Sunday 23rd January

With this weeks open being the last match before the winter league I was rather keen to get on the bank and actually catch a fish- I really didn't want to be going in to the league without having caught a fish for over two months!


I didn't walk too far round the lake in the morning, just as far as the reed pegs which, as per usual, were solid! The water looked to have a touch more colour to it too. Normally in the winter the reeds or the open water are the place to draw but just lately the island pegs seem to have thrown up odd fish and the deep water hasn't. Apart from in the reeds peg 59 was the one most wanted as there were a lot of fish present round the back of the island last week, when it wasn't pegged! The fact that all the reed pegs and 59 were gone by the time I drew perhaps showed the merit of an early draw (drawing early doesn't work for me though!) but I was pretty happy with 62, a peg that tends to produce fish in the winter. It's also the first time I've drawn the peg in four years at the venue and been able to fish it properly, as the one time I drew it before it was frozen solid. On the downside, just I was was walking off it was drawn as the golden peg! A sure-fire kiss of death......


My optimism lifted a touch when I put my box down as the water seemed to be a touch more coloured round the island. The peg has a lot of room, with the point of the island in front but a long margin to the left with a few stick-ups. With so much room I had five rigs up to allow me to experiment with the swim and find some fish. First up was for the side of the island at 13m in just over 3ft of water, which also usefully doubled up for about 12m down the edge, in a gap of some stick-ups. I also had two shallow rigs for the edge, although they would also be tried across. I also had two rigs up for fishing in the deep water, about five feet at 11m to my left and at 10m in the deepest water I could find out to my right, about 6in deeper. All the rigs had .12 hook-links with the shallow and right hand track rigs having 16 B611's, for punch on the shallow rigs and corn on the track rig. The other rigs had 18's on to fish maggot or pinkie. From where I was sat I could see a lot of fish swirling and moving in front of peg 59, but nothing had moved where I was!

On the whistle I fed a tiny pinch of crumb with four pinkies in across, while the left and right track lines got four maggots and three grains of corn respectively. I slipped an 8mm piece of punch on to the deepest shallow rig and dropped in down the edge on the hope that I could get a mug fish from the marginal cover at 13m. I had about ten minutes down the edge with no indications, lifting and dropping the rig and, with a longer line above the rig, flicking it away from the pole. I was just thinking about changing when peg 59 hooked a fish, which when netted looked a good 4lb+. Time to try across then!


I baited up with two pinkies and went across, and was pleased when I saw a group of fish cruise through, even though they were heading towards peg 59 who was now playing their second fish! After a few minutes I had a liner which lead to nothing so I re-baited with a single red maggot and put a tiny pinch of crumb with three pinkies into a tiny pole mounted cup. I tapped the bait out across, laid the rig in over the top and as it settled the float dinked under and I found myself in the unusual situation (of late) of being attached to a fish. It plodded across the lake like a bream, hardly fighting against the 11 hollo and keeping the pole low a common of about 4lb promptly came off just as I reached for the net. AAAAARRRRGGGH! How I didn't turn the air blue (or jump in after it!) I don't know. I hadn't put any pressure on it and my first fish for two months just slipped away! Back across on maggot and nothing more followed so I swapped to double pinkie and again filled the pot with a tiny pinch of bait. As I shipped out I saw a group of fish cruising up the island towards me and like before I tapped the bait out, laid the rig in over it and the float dinked under as it settled! After a very nervy fight (from me) I slipped the net under a common of about 3lb, and my whoop of joy was heard around the lake! I was really in strange territory when I repeated the process next drop in and found myself into a fish again, but around half the size this time.


After a very quick flurry I was wary of feeding too much so dropped in after without feeding but had no luck, so again I put a tiny pinch of crumb with three pinkies in the pot and went across. No instant bite this time so I reached for a well earned cup of coffee when the float dinked again, lifting one handed into the bite was no problem, but in the split second delay in putting my coffee down to enable be to ship back the fish came off. This time the air did turn blue!


No more bites in the next two drops and I decided it was a good idea to rest the swim, dropping onto the left hand track line on maggot. In the ten minutes or so I spent here peg 59 had another two fish, and I was just toying with going back across when I saw movement and a group of fish in the margin to my left. In with a shallow rig and punch and the fish cleared off as soon as the pole got anywhere near them, despite a longish line on the rig, so after a few fruitless minutes I decided that I would risk feeding the margin in the hope of encouraging the odd cruiser to go down. Just four casters found their way into the swim before I had a quick (and lifeless) drop back across, before trying the other track line.


The next couple of hours was a going through the motion exercise really- I never saw any signs of fish across, let alone having any indication. Peg 59 continued to catch odd fish, until the last hour when they started catching faster! Bankside gossip was that apart from 59 nobody else had more than two fish so I kept my head down tryng to craft a bite from the swim. Odd fish would cruise into the margin when I wasn't fishing it, but never came into the edge when I was fishing it, no matter how long I waited. I tried to the very limit of where I could fish to the point of the island, trying both on the deck with maggot / pinkie / corn or punch, and with the shallow rigs on punch or caster but never had (or saw) a sign of a fish there. I could however, see all the fishy movement in peg 59!


With twenty five minutes to go I had a bite over where I'd started on the island, again on pinkie and again laying the rig in over the tiny pinch of feed. A common of about 4lb graced the net before I missed a bite next drop and found myself attached to the far bank vegetation. I removed the rig without disturbance to the swim but after putting a new identicle rig on I never had another sign of a fish in the swim and I finished on three.


As the scales came round the opposite corner of the island to me had the top weight, with two fish for 7lb odd. Peg 59 comfortably topped that with seventeen carp for 52-10 and my three carp went 8-12. I was eventually pushed down to fourth with someone having four carp for 12lb odd, catching two fish late, and end peg 75 having two carp for 10lb something. Surprisingly, the favoured reed pegs in the 70's both blanked, even though fish were there.


So a mixed day really, I managed to catch a fish for the first time in two months, ending my worst ever run of blanks (five) but I didn't fish well, the two lost fish probably costing me second place. I never had enough fish in front of me to do anymore than that, I walked round to 59 after the match and there were loads of fish present along the whole back of the island, I saw more in a minute than I'd seen in my peg all day! The winner never fed a thing all day, yet I never had a bite unless I fed, albeit in tiny amounts. It won't be so easy next week on that peg in the first winter league round mind, as more pegs round the island will be in and they won't have all the space to themselves. Hopefully I've worked the rustiness (and all the blanks) out of my system and can have a good start to the winter league next week!