I'll start with an apology, as no matter how many times I re-edit this and save it, blogger keeps removing all my paragraph spacing andlumping it all into one long piece of text. I hope you can bare with it! With the weather on the up now I was looking forward to the penultimate round of the winter league, with the hope of a few fish! Walking round before the draw it was noticeable that the water was colouring up nicely. As usual there seemed to be a fair amount of fish present in pegs 72 (the reeds) and pegs 59 - the two winter flyer's. There were also two pegs in that I didn't want (53 and 64). Fortunately, when I drew the two pegs I didn't want were gone, but so were the two flyer's! The league leader (2pts ahead of me) had also drawn peg 59, while I fully expected the angler drawn on 72 to make the most of it too. I was reasonably happy with peg 46 as I've always done okay off it, but it was pointed out that the peg has only had one carp caught off it since Christmas.... Realistically then it looked like I was probably fishing for third, hoping nobody finished between me and the leader to keep the gap as slim as I can. I had a couple of areas in mind; a 13m line, a 2+2 line plus a margin rig and a shallow rig for long. The depth difference between the 2+2 line and 13m was only about 4in so I used the same rig for both. Float was a .3gr NG Floats Decker on .15 line to a .14 hook-link in about six-and-a-half feet of water. Hook was a 16 B611. The shallow rig was a 4x10 Preston PB2 on .14 direct to a 16 B611. My margin rig was a 4x12 Preston Somo in two-and-a-half feet of water fished 7m along the bank to my right. Line here was .14 direct to a 16 B611. Elastic on all was Preston 13h on pull-bungs. I also had a duplicate margin rig with a larger size 20 Fox Series 2 hook and matched to Preston 15h lakky in case big fish started showing in the edge. Perhaps very optimistic, but you never know! On the whistle I fed three grains of corn and a pinch of hemp on the long line, while the 2+2 line had a few more grains of corn and the same pinch of hemp. The margin also got the same bait as the closer line. Slipping on a grain of corn I had a liner early and I could see a few fish milling about. I shipped back every few minutes to allow me to use a small Cad-Pot to drip a small pinch of hemp and two grains of corn in. Predictably peg 72 was off to a good start but after twenty minutes I had a proper bite on corn and put a small common about 2lb in the net. Keeping up the same pattern of dripping in small amounts I missed two successive sharp digs on the float (perhaps from roach as they were topping) so I pushed the spread bulk together a touch and nearer to the hook to try and get more positive indications. This did the trick as the next bite saw another 2lb common find it's way into the net. After the two fairly early fish the line seemed to dry up so I topped up the margin line with a small pinch of bait and had a quick drop on the 2+2 line where I'd been dripping in grains of corn in ones and two's by hand. Nothing materialised here, though it was a touch early for it so I went back out long. An hour and a half in and no more bites had followed despite fish cruising about so I picked the catapult up and started flicking a few casters in between pot feeds. After a liner ten minutes or so later I picked up the shallow rig and baited it with double caster. Initially I had a few dinks from roach before a proper bite saw me land a common that was the weight of the two fish already in the net, but after that it went back to knocks from roach. Going back on the deck was fruitless long so I carried on dripping a few casters in while I tried the margins quick, hoping that fish would be happier in the shallow water but nothing came of it. With nothing showing long I spent more time on the 2+2 line, expecting it to come good at some point (it got me out of jail on the same peg last time I drew it, ironically the last time the clocks were changed!) With two-and-a-half hours to go I had two fish in a row quickly off the line, unfortunately they only went about 3lb for the pair of them. Back out shallow I saw a carp turn under the water when I loose fed so I stopped flicking any bait in and the fish made a mistake and soon found it's self in my net! Like the other shallow fish, this one was also a bigger stamp of fish about 4lb. After the last shallow fish the roach returned so I had a quick try in the edge, but again with no joy. On to the 2+2 line and an instant bite saw another small carp of about 2lb fell to corn but no more bites followed. In the scheme of things it was hard going to make bites, but beside the two favoured pegs (which were well ahead) nobody else was catching much and I was keeping my nose clear in third, but I wanted a few more fish just to make sure! With just over an hour to go the margins started to show signs of life and I had a liner. I fed a tiny pinch of bait on it and left the fish hopefully to settle. Going back on the 2+2 line I hooked what I felt was a better fish but after not long the hook pulled leaving me with a scale on the hook. Double disaster came when as I was going to go back down the edge two geese decided to have a massive ruck right over my bait.... With the huge disturbance plus the lost fish my swim was totally barren of life. I kept the bait trickling in on all the lines but I couldn't craft a bite from anywhere. I risked upping the feed on the 2+2 line but nothing worked and as odd fish started showing for others I found myself in the edge. With twenty minutes to go I had a bite on a grain of corn up the side and my biggest fish of the day was mugged before it really knew what was going on! A common of about 5lb. I topped up with a pinch of bait and saw a tail wave just past my feed, but I didn't manage to trick that one and finished with eight carp. The weigh in started and I knew third was the best I could manage, I just hoped that peg 72 could win! They did, with their fish going 55lb odd, 11lb ahead of the league leader. My fish went 24lb 15oz for third, just over 10lb ahead of the next weight. In all I was happy as I did about as well as I thought I could off the peg, and go into next weeks final round three points off the lead but with a more favourable result to drop (best five results count). I'll be doing my best to get the result I need, that's for sure!
Sunday, 27 March 2011
Sunday March 27th (W/L Rd 5)
I'll start with an apology, as no matter how many times I re-edit this and save it, blogger keeps removing all my paragraph spacing andlumping it all into one long piece of text. I hope you can bare with it! With the weather on the up now I was looking forward to the penultimate round of the winter league, with the hope of a few fish! Walking round before the draw it was noticeable that the water was colouring up nicely. As usual there seemed to be a fair amount of fish present in pegs 72 (the reeds) and pegs 59 - the two winter flyer's. There were also two pegs in that I didn't want (53 and 64). Fortunately, when I drew the two pegs I didn't want were gone, but so were the two flyer's! The league leader (2pts ahead of me) had also drawn peg 59, while I fully expected the angler drawn on 72 to make the most of it too. I was reasonably happy with peg 46 as I've always done okay off it, but it was pointed out that the peg has only had one carp caught off it since Christmas.... Realistically then it looked like I was probably fishing for third, hoping nobody finished between me and the leader to keep the gap as slim as I can. I had a couple of areas in mind; a 13m line, a 2+2 line plus a margin rig and a shallow rig for long. The depth difference between the 2+2 line and 13m was only about 4in so I used the same rig for both. Float was a .3gr NG Floats Decker on .15 line to a .14 hook-link in about six-and-a-half feet of water. Hook was a 16 B611. The shallow rig was a 4x10 Preston PB2 on .14 direct to a 16 B611. My margin rig was a 4x12 Preston Somo in two-and-a-half feet of water fished 7m along the bank to my right. Line here was .14 direct to a 16 B611. Elastic on all was Preston 13h on pull-bungs. I also had a duplicate margin rig with a larger size 20 Fox Series 2 hook and matched to Preston 15h lakky in case big fish started showing in the edge. Perhaps very optimistic, but you never know! On the whistle I fed three grains of corn and a pinch of hemp on the long line, while the 2+2 line had a few more grains of corn and the same pinch of hemp. The margin also got the same bait as the closer line. Slipping on a grain of corn I had a liner early and I could see a few fish milling about. I shipped back every few minutes to allow me to use a small Cad-Pot to drip a small pinch of hemp and two grains of corn in. Predictably peg 72 was off to a good start but after twenty minutes I had a proper bite on corn and put a small common about 2lb in the net. Keeping up the same pattern of dripping in small amounts I missed two successive sharp digs on the float (perhaps from roach as they were topping) so I pushed the spread bulk together a touch and nearer to the hook to try and get more positive indications. This did the trick as the next bite saw another 2lb common find it's way into the net. After the two fairly early fish the line seemed to dry up so I topped up the margin line with a small pinch of bait and had a quick drop on the 2+2 line where I'd been dripping in grains of corn in ones and two's by hand. Nothing materialised here, though it was a touch early for it so I went back out long. An hour and a half in and no more bites had followed despite fish cruising about so I picked the catapult up and started flicking a few casters in between pot feeds. After a liner ten minutes or so later I picked up the shallow rig and baited it with double caster. Initially I had a few dinks from roach before a proper bite saw me land a common that was the weight of the two fish already in the net, but after that it went back to knocks from roach. Going back on the deck was fruitless long so I carried on dripping a few casters in while I tried the margins quick, hoping that fish would be happier in the shallow water but nothing came of it. With nothing showing long I spent more time on the 2+2 line, expecting it to come good at some point (it got me out of jail on the same peg last time I drew it, ironically the last time the clocks were changed!) With two-and-a-half hours to go I had two fish in a row quickly off the line, unfortunately they only went about 3lb for the pair of them. Back out shallow I saw a carp turn under the water when I loose fed so I stopped flicking any bait in and the fish made a mistake and soon found it's self in my net! Like the other shallow fish, this one was also a bigger stamp of fish about 4lb. After the last shallow fish the roach returned so I had a quick try in the edge, but again with no joy. On to the 2+2 line and an instant bite saw another small carp of about 2lb fell to corn but no more bites followed. In the scheme of things it was hard going to make bites, but beside the two favoured pegs (which were well ahead) nobody else was catching much and I was keeping my nose clear in third, but I wanted a few more fish just to make sure! With just over an hour to go the margins started to show signs of life and I had a liner. I fed a tiny pinch of bait on it and left the fish hopefully to settle. Going back on the 2+2 line I hooked what I felt was a better fish but after not long the hook pulled leaving me with a scale on the hook. Double disaster came when as I was going to go back down the edge two geese decided to have a massive ruck right over my bait.... With the huge disturbance plus the lost fish my swim was totally barren of life. I kept the bait trickling in on all the lines but I couldn't craft a bite from anywhere. I risked upping the feed on the 2+2 line but nothing worked and as odd fish started showing for others I found myself in the edge. With twenty minutes to go I had a bite on a grain of corn up the side and my biggest fish of the day was mugged before it really knew what was going on! A common of about 5lb. I topped up with a pinch of bait and saw a tail wave just past my feed, but I didn't manage to trick that one and finished with eight carp. The weigh in started and I knew third was the best I could manage, I just hoped that peg 72 could win! They did, with their fish going 55lb odd, 11lb ahead of the league leader. My fish went 24lb 15oz for third, just over 10lb ahead of the next weight. In all I was happy as I did about as well as I thought I could off the peg, and go into next weeks final round three points off the lead but with a more favourable result to drop (best five results count). I'll be doing my best to get the result I need, that's for sure!
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