Sunday May 9th

Well, I'd like to know what's happened to the weather, apart from the fact that it's getting colder and not warmer! I was quite happy with my draw peg 14 being near to where I drew last week. The only down side was that the peg had the cold north-easterly wind on it.



On sitting at the peg the wind wasn't too bad, and it allowed me to plumb up on the long pole. There was about 3ft of water tight up to the island at 17m, perhaps a little more depth than I'd want at this time of the year. With quite a bit of room to my left I had enough space to fish two margin swims. One at 5m which I'd feed by hand just short of a newly growing lilly bed, and the other at 12m under some nearside vegetation. The rig for across was a 4x12 Preston durafloat on .16 line direct to a size 20 Fox Series 2 hook, with lakky being Preston 15h. The margin rig had the same hook and line, using a 4x12 Preston Somo in about two and a half feet of water (same depth on both swims) I also had a stronger margin rig set up, just in case! I had the tip rod left in the rod sleeve but close to hand should the wind picked up.

On the whistle I fed a pinch of 4mm pellets across, the long margin line with a decent pinch of hemp and a few grains of corn. The close margin line was fed just by hand, having a pinch of pellets every few minutes. It didn't take me long to get a response across on a 6mm pellet. The bait hadn't been the water much for than a minute I guess when I had my first bite. After a decent scrap I had a common of about 7lb in the net, not a bad start! Nothing next drop so I re-fed with a reasonable pinch of pellet and was instantly in again, this time a smaller carp of about 3lb. Again only slight nudges followed so I had to feed again, although only with a small amount via-toss pot. This didn't seem to have the desired effect and after four or five drops with just odd liners I fed a decent amount via the big cup again. Again it didn't take long for a response as a mirror of about 4lb made the net. No more bites followed, and even the knocks and liners had seemed to fade away.

The rest of the match was a bit of a washout- I think what I was worried about happened, and I think I may have over done the bait. I had to feed a decent amount to get the bites; topping up with a toss-pot didn't work, so I really should have gone down the micro pellet and caster route rather than using the 4mm pellets I did. At one point the wind picked up enough that I needed to fish the tip and after not long I had a crucian of about a pound and a half, but that proved to be a false dawn. The last few hours of the match passed un-eventfully, and even the margins were lifeless.

In the end I tipped back about 15lb, and the lake had fished a bit harder than I expected, with 32lb winning and 31lb being 2nd, and 27lb third. In hindsight I should have fished it much more like I would have in March or early April. I may have had to put up with a few bits but I think a framing or winning weight would have been possible, but instead (like a lot of others I think on the day) I got it wrong and over done it. Still, next week is on the same lake so I'll be trying to put it right then!