Well, what a backwards week for weather! I had a suspicion that the fishing might prove to be tricky after a week that provided three frosts. I always remembered that May was warm....
With a decent attendance the craic before the match was good, which helped keep me awake after waking up at 3.30am for some reason. Standing in the queue in my customary late place all the favoured early pegs had gone, and I said I fancied peg 25, although I've only ever drawn it once before. Well, surprisingly peg 25 came out of the bag in my hand! Normally that only happens when I'm thinking of a peg I don't want to draw.....
The peg sits near the corner of the island, and it is about 15.5m to the island in front, although I elected to fish a little to the left in to the bay at about 16.5m, where the water was a bit shallower. The island rig was in about two and a half foot of water, using a 4x10 Preston durafloat direct on .15 line to a size 2o Fox Series 2 hook, lakky was Preston 15h. Plumbing along the island a bit I was disappointed to find only one real fishable area as the bottom was all over the place, plus there were a lot of twigs etc on the bottom. I did put up a shallow rig to explore along the island if need be. This was a 4x10 Preston PB2, again on .15 line direct to a 15 B711. Set to fish about 18in deep. Lakky was Preston 13h for this. Lastly I had a rig up for the deeper water, as it was where the two top weights were caught last week. I was surprised at the depth in front of me, having over 7ft of water from about 4m until about 12m, so the rig was at 13m at an angle to the right where it was just shallowing up. In not quite 7ft of water the rig was a diamond bodied hand-made float on .17 line to a .15 hook link. Hook was a 20 Fox Series 2 and lakky was a soft 14 latex. No margin line as experience tells me the margins here are deep, plus an awkward bottom.
I have to admit I wasn't sat on my box when the whistle went, and in the time it took me to sit down and cup a few pellets and a bit of loose crumb across I could see the angler on peg 18 already playing a fish! I fed the deep line with a decent pinch of pellet and some corn. It was a throw away line really, as I never seem to catch in the deep water on this lake. The same reason was also why I elected to feed it with pellet instead of the hemp and corn I never catch over!
Shipping across with a pellet I wasn't to be outdone by peg 18, and as per last week the float had hardly been out long when it slid away. Lifting saw me attached to a sluggish weight which then livened up. I have to admit though that a fish first drop normally for me is a bad sign, like last week! After a bit of a tussle a decent ghostie common of a good 7lb was in the net. Not a bad start whatever way you look at it. I went strait over again without feeding (having had an instant bite I thought some grub would still be there) I hadn't long been out when I missed a bite but no more indications followed so after a few minutes I put a toss-pot on and filled it with half a dozen pellets and a pinch of crumb. This had the desired effect as a liner was soon followed by a bite and a very lively fish was on. Unfortunately after a minute or two of flying about the whole swim it came off! I'm not sure it was foul hooked either.
The lost fish did to the swim exactly what I thought it might and no more bites followed. I carried on dripping a few pellets and a bit of crumb in, in the hope of getting the fish which had now started to cruise about a bit to go down. I wasn't unduly worried, as I'd only seen the one other fish caught and nobody was really getting any indications. Just on the hour mark I was contemplating having a quick drop on the track line when I had the kind of bite I like when fishing long- before I had a chance to realise the float was gone the lakky was streaming out! This one flew round like the one I'd lost before and when netted turned out to be a black and silver ghostie, a cracking looking fish of about 4lb. Quite why they scrap harder than normal carp I don't know- answers on a postcard please!
Nothing more followed, and indeed the next hour and a half turned out totally dead, not only for me but for everyone else near me. A few fish were cruising about and while most around me seemed to be hoping that they would get there heads down and just waiting I was shipping back every few minutes to fill the toss-pot, mostly with crumb but with a few 4mm pellets in too. An occasional try on the shallow rig had given me just a tiny perch that dropped off on the way back. I'd actually just thought to myself that it was never going to happen when a bite out of the blue saw me playing carp number three and after a few minutes a common of about 5lb was in the net. Filling the toss-pot with a few pellets and a bit of crumb and no sooner had I tapped the bait out than the elastic pulled out of the pole. Carp number four quickly joined the others in the net, a smaller common of about 3lb. I was just thinking that the warmer temperature of the day had switched the fish on, but then they had disappeared as quickly as they'd arrived.
The next hour followed with no indications, on either the track line or across, and nobody I could see near me was catching anything other than odd silvers. With just under an hour to go another bite saw me playing carp number five. A common of about 6lb was soon in the net, and following the pattern I put half a dozen pellets in the pot then topped it off with groundbait. I doubt the bait had been in the water more than a minute when the float went away and at the same time as I lifted the lakky shot out of the end. I had the fish on for no more than a few seconds then it was gone. Shipping back I found the whole rig had gone- not a trace of line left! Somehow the rig must have came off. A new rig on and I went back over, but that was it. For some reason the rig didn't seem right and I was never as happy with it as the one I'd lost. I did have another go with the shallow rig but all that gave me was a tiny perch. Odd fish were then moving across and I'm sure I'd have caught on the other rig, even though the new one was on exactly the same set-up!
While waiting for the scales the most anyone was admitting to was four carp, although somebody was apparently admitting to having a couple of doubles. It sounded like it was going to be close! When the scales got to me 17lb was the top weight and I comfortably had that, my skimmer and micro perch going 2lb 8oz and my five carp going 26lb 8oz, giving me a dead level 29lb. The next best weight was just over 19lb in the end and that nagging feeling that lost fish would cost me didn't come true. I have to say I was a bit miffed still about the rig coming off, I've used the crows foot way of attaching rigs to the elastic for over seven years and have never had that happen before. Guess I'll just have to put it down to one of those things!
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