day, a common of about 7lb netted about a minute before the end of the match. Needless to say I didn't have time for another!
I was guessing I'd have about 24lb, which I knew would be good for decent points but was surprised to find that as people went back past me to the car park that a lot of the favoured pegs had struggled, with the most anyone admitting to being three carp for 20lb. The scales gave me 24lb 11oz for the five carp and with my perch I had a 27lb 1oz total, good enough for first with the next weight being a little over 18lb.
With two matches now to go in the league I've at least moved myself up a bit. I was in eighth place before but with three of the top four finishing quite low I should have shifted myself up towards the top four or five hopefully, but more importantly, I actually caught a few fish! Hopefully the weather will now stay on the up and give us all a break and some better fishing!
No comments:
Post a Comment