I've always thought of March as spring, indeed I have many memories of sitting out without a fleece on and even on odd occasions in just a t-shirt in said month! Not in the last few years mind, still, I'll take typical January weather now over the weather we actually had in January...
After walking round before the draw nothing changed my mind over where I wanted to be, with the higher the number the better as far as I was concerned - anything of 18 or above would do me! I had mixed feelings really when I pulled peg 11 out of the bag, as it's a consistent peg in terms of getting bites so I knew I'd catch a few fish, but on the downside it's not really a peg you'll win off in the cold due to the stamp of fish. Still, in terms of a practice the chance of a few bites would do me nicely.
As you can see from the picture it's not a wide peg (the narrowest on the lake actually) with 13m of pole direct in front being enough to touch the far bank. I had three rigs up to start the day, the first at about 12.5m in front, about a meter or so to the right of the big tree stump. Experience tells me that going closer to the stump means more bites but also a lot of expense and lost rigs! It's a jungle underneath and I wanted to see how far away I could get away with fishing from it and still pick up a few bites. This rig was a 4x12 Preston Chianti on .14 line to a .125 hook length and a 16 B611 hook matched to Preston 13h lakky. This was in about 3ft of water. This same rig also doubled up to fishing on the other corner of the bay in front of me, about as far to the right of the picture as you can see. I also set up an obligatory shallow rig with the same terminal gear as the previous rig but with a 4x10 Preston PB2 set to fish between 6 inches and a foot off the deck. Last up was a rig to see how fast I could catch silvers as this is the area where they seem to school up the most. Fished off to my left at 8m so I wouldn't bring anything back from the far bank over it I set up a 4x14 Preston Chianti in five and a half foot of water. I wanted this rig to be carp capable so it was actually on the same lines as the other rigs but with a smaller (18) hook and on very soft 11h elastic. I planned to try pellet here to see if I could catch any skimmers or crucians to be honest, especially as the peg was fished on Wednesday (the only day that the lakes are pleasure fished) and they had a few crucians off a similar line.
On the whistle I fed a tiny ball of softened micro pellet with half a dozen casters on the silvers line before baiting up with a grain of corn to try along the far bank to search for any fish before I fed over. It wasn't long before a fish was on, but not in my swim! I'd been out no more than thirty seconds before peg 17 was playing a carp. I gave it about quarter of an hour on various spots on the far bank (it's a nice slope for the most part along) before electing to feed a tiny pinch of micros strait in front, which was as close to the big stump I was going to feed. There are a lot of snags under the stump that aren't visible but believe me they are there! (and it is a stump, just a tall one as it's cut off not far above what you can see in the picture!)
Slipping a 4mm expander on and going on to the silvers line didn't take long to get a response as the first four or five drops all produced fish, with three roach and two skimmers falling pretty much as the rig settled. None of the fish were big, all between 1-2oz but coming quick enough to nab a few pounds between trying for a carp. I tried pushing the well spread bulk down and together to try and find some bigger fish and also combat the rather cold breeze that was causing an awkward skim and pushing a lot of floating debris past that the geese have created. It didn't really work, as I had to wait a bit longer for bites from the same fish. Bites started to slow a touch shortly after so I decided to try maggot but that just produced tiny fish. Topping up with three casters and a tiny ball of micro's again bought the bites back and a pellet even produced a slightly bigger roach among the ten-to-the-pound ones. Although I was catching steady my mind started to wander to carp when the peg to my left had one about 3lb and I could also see a group of fish cruising in the empty peg to my right. I carried on with the easy bites on pellet and when they started to fade on the hour mark I nudged the float a touch over depth and slipped on a caster to try for something bigger. I was just about to give up on that after five minutes when the float slowly slid under and the strike saw a little more elastic come out, with a perch about 8oz the result. I again fed a tiny ball of micro's and a few casters before leaving the swim.
On going back across I decided to try the shallow rig on the right hand limit of the swim with punch due to the fish cruising in the empty peg that way, which were now taking leaves and bit's of weed off the top! I could actually of reached them with about 15m of pole but the match rules state you can only fish up to the next peg and in doing that I'd have been in the next peg. There are one or two that would have chucked a lead up there I bet though! First drop on the punch and the float went strait away and I missed it. Strait out and it did the same again but I didn't miss it this time, and with the carp cruising about I had a 2oz roach! On a 9mm piece of punch.... Another missed bite there led me to try in front of me where I'd fed. A grain of corn got me a bite pretty quick from a roach about 3oz but no more followed until a liner led my to try the shallow punch rig which produced another roach about 2oz.
I plugged away across until the two hour mark when I decided that I'd go back onto the short silvers line if all I could catch across were roach. Bites were not quite so easy to come by now, perhaps a result of the cold wind which was funneling through the peg, touching only my peg and the next along. Pellet seemed to be the best bet as maggot was only giving me tiny perch so ten-to-the-pound roach seemed a better bet, even though frequent shotting changes were needed after every other fish to keep them coming. The wind was actually making my hand near numb every time it got wet from a fish but I was happy plugging away with probably two and a half pound of small fish in the net I'd got the weight of the peg to my lefts carp, that was until the two pegs to my right both had carp in quick succession, and word came round that peg 20 had three carp including one that looked double figures. Time to look for a carp then!
Back on the punch rig to my right as the fish were still in the next peg was fruitless so I decided to feed three grains of corn in the hope that any fish on the way past would spot the bright grains and be encouraged to stop. I slipped on a grain of corn on the deck rig and went back to the other fed far line, lowered the rig in slowly and no sooner had it settled than the float dipped and the lift saw me shipping back fast as the elastic went for the tree stump! It didn't make it though and a carp of about 3lb was in the net soon after. I had ten more minutes on the line without response so I topped it up with a tiny pinch of micro's and a grain of corn and went onto the line furthest to my right. Again I lowered the rig in slowly, and again it carried on going! Carp number two was in the net pretty soon after, again only small (as they tend to be on the peg) probably nudging three pound.
No more bites followed so I had a quick drop on the silvers line. Again it was slow and maggot was the best bet for bites with odd 1oz roach in between the tiny perch. With an hour and a half to go I decided I'd leave the dying silvers line (but I'm tempted to think I just needed to put another section on and I'd have caught again) and plug away for another carp or two as I wasn't going to get anywhere with silvers in an open, and others were starting to catch odd carp too, with everyone I could see having at least one. I decided to try punch on the deck rig and just as I shipped out the sun peeped through onto the far bank. I lowered the rig in slowly and missed a bite, not unconvinced it wasn't a roach I lowered the bait back in and commented to the next peg that the sun may trigger one or two fish into feeding. No sooner had those words left my mouth than the float went and carp number three was on! This one felt a bit livelier but came off as I un-shipped my top-kit, although a scale on the hook told me why. I went strait back onto the far line on punch, lowered the rig in slowly and the float blinked strait under! A smaller carp this one, I debated putting it in with my silvers before deciding it was nearer a pound and a half than a pound and put it in with the other two!
I didn't have a bite next drop so I fed a tiny pinch of micro's and went onto the other far line on corn. I lowered the rig in here and it also went strait under but I missed it! I had a few more minutes here without a bite and decided to top this line up with two grains of corn and leave it. We were just into the last hour now and the cold breeze vanished, and with no awkward surface skim and the fact that all the floating debris had blown into the corner I spread the small bulk right out giving the rig a "shirt button" style of shotting. This seemed to do the trick as the last fifty minutes or so gave me three more carp and a 4oz roach, all taken just as I finished lowering the rig in. One carp was on punch, again only of about a pound and a half, while the other two were on corn and a touch bigger. The last one went into the net with twenty seconds to go. I did miss one more bite on the right hand line but otherwise all the fish came from in front.
As the scales came round talk was that pegs 20 and 25 had caught five or six decent carp a piece so it looked as though first and second were sewn up. When the scales got to me 11lb was the top weight and when pushed on my weight I said I may just have 17lb. Not a bad guess as it happened as my six pasties and bits went 17lb 4oz. Peg 20's five carp went 23lb (including an 11lb'er) while peg 25's "six small carp" went considerably more than my six small carp as they totalled 31lb for the win.
I was quite pleased with a third place of the peg, it's a consistent peg all year but in the cold it doesn't win very often as the stamp of carp are small compared to the pegs in the 20's. Mostly I was happy to not only have had plenty of bites but to have a bit of a plan in my head should I draw in the group of pegs where the silvers are still holed up in next weeks winter league.
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