I have to say it seems Autumn has arrived earlier than usual this year, with the weather being a little on the rough side! On walking round most of the pegs on lake 1 were fairly well sheltered from the wind, although some more than others. When I drew peg 5 I have to say I was more than happy as not only was I in an area with a lot of room but it was also one of the more sheltered pegs, although every now and then the wind did seem to catch in the tree's and swirl heavily in front of me.
The first line of attack was for the island at about 15.5m, just in the small bay visible in the pic. It was in about 16in of water here and the float was a small NG Floats XTM. They are designed as a margin float but the nice fat plastic top means they are easy to see at distance, plus they are nice and compact for shallow water. With big fish the norm on this peg the rig was on .18 direct to a 16 Fox Series 2 hook and lakky being Preston 15h. This was going to be a worm line as it served me well last time! Second line of attack was the 2+2 line. This area of the lake is the deepest down the track so it was fished at an angle to my left (11 O'clock) were it had started to shallow up, probably by ten inches compared to directly in front. With the wind a nice stable NG Decker float in .4gr was set up in about six and a half foot of water. The float may seem light for the depth but they are very stable! Usual terminal gear here; .17 line to a .15 hook-link and an 18 Fox Series 2 hook. Last line up was the margins to my right. As the lake is narrowing here (to the left) by fishing to my right I was actually sitting on the side of my box and fishing behind me! I'm sure you know the margin rigs by now, purple Hydro and .18 line direct to a 16 Fox Series 2. Float was a .2gr DC5 in about two foot of water. I wasn't going to feed worm here at the start, firstly wanting to see how the fish responded to meat, corn and hemp.
On the whistle the far line received half a pot of choppy and caster, while the 2+2 line had quarter of a pot of corn, and lastly, the margins had a whole pot of hemp, meat and corn. Predictably, the first few fish across on single large pieces of worm were small perch. I was topping the swim up every few minutes with a toss-pot of choppy every few minutes (or every perch) and on the twenty minutes mark I had my first carp, a small one of not much more than 2lb. Bites seemed hard to come by after this so I topped up again with half a pot of choppy. The swim was slower now, but at least when I had a bite on worm they were from bigger perch. The downside was that the wind was picking up and making presentation harder. I tried a piece of corn to try and avoid perch and it was taken on the drop- by a perch! I topped up the margins, while I had been loose-feeding the 2+2 line anyhow. On the hour mark the wind had got sufficiently bad that I had to take the toss-pot off.
On the hour and a half mark I decided to give myself a break from the long line in the wind and dropped in on the 2+2 line. The float didn't settle properly and I was just about to lift the rig up when the float went. I lifted up and had a sluggish resistance for a second or two before everything went slack. Just at the moment when I thought I had lost the fish a skimmer of about 2lb came flying out of the water! With that in the net I had some knocks the next drop but they didn't develop so I potted some more corn on top and left it. I'd seen a decent carp cruising along the margin but didn't want to drop in on the margin that early so I kept it topped up and went back across.
The wind had got awkward now and at times it was impossible to hold the pole still, and the only bites were from perch. I made the decision that as the chop wasn't working, and that in the wind I wouldn't be fishing across a lot, that I would feed pellet and corn over. This hopefully would stay around longer to hold any carp instead of being eaten by perch! I dropped back on the short line and after a minute or so I had a bite on corn that gave me a small carp of about 10oz. I decided to start feeding a few pellets too with small carp about, and after a few minutes tried an expander on the hook. My first bite on this was met with another skimmer of about 2lb! Not that I was fussed as I couldn't see a lot else being caught.
After that skimmer bites seemed hard to come by so I potted in a decent pinch of corn with a few pellets and dropped on the island line with a pellet. I missed a bite on this instantly which saw a carp spook out of the swim, and no more bites followed. The wind had got really quite bad at this point and decided to drop on the margin line, saying to myself that if I got bites here I'd abandon the far line in the wind. First drop in the edge was on double corn, and it took no more than a minute or so to get a bite. After a hefty fight a chunky ghostie of about 8/9lb was in the net, that'll do! I topped up with half a pot of bait and had an instant bite over that, again on corn. This fish was a bit smaller at a chunky 4lb. As I'd had that bite so quick I dropped over it with just a few grains of corn in the small pot. Just as I was considering giving it a bigger amount again my third bite here gave me a decent common of about 5lb. Due to the time this one took I topped up with half a pot again but with no bites in five minutes I decided to rest it. There was still two and a half hours left- no need to push it!
Back on the deep line and a missed bite on corn saw me try a small cube of meat and this gave me a small common of about 12oz, which was then followed by a bigger one of about 2lb. I started to see tails in the edge again and dropped in over them. This saw a frustrating time with tails around the float but no bites! I decided to try some choppy (it was raining now) and I'm not sure if it was the rain or the introduction of the worm but the fish disappeared! Dropping back on the 2+2 line saw me catch a roach on meat so I topped it up with half a pot of corn and tried the edge again, but this seemed lifeless. With an hour and a quarter to go I decided to try something positive in the margins and gave it a whole pot of meat and corn, followed by a whole pot of hemp!
Back on the 2+2 line and a bite on meat saw me hook something much bigger than the other carp that had fallen on this line. After a few minutes a chunky common of about 6lb was in the net. I dropped back in after and had a few roachy knocks so decided to top the line up with half a pot and drop back in the margins. With an hour to go I had a few tails waiving at me here anyway!
The last spell down the edge went quite well, with steady bites to meat. Each time I had to top-up with a decent amount of bait and wait for a fish to come back, but they always did! I finished the match with eleven carp, and the last few edge fish were all good stamp fish, all being in the 4-6lb bracket. One did outwit me, as it spent the last five minutes waving it's tail at me, eating everything in sight apart from my bait!
I was happy with the outcome of the day, especially with the weather being so rough (I was actually cold, and had to fish most of the afternoon with a coat on) and the wind had most definitely made things hard! One person was admitting to nine carp, and somebody else to twelve but I was hopeful that the good average stamp of fish would do the trick for me, which they did, going 63lb 12oz on the scales. 51lb 6oz was second and a couple of big 30lb weights were next, not bad considering the conditions on the day and the amount of water that had gone in (the lake was about 8in higher than last week) Things could most definitely have been much worse, as a tree came down in the wind on the same swim on the old lake that I was on last Sunday!
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