As ever, after a weekend off, I was very eager to get back out on to the bank. Walking around the lake before the draw made me even keener, as there wasn't really anywhere that I wouldn't have minded drawing.
My hand came out of the peg clutching number 23, which had a feeder chuck to the corner of the island, plus the nice looking bay pictured above as a margin line. A simple approach was order of the day, with my trusty 10ft Drennan Puddlechucker for the 25 yard chuck to the island with a small in-line method, and the pole at 13m, in to the bay. Standard stuff really, 8lb line to .20 hook links on the tip, and .18 strait through on purple hydro on the pole. Bait was simple, hemp, meat and corn for the pole and pellets for the method. Easy enough!
On the whistle a whole pot of hemp with a pinch of corn and meat went in the margins before the method was dispatched to the island. I don't mind admitting that after a break from fishing (and not having used the tip for a while) that the first few chucks weren't as I'd like, and it took a few goes to get it bang on! A few fish were moving about, but nothing was really happening. Just after topping up the margins on the half hour mark I had my first bite on the method, totally out of the blue. With one fish about 4lb in the net I was hoping that it would be the start, but it proved not to be, with the only person I could see catching being peg 20.
It was an hour and a quarter later before anything else happened, just as I was toying with dropping on the margins. An 8mm white boilie proved to be the downfall of a common about the same size as the first, followed about twenty minutes later by a lumpier fish of about 8lb. Quite a few fish appeared on the island line now, but they weren't feeding, just laying in the sun. I wasn't getting liners either, just watching fish sunning themselves! I tried dropping the feeder shorter but they only result on this was a skimmer of about 4oz. I was hoping that by keeping the bait going in that eventually the fish would start feeding, and carp number four following about half an hour after number three led me to think they might, but no matter what I tried; tight to the island, short, leaving the bait in longer or casting every minutes, nothing seemed to work.
Half way in to the match I decided it was time to try in the edge. First drop on meat led to a missed bite almost instantly, but the next took a while in materialising and led to a perch of about an ounce! I topped the swim up with half a pot and gave it a few more minutes, and just as I was about to leave it I had another bite, albeit from a crucian of about a pound. Back on the tip it was then! The rest seemed to have done the trick as I had carp number five instantly, but no more followed! The fish were there, but not feeding properly. I tried changing the baits, burying the bait, leaving it on top of the feeder or just leaving it hanging, but nothing worked!
With just under two hours left I dropped in the edge again, but this time the swim seemed a little more lively. After ten minutes of liners I decided to drop the bait in away from the feed, and had a proper bite instantly. After a good tussle, another decent lump of a carp was in the net, again about 8lb. Topping up after I dropped in again but the fish weren't really interested, just odd liners from fish moving out of the bay... like they were backing away from the feed. I tried corn and had another crucian, but the swim wasn't right.
I had another go on the tip, but again the fish over weren't interested in eating, so with an hour left I decided to stay on the pole. After a wait carp number seven was in the net, a smaller fish of about 3lb. I hardly fed a thing after this, dropping in just three grains of corn and a few grains of hemp, and it seemed to have done the trick as instead of liners I had a five minute wait for a proper bite, producing a decent carp of about 5lb. I repeated the trick twice more, both decent fish again of about 5lb before I lost a fish of about a similar size at the net with quarter of an hour to go and I never had a bite after! While I knew I hadn't won, as peg 20 had caught all day, I just had that sneaking feeling that the lost fish would cost me....
When the scales got to me 81lb was top weight, with 54lb 11oz second. My ten carp went 52lb 4oz and third was where I finished! I just knew it would be that way! I was kicking myself a bit, not just with the lost fish, but I really should have worked out the margin swim earlier, although 80lb would probably have been pushing it, I really should have been second and pushed first place closer than I did. Still, it was good to be on the bank after missing a weekend!
1 comment:
Good read mate
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