Sunday 29th May

Well, what a mad dash the morning turned out to be! For whatever reason my alarm didn't go off when it was supposed to, leading to me getting up at great speed at 7.15am. Oh, and it was windy, still....


With a near full house again there would be a few pegs in that I wouldn't want, that said, the wind wasn't that bad on the lake considering. I was pretty happy with my draw, with peg 33 offering a decent margin plus shallow water over. It's also a peg I've done well on in the past, although it's quite a while since I last had it.


Rig-wise, I had three tops set up. The first was for tight over to the island at 16.5m, right on the point of the island in about 16in of water. The second was for at 16m on the slope up to the island in about two and a half feet of water. The last was for 11m along to my left margin. Depth was the exact same as the slope rig as the margin, so that would double up as a lighter rig for the margins too. Terminal gear for the far-bank rigs was .17 to .15 and an 18 Fox Series 2 with Preston 15h. Float on the shallowest rig was a NG XTM, while the deeper one was a .2gr DC5. Margin rig was a .2gr DC5 on .19 to .17 and a 16 Fox Series 2 matched to purple Hydro. Typically, carrying on with the rushed theme to the day for some reason I managed to not be ready at the start and was only pumping my expanders as the whistle went, hence why the picture is from after the match.


When I was eventually ready I cupped out a pinch of pellet to the island on the slope, electing not to got too tight immediatly. As I was shipping the cup back the angler on the next peg was netting a skimmer of a pound. I put a quarter of a cup of hemp and corn down the margin, then as I baited up to go across the next peg was netting another skimmer of about 2.5lb!


My first half an hour only produced a single liner, although I could see odd fish coming along the island just short of where I was fishing, and then turning back and running along where people weren't fishing tight over. I fed a small pinch of bait right in to the island and started to fish there. I was feeding a few pellets with the big cup every twenty minutes or so to keep something going in, as well as topping up the margin line every forty-five minutes. I'd like have fished with small pot on the pole but the wind being a bit swirly it was unmanagable, and the last thing I wanted was to snag the island at that distance on summer gear!


On the two and a half hour mark I was getting worried, not only was I still biteless but along with my neighbours two skimmers I'd only seen one small carp caught! The fish still most definetly have spawning rather than eating on their minds. With nothing to lose I got the casters out of my cool bag that I buy every week and most often feed the birds in the garden with - nothing to lose by trying! I started introducing them 50/50 with the pellets and noticed that it started to bring odd signs of life to the swim. I was also happier in the conditions as it allowed me to lay some line on the bottom fishing double caster, something that doesn't really work (for carp anyway) with pellet. Just after the second top-up with caster I hooked a fish and then lost it, then on the third go, dead on the three hour mark and halfway in to the match I landed my first fish, a common of about 4lb.


The swim had definetly seemed to benefit from introducing caster, with more knocks and indications. I even foul-hooked a carp when the wind gusted and yanked the pole round! There were odd fish there, but most definetly not interested. With two hours to go I dropped in down the edge and had two very positive liners, but a spell trying both meat and double corn, and single corn on the light rig failed to get a bite. Quite surprising really, as before I'd always caught down the edge on this peg, even if they were smaller fish.


With an hour and a half to go and still being no better off I had a plan! I needed to do something, I could see peg 35 now catching a few fish but word had come round that it was slow everywhere. I'd put in my carryall all the bit bags of groundbait we all have, so I mixed the lot together so it was quite damp and dumped the lot down the edge via the biggest cup I had, with the intention of fishing a whole worm over it. A right motley mix of Dynamite, Sonubaits and some Marukyu crumb went in, and five big pots of it!


I left the edge to settle and with an hour to go, just as I was going to drop in on the edge, I had a small mirror of about 2lb across and then I lost two fish on the bounce - one of which looked a good 6lb too. I took the hook-length off and changed it, even though the hook seemed fine. I then topped up the far bank and had a look over the margin line, but it produced nothing.


With a little over half an hour to go I was back across and instantly had a small black, gold and silver koi of about 2lb, followed not long after by a common of the same size. Topping up a small amount with the cupping kit was slowing me down a touch, but the wind at times was just making it awkward enough that I didn't want a pot on at length. The next fish was definetly much bigger, and after a lively fight a ghostie of about 7lb was panned. With only peg 35 catching from what I could see I reckoned with one more decent fish I'd probably make the frame, and with ten minutes to go I got my wish! It's not often I've wished I was using a pull-bung on lakky as strong as 15h but I'm sure I'd have got it's head up quicker (or lost it!), but eventually a common of about 12lb was panned. I literally had time to bait up, ship across and lay the rig in. I immediatly had signs of fish but the whistle went! Still, not a bad ending to an albeit slow day.


I was one of the last few to weigh and when the scales got to me 22lb was winning and 19lb second. My mostly last hour frenzy totalled 29lb 3oz on the scales, but I was sure peg 35 would have that. I was wrong however, as the fish I could see them catching must have been small as they totalled 21lb for third leaving me in first.


With the weather set to pick up during the week hopefully the fish will spawn and get munching on the new lake, it's frustrating as there are fish there that just aren't interested at the moment. Everyone who had carp also lost fish that weren't foul-hooked, and I think it's just that the fish are not feeding properly at the moment. Still, I may not be on that lake next week as the first Sunday in June is the blind pairs match. Hopefully it wont be so blooming windy!